"You wanna know how big my balls are? My balls are bigger than two of your heads duct-tapped together. I've been in the middle of s**t that would make you piss your pants, right now. Uptown. Downtown. Harlem. Brooklyn. But there ain't no medals on my chest, a**holes. 'Cause I ain't no hero. I'm a fireman. We're not in the business of making heroes here. We're in the business of discovering cowards. 'Cause that's what you are if you can't take the heat. You're a pu**y. And there ain't no room for pu**ies in the FDNY."
-- Firefighter Tommy Gavin, addressing a class of probies
After Tommy Gavin jerks awake from a claustrophobic, smoke-filled dream, these are the first words we hear in the pilot episode of FX's acclaimed firefighting drama, Rescue Me. It's tough, uncompromising talk that would make the average network censor blush and go running for his red pen and his Standards and Practices guidebook. And this is only what comes in the first couple of minutes of the first episode! There are plenty more moments like it (and far beyond it) in this, cabler FX's third original drama series (following The Shield and Nip/Tuck.) Rescue Me. was co-created by Denis Leary and Peter Tolan, and stars Leary as the hardnosed Gavin, a senior firefighter of the crew on 62 Truck, and a roughly 20-year veteran of the FDNY. Tolan also directs many of the episodes, and together, the pair shares writing and executive producer duties.
"There's things in this show that I don't think have been seen on television before," noted Leary, "and not just in terms of behavior and attitude, but in terms of plot twists and things that even in an hour-long show, a (regular) network could not get away with. And it's not something you even think twice about -- you're just writing toward something, hoping that some great idea will pop into your head and you don't have to be afraid of it, which is good.
"I had actually conceived of Rescue Me as a feature shortly before 9/11," he continued, "and then after 9/11 it was crystallizing a little bit in my mind. At the time, Peter and I were doing a show on ABC called The Job, so we were a little too busy to actually start writing it as a feature. And then a couple friends of mine who I had told the story to, said, 'That's really interesting. Too bad you wouldn't have more time to develop it about the whole crew, as opposed to just this one fireman.' And then Peter said, 'It really seems like the kind of thing where you want to spend some time and get to know all these guys, and not just the one guy's relationship with his marriage falling apart, etc.' So that's when we started thinking about the idea of doing a series."
Added Tolan, "Originally we thought we might do a lighthearted half hour that was more funny. But as we got into it, I think Denis felt maybe he owed something to people in the departments, and people who were no longer here, to have a little more substance to it." (Ed. Note: See sidebar about Leary's personal connection to the firefighting community.)
Rescue Me premiered on July 21, 2004 and returns for season two on June 21, when it moves from Wednesday to Tuesday nights at 10pm ET/PT. (The season one, three-disc DVD is expected to hit stores on June 7.) The gritty landscape of Rescue Me is the lives of the men of uptown Manhattan's 62 Truck, both in the firehouse and outside of it. Though we come to know all of them, it's Gavin -- a control-freak of a guy who is crazy afraid of change and loss, and is still struggling with the after-effects of 9/11 -- who is the very flawed, very human, epicenter of this group. As Leary lays it out, Gavin's problem is how to deal with the loss of so many friends (he knew 60 men killed in the terrorist attacks), how to go to work, every day, on a life-and-death job that involves bravery and courage, and then how to deal with the emotional problems that can't help but result from it.
Tommy Gavin is stuck in a swamp of fear that he cannot admit to his wife, his friends, or even to himself. His resistance to the life changes that happen normally (kids growing up) and unexpectedly (hijacked planes killing thousands when deliberately flown into city buildings) forces him into a place where he lives with a short fuse and a constant simmering rage. His marriage is disintegrating, his life is pock-marked with bad choices, and the emotional fallout from 9/11 still, literally, haunts him. No longer certain of anything -- including his faith, the future, or his capabilities -- Gavin trades 14 months of sobriety for the whiskey bottle and wild escapades with women, he takes such incredible on-the-job risks that his fellow firefighters begin to question his sanity, and, oh yeah, he sees dead people: fire victims he could not rescue, and firefighters he could not save. Of those 60 firemen who lost their lives on 9/11, four of them were from his own house. And one of those four, Jimmy Keefe (James McCaffrey), was his cousin and best friend. But Gavin's connection to Jimmy is strong, and in his persistently strained emotional state, he doesn't just see the cousin he so desperately misses, he also talks to him, questions him, yells at him, and in general, interacts with him as if he were still alive.
