Canadian actor Spencer Lord joined CW‘s courtroom procedural Family Law in 2023 during its sophomore season as Firefighter Aiden and love interest to Jewel Staite’s Abigail Bianchi. The actor’s recurring role spans two seasons — and in an exclusive interview with PopWire, the former mechanical engineer talks about his “compassionate” character and what it was like working with his on-screen partner.
“I always like to say he’s putting out fires and he’s finding love with Abigail while she’s putting out her own fires in the courtroom. It ends up being a complicated relationship because of Abigail’s relationship with her family and the pressure that she puts on herself because of that. I had a lot of fun exploring that with Jewel.”
Working with seasoned actress Jewel Staite (“The L.A. Complex”) on Family Law, Spencer shares that he got a great lesson in letting go comedically and how the difference between the two characters helped balance out their dynamic. “Aiden was written as more of a bit of dramatic relief from the comedy of each episode,” he explains. “In the third season, we got to play around a little bit in the episode that comes out tonight actually. I had a lot of fun because I got to sort of get an inside look with Jewel with how she worked.
“She’s so free and fun and in between takes,” Lord continues, “she’s just having a good time and I think that brings a lot of fun freedom to everybody’s else work around her. It’s inspiring.”
Like most love interests who are brought onto a show, Aiden’s story and time with the Bianchi lawyer on Family Law has come to an end. In a recent Season 3 episode, Abby (Staite) finally comes to the realization that she cannot be the reason why her firefighter boyfriend isn’t a father, and ends their fiery relationship. Lord reveals that while the breakup scene was emotional, the reason why it was difficult to finish filming the scene may surprise you.
“That was one of my favorite scenes ever to film,” he says. “We were on a street and it wasn’t locked off, so we had cars driving by, and that’s fine, that’s just something you have to deal with every once in a while. You have to pause and let the car drive by for sound and then continue on where you left off. So it’s minimally frustrating; it’s just something you have to deal with when you’re filming.
“On top of that, we were under a tree and there was a crow in the tree that for whatever reason wanted to voice its opinion approximately every 10-to-15 seconds. And it wasn’t on my coverage; we finished my coverage and it was fun, we had a great time. My coverage is facing away from the street so you don’t see any cars, which is perfect for me. But for Jewel, when we turned around, not only were we seeing the cars drive by, so we had to pause for the cars, pause for the sound, we then had to pause for the crow.
“She’d be in the middle of her take, and [her character is] crying and telling me that she can’t really do this anymore — and then ‘CAW, CAW,’ and then she’d have to stop. I’d look at her and say, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.'”
“It took a lot of effort on her part,” Spencer Lord says. “She ended up nailing it, obviously, because she’s Jewel Staite. That scene took a lot longer to film than we anticipated. But it all worked out in the end.”
Family Law airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on CW.
