‘Fire Country’ Star Michael Trucco Breaks Down Luke’s ‘Evolution’ Following Vince’s Death and the Leone Legacy (Exclusive)

Fire Country characters are continuing to grieve the death of Vince Leone, and Michael Trucco weighed in on Luke’s evolution while speaking with PopCulture.com.

Billy Burke’s Battalion Chief was killed in a fire in the Season 4 premiere of the firefighter drama.

Trucco’s Luke Leone is Vince’s brother, and he’s been appearing in a lot more episodes since then, to be there for his family and his firefighters as Cal Fire Assistant Chief. This was especially true in Friday’s episode, “Elite of the Elite.” Luke, Sharon, and Bode had to be there for one another after Tyler confessed to being responsible for the Zabel Ridge fire that killed Vince.

Then Luke had to be there for his firefighters amid the confession for the REMs (Rapid Extraction Module) tryouts, which Bode was part of. It was an intense and emotional hour that highlighted Luke’s evolution from Season 1 through Season 4, so take a look at what Trucco had to say about it. (Interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

PopCulture: In last week’s episode, there was a press conference about the Zabel Ridge arsonist with Luke, Sharon, and Bode front and center. In that moment, and as Luke is talking, what do you think was going through his mind, especially knowing how close Bode and Sharon got to Chloe and Tyler, and that this arsonist ordeal might finally be over?

Michael Trucco: You just have someone to think that it’s tough. Sometimes when you can’t see… what’s that proverb? You can’t see the trees of the forest. They got pulled in. Bode’s heart is in the right place. He was kinda mentoring this kid who was kind of going on the wrong… his life was kinda taking on the wrong turn, and he was tagging ambulances. But you could see that there was something there. So you can’t fault him, and I don’t think that Luke was faulting Bode for establishing that relation. I think he was as blindsided as we all were.

But, definitely, Luke’s first instinct is to protect the family, to protect Bode. And as a sort of the mouthpiece for Cal Fire, it’s my job to be the face of this crisis and put myself in front of the press. And then I was like, I’m getting a shining moment from my nephew here. And then he’s like, “Oh, yeah. I know this person.” Don’t say that. I go, “Wait. Okay.”

So there’s a lot of damage control that Luke has to do. But I don’t think that anybody saw it coming, and I don’t think there was any real judgment with Luke and Bode about that. I think it’s like, “Hey. Listen. This is the situation. Let me take over from here. Try to distance yourself from this thing. You do your thing. This situation is volatile enough as it is. It doesn’t need any more controversy than heat.” So that’s where Luke steps up. That’s what I mean. Sometimes you get a good Luke. And Luke is there. And I think, by and large, Luke is just a good guy. He’s just reckless sometimes.

PC: The episode also saw Bode doing the REMs tryout with Luke spearheading the entire thing. What was your favorite part about that storyline?

Trucco: Well, I just love that there’s some pride. Luke has established this team, this REMs team that is novel to Cal Fire. And so there’s a certain “Mine’s got my stamp on it.” This is legacy. This is the word I was using in another interview, that there is a legacy. The Leone name is really important. So for me to establish this at Cal Fire, particularly in Edgewater, and to get my nephew to run or to be the face of the beast, to be the poster boy, there’s a lot of pride in that. And so if that raises the stakes, it’s even more reason just not to fail.

Now we were front and center on this thing. This thing is gonna live and die by the illegal thing. And I wanna be right. It’s an homage to my brother. It’s my father. Legacy is important to the family. We go back generations. And so this is Luke’s attempt to put his personal fingerprint, his stamp on Cal Fire, and his legacy as a firefighter.

PC: Bode, not surprisingly, is distracted after the Zabel Ridge arsonist’s identity has leaked out, and Luke told him that he needs to fully commit to REMs or he’s out. What did you love most about playing out these scenes with Max [Thieriot] and trying not to cross that line of uncle and nephew and chief and firefighter?

Trucco: First and foremost, it gives Max and I more time together. I like that they’ve sort of pumped up this Luke and Bode story about spending a lot of time on-screen and on the characters. And so you do walk that line of you don’t want nepotism to rear its ugly head, and that becomes a thing in any line of work. It doesn’t matter what the business is. When people perceive nepotism happening, they resent it. So it’s important for Luke to treat Bode, as first a firefighter, and I’m a chief. And so that’s important.

So, he has to go through the wringer like everybody else. But I like the push-pull as the actor playing Luke to fight against the “Hey. This is my nephew. I have the power and the sway to make the call if I want, and I don’t ever wanna show that color to everybody else.”

Then maybe just then, if that can do more damage to the recipient than if you just let him go through the program. If he washes out, he washes out. At least he went through it. I don’t wanna ever put somebody in my family in a position where they got promoted to something and then they found out they weren’t worthy of it. But see, I knew it was just because of the Leone name.

