Romance doesn’t come easily on NBC’s Line of Fire. Clare’s boyfriend was killed under mysterious circumstances. Russ is hiding his girlfriend from his family. And Jane and Mike have been separated for a while but continue to sleep with each other. And then there’s Tommy O’Brien’s Micah.
The Secret Service Agent is in the most complex romance of Line of Fire. Because he isn’t just dating anyone. He’s dating the president’s daughter Sydney, played by Savannah Lee Smith, who he’s supposed to be protecting as part of her detail. And yes, it’s as messy as you would expect it to be as they try to make their relationship work and not let anyone find out about their affair.
Fangirlish got the opportunity to interview Tommy O’Brien and Savannah Lee Smith about Micah and Sydney, how this is more than just an secret affair, and the masks that they both where but put down when their characters are together. Oh also that molly scene at the end of Episode 4!
MORE: Need a refresher on the last episode? Read our review for Line of Fire Season 1 Episode 4 “Paper Trail.”
For Sydney, we hit the nail on the head when we mentioned the masks that both of their characters wear. “I think that’s the crux of their relationship and really like the center of their relationship is that they see each other,” Smith said, “They’re both kind of in the situation where they can’t be as honest as they might like to be.”
And while O’Brien’s Micah might be wearing a mask around his Secret Service Agent dad, U.S. Marshal mom, FBI Agent sister, and DOJ analyst brother, Sydney is also wearing a mask around her father and in her home. “There are parts of themselves they have to withhold from their family. And Sydney being the president’s daughter, she kind of always has to wear a mask and also kind of be like the mask.”
She elaborated on that and said, “Like it goes beyond just performing for the photos and not straying too far off of the straight and narrow. It’s also kind of like a personality thing where she can’t even explore her own personality. She doesn’t really even have opportunities to do that.” Which is why Sydney loves being with Micah. “I think that’s the main reason why they’re so connected and why it’s so genuine, because they’re both kind of in the same boat.”
For O’Brien, who plays Micah and might be the toughest one to crack on Line of Fire because of all the walls he has up, agrees with everything that Smith. In fact, the “L” word was dropped when he gave us his take on the relationship between Micah and Sydney. “He wouldn’t say it yet, but he loves her.”
He upped the intensity of what Micah feels by referencing the Wedding Crashers quote “True love is your soul’s recognition of it’s counterpoint in another.” That’s what Micah sees when he looks at Sydney. “I think that’s what they found, at least to them in these circumstances, that this age, at this time is really seeing their counterpoint, somebody they relate to.”
This also brings up an interesting point as to why Micah hasn’t told his family about Sydney. There’s the obvious answer aka a bunch of federal agents wouldn’t approve of such a high-level relationship. But it also goes back to the masks that these two wear with everyone else in their lives. When they’re together, they don’t have to pretend.
O’Brien said, “I think with [Micah], unlike all of the other relationships, even in his family that he kind of compartmentalizes and builds this wall up. He doesn’t have that with [Sydney]. And I do think that kind of catches him off guard at times and brings out this, you know, the tender side to the stone wall on the outside.”
As for what’s next for these two, they’re keeping that close to the chest. But they were able to share some behind-the-scenes thoughts on the scene where Micah accidentally drank molly and Sydney called Russ to the rescue. For Smith, “I had a great time. Tommy fully dropped in that scene. Like reading it in the script was already hilarious.”
O’Brien agreed and said, “Yeah, it was a party. It was fun. A very sober party performing it. But no, it was fun with that sort of thing. […] There’s physical comedy to it. And yeah, it was an absolute blast.”
Line of Fire airs new episodes on Mondays at 10/9c on NBC, with episodes streaming the next day on Peacock.
