LeAnn Rimes is ready for the "craziness" of the 9-1-1 universe. The "Can't Fight the Moonlight" singer is one of several new additions to the Ryan Murphy franchise, as part of its newest spin-off, 9-1-1: Nashville, which made its long-awaited debut on ABC on October 9. The spin-off arrived just a few months after the end of another one of its follow-ups, 9-1-1: Lone Star; it ran for five seasons and starred Rob Lowe, who gave the former reality star some advice on how to take on the series.
LeAnn, speaking with Us Weekly about the advice she got from Rob, shared: "I was talking the other day to Rob Lowe and he was talking about how, 'If you want reality, you don't go to this series. We have the craziest rescues, which is what's so interesting,'" adding: "We'll be like, 'There's no way this has happened before in real life.' Then they'll show us the articles because they're pulling from real life situations."
© Getty ImagesFurther speaking on the over-the-top scenes 9-1-1 has become known for — over on the mothership show, lead star Angela Bassett has a rescue to do in space — LeAnn said: "If you think about it — in the world of however many millions of people there are — this stuff is bound to happen to somebody. Every time we think it hasn't really happened, there's an article for that that shows you it has."
"What I love about it is once you buy into the craziness of this show, you just fall in love with it," she emphasized. "I remember watching the first couple episodes of 9-1-1. I was like, 'What am I watching?' And then about the third episode, I was like, 'Whoa, I'm totally into their own reality.' You just fall in love with it."
In addition to LeAnn, 9-1-1: Nashville also stars Chris O'Donnell, Jessica Capshaw, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Michael Provost, Kane Brown, and Tim Matheson, among others. Showrunner Rashad Raisani, recently teasing some of the action-packed moments fans will get to see, told TVLine: "We have an Airstream trailer that ends up on top of a bridge and a poor guy on a Segway tour of the city who ends up impaled on a water tower," adding that the show will bring "a bunch of crazy emergencies where people end up in places where they shouldn’t be." And while the spin-off's "DNA, of course, is 9-1-1," Rashad went on, it is taking inspiration from some prestige TV heavyweights to set itself apart.
© Getty"There's some Succession…and some Dynasty slipped in there," he further shared, revealing: "The show begins with an explosive revelation that affects the central dynamic of a character's world. And then we shamelessly use tornadoes to great effect as a metaphor for the storm that has come into these characters' lives."
© DisneyAlso giving insight into the characters of Jessica and Chris — who have known each other for over 20 years since appearing together on The Practice — he shared "there's a story of class" as Jessica's character "comes from money, but there was a fire at her ranch, and she fell for this blue-collar firefighter."
© Disney/Jake Giles Netter"I'm sure I wasn't her parents' first pick," Chris joked, noting that his character, Don Sharpe, "straddles being a firefighter and then also being in this very high-end, well-known family here in Nashville."
