9-1-1’s Peter Krause Admits Ballroom Dancing with Angela Bassett Was ‘Much More Difficult’ Than ‘Stunts’ (Exclusive)

Life imitates art for Peter Krause, who would rather perform one of the many dangerous stunts he must perform as a firefighter on 9-1-1 but to record another ballroom dance sequence.

The actor, 58, who plays Fire Department 118 Chief Bobby Nash on ABC’s hit series, admits the most “nervous” he got while filming Season 7 of the hit drama was during a scene with his on-screen wife, Athena Grant (Angela Bassett). .

The couple “had to ballroom dance,” Krause told PEOPLE on 9-1-1 season 7 premiere in Beverly Hills, and it put real fear into him. “I’m not much of a dancer, so Angela actually helped me a lot when we were dancing, but that was the scariest part for me,” he said.

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The new season opens with a three-episode brawl that finds Bobby and Athena stuck on a sinking ship, and Krause said that even with that chaos in mind — along with six seasons full of emergencies — “the dancing was a lot harder for me than the stunts and everything else.”

Of the beginning of the season, he added, “I loved the whole race that Bobby and Athena go through from the very beginning while they’re on the cruise ship trying to figure things out.”

The three-episode run marked a uniquely steady few scenes for the fictional couple, as Krause admitted it was “the most we’ve been able to do with each other” so far this season. “It was fantastic to do action and comedy together for three full episodes. It was an explosion,” he added.

Angela Bassett and Peter Krause on ABC’s ‘9-1-1’.

FOX via Getty

Krause also talked about how he and Bassett, 65, are managing their on-screen romance, which has come as a surprise to both of them.

“We really enjoyed working with each other, but we didn’t expect it,” he explained. “That Tim [Minear, showrunner] he should have brought us together as a married couple, as a committed couple, but it was fantastic.”

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During the seven-season journey, Krause said he and Bassett learned to “play with each other a lot.”

“There are a lot of things that are not in the script that we do with each other. It’s fun, joking around with each other and things like that,” the actor admitted, revealing that there are several scenes in the first three episodes of Season 7 where the pair improvise.

“Some of it was a lot more playful than what we usually do, because we’re in emergencies and things like that,” he added of the cruise scenes. “So this season we had more space and time to play with each other than we have had before.”

Angela Bassett and Peter Krause at the premiere event of ABC’s “9-1-1” on March 11, 2024.

Gregg DeGuire/Variety via Getty

The cruise was Bobby’s idea, “kind of a belated honeymoon,” as Athena described it to her therapist in the season seven trailer. But she admitted that she was “terrified” – and when everything goes sideways and the ship starts to capsize, it turns out that she is more than justified in that fear.

“I can say it brought Bobby and Athena closer together,” Krause said of the traumatic events that start the season, before adding of himself and Bassett, “I think it brought Angela and Peter closer as actors as well, which is really good. ”

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9-1-1 Season 7 premieres Thursday at 8:00 PM ET on ABC.

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