9-1-1 star Oliver Stark on Buck’s beautiful bisexual arc and what’s next for ‘Buddie’

9-1-1 star Oliver Stark tells PinkNews how Buck has grown through season eight, the Buddie family unit, his personal Buck head-canons and more.

ABC’s 9-1-1 has been known for its sometimes dramatic, sometimes bizarre emergency calls since season one, but it has also carved a path for itself delivering complex and often moving character arcs through its stellar ensemble of first responders. 

Fan favourite Evan ‘Buck’ Buckley (Oliver Stark) made headlines earlier this year when he joined the ranks of the many LGBTQ+ characters on the show via a wild and poignant bisexual awakening, after kissing his best friend Eddie’s (Ryan Guzman) new friend Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr) in season 7. 

Now, in season eight, Buck’s queer journey continues, but things aren’t so rosy anymore. After putting up with the awful Gerrard (Brian Thompson) for several episodes while missing his captain-slash-father figure Bobby (Peter Krause), casually almost dying several times on the job, and breaking out in boils brought on by a suspected curse, he’s now single again. 

Buck was left high and dry after asking Tommy to move in with him in ‘Confessions’, with the latter insisting that they couldn’t be together because he knew he was Buck’s ‘first’, not his ‘last’. Dazed and confused, Buck headed straight to Eddie’s to crack open some beers and sit together in charged silence, which left many viewers wondering (or continuing to wonder) if Buck’s ‘last’ might have been beside him all along.

Buck may not have been dealing with the break-up that well – if his manic baking in ‘Hotshots’ is anything to go by – but he’s still at the start of his queer journey. We spoke to Oliver Stark to find out where he’s headed… 

PinkNews: Buck had such a lovely time in season seven after his bi awakening, but he’s now really going through it in season eight, with Gerard and the boils and his break-up – how do you think he’s grown as a character since the start of his coming out arc? 

Oliver Stark: Yeah, I think there’s a level of authenticity in his life now, you know? And it wasn’t that he was particularly consciously living an inauthentic life beforehand, he just didn’t quite know what was missing. You know, why he was not quite settled in himself. 

So now that he’s had this discovery and unlocked this new kind of element of understanding about himself, I think that as these hiccups are happening in his life, he’s at least slightly more capable of dealing with them, because at least he’s coming from a place of being a little bit more settled within his own skin. No pun intended, on the boils front. But yeah, I think he’s just a little bit more standing on sturdy ground now, so that as these things come, he’s way more capable of dealing with them in a healthier way.

That’s so relatable – when you come out as an adult, you start to look back on your life and think, ‘oh my god, that kind of makes sense now…’ Do you think that’s happened for Buck? 

Yeah. And I think, you know, that’s probably relatable. I would hope so anyway, in terms of coming out, or in terms of anything in your life. You know, you look back and you’re like, ‘Wow, if I had known the things that I know now about myself, I probably would have dealt with that differently.’ So I think it’s relatable in a specific coming-out way, and then I hope it is in a broader sense as well. 

You have said before that you decided to play Buck as bi from the start of season seven whether he was going to have a queer storyline or not – can you expand on that? Did you do anything differently?

Yeah, I have said that, and I do stand by it! I don’t quite know how I was gonna go about that, if it was gonna be, like, longing gazes at people that we encounter on calls or what. I didn’t quite have a plan in place as such. And thankfully, I didn’t have to, because Tim [Minear], who’s the showrunner, came pretty early on in the season, and, you know, said this is where we’re taking it. And it was like, great. What a coincidence! 

So yeah, I don’t know if I had a foolproof plan of how to enact that, but I was gonna find a way to start, hopefully, moving the story in that direction. Because, you know, I think it’s a lovely story in terms of hopefully positive representation. But more than anything, I just think it felt true for the character. And actually, I think that is in the kind of grander scheme of things, even better representation, that it just felt right for this character?

Totally! I feel like, especially knowing what we know about Buck now, going back and rewatching, there are times where you’re thinking, ‘Oh my god, is he flirting with that guy?’ just all the way through, you know? He’s definitely been a queer-coded character since the beginning. 

Yeah, the first thing that really rings through my head for that is – I’m pretty sure it’s season one – there’s a guy who has a tapeworm. And, you know, they get into this, like, body fat percentage conversation, which isn’t necessarily anything, but there is something in the air there. So, yeah, I agree. I think if you go back, the breadcrumbs, intentionally or not, have always been there for sure.

