9-1-1’s Ryan Guzman on How an Underwear Dance and Shaving His ‘Stache Sparks Eddie’s Search for ‘Joy’ (Exclusive)

Ryan Guzman says his character, Eddie Diaz, is on a search for “joy” in season 8 of 9-1-1 — and dancing in his underwear is just the beginning.

“It’s stepping outside of his comfort zone, allowing himself to feel uncomfortable and awkward and put himself in positions that he’d probably not want to be in previously and  just taking on a new look at life, to be honest,” Guzman, 37, exclusively told Us Weekly. “I mean, I think it’s really a retransmission in the mind before anything physical or or environmental happens around him.”

9-1-1’s Thursday, November 7, episode, titled “Confessions” saw Eddie, well, confessing his guilt over hurting son Christopher (Gavin McHugh) and ultimately causing him to move in? with his grandparents in Texas. But one or two discussions with a priest (Gavin Stenhouse) — and an assignment to recite a few Our Fathers — later, Eddie finds himself on a search for a life beyond taking care of others.

Guzman told Us that viewers can expect to see Eddie leaning into a more “childlike behavior” in the upcoming episodes of season 8, which will be filled with “more levity” and “a little bit more fun” for the character than what they’ve seen before. That doesn’t, however, mean that everything will go smoothly.

“It’s not necessarily gonna be looking great or him looking perfect,” Guzman explained. “I think he’s dispelling that idea of what was since season 1 or season 2. So I had a lot of fun with Eddie on the next couple of episodes.”

Guzman stressed that so much of Eddie’s journey has been centered around him taking care of others — personally and professionally — which has ultimately taken a toll on him over the years.

“He’s coming from being in the Army and having take care of his regimen, and literally being a medic, putting suturing people together to going to the 118 and taking care of other individuals or taking care of his ex-wife [Shannon], and then she passes away and now [he has his] son to take care of — It’s always been about somebody else,” he explained. “ It’s always been about responsibilities, and I know that from a personal standpoint, too many responsibilities can weigh heavy on the soul, and then it kind of kills that childlike behavior, that mentality.”

A “balance,” Guzman said, is what Eddie is looking for moving forward. “Which opens the door to more space for him looking inside and just being, like, ‘All right, let’s just take this burden, this weight of the world, off my shoulders and allow myself to just live,’” he added.

Where that story will take Eddie — and what “really living” actually means — remains to be seen, but the character kickstarted his journey by symbolically letting go of something some fans are certain to miss: his mustache.

“[Our showrunner], Tim [Minear], and I had a conversation about what the mustache was and how we were gonna work it into Eddie’s character, and him really hiding from himself and really not wanting to see himself became the overall theme,” Guzman told Us. “So as much as he’s been trying to do new things and trying to figure himself out this season, that mustache really solidified the fact that he’s, like, ‘No, I should be punished for what I’ve gone through or what I’ve done to my own son my ex-girlfriend [Marisol] and the doppelganger of my past wife.’”

Guzman noted that the guilt from hurting the people around him has been “holding him down” and “constricting him” — and a “moment of acceptance” came along with shaving his facial hair. “He has that moment where he looks at himself in the mirror and really just accepts himself,” Guzman added, “Which is beautiful.”

Eddie didn’t just stop at a fresh face. “Confessions” also sees Eddie channeling his inner Tom Cruise with an epic Risky Business-style dance — complete with Bob Seger & The SIlver Bullet Band’s “Old Time Rock and Roll,” the sock slide, and, yes, the tighty-whiteys. Guzman said he learned about the scene from Minear about “a month and a half” before shooting it, and the actor — who became known for his dance moves after 2014’s Step Up All In — couldn’t have been more ready to strip down and press play.

“When they told me my instant thought was, like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna have so much fun with this. I haven’t danced on camera in years upon years.’ And then they kept on coming up to me like, ‘Are you, are you sure you got this? Are you sure you want to do this?’ But I embraced it,” he said. “I love the fact that this is an opportunity for Eddie to just really let loose in so many ways. Like, he’s in his chonies just out there showing the world what he has and dancing around like Tom Cruise.”

Guzman said that he and Minear discussed that while Risky Business was clearly an inspiration, they didn’t want it to be “shot for shot” remake. Instead, they wanted Eddie’s skills to reflect who he is as a character, not who Guzman is as a dancer.

“I didn’t want to be too perfect! That was my concern,” Guzman told Us with a laugh. “I was like, ‘Eddie is not a professional dancer. Eddie is Eddie and he should just be showcasing how much fun he’s having at that moment.’ I think we did six or seven takes, and each time [our director] Chad Lowe would come up to me and like, ‘This is awesome. I love this so much.’ And that would get me amped up again.”

The best part for Guzman? There was really no way to mess it up. “There’s no wrong answer, and you don’t have to find the right answer,” he said. “So I just kind of did my thing and had fun with it.”

There was, however, pressure in other areas, like making sure everything was —ahem, well situated? — to keep Guzman comfortable.

“I feel bad for [head costume designer] Alayna Bell-Price, oh man,” Guzman said, laughing. “I’m sure there were so many notes of how much thigh I could show and what part of my underwear I could show. Because we did quite a few fittings. We did so many of the renditions of them, like, tying my shirt into my underwear, or one long, long shirt that looked like I was wearing Shaq’s shirt. But luckily we found the perfect fit.”

As much fun as Eddie is having in “Confessions,” his moment of joy is abruptly interrupted by a knock at the door, which ends up being a newly broken-hearted Buck (Oliver Stark) who has just been dumped by his boyfriend Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) The two don’t exchange a single word in the moment, but Guzman said Eddie will eventually hear the details of Buck’s breakup and will be handling it differently than expected.

“I think it’s another moment of growth for the character of Eddie, because previously Eddie would take on the task of trying to save Buck or help Buck,” Guzman explained, noting that right now his character is focused on “living in the moment” above anything else. “There could be some guilt found in there, some residual guilt from the past of Eddie being like, ‘Ah, well I should still be there for my friend. Ah, I should still do this.’ But I’ve taken this character the opposite direction. I want him to lean in more towards giving to himself, and through that he’s able to find a little bit more maturity and a little bit more of himself and ground himself in that.”

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Guzman added that Eddie’s newfound maturity will essentially be what Buck needs anyway. “I think that that itself offers Buck what he’s just asking for,” he said. “He’s not asking for answers, he’s asking for an ear, he’s asking for comfort, he’s asking for space. So it’s not so much Eddie coming to Buck’s rescue or helping him out, it is just being there as a friend, being there as a brother, finding the right community.”

But will Buck — or anyone — be helping Eddie on his own journey to capture joy? The answer is a resounding “no” from Guzman, who said Eddie’s arc will be all about discovering who he is on his own terms.

“This is singular,” he explained. “Sometimes we just have to do our own thing at our own pace and figure it out for ourselves. No one’s going to be able to live our life for us. So for Eddie, it’s a bit of trial and error in this new spectrum of life and finding all the different colors that allow him to take this big pressure off himself and mess up if he wants to.”

He quickly added: “Not on the job, obviously, but in his personal life.”

New episodes of 9-1-1 air on ABC Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET.