Tommy O’Brien & Savannah Lee Smith on Micah & Sydney’s Relationship and Jack Secret (Exclusive)

Just when Micah (Tommy O’Brien) and the president’s daughter he’s seeing (and protecting), Sydney (Savannah Lee Smith), think they might get some version of a vacation together, where they can have a moment without masks and pretending, things, of course, take a turn. Instead, the latest Line of Fire sees them trying a bit of a staycation … only for a mishap to lead to the discovery of their relationship by one of his siblings. TV Insider spoke with O’Brien and Smith about their characters’ relationship, the matter of Jack (Charlie Barnett), and more. Warning: Spoilers for Line of Fire Season 1 Episode 4 ahead!

When Russ (Taylor Bloom) schedules Micah’s deposition over the weekend they were supposed to go away, the Secret Service agent and the president’s daughter move their plans locally … where Micah accidentally drinks water with ecstasy. They try to come up with an excuse to tell Russ when he’s brought in to help, and does help sneak Micah out, but he knows exactly what was going on. When he calls Micah out, however, his brother insists that what they have is real and turns the tables on Russ, pointing out that he’d kept his girlfriend a secret. Later, Russ admits that he doesn’t know why that is.

Elsewhere, Wallace (Antoinette Crowe-Legacy) thinks Jane (Hope Davis) is protecting one of her kids after losing Jack and sneaks into her house to look around (and snap photos of the crane origami). Jane sees, thanks to the cameras set up in the house, and while she says the kids will never forgive her and Mike (Peter Krause) for lying to them about Jack, she does fill in Wallace.

Five years ago, Jack told them he’d been offered an undercover assignment for life, and to take it, he’d have to die. And so he did, to everyone but her and Mike. According to Jane, Jack gave her the stability she didn’t have growing up, and they used to build things together. He became obsessed with origami after seeing Blade Runner, and while the crane is his, she’s convinced that he died and someone who knew him is taunting them. The episode ends with Jack leaving a crane for Wallace.

Below, Tommy O’Brien and Savannah Lee Smith unpack Micah and Sydney’s relationship.

Jane is so certain that the kids would never forgive her and Mike for lying to Jack, but it does feel like we’re getting to a point where they’re going to find out. So Tommy, what can you say about how Micah would feel, perhaps compared to the rest of his siblings? Would any part of him be understanding at this point in the show?

Tommy O’Brien: It’s something that I’ve thought about a lot with the way that we shoot these things. You know as much as I do at this point. So I have some things in my head, obviously. I think the first and foremost thing would be happiness that he’s around, that he in some way gets to be a part of the family again — I’m hoping to not spoil anything — but I also think there’d be a ton of mixed emotion. Obviously, it would probably feel like a betrayal from every party involved and a lot of confusion. And like I said, you know as much as I do, so I think I’ll be surprised to read whatever they bring to the script. But yeah, I think it’s going to be an exciting episode once we all figure out how that goes down.

But would it be worse for him to say, learn from Jack if say Jack approached him on his own than to learn from his parents?

O’Brien: Yeah, that’s a good question. I mean, I think in terms of what I know and about the character and about the story and stuff that we’ve kind of built already, he really looked up to his brother. He idolized his brother in a lot of ways. There was also quite a bit of competition between the two of them. And so I think it would be a mix of emotions and one of them feeling like maybe his older brother betrayed the family in a way that’s hurtful. And so yeah, I don’t know. It’s tough. It’s early to answer that. I’m still kind of cooking on so much of that and I’m really excited to get that script.

This is very much a family show. And Savannah, we’ve gotten a little bit of Sydney’s relationship with her father (Chris Chalk), which was great, but not much compared to what we’ve gotten of the Hollingsworths. So how would you describe that father-daughter relationship and how much more are we going to see of that? What’s coming up there?

Savannah Lee Smith: Yeah, totally. Well, like Tommy said, we find out as you all do as well at the same time. So as the scripts come in, I’m hoping to see a lot more of Sydney and her dad’s dynamic because it is an interesting one. I mean, just by mere fact of being the president’s daughter, what does that really even mean? And where’s my mom? And there’s all these questions that as the audience asks them, I ask them, too, and I hope to get into that as we go along. But I would describe their dynamic as kind of like, I don’t know, Sydney feels trapped for sure. She definitely feels like she can’t do anything. And in speaking with Jenna [Bush Hager] briefly, she’s like, a similarity is that I kind of felt this dynamic of being protected but being kept and held. So I think, yeah, it’s like he wants to keep her safe and protect her and keep her protected, but he also enjoys the cameras and the photos and stuff like that. So I think Sydney is kind of grappling with this weird dynamic of, how much of my dad are you and how much more of are you the president and I’m kind of just the president’s daughter? So hopefully we’ll get into that more as the show goes along.

