9-1-1's Kenneth Choi Talks Chimney's Nickname, Maddie, and Bobby's Clever Decision to Demote Him

[Warning: The following contains spoilers from Monday's episode of 9-1-1. Read at your own risk!]

9-1-1 star Kenneth Choi wants fans to know that he appreciates all of the love and support that he has received since joining social media last month, even if it "kills" him to not be able to read and respond to every comment anymore.

"I genuinely feel awful if I don't like everybody's comments. I made that mistake with my first Instagram post, because in the first week there were only so many, and I think it went to, like, a thousand comments," Choi recalled with a laugh. "My colleagues told me, 'You cannot do that, and you should not do that, because it's just impossible timewise.' But since I did it on this one post, I literally had to go back and read and like them all, because that's just how I'm built."

Choi knows 9-1-1 fans will have plenty to talk about in the last few episodes of the season. In this week's chapter, Bobby's (Peter Krause) annual performance review sends Chimney (Choi) back to the firefighter academy, where he runs into the 118's former "probie," Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody).

Unable to understand the purpose of his captain's latest assignment, Chimney, nevertheless, teams up with Ravi to run training drills, including running into a smoky building to rescue a fake baby and rappelling down the side of a building. Before long, Chimney discovers that he was sent to the academy not only to rediscover his confidence as a leader but also to bring back Ravi, who has been hiding out after an off-duty rescue involving a father who wanted to kill his two kids forced him to reconsider his vocation as a first-responder.

Choi sat down with TV Guide for a rare interview to discuss what Chimney learns from his short stint at the firefighting academy, the evolution of his character's relationship with Maddie, the origins of his character's infamous nickname, and what lies ahead for the 118 in the lead-up to a "perilous" finale.

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How did you want to show Chimney's progression from someone who is still reluctant to step into a leadership position into someone who understands the wisdom that he can impart as a long-time first-responder?

Kenneth Choi: I think everything was laid out for me. The writers wrote such a beautiful arc for Chim, as well as Ravi. He is upset thinking that he's being demoted, but then as soon as he gets to his post, he does what anybody would do in that situation — you step up, and you do the job. He has that one moment where he says, "I really don't even know what I'm doing here," and it's not until he steps into his role as a trainer, as a mentor, and as a teacher that he realizes, "Holy crap, this is exactly why Cap sent me here."

I don't think it's even a full revelation, because at the end of the episode, he says to Cap, "You brought me down there to bring Ravi back." He doesn't even realize [the trauma of losing his best friend, Kevin Lee, played by James Chen] is what's been holding him back. He says it, but I think that kind of goes by him. It's more about, "I was supposed to go and get this guy back," and that other part is more subconscious. I wanted to have it [be more] subconscious 'cause the things that are subconscious are things that are gonna hold you and actually direct you in life.

Chimney has been a firefighter for almost two decades, but Bobby feels that he has gotten a little too comfortable in his position, which is normal for anyone who has gotten to a certain stage of their life or career. How does being sent down to the minor leagues temporarily give Chimney something new to think about?

Choi: I think you're correct that Chimney has had this stasis about him. He's been ambivalent about so much in his professional life as well as his personal life. He doesn't want too much attention, whether it's really great attention or bad attention, right? So he just likes being in the middle. So the fact that Cap sees this and pushes him in that direction without telling him is important. I've been saying this a lot, but if you give somebody a piece of advice, they don't normally follow it. They may say, "Wow, that's pretty smart. I think you're right." But it just goes in one ear and out the other.

It's not until you walk through it in your own shoes [that you understand for yourself], and that's why this writing is very brilliant. It shows how good of a captain Bobby is. It's not that Chimney's never had the potential; he's just buried it all the way down under all these bits of trauma from his relationship with Kevin and seeing him dying, from his relationship with his father, from seeing what happened to his mother. And most people like to push that trauma way down so you can't get at it, and Bobby puts him in a situation that forces his hand.

