Gina Torres on Captain Vegas goodbye

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains details of Monday’s series final of 9-1-1: Lone Star.

With 9-1-1: Lone Star Answering the last call Monday was the series final a particularly emotional riding-long star Gina Torres.

When he sat with Showrunner Rashad Raisani, the actress behind Station 126 Paramedics Captain Tommy Vega told the deadline was “so rare” to be part of such a talented TV ensemble -role crew when they both grieved at the end of the spinoff After five seasons.

“I think it was just on the money for Tommy,” Torres said of her character goodbye. “None of it surprised me. When I read it, I thought, ‘Yes, of course she’s a soldier.’ She goes out of the way. She came into fighting and doing what she can. That’s what the first respondents do. ”

Although Captain Vega in the last episode has been put on bed rest during her battle with cancer and when she sees what seems to be the ghost of her late husband Charles Vega (Derek Webster), she chooses to join her Colleague 126 family one last time in shutting down a nuclear reactor when an asteroid goes towards Austin.

With Hawaii that is the eye as a new place for 9-1-1 The franchise and the future of the mother series up in the air in the middle of her season 8 Mid -season hiatus, Raisani is hopeful Captain Vega, and some of her 126 family return.

“There would be nothing better than having to revise these figures in whatever context where they go to one of these cities, or whether this city comes to them or la what it is,” he said. “And I believe in a more basic level, every chance I can work with – I loved our crew, and Gina and I have a special bond. … I just think it’s just a delight and I hope the answer to it’s yes and more, I hope. “

Read below about Torres and Raisani’s reaction to Captain Vega’s end and the future of 9-1-1 Franchise.

Deadline: Tell me about the emotional experience of wrapping this series. The one scene with “126 forever” moment when I thought everyone would die that really cut deeply.

Rashad Raisani: Well, funny enough, it’s the last scene in the series that was shot, so it was this incredible, emotional situation where they all said things to each other as characters, but also the actors said it to each other, “I love you, I love you as my own family, I love you more than my family. “I mean, it all worked on several levels for the gang, so it was really difficult. And honestly, I was a little angry there because it is ridiculous that this ends. I mean, they are all so good and none more than the lady in my lower left corner. There was just as much talent and so many stories to tell. But at the same time, I was really proud of this gang of these actors and this crew that was wonderful.

Gina Torres: Absolutely. It was 100% bittersweet and (my character is) dying on top – we just saw each other a few nights ago. Jim (Parrack) was in town and we got as much of the gang together as we could. Most of us came and we just miss each other. And we definitely feel the same way. No one wanted this to happen. This was not in anyone’s plan. It’s so rare – and I’ve done this for a while – it’s rare that you have an ensemble crew that works at this level, it’s fragile and ready to do what we need to do to get the day done. … It is always happy, even in the most difficult situations that Rashad and (co -creator and ep Tim Minear) managed to put us in. It is rare.

Deadline: You touched this earlier, but Captain Vega will help save the world, even though she is literally, practically dying in the last episode. Tell me about reviewing it as Vega.

Torres: I think it was just on the money for Tommy. None of that surprised me. When I read it, I thought, “Yes, of course she’s a soldier.” She goes out of the way. She came into fighting and doing what she can. That’s what the first respondents do. They ignore the pain, they ignore what their bodies tell them so they can do their best to someone else on their worst day. And then it made perfect sense that this is how Tommy would respond.

Deadline: Yes, and it was so nice to see her having it after the heartbreaking Facetime with her daughters and these scenes with her husband.

Raisani: I think Gina is a treasure. I mean I love to write for her. I love to work with her. And when we first approached her with this cancer history, we have always promised that we will end up with a smile. It ends OK. But Gina’s performance, I just thought it was magnificent. And there are so many moments that always come to me, but I think in the way she plays vulnerability, she shows that vulnerability, but then makes it strong at the same time – as when she hangs on with her daughters and decides not to Tell them because she wants them to just enjoy their time, don’t want to ruin their concert. That for me wow, it gives me goosebumps. I texted her at a time when I just cried in front of these editors, like “This is so embarrassing because I try to get through your performance.” But she does it throughout the scene. There is always this nuance, beautiful interaction. You can always see with Gina’s eyes what happens and her reaction and to be so present in these moments. And just a source of light, I think for the character and actor who played her for our show.

