Chicago Fire: Kara Killmer Breaks Down That Major Brett and Casey Moment [Interview]

Chicago Fire‘s Sylvie Brett has evolved quite a bit over the years, and among other things, she’s no longer willing to settle.

Just when it looked like Brett and Matt Casey would finally get together on Chicago Fire Season 9 Episode 2, “That Kind of Heat,” Brett stopped to ask Casey an all-important question that brought their long-awaited romantic moment to a halt.

I recently had the chance to speak with Kara Killmer, who plays Sylvie Brett on the series, about that scene and what it could mean for Brett and Casey moving forward.

Killmer also shared what it’s been like filming this season under new protocols and working with the show’s newest cast member.

First things first, we had to talk about that kiss. Killmer said she and Jesse Spencer worked hard and spent a lot of time on that scene. 

“Thank God it’s Jesse,” Killmer began. “I really enjoy working with him. He is such a delight. He’s a total dork in real life. And we pretty much just sit around and make puns and play tiny instruments, and that’s kind of what the behind the scenes looks like for he and I. But I mean, these scenes, these first two episodes were just really important to both of us to get right.”

“I know I’ve had scenes like this and I know he’s had scenes like this, [where] there is so much tension, and then the sexual tension just bursts, and people are crashing through doors and losing articles of clothing. Both of us kind of agreed that it’s like — let’s not do that. Let’s let them savor the moment, and let it be more emotional,” she said.

“Not that it wasn’t sexual, just that there was a lot of tender love and care. And so there was a lot of talking through everything that’s behind the scenes.” 

Their romantic moment at the end of that episode doesn’t last very long, though. Brett stops to ask Casey what he’d do if Gabby came back, and his response is that he doesn’t know. Killmer said she’s glad Brett made the point of asking that question when she did.

“I think in the back of Sylvie’s mind, she’s been overwhelmingly aware of the girl code aspect of everything. And also just, I think that she does deep down just believe, ‘There’s no way that I can compete with Dawson. There’s no way I can… I’ll never measure up to that,'” Killmer explained.

“I think that’s why in the scene with Stella in the turnout room, she’s like, ‘I can’t. I can’t feel this way because of Dawson, because I know his history, and I know my history.'”

When Casey shows up at her door, concerned that she’s been avoiding him, Brett finally makes a move and kisses him. Killmer gave some insight into that as well. She said after thinking back to everything Casey has done for Brett in the past two years, she feels that “It would be impossible not to respond to him.”

“He is constantly checking on her. He went with her to find a cat and smuggle it into a hospital, and kind of knows her better than she knows herself to some degree, with holding onto the letter from her birth mother, and then choosing to drive with her all the way out to Rockford, and just being so supportive through that entire relationship. Then even whenever she loses her birth mom, he’s right there and just so available.”

“I think the cherry on top was in this episode when Gallo totally spills the beans,” she added, referring to how Casey really had arrived at the ambulance to save her ahead of everyone else. “That whole long lingering look, it was like, ‘You lied. You totally… you care about me, and oh crap.'”

Killmer also shared her thoughts on why it makes sense that Casey and Brett would be drawn to one another.

“Sometimes I still have mixed feelings about it, because I was like the number one Dawsey fan, okay? I loved their relationship. And so when they started, on our end I was like, ‘Ugh, I don’t know.’ And I also loved what Brett had with Antonio, and it all felt super complex to me,” she said.

As the writers continued putting the characters in situations where they were able to care for one another, though, it started to become clear there to Killmer that there was something there. 

“It’s very comfortable. And I think they’re very similar. They’re very similar types of people. They’re very dutiful. They’re very loyal. They’re very self-sacrificing. They tend to put other people before themselves. And so to channel that energy, and put that energy toward one another is just, it’s very tender, you know?”

There’s also been a change in the cast on Chicago Fire this season, and it’s one that is close to Sylvie Brett. Annie Ilonzeh, who played Emily Foster, exited the series at the end of Season 8, and now Brett has a new partner, Gianna Mackey. Killmer spoke a bit about what she expects that dynamic to be like moving forward.

“I mean, I loved working with Annie Ilonzeh. I just FaceTimed with her the other day. We’re still close. And I loved their relationship. I think what will be different about Gianna Mackey is that we’ve kind of seen Brett be best friends with her partner twice now. And I think they want it to just be a little different,” Killmer explained. “There was a scene that they cut where she’s talking to Stella about, ‘I don’t want to get attached because it just makes it harder when they leave.'”

Killmer noted that Mackey’s most significant relationships will likely be with Cruz and “potentially” Gallo, while her relationship with Brett will be more professional.

“Gianna is very green, and so I think it’s going to be a little bit more like a mentor-mentee kind of dynamic,” she said. “It’ll be fun to play a different sort of relationship, but it has been a blast working with Adriyan Rae. She is incredible. She’s got a great sense of humor. It feels like she’s been here forever. She has integrated herself into the cast pretty flawlessly for only having shot two episodes.”

Brett described the scene in the ambulance when Brett and Mackey were run off the side of the road, and how that made it even more clear Rae belongs with this team.

“When we shot the scene where we’re sideways in the ambo, oh my gosh, that was some doing. I climb in first from the door and they strap me in, and then she climbs in through where the windshield is supposed to be and like squeezed herself down to her chair, and they squirted all this blood for her. Then they closed the door, and they screwed the windshield back on, and then they shoot off some smoke squibs. And they poured a bucket of rubber glass on top of us. The windows were open and it was raining. We didn’t have our coats and it was like 30 degrees out. And I told her, ‘This is your first day on Fire. Everything up to this point has not been real. This is what this job is.’ And she was for it. I mean, she was like, ‘I love it.'”

