‘Fire Country’ Star Diane Farr on Her Directorial Debut (Exclusive)

Friday’s Fire Country is going to be a special one, as it’s directed by star Diane Farr, who spoke to PopCulture.com about it. The Sharon Leone actress is making her directorial debut in “Welcome to the Cult,” which will see Bode and Gabriela considering confessing their secret about Gil’s medical alert necklace and the “Firing Squad.” With Farr directing, it’s sure to be an entertaining episode, and she had a lot to say about the experience. (Interview has been edited for length and clarity).

PopCulture: What can you preview for tomorrow’s new Fire Country?

Diane Farr: The director of tomorrow’s new Fire Country is awesome. She is really pretty, and she’s there early every day. It’s one of my favorite episodes I ever read on the page. I sometimes jump for joy. Our showrunner, Tia Napolitano, wrote it, and she wrote it with Barbara Friend.The two ladies, I mean, I’m all about the girl power. When they asked me if I had a choice of what kind of show I wanted to direct, I asked for a bottle episode, which means we don’t really go anywhere. Let’s focus more on the emotional content than the biggest fire we can possibly do, and they gave me all of it. They gave me all of the emotional things. Every character has something deep and meaningful. Oh, gosh. It was such a gift.

PC: What was it like going from in front of the camera to behind?

Farr: Frightening. It is very frightening. I hate wasting people’s time. When my kids were in preschool, they had these little mantras they would tell the little kids and one of them has never left me. They used to sing a song every day that said, “Everybody’s time has value.” So, my whole world is about being efficient, so I don’t hold anybody up. And there’s, like, 200 to 400 people on set any given day. And if I didn’t get it right, they were all gonna have to stand there and wait. I didn’t sleep for three days. The first scene, thank God it was with Kevin Alejandro and Jules Latimer. I had no voice. It was like nothing would come out of me. I was so afraid. But second scene, I was like, “Oh, there I am. Okay.” Here’s me now at this age. It’s not in high school. It really was a learning curve. I’m so thankful that they gave me the time to do it.

PC: Did you get any advice from Max [Thieriot] and Kevin, who have both directed episodes in the past?

Farr: I did because I went fishing for it. I kept saying, “Oh, but can I do this?” And Max would give me every detail of how he would do it, and he would give me permission. I think it’s really what I was looking for. And Kevin kept saying to me, “You know more than you think you do.You already know this answer. It’s fine.” He just kept sort of telling me I don’t need to look outside myself for the answer. Kevin also keeps getting the largest episodes, which I don’t think is preplanned when they give him the director’s slot. And each one of them, he ends up having a huge storyline in.

So our days were boarded in this way that the first couple of days, I just had to direct.And then I had to do a couple of days where I had to learn how to direct fire. And then I had to learn to direct while I was acting, and then I had to direct while acting with fire. It was set up in the most perfect tale of Fire Country. Here’s all the things that are hard here, but I got to do them one at a time.

PC: What made you want to branch out into directing after acting for so long?

Farr: Absolutely nothing. I also write, so I was hoping to write on the show, but our writer’s room is in Los Angeles, andwe’re in Vancouver. So they were like, “No, girl. You are not getting in that room, so why don’t you look at directing?” And I think I literally had a whiny conversation with Tony Phelan, our executive producer. I was like, “I don’t wanna learn anything. I’m over 50. This old dog has no more tricks, please.” He said, “No. You can do it.” That was that. Took two years of me training, but I went in dragging my heels.

PC: Would you want to direct again in the future?

Farr: I absolutely would, and he was right, and I was wrong. It was so fun to use all the parts of your brain. And I think it’s universal. I think women generally see a meta vision more than just the singular one. I think it’s something the wiring to keep the human race going. It was one of the few times where I could use all the parts of my brains and not stop myself. Whereas even when I’m with my kids, my kids are big. They’re not really asking my advice, so I don’t give it.Or I’m at work, and I can see how to do this in a more efficient way, but that’s not what I’m hired to do at work. Using my brain all day long, every day, I slept better before it started going. It was thrilling. I can’t wait to do it again.

Diane Farr’s directorial debut will be tomorrow’s episode, Friday, Nov. 1, airing at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.