“9-1-1”'s Peter Krause Admits Ballroom Dancing with Angela Bassett Was 'Much More Difficult' Than 'Stunts' (Exclusive)

Krause and Bassett play onscreen married couple Bobby and Athena, who find themselves trapped on a sinking cruise ship in the season 7 premiere of '9-1-1'

Life imitates art for Peter Krause, who would rather perform one of the many dangerous stunts he has to do as a firefighter on 9-1-1 than film another ballroom dance sequence.

The actor, 58, who stars as Firehouse 118 chief Bobby Nash in the ABC hit series, admits that the “most nervous” he got while filming season 7 of the emergency drama series was during a scene with his on-screen wife, Athena Grant (Angela Bassett).

The pair “had to do a ballroom dance,” Krause told PEOPLE at the 9-1-1 season 7 premiere in Beverly Hills, and that struck some real fear into him. “I'm not really much of a dancer, so Angela actually helped me out greatly when we were dancing, but that was the most terrifying part for me,” he said.

Related: 9-1-1's Oliver Stark Teases a Crossover with Another ABC Show (Exclusive)

The new season kicks off with a three-episode-long melee as Bobby and Athena find themselves stuck on a sinking cruise ship, and Krause said that even with that chaos in mind — on top of six seasons full of emergencies — “the dancing was much more difficult for me than the stunts and everything else.”

He added of how the season begins, “I liked the whole run that Bobby and Athena get to go through from the very beginning when they're on the cruise ship trying to figure things out.”

The three-episode run marked a uniquely stable few scenes for the fictional couple, as Krause admitted it’s “the most we’ve gotten to work with each other” so far this season. “It was fantastic to do action and comedy together for three full episodes. It was a blast,” he added.

Krause also spoke to how he and Bassett, 65, navigate their onscreen romance, which came as a surprise to them both.

"We really enjoyed working with each other, but we didn't see it coming," he explained. "That Tim [Minear, showrunner] was going to bring us together as a married couple, as a committed couple, but it's been fantastic."

Related: '9-1-1' 's Peter Krause, Oliver Stark, Ryan Guzman and Kenneth Choi Recount the Show's Craziest Calls

Over the course of their seven-season journey, Krause said he and Bassett have learned to “play with each other a lot.”

“There's a lot of stuff that's not scripted that we do with each other. It's fun, joking with each other and things like that,” the actor admitted, revealing that there are several scenes in the first three episodes of season 7 that see the pair improvising.

“Some of that was a lot more playful than what we usually get to do, because we're on emergencies and things like that,” he added of the scenes on the cruise. “So we had more space and time to play with each other this season than we have had thus far.”

The cruise was Bobby’s idea, “a kind of belated honeymoon,” as Athena described it to her therapist in the season 7 trailer. But she admitted she’s “terrified” — and when everything goes sideways and the ship starts to capsize, she turns out to be more than justified in that fear.

“I can say that it brought Bobby and Athena closer together,” Krause said of the traumatic events that kick off the season, before adding of himself and Bassett, “I think it brought Angela and Peter closer together as actors as well, which is really nice.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

9-1-1 season 7 premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.