Surrounding Gavin are the loves and aggravations of his life. On the personal side, there's his estranged wife, Janet (Andrea Roth) and their three, often exasperating, children: ripening teenager Colleen (Natalie Distler), middle child Connor (Trevor Heins), and 8-year-old Katy (Olivia Crocicchia). On the professional -- and in some ways, even more personal -- side are the brotherhood of firefighters with whom he works, eats, fights, fraternizes, parties, hassles, jokes, and unfailing supports.
The camaraderie of these men is a significant part of the heart of Rescue Me -- the way they treat, and talk to, each other; the way they act, individually, one-on-one, and as a group. It's clear that these guys have each other's backs, no matter what other circumstances may prevail. When it comes to a fire, everything else goes away, and all that remains is commitment and loyalty.
There is also a strong sense of authenticity to the show, not just in terms of actual firefighting and firefighting equipment, but also with the characters and the actors who play them. For example, two of the firefighters on Gavin's crew, Billy Warren and Chief Jerry Reilly, are played by actors who were also actual longtime firemen (Ed Sullivan and Jack McGee, respectively), but are now retired. In the first year of the show, casting director Julie Tucker, who formerly cast the New York-based Law & Order: SVU, worked closely with series technical advisor Terry Quinn, a longtime friend of Leary's and a current member of the FDNY, to ensure she found actors with just the right qualities for playing New York's bravest.
"Terry and I spoke a lot in the first season," Tucker recalled, "and he introduced me to some great firefighters, both active and retired. I love auditioning, and I'm always open to using someone who has lived it. Between Rescue Me and having done four-plus seasons on Law & Order: SVU, I now have a pool of people who have been, or currently are, out in the trenches in the real world and doing the kind of work portrayed on these shows."
And in the real world of casting, it sometimes happens that Tucker's "real world experts" will actually end up on the show they're advising. They won't start off with a lead or guest star role, of course, but a few lines occasionally thrown their way can help determine an aptitude for acting and an ability to handle themselves on a set.
"The best way to start someone who is not a trained actor is with a line or two and see how they hold up. Due to the amount of pages we shoot a day (approximately 12-15), most of the cast must be experienced -- or at least trained -- actors. When I meet a firefighter who really is interested in pursuing acting, I always recommend that they try to get background work first, just to see what a day is like."
There's a very distinct "New York" feeling Tucker looks for when casting for firefighters. "It starts with a sound," she explained. "A sound and a look, a face that has a story in it. Along with meeting actual firefighters, I watch for them in my day-to-day travels. I literally look at the guys when they're going by on the trucks, or when I'm walking by a firehouse. I am also checking out our paramedics and our cops (though I have to be careful not to stare too much!) But in the end there's a sound to it -- a banter, a sense of camaraderie, and a comfortability with technical terms to give it that everyday feeling. After all, this is what these guys do: they risk their lives for us.
"If someone is of that world and they're comfortable on a set, that's equal to being a solid actor," she insisted. "I've found that to be the case in almost everything I've worked on. You either have someone who's entirely of the world, or you have an actor who totally commits to that world and is unshakeable. There's nothing in between. The middle ground doesn't work because it's not specific. The biggest obstacle for the non-actor (besides getting the opportunity to audition) is the confidence to be comfortable on the set and understand what's happening so they don't slow anything down. That's a huge issue, and it's my biggest concern about someone who is a non-actor but who gives a killer audition. They have to show me that they'll be smart enough to kind-of figure it out off-camera, before they start shooting. They have to know what a mark is, and what direction they go in when the camera moves. I know it sounds basic, but even a solid, trained actor on his/her first job has to be paying attention before their scene starts. There's very little time for questions once the cameras start rolling."