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Jennifer Love Hewitt has famously said that, when she first joined the show, she wanted Maddie and Chimney to become a couple because they've both endured so much trauma in their personal lives and deserve to be happy together. What did you think, first of all, about that decision, and what have you enjoyed most about working with her to bring this relationship to life in the last few years?

Choi: I thank her so much for that decision because it's given me so much real acting to do. As an actor, it's invigorating and exciting to play all of these kinds of conflicts and traumas. I asked her why [she pushed for Maddie and Chimney], and she said, "This is the most interesting decision. I knew they would put Maddie with Eddie [Ryan Guzman], and I thought this would be the more interesting decision for many different reasons — culturally, socially, but also story-wise, because of all the traumatic things that they've gone through. They've found one another throughout all of that trauma, and they've survived through all that trauma."

I was a fan of hers before the show, and I've become an even bigger fan [while] working with her. Personally, I love her. We've become like brother and sister. I know her family — her husband, her three children. I love all of 'em, and they all love me, which makes our working environment so pleasurable. Professionally, she brings all of this pathos, and she has this tremendous emotional availability. She has this enormous reservoir of emotional accessibility that probably comes from her life. I think good actors take from their life, and she's a brilliant actor. So when I stand in front of her, all I have to do is look at her and respond, because she makes Maddie such a full character, and it makes my job so much easier. [Laughs.]

You and Jennifer even had a musical moment in the episode, when Chimney and Maddie sing "I'll Be There" to their daughter, Jee-Yun. How would you describe the state of Maddie and Chimney's relationship as partners and parents at this point in the story?

Choi: At that specific point in the story, Chimney's come full circle in the professional arc of this episode, right? It brings back the history with Kevin; it brings back the history with his mentor Eli [Mac Brandt] when he tells Ravi, "You just gotta hand this off." But it also brings [his personal storyline] full-circle because the only other time that Maddie and Chimney have sung together is when they started to fall in love, when they had that karaoke moment [in Season 2].

They're now singing not to each other [or] for each other; they're singing for their beautiful baby daughter, who is the most adorable baby I think I've ever seen. They're [played by] twins, and they're so incredibly cute and adorable. But to see that arc unfold with that specific moment, I think, shows exactly where they are. They are happy, they are content, they have their nice little nuclear family unit, and they are blissful in that moment for as long as 9-1-1 writers will allow it. [Laughs.]

Do you think Chimney is thinking of popping the question, or is he happy with where things stand right now?

Choi: I think Chimney is someone who is happy where he is right now. I think the inciting incident that happened with him professionally unlocked a lot for him professionally. But I think like most human beings in real life, that doesn't translate to their personal life. They don't know to take and transpose that to other issues they're having. I can see it standing back and looking at it 'cause it's a TV show, but you just wanna say, "Bro, Chimney, pull your s--- together! What is the hold up?" But it's because of his trauma.

Your traumas are always going to get in your way, and I think the biggest part of Chimney's trauma, personally, is watching his parents' relationship. When you watch your parents, you glean from them what a loving relationship looks like. And I think his idea of what a loving relationship looks like is so f---ed up because his mother got cancer, and that's when his father should have been there the most for them, but he left. So there are abandonment issues and all sorts of issues with what he perceives as a loving relationship. I think he's gotta figure some other things out along the way before he can get there.

Earlier this season, Chimney had a kind of reconciliation with his emotionally distant father. Why do you think that acceptance and forgiveness is necessary for Chimney to move on as a father himself?

Choi: Because Oprah Winfrey says it. [Laughs.] Her motto is: If you don't forgive, you never move on. Once you forgive someone, you can forgive yourself. This absolutely did happen with my own father. He didn't want me to be an actor, so I ran away from home for five years. When I finally got to L.A. and I knew that, "Okay, I'm really gonna do this," I decided I needed to face my father. I knew that no matter how old I was, no matter how much success I gleaned, I would always be this scared little kid [unless] I faced him.

