He’s going from the Batmobile to a fire truck.
Chris O’Donnell, best known for playing Robin in the two ‘90s “Batman” movies starring George Clooney and Val Kilmer, takes center stage in “9-1-1: Nashville.”
Premiering Thurs. Oct 9 on ABC (9 p.m) and streaming the next day on Hulu, the show is the latest spinoff in the “9-1-1” franchise produced by Ryan Murphy, following fictional first responders in various cities (the flagship “9-1-1” is set in Los Angeles, starring Angela Bassett and Jennifer Love Hewitt, while “9-1-1: Lone Star” was set in Texas and starred Rob Lowe).
“He and his son are a little father son roping duo,”O’Donnell, 55, exclusively told The Post, referring to how his character, fire captain Don Hart, has a rodeo background.
The “Scent of a Woman” actor told the Post that the rodeo element “came as a little surprise to me, when I read the first script. But, we had some fun with it. I hadn’t ridden [horses] since I did ‘The Three Musketeers back in the early 90s,’” he explained, referring to the 1993 film he co-starred in with Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, and Tim Curry.
“Thank God for good stuntmen and movie magic, it looks like I know what I’m doing,” he quipped.
O’Donnell – who has been married to his wife, Caroline Fentress, since 1997 and shares five kids with her – said, “I get tossed around a little, but I’ve always been pretty comfortable on the horse. A couple of my daughters rode, and I’ve been around them enough to know that as long as you act like you’re confident, the horse will think you’re confident, even if you have no idea what you’re doing.”
Set in the titular city, “9-1-1: Nashville” follows Don, his wife Blythe (Jessica Capshaw), his ex-flame Dixie (LeAnn Rimes), his adult son and fellow firefighter Ryan Hart (Michael Provost) and his surprise newly revealed adult son, Blue (Hunter McVey).
The “9-1-1” franchise is known for having wild emergency situations – such as a blimp crash, or a swarm of bees menacing Los Angeles in a “bee-nado.”
“9-1-1: Nashville” will have similar types of situations.
O’Donnell didn’t reveal details, but he said that sometimes he would read a script, and call a writer saying, “you can’t be serious!”
But, the “NCIS: Los Angeles” star would be told to look up a given absurd scenario, and see that a similar situation had really happened, he recalled.
“Life is really stranger than fiction. It’s hard to believe some of these storylines happen… Not all of them do, of course, but it’s part of the fun of the show.”
He added that some of the emergencies are “very serious” and “taken seriously,” but “there’s a couple that are having fun.”
Ironically, O’Donnell said that even though he’s playing a first responder, “I am the worst person with trauma. I can’t look at blood.”
He added, “But that’s okay. I’m an actor. I’ll pretend like I’m comfortable with it.”
O’Donnell also has the distinction of being the last live action Robin on the big screen – even as more Batman movies have been made, such as 2008’s “The Dark Knight” starring Christian Bale, and 2022’s “The Batman” starring Robert Pattinson, those films haven’t included Robin alongside Batman.
“[The Robin character] will come back at some point,” he said.
O’Donnell added, “It’s such a part of [the story]. It would have been interesting to see what Christopher Nolan would have done with something like that, because it’s still the Batman character, but his films are like a different genre.”
“I think the fans would love to see it.”
