Fire Country Star Opens Up About Sharon And Liam’s Emotional Affair: ‘I Was A Little Nervous’
Fire Country’s latest episode, “See You Next Apocalypse,” saw the saga between Sharon, Vince, and Liam get pretty intense. What happened between Sharon and Liam on Fire Country? Plus, learn what Diane Farr said about her character’s emotional affair.
Fire Country is CBS’ drama series about firefighters at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire, in the fictional town of Edgewater, California. Diane Farr plays Sharon Leone, the chief of the Cal Fire Division and the mother of Bode Donovan, a young convict who volunteers for the California Conservation Camp Program to shorten his prison sentence and becomes assigned to his hometown of Edgewater.
Liam (portrayed by Jason O’Mara) joined Fire Country in Season 2. The hunky firefighter is Sharon’s old colleague who she’d worked alongside while she was away fighting fires for several months after getting her new kidney.
Farr admitted she “was a little nervous” when she learned about Liam and how he would factor into Sharon’s life. “The world is not usually that forgiving of women having needs outside of marriage, children, and maybe earning a living. Then when it was going to be Jason O’Mara I was like ‘Oh my God, he’s so dreamy’ and he’s never gotten to use his real accent on screen ever, so the Irish of it all made it very exciting,” the actress said in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly.
When she returned home, tensions between Vince and Sharon reached a high. Sharon wanted Vince to show her he cared by challenging him to date her again. Vince took Sharon to their favorite bar, but things got complicated when Liam entered the restaurant and grabbed Sharon in a way that would suggest they had a history.
“Ever since that campaign fire, I’ve thought about you every day—” Liam said, reaching to take her hand while Sharon pushed him away. “Liam, is that it?” Vince asked while downing a shot. At the time, viewers didn’t know the extent of what happened between Liam and Sharon while she was gone, including whether they had an affair and if it was physical.
Season 2, Episode 3, begins with Vince and Liam in jail after getting arrested for fighting in Smokey’s. “Sharon may have been a little bit of denial over what an emotional affair is,” Farr said of Sharon and Liam’s relationship to EW. “What she needed was a friend and Sharon is the kind of person that is better friends with a guy, so she was looking for a friend and found someone close enough to her husband with a slightly different vibe.”
Later in the episode, Vince and Liam had to put their differences aside to keep Sharon safe while fighting a fire, which ultimately, helped Vince and Sharon remember that they are good for one another. The couple is on much better terms at the end of episode 3, and Liam is sent packing. But Farr said we could see him again.
When asked by TV Insider if Liam would come back she responded, “I sure as hell hope so.” The Fire Country star went on, “Do you know that Jason O’Mara has never gotten to use his real-life accent on screen? He’s Irish and it couldn’t possibly be any cuter, and both of our DPs on Fire Country are Irish, and when they would start to talk to each other, they’d get more Irish. The accent kept coming out more, and me and the other women were like, just let that on screen. It’s so sexy. It’s ridiculous. So I can only hope he’ll be back.”
