Fire Country interview: Sabina Gadecki on the life changing aftermath of the ambulance accident
Fire Country season 2 episode 5, “This Storm Will Pass,” is a tearjerker as we just got our third major death of the series. During the show’s infancy we learned about Riley, Bode’s sister, who died in a car accident. Then, later in season 1, a tree fell on Rebecca. Now, we’ve also lost Cara.
She’d suffered life threatening injuries after the ambulance crashed in episode 4, “Too Many Unknowns,” however, she’d come to lucid. Noticeably though she kept checking her pupils and toward the end of episode 5 we learned why. It wasn’t being impaled with a piece of metal that was going to send her to an early grave, it was the epidural hematoma causing a brain bleed that would ultimately rob Cara of a life with her loved ones.
Both Diego and Bode worked to try to save her but with emergency medical care unable to reach them because of the fire tornado that hit Edgewater, she slipped away. I had the opportunity to speak to Sabina Gadecki about her departure from Fire Country including when she was told that Cara was being written out, the emotional scenes she had with Max Thieriot, and what’s next for her.
Sabina Gadecki opens up about Fire Country season 2 episode 5 and Cara’s arc on the show
Did you know ahead of time, like at the start of the season, that you were going to be leaving?
I did. Thankfully. I do really appreciate the route they had taken with calling me. Tia [Napolitano], the showrunner, called me. She was like, “I just want you to know that this is a choice for a pivotal storytelling moment. This has nothing to do with your work. In fact, it’s the opposite. We love your work so much. We’re going to be really building you up in these next four episodes.”
When you’re going to be leaving the show, you can’t help but like, as a sensitive actor, you’re like is it performance based? But I feel really grateful, that was such a true, honest conversation. That’s what happened. We got to further explore Cara. Then in episode four it was written so much more, and in episode 5 it was like the whole episode.
If there’s a way to go, I feel grateful that they honored the character of Cara in the way they did. She really made an impact. And the funeral and all those things. I didn’t see the full episode, but I’ve watched just in ADR the goodbye with Jake on the phone and everything. I’m like oh, this is gut wrenching!
But I’m really so appreciative that I had the time to process on my own before it came time to film because that would have really, I think hurt my feelings. If I found out at the same time as everyone else I’d have been like “This is too much!” [Laughs]
Understandably. There’s a lot of weight your character, Cara, has to play in the scene that you have to navigate. What was that like particularly being in a tipped over ambulance as you’re trying to emote and give a performance.
I think it was the most exhausting three days I’ve had on set. Every actor prepares in their own way, but I have things that can really make me cry and sometimes those things change, and I have to think of something else.
It wasn’t easy. It was really exhausting especially because I love Max [Thieriot] so much as a friend and an actor. What we were both giving for each other, like even when the camera was on me, not on him at all, he could have been like just doing the lines and going through the motions but every single time he was connected to me and it really helped my performance and vice versa.
We were doing our scenes times two and then you do your close up and then your medium shot and then the wide shot and then you want to get the shot from the back of the ambulance and they want to get the shot from the front of the ambulance so everything is not the same direction. It was a lot to continue to get to that place over and over and over and over again. Then there was one moment I was like I don’t think I can cry anymore [then] I’m like, no, I still got it. It’s just because you bring truth to the words and you’re emotionally going through this journey.
It reads as a lot on the screen. It also felt to me, and I’m not sure if this is the way it was staged, but it was a bit claustrophobic because it’s just so tight [in the ambulance].
[Laughs] Tight quarters! Like snug. That’s the thing, too, when I’m working [and] I have an emotional scene–sometimes people will shoot the sh*t in between scenes and chat–I try to be really focused and stay in the zone. [But] there was nowhere to go. Usually you can walk off set or something, but I would just be in this little space.
I put my ear pods in and just closed my eyes. I’d say, “As long as I’m not in the way, can I stay here,” and I would just stay there in that moment and they would do lighting all around me. I didn’t want to get distracted and fall out of character
So Max and I, for the most part just kind of stayed there, and everyone kind of lit around us, which I’m grateful that we were able to do it. It was not always comfortable but it brought a lot of truth to the reality of what we were actually playing, so I guess that maybe that was a good thing.
Yeah, I think that it was emotionally worthy in that way. At least I felt that while watching [the ambulance scenes]. I feel like for Cara, as a character growing in season 2, there was so much road for her. I wanted to ask you, in terms of her relationship with her daughter, Gen–In that two episode [event] we don’t really get to see whether or not it’s less fraught–do you conceptualize it as less fraught than it had been at the beginning of the season?
I wish we had a chance to sort of explore that dynamic, too. I think we were really connected. I wish we got to explore our relationship a bit more but, yes, I think Gen starts to have some empathy and understand that [Cara] is really just trying [her] best and I think she softens a little.
I think she sees that when she’s in the woods [in episode 2] when [Cara] is running and grabbing her, that’s the turning point where she’s like this is my mother and she loves me dearly. Maybe there’s a little more forgiveness in her heart. I think the gentleness…we all start to grow together as a little family unit. It’s sweet where it starts to head.
It’s beautiful. It’s very beautiful. What do you want people to take from Cara?
There’s this quote I recently saw and it’s “Don’t forget when you’re being hard on your parents, it’s their first time living, too.” It’s something I saw on Instagram or something. I think that’s what I really tried to bring, to not judge Cara and just know that she made the best choices with the information she had at the time.
Maybe looking back she wished that she would have told Bode that he was the father, but she made the best choice at the time with the information she had. I think that we all do that in life. We can all look back on a situation like god, I wish I would have done this differently had I known. I think that’s where audiences can hopefully really connect with Cara. I hope that’s where she’s relatable.
I think she is personally in that regard. I think you imbued the character with a lot of thought about that past that isn’t really talked about. In episode 4 that’s conveyed in [Cara’s] fear about Bode’s drug addiction. We don’t really get to talk about what Cara went through, but your delivery of that was very nice. You can feel the weight of a story that hasn’t been told yet.
Thank you. That was where I was teetering in that, too, because we did a couple takes and one take I’m crying in it. And I’m like, gosh, I don’t want it to be all of a sudden there is so much exposition to explore with Cara in 204 and 205 that it was like I didn’t want to have her just be crying in every scene. Right? That’s not interesting to watch. So, when I did it, I was like, “Can we do it one more time? I don’t want to be crying in this scene because I think I’m more hurt and let down versus sad.” That was the take they ended up using.
What’s next for you?
I always get superstitious. My mom always says this to me. It’s like a thing she said [when I was a child], don’t share what’s coming because you don’t know who’s rooting against you in life. So there’s a couple of things that I’m up for right now that haven’t been locked in. If it was locked in, I’d be so eager to share. One is an A24 show. I think that’s what I feel comfy [sharing]. Nothing is locked in yet.
I’m really grateful that the opportunities I’ve been getting the last couple of weeks are quite big, like my auditions. I really hope that the next thing is as soul fulfilling as Fire Country has been for me. Hopefully we get some good news in the next couple of days on these things that I’m up for and hopefully I can share soon.
