Why Billy Burke Wants ‘Twilight’ Costar Anna Kendrick to Make a ‘Fire Country’ Cameo
Billy Burke traded in his police uniform from Twilight for firefighter gear in Fire Country, but he’d be happy to have the two worlds collide.
Burke, 57, exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, February 6, which of his former Twilight costars he’d want to make a cameo on Fire Country, season 2 of which premieres Friday, February 16, on CBS.
“Well, I mean, I could go with the obvious and say Kristen [Stewart], because most of my work was done with Kristen,” Burke shared, referring to Stewart, who played his character Police Chief Charlie Swan’s daughter, Bella Swan. “Obviously, it would be great for her to come on.”
The actor, however, pointed to Anna Kendrick as his No. 1 pick, although he momentarily blanked on her name. “She’s very famous,” Burke said, noting that Kendrick, 38, became synonymous with the “cup dance” in Pitch Perfect.
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“I've always been trying to infuse as much levity and comedy into this show where we can find it,” Burke told Us of why he’d tap Kendrick for a part in the CBS drama. “I think just her sensibilities, that kind of energy would be awesome to have on the show.”
He added, “Sorry, I forgot your name Anna Kendrick!” Burke then poked fun at his time as Charlie Swan, saying, “I was completely oblivious to what was going on the entire time anyway.”
Burke and Kendrick both appeared in 2008’s Twilight, which centers around Bella (Stewart), who falls in love with vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) after meeting in high school. While Burke portrayed Bella’s father, Kendrick was one of her classmates, Jessica, who attended the Forks, Washington, school.
While Burke appeared in all five Twilight Saga movies, Kendrick ended her run with 2011’s The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1. She was included “in credit only” for the final installment, 2012’s The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2.
Despite taking over the box office for years, Burke isn’t the only Twilight star who has quipped about how little of the franchise they remember. Kendrick confessed in November 2018 that it wasn’t her most memorable role, writing via X, “Holy s–t. I just remembered I was in Twilight.”
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Two years later, Kendrick got real about what it was really like working in Washington for the movies. “I just remember being so cold and miserable,” she told Vanity Fair in June 2020 of the weather conditions, joking that her “completely soaked” sneakers made her feel like, “‘You know, this is a really great group of people, and I’m sure that we would be friends in a different time, but I want to murder everyone.’” Kendrick clarified that the cold eventually “bonded” the cast.
In the decade since the Twilight Saga ended, both Kendrick and Burke have found even more success. Kendrick is best known for playing Beca in the Pitch Perfect franchise, while Burke has been playing Battalion Chief Vince Leone on Fire Country since 2022.
Although Kendrick’s possible cameo on the TV show is up in the air, Burke told Us that he already has a great scene partner in Diane Farr, who plays his wife, Sharon Leone. The pair portray convict Bode Leone’s (Max Thieriot) parents, who struggle to deal with Bode’s return to their hometown to work as a firefighter and knock off time in his prison sentence.
“She's got her way of doing things. I've got my way of doing things, and they just kind of mesh really easily together,” Burke explained. “There's never any question when we go into scenes together that we're going to make something happen, whatever it might be. So that's kind of an automatic for us.”
When he’s not working with Farr, 54, Burke said he likes being part of a group. “There's a scene that we have in, I think it's the first episode, where it's just the four of us sitting at Smokey's,” he teased of season 2. “We're talking about what's happening with Bode. I like those sort of scenes that feel like a courtroom drama where … there may or may not be unintended power struggles going on in those types of scenes.”
Fire Country season 2 premieres on CBS Friday, February 16, at 9 p.m. ET.
