[Editor's note: The following contains major spoilers for Sheriff Country.]
The Fire Country universe has officially expanded with the CBS series Sheriff Country, following sheriff Mickey Fox (Morena Baccarin), the stepsister of Cal Fire’s division chief Sharon Leone (Diane Farr), who will make a guest appearance in episode two). Mickey understands crime in Edgewater more uniquely than most, having seen it first-hand with her ex-con marijuana-grower father Wes (W. Earl Brown) and needing the support of her small town to get by. She now finds herself in a place where she’s trying to build a relationship with her father as he tries to go legit, patrol the streets of her community, and keep her daughter (Amanda Arcuri) from stumbling down the road that leads straight to trouble.
During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Baccarin discussed what she loves most about Mickey, being a sheriff with a father that’s an ex-con, the complicated mother-daughter dynamic, why it’s important to see a leader with vulnerabilities, the tension with Boone (Matt Lauria), Fire Country crossovers, having her daughter tangled up in a murder, and what viewers can expect this season.
Collider: The pilot kicks off with your character facing off with brothers holding guns on each other, but it also shows how cool under pressure Mickey is. Do you feel like she’s that way because of how she grew up or in spite of it? Do you feel like she’s lived so much and seen so much that she just knows how to deal with situations?
MORENA BACCARIN: Yeah, I think that definitely has a lot to do with it. I think having a dad who is breaking the law constantly and the FBI raiding your house definitely makes you grow up fast, and I find it really interesting that she went into law enforcement. But I also think that she’s done this for 20 years, and she’s been upgraded to sheriff. She’s very experienced at her job.
There’s a lot that we learn in the first few minutes of the first episode. We learn that her newly sober daughter has a boyfriend that she shouldn’t be risking her sobriety for. We learn that her ex is romantically involved with her friend who she has to work with every day. A lot comes at you in this show.
BACCARIN: There is a lot.
How hard is it for her to deal with her daughter and to trust her daughter? How different would you say they are from each other, but also how similar are they?
BACCARIN: Yeah, that’s a good point. I think they see the world very differently. Part of the problem is that Mickey has her cop head on a lot, where she really should just be more of a mom to her sometimes. Her daughter is going through, in a severe way, what a lot of kids go through, at her age. The desire to rebel is very obviously a specific thing to having a mom as the sheriff. It’s complicated, but Mickey knows that’s her blind spot. The one thing that she knows how to do is police, but not at home. She’s approaching their relationship in that regard, as opposed to a mom with her heart.
What is it like to find out about this relationship with her ex?
BACCARIN: It makes for great drama. I think it’s really awful, but it’s really good. It’s very juicy. They’ve been divorced for five years. The fact that he’s choosing to date somebody at her office is very telling. It becomes a bit of a thing, in the next few episodes. The way that these writers write is the best version of a soap you could possibly want. It’s so juicy.
Morena Baccarin Enjoys Having Mickey’s Moral Compass Tested in ‘Sheriff Country’
"It's fun to play a person that sees things the way they should be."
What do you love most about this character? What are you finding most fun to explore with her and her world?
BACCARIN: Mickey is very black and white. She has a very strong moral compass, and that’s constantly tested. It’s fun to play a person that sees things the way they should be, but things are not always that way, and it’s constantly throwing her off balance, at work and at home. She’s really busy. She’s juggling so many things, emotionally and physically. That’s really one of the most fun things to play. Knowing that you have so much going on and you have to make the right call and the right decision under pressure is so much fun.
One of the things that I love about Mickey is that, even though she is this complicated badass, we still see how vulnerable she can be. Was it important to you that she really have both of those sides to her?
BACCARIN: Of course. It’s so boring to watch somebody who knows what to do all the time and is just really great at everything. We have to watch our heroes fail and stumble and learn from their experiences. That’s also one of the things that really drew me to this part. She has soft spots, and she hates them. She wants to not have them, which is how we all feel about our soft spots. She’s fighting against her better judgment sometimes. Sometimes she has to bend the rules and that’s not what she does well. I think that it’s also really important to see a leader, a woman with vulnerabilities, who can fail and learn from their mistakes and be in charge.
What has it been like to develop the mother-daughter relationship in this? What have you enjoyed about finding that as actors? Do you guys spend much time together or talk about what their relationship is?
BACCARIN: Amanda [Arcuri] and I worked together a lot, in the beginning, and we instantly had a really nice rapport. She’s such a phenomenal actress, and I really felt for her with those first few episodes. She was just in a constant state of fight or flight, and that is not fun to play, as an actor, every single day that you’re at work. She’s just really malleable, which I mean as the best compliment. You’re able to say something to her, and she just takes it all in and it’s so beautiful. We were instantly quite close. I have three kids of my own, so I know what it is to parent. I don’t have a child that old, but having the background of being a mom has been helpful.
What do you hope for them, as characters?
BACCARIN: What every parent hopes for, which is open communication and knowing what’s going on with your kid and having them be happy and prosper. Eventually, we get to a better place. I’m curious to see where it goes for the rest of the season. The first four or five episodes are just really grueling for those characters.
