Jay Hayden Talks ‘Station 19’ [Exclusive Interview]

No stranger to Shondaland, Jay Hayden can currently be seen starring as Travis Montgomery on the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff, Station 19.

I recently had the chance to chat with Hayden about his background in acting, his role on Station 19, and what we can expect from upcoming episodes. (Hint: he says multiple boxes of tissues will be involved!)

“I grew up in a very, very small town in Northfield, Vermont, so it was not like there was any kind of drama program at my school,” Hayden began.

“I think we did The Wizard of Oz when I was a sophomore in high school. I remember being like, wow, I really like acting; that would be fun. But I was on the sports route, with parents and counselors and coaches and stuff. Everyone was telling me that I was going to go play soccer in college, so I did what everybody told me to do.”

“I eventually found myself at the University of Vermont, and I walked by the theater and saw an audition for a play. And I remember being like, I could go audition for this and no one would know. I do not have to tell anybody. I don’t have to tell my friends or my parents. I could just go see. I could just, for fun, go do it,” Hayden said.

“I auditioned for it and I got it. It was only a one-act play. And I remember, I did not even tell my friends or family about it. I rehearsed and ended up doing the play, and no one ever knew.”

“I remember being out there on that stage knowing that that is what I wanted to do, so I immediately started being heavily involved in the theater. And then, against a lot of advice, moved out to Los Angeles, by myself, and started the struggle — the absolute struggle of when you have no support system, or anyone telling you what to do, what classes to take, where to get an agent, where to send your stuff, how to get around, what to do. And that is an extreme learning curve, and so difficult.”

Going against the advice he’d been given was something that motivated Hayden even more.

“What inspires me is when people tell me I can’t do something, or that I am not good enough,” Hayden shared. “I had a theater professor tell me that I shouldn’t move out to L.A. because I wouldn’t make it. And I remember, in my mind, in her office, sitting there going, ‘Ah, thank you so much, because now I am definitely going to go. I will succeed at this.”

“I drove a Penske truck across the country and landed in Marina del Ray, and started being a doorman at a college bar. And then, from there, it began. Picking up the Backstage West newspaper in L.A. and looking for student film auditions for UCLA and USC. Going to those and getting ripped off on headshots, then getting ripped off on bad acting classes.”

Hayden said he eventually found people he could trust and who were able to guide him.

“I slowly built that system and I got into the right classes, and then got the right reps — got into a position where I could finally walk into those rooms where people were casting the things I wanted to be in.”

Before Station 19 and his previous role as Danny on The Catch, Hayden actually auditioned for several other Shondaland dramas, including Grey’s Anatomy.

“Getting in front of Linda Lowy is not easy. She is in that upper echelon of casting directors,” Hayden admitted.

“So I started auditioning for her and I thought she hated me, to be honest because she is really studying you. She’s nice… ish, but she’s directing you and workshopping these moments with you, and giving you direction and watching you do it. And I would audition for Grey’s Anatomy, and then Scandal, and then How to Get Away with Murder, or whatever, and I thought she hated me because I would do it and she would give me an adjustment, I would do it and she would be like, ‘Thanks. Thanks, Jay.’ And I would never hear anything.”

“So now I have done these for her, I don’t know, 15 or 20 times, and I have not gotten anything. Then they called me and they said Linda wants you to come in for The Catch, it is another Shonda show. And I was like, I am not calling in because she hates me. She hates me. And they said ‘she really wants you to come in for this role,'” he continued.

“I went in there and Shonda [Rhimes] was sitting on the couch. And Linda simply said, oh Jay’s one of our favorites here. He nails it all the time.’ And I was shocked.”

“Everyone on the couch, Shonda Rhimes, looked up,” Hayden recalled. “‘For Linda to say, ‘Oh yeah, so this one? Jay. He’s great.’ And then suddenly I had their attention, and it was all for that moment. And then that moment ended up being the right fit for me.”

“Then, you know, Linda and I are in love with each other. And I love her so much. So, The Catch was a fun experience. And coming off of that I was deciding what I was going to do, and there was a lot of whispers about Station 19.”

So when he was asked to come in and read for the new series, it was a no-brainer.

“I said, ‘Yeah. I love Shondaland. I love being in this family, of course,'” he said. “I am very lucky. And I feel very blessed and thankful that they have kept me around.”

As you might imagine, the training involved for the actors on Station 19 is intense, and the actors continue to have the chance to work with real firefighters.

“We were grouped in with some real Los Angeles firefighters. These guys were great. The technical advisors that they brought on were amazing. And then they sent us down south in California to get some firefighter training,” Hayden explained.

“We have been doing it with them as the season has been going on,” he stated. “That training was grueling, exhausting and very fulfilling, too. And you learn very quickly — you realize how amazing firefighters in real life are. The physical toll and the emotional and mental toll it takes on them, as well, is unreal. And these guys do it to save people’s lives. It’s crazy.”

