‘9-1-1’s Ryan Guzman Says Eddie Hasn’t “Known Who He Is” For a While
9-1-1Season 8, Episode 6, “Confessions,” was pretty monumental for Edmundo “Eddie” Diaz. After a confession and a run-in with a priest, Eddie could take a step forward and forgive himself for some of the things he’d done in the past. However, that doesn’t fix everything. Ryan Guzman talked to Screen Rant about Eddie’s arc this season and previewed what’s to come. The actor said that his character has never quite known who he is without the labels he’s attached to himself. He talked about the beginning of Eddie’s journey into self-determination and awareness, saying,
“I don’t think he’s known who he is. I think he’s just figuring that—not even figuring that out. I think he’s starting to ask the right questions. I believe that there’s so much left to explore with Eddie. I think he has a generalized idea of where he wants to go, but I think anything you do new, you’re not really good at it in the beginning.”
Eddie Needs to Focus on Eddie in ‘9-1-1’ Season 8.
Eddie tends to clutch onto his roles as a father, son, and firefighter, leaving no room for anything outside these identities. Christopher’s departure in Season 7 was like a wake-up call, as he found himself without anything to latch on to. Guzman talked about these self-imposed restrictions Eddie has on himself, saying,
“I think this has gone on throughout his entirety of him being a Mexican-American and feeling like he has to be a perfect soldier, I guess, in essence, be the All-American type individual. I think that was what led him into just trying to people please, or trying to make everybody happy, and then do what’s best for everybody else. Thirty years later, however old Eddie is, because we never had a birthday party for him [laughs], but however old he is, he figures it out through this priest.”
From now on, Eddie has to think about himself more than he’s used to. “When the priest asks, ‘Have you done anything for yourself?’ he’s going to try to extend himself and try, in many ways, figure out what that is. I don’t think he’s going to be successful, which is going to be fun to watch for the audience,” teased Guzman.
Will he succeed in being more present in his existence? What effect will this new Eddie have on those close to him? Tune in to 9-1-1 Season 8 on ABC on Thursdays to find out.