And that’s gonna follow us this whole time. I mean, we’re a legacy family. We’re multigenerational Leones. So I was gonna go, “Leone, you’re gonna get a leg up.” And I think Luke’s like, “No. You guys watch this. He’s gonna earn his rights. He’s gonna earn his way to the top.” So, yeah, we definitely played that dynamic, and we did talk about that. But I think that it’s important for Luke to keep it professional.

PC: Speaking of earning his rights, we find out at the end of the episode that since Bode never took his name off the board and he helped Eleanor when she needed it, Luke tells him that he’s on the team because of his resilience, and it’s something that everyone on the deciding party agreed on. What are you most looking forward to with this continuing storyline?

Trucco: Well, there’s some good stuff coming up. We don’t drop the ball on the REMs. We’re exploring it. I forgot about that moment, but there you go. At the end of the day, that’s quintessential team building. The idea of the individual achievement to make the team ain’t good for you, but that’s the keyword. This is the REMs team. They’re the solo effort. So those are the kinds of character traits and those things that you see in Bode’s character that he’s got what it takes. He understands the assignment. He knows what this is about. And I love that you just brought that up. I forgot about that. That was a nice little insight into the evolution of Bode.

PC: We also see Bode visiting Tyler in jail. What do you think about the entire situation in terms of Bode still being close with him and not knowing for certain if Tyler is the one who set the fire?

Trucco: That’s right. So, where we are right now, we don’t know for certain. It’s still vague. That’s a tough one because that’s the decision I think that Bode has to make first. Luke can do whatever he can to insulate Bode professionally and to try to distance himself from the situation. But his intentions were good. He was mentoring this kid. He was trying to help somebody find a path. That’s tricky. Does he just cut this kid off? Will that send him further into a tailspin? Or is he gonna be there? Because somebody was there, he got a second chance in life. So I think there’s a lot of parallels there. I don’t wanna speak for Max because I can’t tell him what his character did. I have no idea.

I can just say, add what Luke observes in Bode, that the character observes in Bode, that I would guess what I see there is Bode having had the experience that he had being in jail and getting a second chance at life and having people back him even when he gave everybody multiple opportunities not to. I mean, he’s stepped in s— many times. Let’s be honest. And yet people are always there for him. So maybe I would say that Luke sees what Bode’s doing is paying it forward.

PC: You’ve been talking about this already, but it’s been really interesting seeing Luke more and more lately, especially after Vince’s death. What has it been like being able to explore him more, both personally and professionally?

Trucco: That’s a great question. And it definitely factored in. I am doing everything I can, just internally from story-wise as an actor, that I wanna keep that torch lit for Vince. And I think it has accelerated the maturity of Luke and the evolution of Luke. Luke, having lost Vince, I think, has put him on a path that’s sort of pull up his big boy pants and be the adult in the room. You gotta realize, I was kind of the fun-loving, free-willing, footloose and fancy. And now it’s like, you gotta step up and make it.

As much as I mourn the loss of Vince, both as Luke and me, I miss Billy. Billy and I had a great time. He’s a good dude. And we had a lot of fun working together. So it’s not hard to kinda carry that into the work. And I think he leaves a big hole, man. There’s a big vacuum there, that’s something that Luke is aware of. And also doesn’t think he can ever… I’m not gonna try to be Vince. He was a singular and unique character on the show, and I don’t think I’m ever gonna try to fill those shoes.

That’s not the point. But I can certainly do my best. Luke can certainly do his best to be there for the family, to be there for Bode to be that proverbial father figure. It’s helped evolve the relationship between Sharon and I. I mentioned this in the other interview that we’ve become more brother-sister. There’s more of a familial bond, even more so in the absence of Vince. That little moment we had in Season 1, there was a childhood crush there. He always wanted his brother’s girl. It was the thing. But I think that has evolved to a place where they’ve become this really mature familial dynamic.

PC: Going off of that, is there anything that you’re really looking forward to exploring more with Luke as the season continues?

Trucco: Well, since we are just finished, I’m always trying to find the redemption in Luke because I think ultimately, look. We need somebody to stir the pot, and I get it. Sometimes I feel when I first came on, I maybe sort of could have been pigeonholed and just being sort of a bad guy there. And when I get ropes like that, I’m like, “Oh, okay. Well, let me see if I can find the light. I can find the blue sky through the clouds of this guy.” And that’s my wish. I wanna be a redemptive character.

We all do. We wanna have a real space and reason for being there. We want that character to have a reason for being there. So that’s what I look forward to. I love when they write me where we get a lot of misdirect with me, and I like that. And I’m really appreciative to the writers and that team, in that writers’ room, and the producers on the show for giving Luke such life. It’s just bringing me right at the time when you’re like, “Uh-oh.” When you’re not sure what people are like, “Oh, god. Here he is again.” It’s like, we should elicit the action from people. That’s why we do what we do.

New episodes of Fire Country air on Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS, streaming the next day on Paramount+.