“These guys lose people all the time. They will bring people out, they will pull people out of a building, put them down. They will tell stories. That person is dead and then have to run back in and try to save the rest of the family. And then they will say, ‘Yeah, and then we saved this person and their parents died. I pulled them out but they didn’t make it, but we saved this person.’ And they are telling you these stories and you can see tears way back in their eyes.”

Hayden went on to describe what it was like seeing two former firefighters, one a director on Station 19 and one a technical advisor, reunite with one another for the first time since 911.

“They both walked up to each other, gave each other a hug and burst into tears! [They were crying] and there was some bond there, an unspoken thing that goes beyond anything that you can replicate on television.”

“That is all we are trying to get to. I think we’re all learning and growing in the season, as we have been on set as the writers have been writing the show and we have been working with these real firefighters. We use real firefighters as our background firefighters, our background artists,” Hayden continued. “So we hear a lot of their stories.”

“As the stories come out, I believe the show is finding some of its heart in the real stories that we hear. That kind of thing, when those two guys just come up and just hug each other with no words, just cry. That’s where the show needs to live, and I believe that’s where we’re going to end up landing.”

Hayden’s character on Station 19, Travis, has been described as “the heart of the show.” Hayden spoke to that characterization a bit and shared what he and Travis have in common.

“His firefighting family is basically his family. That’s what he has got. He doesn’t have the husband anymore, he doesn’t have the loved ones, he doesn’t have the kids. His firefighting family is what he has. And he is more than dedicated to keeping them together. Keeping them safe.”

“He is so over-protective of them all. We all gotta stay together, we’ve all got to come home safe. So I just love leaning into that, and coming from a place of a dad. Because I understand that, as a father, my kids are, it sometimes hard for me to enjoy, I forget to enjoy them because I am so crazy about them staying safe. We go out on the street and the kids want to ride their bikes, and I have to check myself from just being the whole time like, ‘Stay on the road! Stay on the side! Wear the helmet! Watch the car!’ And I believe that is a little bit of Travis,” he laughed.

“But it comes from a place of love. And that’s something that Travis and I have in common. I love to play him from that perspective.”

“The captain’s race is really going to heat up,” Hayden hinted. “The peer interviews are going to come up, and those peer interviews will be from your fellow firefighters. And, in this case, there are two people from the same house going for captain, and their peers have to give the interviews.”

“You will find out how everybody feels,” he continued. “I think that is going to be, honestly, one of our best episodes, to date.”

Hayden was also excited to share that his wife, Nicole Hayden, appeared on Station 19 Season 1 Episode 7, “Let it Burn,” in an emotional scene.

“There is a woman at the end of the show that is trapped with her baby,” he said. “That is my wife in real life.”

Hayden also gave a few hints as to what we can expect from the upcoming season finale. “Let me tell you something. You are going to need maybe three boxes of tissues for the finale!” he exclaimed.

“People, you are going to cry. Maybe… maybe you are going to be mad. Maybe there is going to be some anger from the audience.”

Hayden also appeared on several episodes of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend recently. He was excited to be on the show, but for his particular role, comedy wasn’t the focus.

“They were like, ‘Listen, Jay, we know you are funny. We know you can be funny. The crazy thing is, we need you to do this role not funny,'” he remembered.

“‘You have to be the straight man in every single one of these scenes. It is very important that this character… we’re not poking fun at this, at all. This is a serious topic we want to handle respectfully and have people get something from this, so we’re not going to really write very many jokes for you.'”

“But I totally agreed and it was such a pleasure. I got to work with Rachel [Bloom] every single time, as you probably saw, and she is brilliant. She is writing, directing, producing, choreographing, acting,” Hayden gushed. “I don’t think she sleeps! Literally, she is working so much harder than I am in life, that I was just in awe of her. Also, by the way, while doing all that, finding the time to ask me about my life and how everything is going. And just completely sincere and grounded.”

“I am so glad that they are doing another season of that show, too. I guess it is a no-brainer, but every time a show is renewed or picked up, it makes me happy if it’s just something I enjoy.”

As for other TV shows he enjoys, Hayden named a few he finds the time for.

“I really like Barry on HBO. I think it is a little bit brilliant. It’s little bit genius. I really like that show quite a bit,” he said.

Hayden also mentioned Westworld as a show he’s addicted to, along with Bob’s Burgers.

“There is something about Bob’s Burgers that reminds my wife and I about our marriage and our relationship,” he laughed. “So, my wife and I watch a lot of Bob’s Burgers to unplug at the end of the night.”

And with good reason, Hayden also finds time to watch Grey’s Anatomy. “I watch Grey’s Anatomy because I like to keep staying in that world and, obviously, Grey’s Anatomy has been one of the best shows forever. And I have just been watching Grey’s too long to not watch it.”

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Be sure to catch Jay Hayden on Station 19, airing Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC.

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