Chicago Fire star Miranda Rae Mayo has opened up about how playing Stella Kidd in the popular NBC show has impacted her mental health. 

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The actress, who has starred in the drama since 2016, said that portraying the Firehouse 51 Lieutenant has allowed her to “explore many different sides of myself”. 

WATCH: Did you watch the dramatic fall finale? 

In a new interview with Essence, the 32-year-old was quizzed on how playing the role has positively and negatively affected her mental health over the past six years. 

She responded: “One of the things that I love about Stella is she is courageous, not only in her profession but in her relationships. 

“Stella has been an incredible vehicle for me to explore many different sides of myself. And being able to do that in a community with the cast I work with has affected my mental health tremendously. It has also been challenging to go through that kind of shadow work in public.”  

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She added: “I mean, there’s a lot of pressure that I have put on myself to be quote-unquote perfect.” 

Miranda said playing Stella has “affected my mental health tremendously”

Miranda recently appeared in the drama’s fall finale, which aired earlier this month and ended on a major cliffhanger. At the end of the episode, a bomb detonated at a house raid, leaving Carver and Stella’s lives in jeopardy. 

Talking about the episode’s ending, co-showrunner Andrea Newman told TV Line: “The fallout is profound, and it’s profound for Severide, as well as for Kidd and Carver. We explore it for a while, the aftershocks of the incident and all the relationships between Carver and Kidd, and Severide and Kidd. Everything gets a little shake-up coming out of that.”

Sadly, fans will have to wait until the new year to find out what happened to Stella and Carver as the next episode airs on 4 January 2023.

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