Just a Delightful Chat With Max Thieriot's Childhood Friend
Nobody knows you like your childhood friends, and that’s true even for Hollywood’s biggest names. Max Thieriot, the multi-talented creator and star of CBS's hit show Fire Country certainly hasn’t forgotten where he came from. When Secret Celebrity Renovation came knocking on Max’s door, he reached out to one of his oldest buddies, Josh Cerda, and asked if Josh would be interested in getting work done on his house.
“[Max] was like, ‘There's this opportunity. I can't tell you a whole lot about it, but it could maybe help you with your house if you're not done with it,” Josh tells Parade. “He said, I can't tell you much, but we're gonna do some work on the house and I'll do my best to make sure they get you what you want. And then of course I said yes, because that was perfect timing and it's exactly what I needed.”
Josh and Max originally met in Occidental, Calif., where they're both from, through Max’s sister, Frankie, when Josh was around 11 and Max was around 8. "Frankie's like my sister, and so I was always over at their house and I actually lived there for a few years when I was in my twenties. So we've just kind of built our relationship over the years.”
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Despite the three-year age gap, Josh and Max spent a lot of time together growing up. “We'd go camping and exploring everywhere—in the woods. We'd go fishing, we'd work in the vineyards together. We’d just hang out and watch movies and play video games. I mean, we did pretty much everything together.”
CBS
Josh also shares that from an early age, Max had an active interest in writing and television. He wrote and directed short films with his friends throughout childhood, and introduced his pals to a lot of TV shows and movies, including the seminal Pineapple Express.
Max followed his passion for film and TV, creating a steady body of work in Hollywood. Meanwhile, Josh became a firefighter. “I had some friends that got in the fire service before me, and it just felt right."
Courtesy of Josh Cerda
And naturally, when Max had the idea for Fire Country, he approached Josh with an early draft of the script. Josh was impressed.
“He came to me with the idea and he is like, 'Hey, what do you think about a show on wild-land firefighting?' And he showed me what he had written and then I was like, 'Oh wow, he's actually pretty damn good at this,'" Josh says.
Today, Josh is a technical advisor on the show, consulting with the writers to make sure everything’s accurate to the world of firefighting. “I read every script from the first draft to the last draft," he says. "As far as telling them [if] stuff's wrong, usually I'll have discussions with the writers if there's something that I feel is egregious or not realistic. But generally, they do a great job. They take the right liberties, and it's a show, so obviously there's some stuff that's a little stretched.”
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Josh says that when people find out he’s close to Max, they always want to know what kind of guy he is. The answer is a no-brainer: “It's pretty easy to answer that question," Josh tells Parade. "He is just salt of the earth. He's the best dude I know. Just a really good, smart, humble dude. He's one of the few people I know that's really never changed.”
As far as Secret Celebrity Renovation goes, Josh couldn’t be more thrilled with Max’s work through the show. “It was a huge surprise when I saw the house, because like I said, I knew they were gonna do work, but I had no idea what they were gonna do,” he says. “Max really is the best friend you could ever ask for. He’s just a great dude. I'm really, really happy with the renovation.”
Tune in to CBS on Aug. 4 at 8 p.m. ET for the two-hour Season 3 premiere of Secret Celebrity Renovation, which also features an episode with Phil Keoghan.
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