I’ve got to mention Buddie [Buck and Eddie’s ship name]. You know, the queer viewers love Buddie. I love the dynamic between them, whether something more comes from that or not. Especially Buck’s relationship with [Eddie’s son] Chris – they already have this family unit. Like with Buck being in Eddie’s will from season four, that was like, ‘oh my god?!’, but we haven’t heard more about that since. Can we expect any more of that family unit element coming up, or do you want to see more?

Yeah, I always want to see more. You know, I love those scenes, and I appreciate you saying, you know, whether it turns into anything or not, because I don’t know either, like there’s still a strong connection there regardless. So yeah, I always want to see more of that, quote-unquote, ‘family dynamic’ between them. 

And to be honest with you, it is a subject I try and tiptoe carefully around, right? Because I do understand how important it is for some people, and at the end of the day, I don’t know where the story is gonna go. I can only really speak on Buck so I tread carefully, because on one hand, I don’t want to tell people like, ‘oh yeah, hang around, this thing is happening.’ And then on the other hand, it’s like, I don’t know, maybe… I can only really speak to Buck. 

And the other thing that I approach cautiously is not tying his sexuality to anybody else. You know, I was never tied to Tommy. It’s not tied to Eddie. Obviously, it’s his own journey to kind of go down. And Ryan’s character, Eddie, is on his own journey. And if that’s where the story ends up going, then I know a lot of people on Twitter will be very happy. [laughs] But regardless, I love those scenes. I love working with those people. So, you know, as I’ve kind of always said, I’m here for wherever the story goes. And I just hope the audience feels satisfied with wherever the ending is.

Personally, if it did happen, I would think it was very cool, and probably end up being, like, the best TV slow-burn of all time. But their dynamic is fun any which way it goes. I feel like the fans are always happiest when Buck is sad and struggling – but what have been some of your favourite Buck-centric storylines over the past eight seasons?

You know, Pete Krause has said to me recently, while we’re shooting the Halloween episode this season, and obviously I bring in this dummy that turns out to be a real body. He said, how many times do you think we’ve had a storyline revolving around Buck doing something stupid? I feel like if he wasn’t in the show we wouldn’t have any storylines! [Laughs] 

I really enjoyed the ‘Buck Begins’ episode, which I feel like is the kind of pop out answer that’s easy to go with. But it wasn’t even the backstory element. I loved the kind of heroic acts that he got to when he was stuck in this warehouse fire with this other character, and I just love this back and forth between them. So that’s one that really stands out. 

Tsunami is obviously a big highlight for me, and will be hard to top that one, I think, in the duration of the show. We went down to shoot it in Mexico and it just really felt like, wow, this is a huge production. So to get to play through that was very meaningful for me. It really felt like a ‘I’m living my dream’ kind of moment. I really enjoyed this season. I actually really enjoyed the boils episode. There’s something about getting to play ugly that was really fun and liberating. And I just enjoy when the show is serious and I enjoy when it’s really silly. So yeah, like every season there’s been a thing, and luckily, you know, they’ve given Buck a lot to do over the years, so I’m very grateful for it.

Let’s end on a silly one – imagine Buck is having a cosy duvet day at home. He’s got his blankets and his duvet on his couch: in your mind, what’s he watching, what’s he drinking, and what snacks does he have? 

[Laughs] This is one of those questions, right? When people say, ‘what song?’ And I suddenly can’t think of any song that’s ever been written. All right, let me start with snacks. I feel like Buck eats a lot of– Oh, hold on, we’re in the UK! I was gonna say a lot of chips! Crisps! But this is probably just me speaking, and I just wanna eat a lot of crisps. But anytime there’s a scene on the show where we are eating, I find myself constantly eating as Buck, like, that’s not even really something I do in my own life, but when I’m dressed as Buck, it’s snack, snack, snack. So something easy, some kind of crisps. And I think Buck is a beer drinker, so even though in my head this is like a Sunday morning, apparently he’s got a beer. Why not? It’s a day off. What’s he watching? [Pauses]

I always feel like Buck is a rom-com guy, he’s so driven by love and romance. 

That’s close to where I was about to go with this, right? Some people would consider a rom-com, but I was gonna go reality [TV]. 

Oh, yes! 

And I was gonna go for a 90 Day Fiancé kind of situation.

I see it, I like that. 

A whole season all the way through on a Sunday, chips, beer, 90 Day Fiancé, one of the 50 spin offs that they have for their show. Yeah, I see that for Buck on his probably uncomfortable couch in his apartment. That’s the best I’ve got for you. 

9-1-1 season 8 is currently streaming in the UK on Disney+, with a new episode weekly. The mid-season finale airs on ABC tonight in the US. 

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