Yeah, I was going to ask, how much have you talked to Jenna about her experience? Because she’s an executive producer, but everything is so heightened for television.

Smith: Yeah, totally. I mean, we definitely take creative liberty and definitely want to make it as entertaining as possible. I’ve spoken with her briefly, very briefly, and in that conversation, she let me know that that was pretty much the main similarity, was just this feeling of finding out where you fit in the larger world as a person who’s kind of held within this tiny one, in this protected closed off environment. But yeah, of course, I mean, anything that she can share is helpful as I’m kind of reprising her real life role.

It feels like Sydney’s the one thinking about the consequences more and being realistic about their future, should they get caught, things like that. Whereas Micah’s more maybe optimistic or maybe he just doesn’t want to think about that or even have to think about that and address it. Is that the case? Would you guys agree?

O’Brien: I would agree. I’m so curious to hear Savannah’s thoughts though.

Smith: Yeah, I would agree. I think that from Sydney’s perspective, she’s definitely a little bit more like, “Don’t get in trouble. Don’t ruin this or don’t do anything that can bring some heat down on us,” because I think she has a little bit more insight into how easy that can happen. [To O’Brien] Obviously being in the Secret Service and working under your dad, you obviously also know that. But yeah, I think Micah’s a really fun character because he’s kind of impulsive, maybe a little fiery and just kind of on the whim. So I think sometimes Sydney has to be like, “Hey, remember, keep it chill.”

O’Brien: Yeah, for sure. I think there’s a lot of it too with Micah, just to note his personality. He processes things externally before he understands the consequences of those things. So a lot of it is touch the iron to see if it’s hot, turns out it’s hot and then he deals with it after. But I think in the context of these characters’ relationships and what it represents to both of them, what it represents to Micah is this outlet and this relatability to somebody who’s experiencing something very similar to what he’s experiencing. Both of us are growing up in the shadow of a leader. We don’t have too many relationships that aren’t under the umbrella of supervision. And even though it takes us being secretive about this, the benefit of that that I think it has on both these characters’ lives is really deep to their wellbeing. So I think with Micah, he definitely acts out and deals with the consequences, but it’s worth it then.

Spencer Pazer/NBC

How serious are they each about this relationship and how do they really feel about having a future together because of anything they have to consider when it comes to that?

Smith: I think they’re pretty much as serious as they can be in the environment that they’re with each other in. It’s funny because when we were shooting the pilot, I remember we were talking to Rebecca [Thomas, director] and Josh [Safran, creator] and were like, “So is this more of a hookup situation?” And we were both really elated to hear Josh say, “This is real. They really like each other, maybe love each other, and we’re going to see that progress as time goes on,” which was nice to hear that that was the direction that he wanted to go in, just because I think it adds depth and just another thing to the fold. So yeah, at first, at least I was wondering, when I got the pilot, I was like, “I wonder if this is what the vibe is going to be. Are they just hooking up? What’s going on?” So I was really happy to hear that from Josh, this is really meant to be real and they see each other, I think really truly see each other. Like what you said earlier, Tommy, because they’re kind of in the same position weirdly enough, and there’s not a lot of people outside of their bubble that can see them truly for who they are and understand that. So I think it’s a real deep relationship, I think, right?

O’Brien: Yeah, it’s earnest, it’s genuine, and they’re two people that really care about each other. And also as playful as the whole thing and maybe irresponsible [it is], there is this adult quality about how they handle conversations or conflicts or when they get into these situations of almost being found out, you can see that the characters really care about how they handle the situation as well. They’re just looking out for each other, right, wrong or indifferent, no matter what direction that goes.

Jack is making all these moves. At the end of Episode 4, we see him looking at Wallace. So Tommy, if Micah were to find out that Jack is alive and there’s these questions about what exactly he’s done, has he been killing people, would he be worried about Jack maybe going after Sydney?

O’Brien: Interesting. I think that in his position, his number one job is to protect Sydney. So if there’s a threat to any member of the family, even himself, his first responsibility before his life, before his family’s lives is the president’s daughter, his protectee. So in order to do his duty, that would definitely be a red flag and a top concern. So we’ll see where that goes, but the answer to that is, yeah, that’s his responsibility to put her first.

Smith: That’s a great Secret Service answer.

Line of Fire, Mondays, 10/9c, NBC