'9-1-1' team didn't use real bees for the 'bee-nado' — but still got stung by dead ones! (original) (raw)

No bees were harmed in the making of this episode — but some humans were.

The 9-1-1 season 8 premiere unleashes 22 million killer bees upon Los Angeles, creating what Buck (Oliver Stark) deems a "bee-nado." But when the ABC drama's cast and crew were actually filming the episode (airing tonight at 8 p.m. ET/PT), there wasn't a live bee in sight.

"It's one of those ones where its interesting because, obviously, we don't have millions of bees flying around us," Stark tells Entertainment Weekly in a conversation recorded for the 18th annual PaleyFest Fall TV Preview.

"You have a few though, how many do you have?" chimes in Angela Bassett, who stars as police officer Athena Grant and does not come in contact with the "bee-nado."

"No, no real bees," answers Aisha Hinds, who plays 118 firefighter Hen Wilson. "Not even one," adds Stark. "Not even one? What?!" Bassett replies in disbelief.

"It's going to be one of the ones where we're all trying to figure out, 'Where are [we] looking to pretend the bees are? Oh, I was looking over there," shares Stark. "There are 22 million bees, so they're everywhere," Bassett offers as an explanation. "It's make BEElieve," Hinds jokes.

But while the team did not interact with live insects, there were some zombees used in a scene centered on Ryan Guzman's Eddie, and "dead bees do not smell good," the actor reveals.

They can also can still sting you, as some did while the 9-1-1 team was filming that scene with Guzman, showrunner Tim Minear tells EW.

Ryan Guzman on the '9-1-1' season 8 premiere.

ABC

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"About half of the shots in that scene, there were some practical bees on the outfit. And then the other half of the shots, there were none," says Minear. "You can't tell once the effects are in, but that was the only time we really had any kind of practical bees on the set."

While the bees are a focal point of the season 8 premiere, Stark is quick to point out that "the bees are the starter emergency, and then the chaos that ensues effects different things around the city."

The bee-nado hits tonight at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.