Mickey also learns that maybe she shouldn’t say a throwaway sentence like, “Maybe I don’t actually want to be sheriff,” in front of someone that has more ambition than he’s letting on. How does finding out that Boone was going to run for sheriff against her make her feel?
BACCARIN: She’s fiercely loyal, and when she feels a betrayal like that, it really cuts deep for her. She understands his ambitions, and it’s fair for him to think that it could have been him. He’s also really good at his job. I think that the bigger betrayal for her is that he goes over her head and doesn’t tell her about it. He is running without her knowing, and he does this roadblock without telling her. The great thing about this character is that her flaw, in the moment when she accepts his resignation, is being too proud to say to him, “You made a mistake. I forgive you. Let’s move on from this.” Instead, she’s pissed and she’s like, “Fine, then you wrap up your caseload and let’s go.” It’s also because she feels like he’s saying to her, “I don’t believe you as a sheriff. I don’t want to work under you as a sheriff.” And that’s not at all what he’s saying. These are two fiercely proud people who are dying on their laurels. Obviously, he doesn’t leave because he’s got to stay on the show, but finding their way to that is where you get to explore the juicy character stuff.
Mickey and Her Father Both Love Each Other and Drive Each Other Crazy in ‘Sheriff Country’
"It's such a classic parental relationship."
Morena Baccarin as Sheriff Mickey Fox passing W. Earl Brown as Wes down a hallway in Sheriff Country
As hard as it is for Mickey to deal with the past and the history between her and her father, she also seems to have a good sense of what his strengths are. What do you most enjoy about that relationship?
BACCARIN: It’s so great. The one person that drives her the most insane is the one who’s actually capable of helping her. It’s such a classic parental relationship. He’s always going to be who he is, and they’re always going to drive each other crazy. But through Skye, they’re finding a common language together, and it’s sweet and it’s heartbreaking.
Being the sheriff in town is not just about keeping the town in line, but it’s also about showing them that you care about them. Do you feel it works to Mickey’s advantage that she really personally understands both sides of the law? What does she love so much about this town?
BACCARIN: This town brought her up. When she felt the most alone and scared, everybody took her in and helped. She felt that was her home, and it really stuck with her. Part of the reason why she went into law enforcement was to give back.
If Boone hadn’t handed her his resignation letter at that moment, do you think she was thinking about firing him?
BACCARIN: I think she might have suspended him. I don’t think she would have asked him to resign. It’s him saying, “I will fall on my sword for you because I’m that loyal,” but hoping she would say, “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got it.” And she doesn’t, which is where things go astray. But I think she would have fired him.
You have everything Mickey is involved with as a sheriff, you have all the complexities of Mickey’s personal life and family, and then, on top of all that, you have this murder mystery that’s directly connected to her daughter. How long will that murder mystery aspect carry out for this season?
BACCARIN: It’s really over the whole season. However, the daughter aspect of it is wrapped up in four or five episodes, so that you don’t have your lead character completely falling apart the whole time. Nobody wants to see that. She needs to be able to move on and take on other cases. But it does come back again at the end of the season.
I also really like that the Fire Country cameos that you have in this have really been directly connected to the story that’s being told. They’re not just there to be there. We see Skye go to Bode for help because he’s the one that would understand her wanting to use drugs again. What’s it been like to have the characters blend together when possible?
BACCARIN: It’s really fun. It makes you feel like you’re a part of a larger world. It’s very rare, when you’re doing a show, that you can see other aspects of your show and be able to turn it into a Fire Country episode and be like, “Okay, that’s where they live. They live in my town. They’re doing things in my town that I’m not privy to.” That’s fun. Having a direct relationship with Sharon and Bode is just ripe with opportunity for stories. It’s really well-thought-out.
The sister relationship between Mickey and Sharon is so fun. They may technically be stepsisters, but they have such a definite sister bond. What do you love about that relationship and about finding that with Diane Farr?
BACCARIN: There’s a lot to explore there. Diane is so great on the show. She’s so disarming, and Mickey can be so prickly. The combination of the two of them is so funny. I don’t know this for a fact, but I expect that they’re going to have some more bumps in the road because they just handle things so differently. Sharon always finds a way to get through to Mickey in a way that nobody else really does because they really do share a past and history together. They both had quite a difficult childhood.
Things Are Always Moving, Personally and Professionally, in ‘Sheriff Country’
"We're razzing each other and having a good time."
Morena Baccarin as Sheriff Mickey Fox standing next to Matt Lauria as Boone in Sheriff Country
What are you most excited about with this season and with fans of the Fire Country world getting to see with this series?
BACCARIN: There’s so much. The town characters are amazing. The solving of the crime is really kind of fun, working it out and putting the pieces of the puzzle together. The comradery in the sheriff’s office is really fun to watch, with the dynamics and the friendships. Just like you see in Fire Country, when they’re in between emergencies and they’re just bonding, you get to see a lot of that at the station. It feels a little more high pressure because we’re always moving. We’re always on a case or in between a case that we’re about to rest when something comes in. There’s that energy to it, but at the same time, we’re razzing each other and having a good time.
Sheriff Country airs on CBS and is available to stream on Paramount+. Check out the trailer:
