Kevin Alejandro goes into his ‘player/manager’ mode. The fall finale of “Fire Country” is Friday night on CBS.
Veteran actor (“Lucifer,” “True Blood,” “Southland”) — who also starred in the hit freshman series about convicts trained as firefighters — also starred as Cal Fire Capt. Manny Perez directed the episode (9 p.m.). A hit-and-run driver faces a life-or-death decision when he’s hit and trapped between a guardrail. Bode (Max Thieriot), along with his two passengers, Vince (Max Thieriot), is wrong to drown in the river below.Billy Burke) and the Fire Country crew conflict on casualty prevention.
“It’s a lot of pressure to know that [midseason] final, but it’s also a great honor because there are people who believe in you enough to say, ‘You know what, I think you can do it, let’s move forward,'” Alejandro, 46, told The Post. “I knew I wanted to direct an episode this season, I just didn’t know which one.”
This isn’t Alejandro’s first rodeo behind the camera. He directed five episodes of the Fox/Netflix series “lucifer,” he played Det. Dan Espinozaincluding the final episode of its sixth and final season (“Goodbye, Lucifer”).
And after shooting the Tierra del Fuego pilot, Alejandro has been hired to direct Episode 6 of the upcoming Disney+ series.National treasure,” starring Catherine Zeta-Jones.
“I cut my teeth as a director on ‘Lucifer,'” he said. “[Creator] Joe Henderson and presenter Ildi Modrovic … “You want [direct]? We will make sure that you will have no problem getting a job as a director by the end of this performance. They threw me their biggest episode and … and when I threw that show, people were like, “Well, he’s got a lot of responsibility. Let’s not lose sight of that.”
One of Alejandro’s challenges in directing Land of Fire was balancing its different tones with context and pace (action and supernatural drama) compared to Lucifer.
“‘Lucifer’ was about creating perfect shots and moving the camera gracefully,” he said. “It was about the emotions of the characters. Both shows are similar in many ways, but [‘Fire Country’] more disgusting and we run with actors [with a camera] and moving from actor to actor. As beautiful as we think Lucifer turns out, it’s not so much a composition – it’s raw and rough, and it suits the style of the hand. It’s like making a documentary sometimes.
“I have seven full episodes [before directing Friday night’s episode],’ he said. [director’s] chair I knew what I was doing. You can’t fake your way through it.”
Alejandro says that, as with Lucifer and National Treasure, the producers of Tierra del Fuego made sure he was quick on the show — even though he didn’t need much help in that department.
“One of the benefits of being an actor/director on a series is that you have the opportunity to read every script you do from day one to episode 8,” he said. “I know everyone’s journey. Not only did I get to read the scripts, but I got to see what the other directors had done and see the pace of the show because they edited everything together, which was really helpful.
“I’m one of those actors who try to talk on stage as much as possible,” he said. “I spend very little time in the trailer and I’m on my own. I never went to film school this my film school; I’m on set talking to the crew and learning the technical aspects, so when I’m in the director’s chair I understand the words and know what they’re talking about. It’s a huge puzzle when you look at the episode, but I love puzzles, thank God.’
CBS has renewed Tierra del Fuego throughout the season, so viewers will get to see more of Manny when the series returns after the Friday night, Jan. 6, episode.
“First of all, one of the first things that drew me to the character was knowing that he’s a person with a lot of responsibility to take on the firemen and to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. [that] there is an opportunity to buy,” he said. “I love that Manny went through the same system.
“One of the great things about his journey so far is that you see him with this strength … but you also see him being frozen, shaking and sometimes not making the right decisions,” he said. she is. the ability to pull himself back to get things right in life.”
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