Michael Lombardi, who plays probie (probationary, i.e., new guy) Mike Siletti, knows this very well. While Rescue Me isn't his first on-camera job, it's close. To prepare for the rigors of being a fireman, he spent time at The Rock, a training facility on Randall's Island for probationary firefighters. Lombardi trained with a firefighter he described as "a living Popeye -- intimidating like a bulldog, a hardworking, blue-collar guy from a family of firemen." The firefighter had lost one brother in 9/11, while he and another brother each came away from that catastrophe with infected lungs.
What really stood out to Lombardi from that experience was not so much the instructional training he received, i.e., how to hold a hose, how to deal with smoke, etc., but the connection between firefighters -- even in death. "He took me to Randall's Island," Lombardi recalled, "and in the main training facility there are pictures of the 343 firefighters who died in 9/11. And he looks up at one of them and says, 'That's my brother,' and it was his blood brother, and tears came to his eyes. And then he said, 'But these are all my brothers,' and it gave me such a sense of how these firemen are, and the brotherhood that they have."
Lombardi also has first-hand familiarity about Leary's devotion to the people he believes in and likes to work with. He first came to Leary's attention when Leary's assistant spotted him in an Off-Off Broadway production of Danny and the Deep Blue Sea and raved about his performance. Leary brought Lombardi in to read for a part on The Job, and then cast him as the cabana boy. Leary then used the young actor on his Comedy Central show, Contest Searchlight, a spoof of Ben Affleck's and Matt Damon's Project Greenlight. About a year later, when Leary started putting Rescue Me together, he told Lombardi he had him in mind for the role of the probie. After reading for the producers at FX and Sony, Lombardi was called back, screen-tested, and eventually awarded the role. (Ed. Note: Rescue Me is produced by Leary's production company, Apostle, The Cloudland Company, and DreamWorks Television, in association with Sony Pictures Television.)
"Denis is the type of guy who, when he likes you, he'll do anything for you," laughed Lombardi. "He's just the nicest guy, but he's very regimented and such a hard worker. But when he really sees something in someone‌"
Lombardi is grateful to Leary, not just for the mentoring he's received, but for the quality of work he's been provided with in Rescue Me, and the freedom with which he's allowed to do it -- the latter being due, in part, to the fact that Rescue Me is aired on a cable station. Cable programming does not fall under the scrutiny of the FCC the way that traditional network programming does, and thus enjoys far greater liberties than their higher profile competitors.
"Denis demands creative freedom," Lombardi attests, "and that's what's really nice. You really feel like you and your character are protected, in a way, and you don't have to worry about getting any sort of contrived story line or anything that's not quality all the way around. The atmosphere he creates as a boss on the set is something special and sort-of private, and FX has been an amazing vehicle that's allowed us to fully do our thing. There are times when Denis and Peter will write a very edgy scene and will shoot a couple different versions because maybe one might be a little too edgy, but they've really been amazing with what we can do. I think that's the beauty of having the show on a small cable network like FX -- not only their creative freedom, but just letting Denis do his thing."
The Leary Firefighters Foundation
In December 1999, a deadly fire at the Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse killed six firefighters, including Denis Leary's cousin, Jerry Lucey, and his childhood pal, Lt. Tommy Spencer. In the wake of that tragedy, the actor established The Leary Firefighters Foundation, which helped ease the financial burdens that befell the firefighters families, as well as their fire department. Since then, the foundation has provided equipment and training facilities for the Worcester Fire Department, and was the second-fastest charity to get its money to FDNY families victimized by 9/11.
Two fundraiser events are held each year to support the foundation. For more information, contact The Leary Firefighters Foundation, 594 Broadway, #409, New York, NY, 10012. Phone: 212/343-0240; fax: 212/343-1762; website: www.learyfirefighters.org.