![Miranda Rae Mayo and Taylor Kinney -- One Chicago Virtual Press Junket Miranda Rae Mayo and Taylor Kinney on #Stellaride and Why ‘Chicago Fire’ is Focusing on Relationships [Video] Miranda Rae Mayo and Taylor Kinney -- One Chicago Virtual Press Junket](https://telltaletv.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Screen-Shot-2021-02-09-at-10.58.49-PM-730x409.png "Miranda Rae Mayo and Taylor Kinney -- One Chicago Virtual Press Junket | Tell-Tale TV")
Miranda Rae Mayo and Taylor Kinney on #Stellaride and Why ‘Chicago Fire’ is Focusing on Relationships [Video]
Chicago Fire Season 9 is exploring relationships in a little more detail than it has in the past, and that includes the relationship between Kelly Severide and Stella Kidd.
As Stella has been preparing to take the lieutenant exam, Severide has been pulled away from her. The audience knows why — he thinks he’s helping by doing so. But that’s not the kind of help Stella Kidd needs right now.
Miranda Rae Mayo and Taylor Kinney recently spoke with reporters during a virtual press junket about the current relationship troubles for their characters and why the series is focusing more heavily on relationships this season.
“Communication is a big thing for her. She was married to an addict and he emotionally abandoned her, and she grew up without her parents. Abandonment is a big thing, and Kelly has had his issues with communication and just completely withdrawing, and he doesn’t realize how terrifying that is for her,” Mayo said about Stella.
Watch the interview with Miranda Rae Mayo and Taylor Kinney:
Mayo said Stella is starting to question her reality, wondering if Kelly isn’t the person she thought he was. She’s thinking, “‘Maybe I actually did it again. Maybe I attracted the same type of dude.’ And he’s just going to emotionally withdraw, and she can’t handle that. Even though that’s not what’s going on at all!”
Kinney said it all boils down to communication.
“Even by trying to do the right thing, sometimes it’s the wrong thing. And if you really break it down, it’s just a matter of communicating. Because, I think, you let something go and it kind of festers, it creates something that didn’t exist. It creates a problem that is unnecessary. So it’s a work in progress,” he said.
He also noted that the series is focusing more on relationships and exploring them more deeply this season, partly out of necessity because of COVID restrictions.
“We’ve had to go about things a lot differently in terms of the way we shoot. So I think we’ve honed in a lot more on relationships,” he said.
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Don’t miss the first-ever virtual One Chicago Day YouTube fan event, which goes live today, February 10th, at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT on the NBC OneChicago YouTube Channel.
Chicago Fire airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.
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Ashley Bissette Sumerel
Ashley Bissette Sumerel is a television and film critic living in Wilmington, North Carolina. She is editor-in-chief of Tell-Tale TV as well as Eulalie Magazine. Ashley has also written for outlets such as Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, and Insider. Ashley has been a member of the Critics Choice Association since 2017 and is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic. In addition to her work as an editor and critic, Ashley teaches Entertainment Journalism, Composition, and Literature at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.