I really thought we were gonna get into a physical altercation, and what happened was the complete opposite, so he gave me the ultimate gift a father can give a son of apologizing and saying, "I did the best that I could with the tools that I had." I think people tend to think their parents are supposed to be superheroes, and that's just not how it is. I don't have children, but all my friends who have children say, "When you have children, you start to have more empathy and compassion for what your parents have gone through."

I still don't think it takes away that trauma at all — that's on a personal level where you have to sit there, meditate on it, look into that wound and say, "I'm gonna forgive my father or my mother or whoever damaged me." There's sort of an ambivalence you see when he reconciles with his father; I call it a semi-reconciliation where it's allowed him to at least allow his father time with [Chimney's] daughter and his family. But did he completely forgive him? I don't think Chimney's that far yet.

Do you know why Howard is called Chimney, or is that one of the great mysteries of the show that is shrouded in secrecy within the writers' room?

Choi: I have my own theory on it, and it's very sound. I'll tell you this: Before I started this role, I did my own work as to why Chimney would be called Chimney, and I was told who this iteration of the character would be. And I took that and adopted it, so I added some sort of physical manifestations, if you will, to support why he's called Chimney. Over the course of five and a half seasons, nobody has ever picked up on it! And to me, Max, it is so f---ing obvious!

So is there a reason? Yes. Through the seasons, whenever they bring up the question of why he's called Chimney just for the sake of drama, I think they've had characters play it in a way where it's this huge kind of "Oh my God," existential revelation. [Laughs.] But it's actually, for me, rooted in this simple thing.

I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about your recent decision to join social media and your newfound TikTok fame. What made you want to adopt those platforms now?

Choi: I have a friend who helps me with the accounts on Instagram and TikTok, and he says, "You're the king of social media." I don't know if that's true or not because I actually still kind of stay off of it. [Laughs.] I come up with these posts that I want to do, that I think are true to me. My policy is very simple and very strict: I only post things that I think are funny, are humorous, that make me laugh and entertain me. So I hope that it would maybe give someone else a bright spot during their day. I think that's probably why people have responded [in the way they have] because I'm not trying to project some sort of image. I'm just being me; I'm kind of a goofball. I like to laugh and make people laugh, and I love entertaining people.

What can you tease about the last few episodes of the season?

Choi: As we were discussing, Chimney and Maddie have this wonderful moment at the end of this current episode where there's a state of bliss and love. And in the next episode, there's gonna be an inciting incident that sends both of them spiraling once again in their Chimney and Maddie madness. "Madney" madness, I guess, is what it is. That story arc will continue for the rest of the season.

Storywise, with the 118, let's just say there will be some perilous situations, most likely for more than one member of this first-responder group. And it will be explosive, it'll be cataclysmic, and the finale of this season, especially, is gonna be worth watching.

Is there a friendship or relationship in Chimney's life that you want to explore further, if you get more seasons to work on this show?

Choi: Mr. Krause and I have a wonderful off-camera relationship as well as an on-camera relationship. Whenever we've had scenes where it's just him and I, we have a lot of fun within the scene. He sometimes likes to improvise things that catch me completely off guard. We did this episode in the first season where we had this little real moment that happened right before they said action, and he said we should include it. So I included it, and then he riffed off of it, and there's a real moment where I look back at Peter, going, "You motherf---er." [Laughs.] And you can see him just for a second almost break character and laugh. So ever since then, we like to try to build those moments, and he's someone that I'd like to see more one-on-one scenes with.

Also, Ryan Guzman, I think, has been doing very wonderful acting work this season. I think he's hilarious throughout the entire episode. He's in this constant state of flux where there's just utter confusion. And the way that Ryan plays this confusion, you laugh at him, and it's a wonderful thing to do. They say, as an actor, if you do it right, if your character is going through a crisis, you feel the crisis, but the audience can laugh at you going through the crisis 'cause you're playing it in such a wonderful, beautiful, nuanced way. And I think he hit it right on the nose throughout this whole episode. So it'd be nice to see some Chimney and Eddie episodes 'cause there really aren't a lot of those.

9-1-1 airs Mondays at 8/7c on Fox. Episodes are available to stream the next day on Fox Now or Hulu.