Headliner of “9-1-1 Lone Star” at its launch alongside Rob Lowe, Liv Tyler, the interpreter of paramedic Michelle Blake, is absent from season 2 currently broadcast on M6. Why did she make the decision to leave the show?
While M6 continues to broadcast season 2 of 9-1-1 Lone Star this evening at a slightly faster pace than expected due to disappointing audiences, fans of the series led by Rob Lowe will not have missed to notice last week the absence of Michelle Blake, the paramedic embodied by Liv Tyler in season 1.
During a sequence of the first episode of season 2, we learned that Michelle had decided to resign from her duties to help the homeless suffering from mental disorders. A new mission which obviously echoes the last plot of the character, who had discovered at the end of the first season that her sister, whom she had been desperately looking for for years, was living on the street.
The departure of Liv Tyler (Armageddon, The Leftovers), who was nevertheless one of the headliners of 9-1-1 Lone Star at its launch, is explained by the fact that the actress made the choice to leave the series in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
As reported by Deadline in September 2020, Liv Tyler made this decision for family reasons because her companion and their children lived in London, while the series was filmed in Los Angeles.
During the filming of the first season, Liv Tyler had managed to arrange her schedule in order to go back and forth between the United States and England, but the uncertainty linked to the coronavirus (and the possibility of transatlantic flights) finally prompted the actress to give up her role in 9-1-1 Lone Star during the summer of 2020, just before the start of filming for season 2.
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Unlike that of Connie Britton, who had said goodbye to 9-1-1 after a single season in 2018, the departure of Liv Tyler was not planned since her contract ran over several seasons. But the producers and the Fox channel have respected his decision and ensure that the door remains open to a possible return one day, the time of an episode or more.
“How lucky we were to have a star like Liv Tyler kick off the first season of 9-1-1 Lone Star”, confided in 2020 the showrunner Tim Minear in a press release. “We loved working with Liv and will be forever grateful for her powerful and captivating portrayal of Michelle Blake”.
“While we’ve managed to close a chapter in Michelle’s story, as was the case with Connie Britton on the parent series, we still feel like there are stories left to tell with her. The door will always remain. open to feedback”.
And Tim Minear even told TVLine at the time of the launch of season 2 overseas that he had already had discussions with Liv Tyler about it and that it was his “dream” to see Michelle return to the series. “I spoke to Liv about it. I think there are some very interesting things to tell about a carer who gives up her job to follow her calling. Just like my dream was to see Connie Britton back in 9- 1-1, it’s my dream to bring Liv Tyler back in 9-1-1 Lone Star.”.
A dream that has still not come true for the moment since Michelle does not appear at all in season 2, nor in the first episodes of season 3 already broadcast in the United States on the Fox channel.