Courtesy of NBC
Kara Killmer as Sylvie Brett in NBC's "Chicago Fire"
The landmark season 10 premiere of "Chicago Fire" airs Wednesday, and if you've been a fan of the long-running NBC drama, you're more than familiar with paramedic Sylvie Brett — that's local gal Kara Killmer, a Crowley High School and (cover your eyes, TCU alums) Baylor University grad who's reprising the role for her eighth consecutive season.
While Killmer's been kicking it in the Windy City working on "Chicago Fire" exclusively, she hasn't lost touch with her roots. She sat down with Fort Worth Magazine ahead of the premiere to chat about childhood memories, the upcoming season, and what she'd do to get on that Amazon Studios "Lord of the Rings" show.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Fort Worth Magazine: Tell us about your childhood, growing up here. What were you like as a kid?
Kara Killmer: I was definitely a ham growing up as a kid. Early on, [my mom] really wanted all of us to be able to have stage presence. Not necessarily that she wanted us to run off and join the theater, but she thought that it was really important that my brother, sister, and I could stand up in front of a room and deliver and not be nervous. So she got us involved in local theater.
We all went through Casa Mañana ... I believe my theatrical debut was playing one of Santa's elves in a production of "Rudolph." Probably in the late '90s, early 2000s.
We would occasionally go to Bass Hall in downtown Fort Worth which, as a child, if you're walking through the foyer, and you see the different seasons painted on the ceiling — it's just the most elegant theater. It's the most grand, beautiful place you've seen. I've probably spent more time at concerts there looking at the ceiling, just completely enmeshed in the atmosphere than actually paying attention to the shows.
Then in high school, I think my freshman year, so maybe 2006, that summer I did "The Music Man," and I was a little village child there at Bass Hall and just really caught the bug.
FWM: "Chicago Fire" is your big focus right now. Tell us about Sylvie. What is it that draws you to the character and makes you want to keep playing her?
KK: I love Sylvie because I think that she's very resilient, and I feel like I'm very fortunate in that I get to play a character who sort of gets to play both sides. She gets to do really heavy, dramatic stuff, but she also gets to do some of the more lighthearted humor stuff, and not all the characters get to do that. Some of them are really sequestered to very specific storylines. I feel fortunate that I get to have a very versatile character and that I can kind of mingle with any of the groups and any of the other characters in the story. That keeps it interesting after almost a decade, to be able to play the fun stuff and also the really dramatic stuff.
FWM: And romantic stuff as well.
KK: So much romance.
FWM: Obviously without giving any spoilers, what can people expect from season 10?
KK: We really have a lot of interesting changes coming to the house. I mean, [Firehouse] 51 is such a tight-knit group, and you're starting to see [Stella] Kidd come into her own as a lieutenant and trying to find a place, trying to find a house that she can be a lieutenant in. At the end of season nine, we see that [Wallace] Boden is possibly looking at getting a promotion as well. So it kind of leaves everyone figuring out, "Okay, how are we going to reconfigure?" It'll be interesting. I mean, this is the 10th season, and everyone's matured so much over these 10 years, and you have to have the proof that we've had this growth. It'll be really interesting to see how all of that develops.
Courtesy of NBC
Kara Killmer as Sylvie Brett (left) with co-star Hanako Greensmith as Violet Mikami (right) on season 10 of "Chicago Fire."
FWM: How would you say that you've grown as a person from the past few years of being on "Chicago Fire"?
KK: I'm so fortunate to work on this show. It really is the best jumping-off point just because the crew is so dedicated. We're a really tight-knit cast. I don't think that what we have is very common on other shows in terms of just being so close. We've got a little Midwestern charm, a little Midwestern grit, in our cast and crew, and I think that really comes across on screen. I definitely think there's a comfortability that I've found being on their show for eight years going. I still find a moment every single day to be like, "I can't believe this is my job" — the same kind of feeling that I had walking in Bass Hall as a kid, where I'm like, "This is so larger than life, and this is just so fun." I still feel that way at my job. I want to work hard to never lose that.
FWM: Do you have any upcoming projects outside "Chicago Fire"? Or perhaps a dream role you'd like to land someday?
KK: Well, we do have very long seasons, thankfully. We usually try and pull off between 22 and 24 episodes, which takes up most of the year. So there's usually a very small window that we actually can fit other projects in, and I would love to. If there just happens to be a show that pops up that's about being a food critic or something, I would love to be the person who needs to constantly be tasting food for a show. I'd be fine with that.
FWM: That's the best gig, right?
KK: The best gig. If they want to do "Eat, Pray, Love 2," I'm for that ... I saw that there's a new "Lord of the Rings" series. Oh my gosh, I would die. [I'd be] like, "Do you just need an elf to die one day? Sign me up."
FWM: Just be the Sean Bean character.
KK: Yes. I'll take it, anything. I'll take out the trash on that show.
FWM: Amazing. So when do you get to come back to the DFW area?
KK: I came home for a couple of weeks over the summer. My husband asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, and I was like, "I really just want to hang out at my mom's house and sit by the pool and eat those little freeze pops that you can buy packs of 50 of them at the grocery store." That's sort of my ideal hangout. So I did spend some time there this summer visiting family. All of my family is still in Texas. Usually I fit in a Christmas visit and a summer visit, so it's usually just twice a year. It's not enough. Texas deserves more visits.
FWM: How would you say growing up in this area has shaped you into who you are today?
KK: I feel like I had a strong sense of community. I went to Wedgwood Baptist Church when I was a teenager, and my brother was there Sept. 15, 1999, when a gunman went in and shot 14 people. I got to see how the community of different churches came together, of many different backgrounds and beliefs, to help put our church back together. We had church that following Sunday, and I just thought that was a perfect analogy for my entire experience growing up — just that I really did feel a strong sense of community.
Especially in the middle of COVID, and with the advent of social media kind of taking over, where we're so disconnected, and loneliness is so prevalent, I feel fortunate that I was able to spend my childhood and developmental years in a place where human connection and support was really instilled and paramount in terms of seeing a community work. That's something my husband and I continue to look for wherever it is that we live or wherever we end up or wind up filming. That's something that we prioritize. I think it really does make a difference.
The season premiere of "Chicago Fire" airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. on NBC.
