9-1-1 star Aisha Hinds was totally up for the challenge of making her directorial debut on season 8 the show — but being in control behind the camera definitely came with its own anxieties.
“I was nervous to film the entire thing,” Hinds, 49, exclusively told Us Weekly with a laugh. “Only because I just didn’t have a gauge. I didn’t have a sense of what it was that I didn’t know, because I had never done it before. So while everyone was very supportive and encouraging in telling me, ‘You know more than you think,’ I didn’t know exactly how those things would manifest and where the application of the things that I know would be best used in service.”
Hinds climbed into the director’s chair for the first time for episode 11 of season 8, titled “Holy Mother of God,” which aired on Thursday, March 20. The hour predominantly introduced Captain Bobby Nash’s (Peter Krause) estranged mother, Ann (Lesley Ann Warren), onto the series, detailing the pair’s tumultuous relationship and past.
While the story line was a hefty one for any first time director to take on, Hinds said the prep process was extremely helpful in giving her some much needed confidence and “encouragement.”
“I got to shadow a couple of different people to kind of see their entry points and how they approach story,” she explained. “And each and every one of them drove home the concept that you just let that story be your compass. That was the thing that kind of helped me to put the things that I knew in place and the things that scared me. … And the first day that I showed up to my first set and I unlocked what I wanted to do with the blocking and I allowed the story to kind of guide me through that blocking it kind of felt easier to do.”
Advice from a few director mentors and friends — including showrunner Tim Minear — was helpful, but Hinds noted there were still days in the process where she found herself “stumped.” Many of the episode’s scenes were shot at a mega-church, for instance, and called for an extensive amount of extras.
“The church was one of the things that scared me because there were 400 extras! And so there’s so many moving parts,” she added. “You know all these extras, you have big cranes, you have four cameras going at the same time. You have a choir. You have your main actress, Leslie Ann Warren, who is giving us her incredible soul on that stage. … It’s a little bit different from just like, a two person scene or two people talking.”
LESLEY ANN WARREN, SEAN O’BRYAN Disney/Christopher Willard
Challenges aside, the scenes between Bobby and his mother were some of Hinds’ favorites to shoot.
“The whole story line [of] Bobby’s mother coming back into his life by way of the church was pretty profound for me,” she told Us. “As someone who is steeped in my own personal faith and my own faith walk, it was kind of one of those things that I really enjoyed peeling back the layers of and seeing his own skepticism and some of the resentment that had built up and the trauma that he felt surrounding being disconnected from his family.”
She continued, “And so I just loved unpacking that story in real time as they were having this intense reunion that turned out to be really, really tender and beautiful and vulnerable for everyone. There was, you know, a certain level of transparency that they all had to be willing to experience and say some things out loud that maybe they hadn’t said in years and years and years, evidenced by the fact that most of our audience was like, ‘Wait, what? Bobby has a mom?!’”
Bobby, of course, wasn’t the only person working through his issues during “Holy Mother of God.” After eight seasons of fan speculation, Buck (Oliver Stark) was finally confronted with the question of whether he has romantic feelings for his best friend Eddie (Ryan Guzman). The topic was brought up by Buck’s ex Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.), who returns for a one-night post-split romp, and was asked again later by Buck’s sister, Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt). Buck denied the accusations, although neither Tommy nor Maddie looked fully convinced.
Hinds, for her part, knew the topic would be a milestone for the show and “of course” felt the pressure to do it justice — for viewers and for her good friends, Stark, 33, and Guzman, 37.
“It’s well documented that I have a very close relationship with Oliver off screen and even with Ryan. And this is what our fans have been wanting to hear out loud and unpack, you know? And so I’m like, ‘You guys, why would you give me that responsibility?’” she said with a laugh. “Because now they’re gonna look at me as the person who is making the decision about how this story should go!”
All jokes aside, Hinds loved that the 9-1-1 writing team were able to “hear, listen and speak” to a part of Buck’s story that “a lot of people are invested in.”
AISHA HINDS, PETER KRAUSE, KENNETH CHOI Disney/Christopher Willard
“It’s a healthy thing for Buck to have the opportunity to share his truth and share where he is and what’s going on,” she said. “And for Tommy to express his thoughts and what he thinks may or may not be going on, and for Maddie to be the vessel to say out loud what a lot of people have been wanting to say or thinking. And so it does address the conversation.”
Hinds noted that it was the actors who really “took the mantle” and handled the situation with “beautiful vulnerability and authenticity and honesty,” and she’s looking forward to seeing where the story goes next.
“There’s so much further to explore with Buck and his heart and his love life,” she told Us. “And I just hope that in seasons to come we’ll be able to do so in a way that truly honors him and the journey that he’s been on since season 1.”
As for the top-notch performances given by the cast, Hinds was quick to give all credit to her fellow castmates for their talent, but was deeply appreciative for their support and dedication to making sure they delivered the best episode possible.
“I do think that we share a very deep connection amongst us as characters, and off camera as comrades and friends. There is a deep friendship and a deep trust amongst us. They were really, really supportive and rooting for me and wanted the best for this episode, as much or more than I did for me,” she explained. “So they all showed up wanting to do their best and beyond. Whether that’s for me or that’s just servicing the stories and their characters, I’m grateful.”
For Hinds, it was just a treat to be able to watch her costars from a new perspective.
“As we were going through the process, I was just so happy and so grateful to kind of watch them work from the other side of the camera and really kind of just luxuriate in some of the choices that they make,” she told Us, “and watch how they kind of build these performances week to week. … It’s really different when you can watch take after take from behind the monitor.”
New episodes of 9-1-1 season 8 air on ABC Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET.
