‘Sheriff Country’ Star Christopher Gorham Teases What ‘Fire Country’ Fans Will Love Most About the New Spinoff (Exclusive)
We’re only two episodes into Sheriff Country, but the Fire Country spinoff has already hit us with a lot. Of course, there have been plenty of cameos to keep fans of the hit CBS series at bay, including Bode (Max Thieriot) and Sharon (Diane Farr). But the new series threw a lot at fans to contend with early on.
But they’re not the only ones. Christopher Gorham had the unenviable task of making a new relationship with viewers seem old to him. Gorham plays Travis, the ex-husband of Mickey Fox (
“In these first few episodes, Travis isn’t around all that much,” he explains. “Most of the time she’s working with Matt, with Boone and with Cassidy. And so I was popping in once a week, and then we would have to create this decades-long chemistry and relationship within a couple of hours, and that can be very difficult to do if you’re working with a partner who isn’t as open as Miranda. And so I feel like we were able to find kind of a sweet spot.”
Read on for our full interview with Christopher Gorham. New episodes of Sheriff Country air Fridays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
I’d never heard of Fire Country before. I had no idea. So when I got this script, that’s what sent me to go watch
Were you given any specifics as to the backstory between Travis and Mickey? Is that something we’ll find out more about as the season goes on?
I had a long conversation with Matt Lopez, who’s our showrunner, about Mickey and Travis, just to kind of wrap my head around where they’ve been, how things ended, what’s been going on since they split up, which is about five years before the show starts. And one of the things that he and I agreed upon right from the jump, was that this is one of those relationships that I think a lot of people, if you’re lucky, you have at least one of these relationships in your life where you’re just connected to a person. And no matter what your relationship status is, you’re always going to be connected to that person, and you’re always going to love that person. And that’s a person that you will always be there for, rain or shine.
Mickey and Travis, they fell in love in high school, and they were together. And they had a kid, and they stayed together for 20 years, and it was not easy. His family was dead set against their relationship from the beginning. Frankly, so was hers. Wes has never been a big fan of Travis from the very beginning. But Travis completely cut his family out of the picture for years because they couldn’t get on board with his relationship. And Travis is the one who walked away. And when we pick them up in the first episode, they’re dealing with Skye, their daughter. Skye’s troubles with addiction, and I think Travis harbors a lot of guilt for that, deserved or not. I think as a dad and as the dad who broke up the family, I think he holds on to that, and it’s really hard for him.
What was it like to work out that dynamic with Mickey both on and off screen?
Well, to Miranda’s credit, she makes it very easy. She’s just a wonderful actress, and just very open and generous. We’ve been able to just to discover this relationship and build this relationship in not a lot of time. In these first few episodes, Travis isn’t around all that much. Most of the time she’s working with Matt, with Boone and with Cassidy. And so I was popping in once a week, and then we would have to create this decades-long chemistry and relationship within a couple of hours, and that can be very difficult to do if you’re working with a partner who isn’t as open as Miranda. And so I feel like we were able to find kind of a sweet spot.
And both of us have been in long-term relationships. She’s married. I’ve been married for 27 years. And I think a lot of the fights that these characters have, and I love the fights that we have, they’re so rich, and they feel so real to me. So I think we’re both able to bring just our life experience into these characters. I mean, there’s a scene we’re shooting on Friday that I’m just so excited about. I can’t say anything about it yet. But I’m so excited to shoot this scene on Friday, and I feel like that every episode essentially.
Even though Travis isn’t in much of the first couple of episodes, he certainly complicates things with his relationship with Cassidy. You mentioned before about being inextricably tied to Mickey. Dating one of her co-workers certainly is an example of that.
Yeah, it’s not a great look for Travis at the beginning. And it’s a fine line, because it could be very easy to really hate him as a character for doing that to Mickey. And so also don’t want to be anti-Cassidy from the beginning because of what she’s doing to Mickey. But I think between the writing and then how we just work together, Michelle and I found a place.
Travis and Mickey’s been broken up for five years, and they didn’t intend to start dating. It’s one of those things that just kind of happened. And I think it part of the reason is they started dating each other as a way maybe to feel closer to Mickey, because they both love her for different reasons. Cassidy looks up to her as a mentor and wants to be like her, and Travis misses her; that’s his partner. So I think that relation, I think they both kind of fell into that relationship, and then are trying to make it work with good intentions. But it’s a rough go for those two.
And what makes it an even rougher go is the fact that Travis goes from representing his daughter’s boyfriend to her becoming the prime suspect in his murder.
Yeah, I love how we tackle that. Because right at the beginning, Mickey is is faced with the fact that she is maybe doing a great job at being the sheriff, but she’s falling down on her duties as just being mom. And so much of her ethos, her mantra is, “We have to keep a firewall between work and home.” And right from the beginning of this show that is challenged in the biggest way possible. Because when your daughter is the suspect, it becomes really impossible to keep work and home separate, and all those things keep bleeding together.a
The Last of Us Part 3 Teased, and You Probably Missed It
C'mon, Neil, tell us what you're planning already
The Creative Director behind some of Naughty Dog’s biggest games, including both
Earlier this week, Naughty Dog and Sony celebrated their official The Last of Us Day, a yearly event in which they pump out a load of TLOU-shaped freebies and (usually) reveal what they have in the works.
Ever since they started the yearly event back in 2013, Naughty Dog has been pretty good about giving us something juicy. Even if they don’t have a huge announcement up their sleeves, we at least get some sort of cool freebie to mark the occasion.
This year, however, we got some downloadable pumpkin stencils. This is not a joke. I am being deadly serious.
There was some other stuff in there, too, don't get me wrong. Joel and Ellie-themed
Fans were noticeably let down by the whole thing, because many assumed that Naughty Dog were building up to announce The Last of Us Part III.
On one hand, that’s on them for building their expectations too high. On the other hand, Naughty Dog have remastered
However, it seems the juiciest part of The Last of Us Day wasn’t included in either Naughty Dog's or Sony’s official blog posts. Instead, it was on Neil Druckmann’s (who served as Creative Director and writer for both TLOU games) Instagram page.
“Love how the script book turned out. Lots of fond memories while flipping through the pages,” Druckmann posted on his official Instagram.
“Happy TLoU day! Can’t wait to give y’all more TLoU updates when the time is right.”
Alright, so let’s be levelheaded for a second here, because “more TLoU updates” could mean anything. It’s vague enough that, perhaps, it’s not worth getting excited about, right?
Personally, however… I think Druckmann is smart enough to know that the internet is only going to interpret that one way. This is his way of saying that Naughty Dog is currently very busy working on their next game,
Maybe I’m just huffing on copium, but I think it’s telling that he chose to say this directly after the internet reacted poorly to what was featured in The Last of Us Day. He just doesn’t want to pull an