It certainly makes sense to have Brett in that mentorship role now as well. Killmer shared her thoughts on how she thinks Sylvie Brett has evolved from when we were first introduced to her several years ago.

“One of the things that I really like about Sylvie is that she gets to go back and forth between being kind of silly and like, charmingly neurotic and adorkable with some of the comedic stuff, or even some of the relationship stuff. But she can also switch into a mode that’s like, let’s get down to business,” she said. “Or just switching into like a high-functioning compartmentalized mode, the kind of mindset you have to be in if you’re in a job where, literally, lives are at stake. So that is just a lot of fun to get to play.”

“I think as a paramedic, definitely she has found her footing in terms of, she came in pretty green, coming from Fowlerton where it was basically just car accidents and cats stuck up trees, into the big city where it’s like, everything under the sun happens in Chicago,” Killmer added. Now, she believes Brett is much more “confident in her own instincts.”

“I think she’s really moved into her authority and she’s been able to take on the responsibility of being in charge. And also, I have had a lot of partners on Ambulance 61,” she added, pointing out the flexibility that Brett has needed to have as well. “That’s real. In real life, it’s not common to have the same partner for a decade. Real paramedics work with a lot of different partners on a regular basis.”

Killmer noted some changes in the way Brett approaches her personal life as well. “Something I’m glad that she’s never lost is she does believe the best in people and she is pretty resilient. She does wax optimistic most of the time,” Killmer noted. “In her romantic journey, for instance, I do think she’s a hopeless romantic. She has been very unlucky in love, from being dumped at the altar to having her thing with Antonio, and not with a bang, but with like a total fizzle.”

“She wants love in her life so badly that she will set aside her own needs to make it happen. And then it doesn’t work out. I think she has a sneaking suspicion that she’s just not lovable and it’s never going to work out for her because she’s just not worth it. So I think when Chaplain came along, which was like, he was wonderful, but totally safe. That was kind of the first sign of progress of like, ‘I actually do think I want more for my life. And also I don’t want to do to you what’s been done to me, which is like asking you to settle or saying, I’m ready for this next step, but I’m really not.'”

Of course, all of that brings us back to Brett and Casey, and that moment at the end of this season’s second episode. Killmer said Brett asks Casey about Dawson in part because she doesn’t want to have to compete with anyone else. She also felt Brett had to ask it at that moment because their connection was so strong, and it would be more difficult to address later on.
“I respect that about her. I respect that she’s getting to a place in her life where she’s trying to prioritize her needs. And I think part of why she is being able to do that is because Casey has taught her how to do it,” Killmer said.

While the burgeoning romance between Casey and Brett is on the forefront of everyone’s minds, there’s yet another significant relationship Killmer and I had to discuss.

Last season, Brett met her birth mother and then found herself with a new baby sister. With any luck, we’ll get to see more of that relationship down the line, though it likely won’t be any time soon.

“First of all, I love children. I love babies. I have 16 nieces and nephews. So I’m all for spending time with the babies and whatnot. I think the writers did want that to be a huge part of Sylvie’s life, and I think they would like for that to still be a big part of her storyline, but we are in the middle of a pandemic,” Killmer said.

That means having Brett’s sister on screen simply isn’t realistic right now, but it’s something Killmer says she looks forward to in the future. 

“I so want to play with a little sister as soon as possible. And I think that’s so Sylvie, too. I think she’s totally got the big sister or like, mommy vibe about her. It was such a gut-punch losing her birth mom. And Kelly Deadmon, who played Julie, was so wonderful. They could not have cast someone better to play Sylvie’s mom. Her and I really got along. And so we hung out outside of that. We went and got pedicures and we spent Valentine’s Day together and went and got coffee and shopped. I mean, we had ourselves a grand time. So when she left, I was so bummed because we became good friends.”

It was always the plan to kill that character off, though. “Ultimately it was really about Casey and Brett getting closer. And so, hopefully, there will still be a lot of joy to kind of be derived out of her relationship with her baby sister, as soon as we’re able to shoot safely with kids and stuff.”

Speaking of the current health crisis, Killmer gave some insight into how filming has changed this year in order to keep everyone safe.

“Oh my gosh. It is like working in a cleanroom on the International Space Station. I will likely never work in a cleaner environment in my life. They regularly fog things down. There’s a specific path that we all walk to get through set. Everybody is wearing masks, everybody’s wearing face shields,” Killmer explained.

“Probably the worst thing about it is that we can’t hug, because we’re like a sappy, affectionate cast. And so there’s a lot of elbow bumping. We test every day, which we’re so privileged to be able to do. But yeah, it is a different world. And somehow the fact that they’re able to still shoot the show with the same integrity of drama and action is like a miracle to me. I mean, I genuinely feel like NBC and Dick Wolf have moved heaven and earth to make it so that we could all come back to work.”

“Even just the flexibility that they are having with making sure that everyone stays well or if it seems like someone’s gotten sick, then we shut down or they isolate. And feeling supported by your employer in that way, to know that they are prioritizing our health over, let’s get the show done — that’s very uncommon,” she continued.

“In a weird way, I’ll say it has bonded us I think more, just because everyone’s looking around and feeling like we’re all supporting each other and trying to keep each other healthy. And we’re still just working so hard.”

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Chicago Fire returns Wednesday, January 6th on NBC.

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