Torres: Yes, it’s a pleasure to play her, absolutely.

Deadline: It’s amazing that her cancer ends up with remission in the end, but I was curious, just my overactive brain wondering, is it because she went so close to a nuclear reactor that it worked as super chemo or something similar?

Raisani: I don’t know. It’s an interesting – I’ve never thought of that theory and I don’t want to discount it. We worked all the way from the beginning of this story with stand up to cancer, and one of the things I was talking to stand up against cancer about before we even started talking to Gina, I was said: “We are considering to do this. I haven’t even talked to the actor yet. But we give you an incredible as good as we can give, achievement as an actor who will show how going through the cancer experience looks and showing the courage that all these people ” – you pass them on the street you may not know , What they go through and how much fear they have in her every medical appointment. It’s like “What is my life being at the end of this?” And to see the way she played it … One of the things we really wanted to do was also say, see we won’t make any Hollywood version of this. Obviously. We are Hollywood, we are the Hollywood version literally, but we will not sugar coat anything. We won’t make too big jumps. So if we have her to see someone who may not be there, there is a scientific back basis for how we could base ourselves on it? So in section 11 I said I want her to go well, but I wanted it to almost take a lethal turn. They were like “Well, here is what happens.” Sometimes these tumors, as Tommy say in the scene, are that these can swell due to the immunotherapies that come on these tumors and actually make them bigger than they look, which is definitely something that happens. And could it kill you anyway? Yes, because all your organs are in here and it pushes against the wrong thing. So we always just wanted to honor the real of what was going on, even though we told a tale drama.

Torres: Yes, I learned a lot. I have to say that I learned a lot during the process of this and I have had people in my life who have suffered or gone from cancer, and even then I learned more and more. It was nice to be able to –

Raisani: Yes, I don’t want to talk out of school, but Gina talked about some people who came up to her and told her what it meant to see her character go through things as they were in the real ones went through at that moment. And to get up against cancer, that’s what they want. That’s what their ultimate goal is to get people to get some support and comfort and inspiration from people when Gina’s magnificent portrays this experience, it matters to people, and it gives people strength, so I’m very proud of it.

Torres: Yes, there was especially a woman who came up to me and just said thank you. She started crying and she held it together and said: I love your work. And she said, “Thanks. I undergo cancer and I don’t feel alone. I review it with one of the strongest women on TV. “

Deadline: With a potential new spinoff coming up there is anyone else, you know, Lone Star Characters we might see will come back in the future or maybe return to the original?

Raisani: The reason everyone is alive is, it would be great. There would be nothing better than having to revise these figures in whatever context where they go to one of these cities, or whether this city comes to them or LA, no matter what it is. And I believe in a more basic level, every chance I can work with – I loved our crew, and Gina and I have a special bond. Tim is the original relationship with Gina and brought her in and he said, “You will love her.” I just think it’s just a delight and I hope the answer to it’s yes and more, I hope.

Torres: It has been my honor to play this character, to play Tommy. I was really at first just happy to get a job. In guys brought me on the middle of the pandemic as we didn’t even know what the industry would look like, and I was so grateful to be reunited with an old friend whom I have nothing but the most respect for, in Tim. And then, bringing Rashad into my life and into my world was not just a job. It was an opportunity to create family and really incredible magical moments on screen and to play. And I really can’t emphasize this enough, especially in these times – as I said I have done this for a long time and it is very rare for a woman and a woman in color to play a character that is so fully formed , It is so layered that has depth and can show you her humor and her vulnerability and her strength, and also be allowed to fail and come back. So for that I will always be eternally grateful. And yes, more thanks.

Raisani: Yes, and I just feel the same and just feel so grateful to have had to have been part of this journey. I hope that if our show is shortened, as I still feel like it was that its legacy could be that it leaves people who feel a little hopeful at the end, there is hope. That’s what her character is all about, and hopefully the show was a mirror for that of just, yes, life is filled with terrible suffering and injustice and unreasonableness and just terrible S—. But at the end of the day, these people still get up and go, like Tommy – she has cancer, she is dying and she is like, “I go on my clothes and go out there and help.” That’s who they are, and thank God for that there are people like that.