Kara Killmer Isn’t Grieving the End of ‘Chicago Fire’: “I Had a Lot of Time to Process Sylvie’s Exit”

Kara Killmer will be quick to tell you that playing her Firehouse 51 paramedic character Sylvie Brett has been daunting at times, while she focused on saving the lives of traumatized citizens for 10 years on NBC‘s Chicago Fire. But, just as the resilient paramedic never wavered in fighting for a stranger’s life on the show, one could argue that Brett never gave up on the idea of true love, either.

Then, it happened! Across a 10-season arc, viewers watched Brett and firefighter Lieutenant Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) culminate from close friendship to a love story that some would call a fairytale. Sure, there were dips and low points in Sylvie and Matt’s romance, but they seemed to always find their way back to one another.

That love story culminated on Chicago Fire Wednesday night with the two getting married, and Lt. Casey taking his new bride away to live in Oregon (with his two adopted teen boys and Brett’s adopted baby daughter). The episode marks Killmer’s final bow, as she exits the series.

Below, Killmer, who spoke with The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the episode airing, shares her thoughts about 10 seasons of working on Chicago Fire, making the final episode, good wedding cake and what’s in store for her future.

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I know you’ve been asked before, you’re not related to Val Kilmer?

No, I have two L’s, he has one! (laughs) But I did have a crush on him when I was like in elementary school, because I loved Batman and I thought if we get married, I wouldn’t have to change my name. Losing an L would be a worthwhile sacrifice for Batman, at the time.

So, no marriage to Batman, but here we are with a made-for-television dream wedding between Sylvie Brett and Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer). The two of you will go off into the sunset, as your character exits the show after the big ceremony. Why was it time to leave?

This is my 10th season. I do think that this is kind of the natural conclusion for Sylvie. I love that her journey starts as a jilted bride. She was left at the altar by her high school sweetheart in Fowlerton, Indiana, and she comes to Chicago to start over fresh. And I love that she ends up across the aisle from the man of her dreams, and with everything that she always wanted, this sort of like patchwork family. I couldn’t be happier for my own character.

Sylvie has the adopted baby girl and Matt has two adopted sons. So this is going to be a nice ready-made family in Oregon.

That’s right! He’s got the two Darden boys. They are going to jump right into it!

Did you have any input on how Sylvie would go out?  

No, I didn’t actually. I think the writers, you know, she goes through the peril of trying to make long distance work with Casey. And everyone who’s ever been in a long distance relationship was like, “Yeah, it’s very hard!” And she tries to move on. When things with Dylan (Christopher Allen) were obviously turning into a nonstarter, I think the writers and the audience were all like: This is not it for her. And this was really just the inevitable outcome for where she was going to end up. So, I didn’t have any input but I’m certainly happy with what they did with it.

Just like Matt and other characters come back for guest appearance on various episodes, will Sylvie Brett be back for any future seasons?

Listen, the door is wide open for me! You know Firehouse 51 has a habit of getting into all sorts of trouble, and if they need Sylvie to come back and straighten them out, I’m more than happy to show up anytime.

Tell me about the last day of filming and when the director called the final cut. How were yours and the emotions of the rest of cast on the set?

Fortunately, the last scene on my last day was filming the reception at Molly’s (Bar); so, I was feeling pretty good. I finished my last day in a beautiful wedding dress, and I had eaten a lot of wedding cake by that point, so I was pretty satisfied. But it was perfect because everybody was around. I think even the last take we were dancing. So, Jesse had just given me a good dip to “Great Balls of Fire” and then Reza Tabrizi, our director, came in and said that’s a series wrap on Kara Killmer. And it was just a perfect ending.

I had a lot of time to process Sylvie’s exit. And so these last six episodes, and certainly the last episode, all felt like bonus to me. I feel like I probably spent more time just savoring it and having fun, rather than necessarily doing a lot of grieving. It’s just such a fun place to be and it was a blast! I went out with a bang!

Was it good wedding cake?

It was good wedding cake. I’m not going to lie to you, the wedding dress was a little tight by the end of the day. (laughs)

What are your plans for the future?

So far, I’ve already been putting a lot of auditions on tape. There’s a lot of interesting new content being made out there, so I am excited to kind of switch gears and invest in a different kind of character. It is absolutely a privilege to have done 10 years on a Dick Wolf show, and certainly getting to work in a story space representing first responders is very, very special. But I’ll be excited to try something that’s totally new. Hopefully, the next thing, the next few things, that I get to work on will be a little bit of a different flavor. We’ll see, but I’m excited about it.

Will you keep a connection with the Chicago cast and crew?

I don’t think the cast would let me get away with not being connected to Chicago in some form of fashion. I just FaceTimed with one of the girls this weekend, and we have plans to watch the episode together this week. So, we’re in each other’s lives. You can’t have this many speeches on our episodes about always being a part of 51 and not actually always being a part of 51. They’re going to pester me for life!

What do you take away most from playing Sylvie all these years?

There is something really special about getting to tell the story of first responders. I think one of the things that I like the most about Sylvie is how she represents their resilience. Firefighters and paramedics are constantly experiencing loss, they’re experiencing a lot of trauma, and they still get up the next day and choose to rush into danger for strangers. And they, to the best of their abilities, don’t lose their faith in humanity; they don’t lose their faith in people. That’s what they’ve chosen to do with their lives and that’s something I think Sylvie in particular has represented well on the shows. So, I really love that about her, and that’s what is constantly humbling and aspirational about this show in particular, I think.

New episodes of Chicago Fire, produced by Universal Television in association with Wolf Entertainment, air Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.