‘Chicago Fire’ season 5 interview: Miranda Rae Mayo on Stella’s future, crossovers, 100th episode

There are many orders of business coming up on “Chicago Fire” Tuesday night, but the aftermath of the Stella Kidd – Kelly Severide conflict from last week is one storyline that we’re particularly curious about. The two seemed done with each other last week following what happened with Grant, and with that, the immediate future seems to be about turning the page.

For Stella in particular, making this move and not choosing to be with Severide once more has to be considered a victory — at least for now. This is something that Miranda Rae Mayo discussed further with us last night, as we chatted with her at the One Chicago Day red-carpet event in the Windy City.

CarterMatt – How is Stella going to be dealing with the aftermath of everything with Severide and Grant?

Miranda Rae Mayo – What I really love about Stella is that it would be really easy for someone with her past to delve back into her bad habits and into her addictive behaviors, but she doesn’t do that. She has created a new life for herself, some new patterns, and is solely focused on helping people. That’s where she pours her energy and her focus, specifically when it comes to helping a homeless teen in [tonight’s] episode.

I would imagine that some of Severide’s actions moving forward with this social-media star / party guy Travis Brenner (Scott Elrod) aren’t going to help things much, either.

I don’t think she’s threatened or affected by his choice to spend more time with Travis Brenner. She’ll be more like ‘look at what you’re doing, interesting.’ She has her own stuff going on.

Have the writers told you much more of Stella’s background beyond what we know, or what’s coming up with her?

Not a lot. There are a lot of characters to cater to, and a lot of storylines to craft and be mindful of, not to mention crossover episodes and intersecting storylines. I am grateful when I do get information, but it’s not necessarily something that comes regularly or something that I’m mining for. I am just grateful for whatever information I get.

So you like to take each script as they come, and not get too much information beyond that?

Right, because it’s important to focus on the next episode. If you’re reading too far in advance, it’s hard to remember what’s going on in [the current] episode, and then how some of that [impacts the other] characters. It’s good to take things one episode at a time.

We’re here celebrating the 100th episode of the show. Is there anything you say about that episode, even just in terms of its themes?

I think there are going to be a lot of tears on the 100th episode, a lot of happy tears, and a lot of beautiful things coming together that the audience will hopefully be overjoyed to see. So I’m excited to see the audience reaction to that, people who have been watching from the very beginning.

Finally, is there anything for you coming on the crossover front?

We’re really fortunate that we get to interact with the other casts, but mainly my interactions have been outside of work. I’ve got to know Joelle [Carter] and Monica [Barbaro] from ‘Justice.’ Carl [Weathers] did an episode with us, [S. Epatha Merkerson] did an episode with us. But I mean we have a book club that Epetha and Sophia [Bush] are a part of … [All of this time off-set] will be great when I’m on set with them, since the interactions will be so much [stronger].

For more news right now regarding “Chicago Fire,” be sure to head over here! We’ll have more from the One Chicago Day celebration over the coming days and weeks. Photo: (Parish Lewis/NBC.)