Season 3 of CBS’ hit show Fire Country premiered last Friday, October 18. Fans were excited to see the show’s new season premiere and get some answers to the cliffhangers presented in the finale of season 2.

We got the chance to talk to Diane Farr, who plays Sharon Leone, about the upcoming season — including the news that she directed episode 3 this season! Read the interview below.

Nerds and Beyond: Congratulations! What kind of research went into you jumping into directing? Did you shadow anyone?

Diane Farr: It’s like a two-year process. So I write as well, and in the first season, I was campaigning to write on the show, and the writing room is in Los Angeles, and we film in Canada… so that was totally impossible. And one of our producers said, “Why don’t you direct? Come on, you can shadow me, and you can do it next year.” And of course, that turned into three years, and I shadowed two people there, and then I went and spent a month in Canada during the strike to shadow somebody on a show where nobody had to be friendly to me [laughs]. I think I read six books that were so boring and I was finally like, “Listen, I have 30 years of listening to directors tell me what they want. Let me put the books down.” I never learned that way. Then when I actually got there, it was the most terrifying thing. The start was dreamy. It was so exciting… Then the first day, I had an out-of-body experience, I was so scared. And then it was wonderful.

Nerds and Beyond: Is it something you’d definitely want to do again?

Diane: I definitely would. It was really nice. I feel like, as women, we always see all parts of things. I see the meta more than I see the singular. I have a hard time focusing on singular. Most of the time we’re not hired for that job, or most of the time I haven’t been hired for that job. And it’s about shrinking my view. This was the only time I got to use every part of my brain all day long. It was wonderful.

Nerds and Beyond: Last season, Vince had some health struggles, and now Bode is a free man. What can we look forward to on how that’s going to change the dynamic with Sharon?

Diane: Everything changes this year because our protagonist can go to all the sets. Your lead character was sort of confined and not allowed on the main set, which is the firehouse. There’s more opportunities for us to get into the family dynamics. But if we look at legacy, the whole season is sort of about legacy, Sharon and Vince have to figure out who they are. If their job isn’t to save Bode… they are reverse empty nesters. They’ve been empty nesters for 10 years, and now they have a child back.

I think Sharon and Bode are like that. They both jump from their gut, even if they haven’t looked to see if there’s a net there. So Sharon is actively trying not to over-parent her son, which means not get involved with his love interest, and not get involved with getting him hired at her job. And Sharon is not great at those things. She’s not great at the not so we are going to watch her struggle to figure out what her role is as a mom and as a senior member of the team inside the firehouse.

Nerds and Beyond: I really love the relationship with Vince and Sharon. What’s your favorite thing about their relationship and working with Billy [Burke]?

Diane: My favorite thing about the characters is that they’re allowed to fight. I hate when we show… husband and wife who are just nice to each other, it’s not realistic goals, and I think it makes all of us feel like crap [laughs], and I really love watching them argue and really get into it. And my favorite thing about working with Billy is that we are peers with really the same amount of experience, so we can both negotiate a scene… without ever insulting the other. There’s never a time where he comes in he says, “I don’t want to do this, this and this,” where he’s not aware that each one of those choices affects my choice. So we’re having a constant conversation of, “How do we get to the truth of this?” He’s just like a dream as a scene partner. I’ve had scene partners in my life who are far more interested in where their trailer is parked compared to mine. This is always about the work. I’ll forever be grateful for that.

Nerds and Beyond: What’s something you’ve learned about portraying a firefighter? I know you have consultants, what have they said about the dos and don’ts?

Diane: There’s a silliness to me that when I get really comfortable on set or really exhausted, you know, when you’ve been there for 10 hours… where I want to be a little light and a little flippant and they remind me I’m the most experienced of everyone here, it’s not such a big laugh, it’s not such a big scream… that’s not frightening to you. They have to constantly remind me how committed you are to running into the building when everyone else is running out of it.

I’ve also learned, I mean, this is my third time playing a firefighter. The first time I was heckled mercilessly that I would never be a real firefighter. I didn’t weigh enough, I wasn’t strong enough. I didn’t have enough muscles, and I worked so hard not to interrupt the women that trained me, and I nearly broke my back. So now… they were right at the time, [I’m] 55, I’m doing a version of the same thing. I’m trying to be honest about what I can physically do and what I can’t physically do. Chiefs in most fire departments, if you see them, are not the most in-shape people on the shift. There’s usually a 30-year-old young gun who’s looking much better. So trying to be realistic that firefighters are allowed to age, like actresses are allowed to age, even though we put a little spin on that.

Nerds and Beyond: Is there any actor on the show you wish you had more scenes with?

Diane: I think I get to have scenes with everyone, because I played the Chief, right? Who do I have the least amount of scenes with? The person I have the least amount of scenes with is Jordan Calloway… Jake. I do have a lot with him this year, and the episode that I was directing is really heavy for Jordan, so he and I got to spend a lot of time working out emotionally what his character was doing, nothing about what was written in the script, but the subtext of where he sees Jake going.

Nerds and Beyond: It doesn’t have to be from your character, but what has been one of your favorite storylines throughout the series?

Diane: There was something early on in the first season where Sharon gets mad at Vince because she finds out that he told Bode to leave, and Sharon gets so mad, she leaves him and goes to a hotel for the night… and we threw that in really early. That was like the second episode. That was still the most refreshing thing, because the kids didn’t know about it. Nobody at work knew about it. To just let couples know, that you can get really mad at each other and move away, and it doesn’t mean it’s a break.

As an actress, the kidney story was the most fun to play. You know, like the idea of, “Am I going to be here? Am I not?” And because it was in the first season, even my friends were like, “Did you do a one-year deal?” My children [were like], “How will you pay for private school if they kill you?” [laughs]. It’s like, “Oh God, I’m not going anywhere.”

Nerds and Beyond: What are you most looking forward to fans seeing this season?

Diane: I think everybody wants to see the end of the wedding scene to know what happens there. That seems to be the biggest thrill we have. I think the fans are going to love what happens with Bode. He really has to flex his wings. There’s a couple of fire episodes… there’s more character episodes, and then the very Bruckheimer episodes, where we’re shooting a Bruckheimer movie in eight days, Bode gets to do some things in a fire that are real. So that’s gonna be good to see.

Nerds and Beyond: I’ve been asking every cast member this, and it’s been really fun to hear the answers. But if you had one word to describe the upcoming season, what would you pick?

Diane: Treasure. I would say it for a lot of reasons. So, my whole industry is falling apart right after the strike. We don’t know what’s happening with streamers. We don’t know what’s happening with cable. Everybody I know in Los Angeles is not working. It’s a really scary time. Parts of CBS were being bought and sold at one point, I was like, “What’s going to happen to Fire Country?” And somebody laughed at me at Paramount, and said, “Fire Country has 10 million viewers a week. It’s just fine.” Being able to go to work. This feels like a treasure. It’s a gift to be here.

Fire Country airs Friday nights on CBS. You can catch up with new episodes on Paramount+. You can also read our interviews with other members of the Fire Country cast, here.