Jesse L. Martin is convinced you know nothing about Detective Ed Green, the character he played on “Law & Order.”
Martin did the series for 10 years, “and you barely got to know anything” about the character he played.
Now, in “The Irrational,” details emerge in every episode.
The difference, of course, is in the nature of the beast. In a procedural, like “Law & Order,” the emphasis is on the crime and the people involved. Those investigating the cases are superfluous.
Jesse L. Martin stars as Alec Mercer in "The Irrational."
In “The Irrational,” his Alec Mercer, a professor of behavioral science, is essential.
“I’m not only learning in the field; I’m taking that learning right back to the classroom,” he says. “I have a whole different vocabulary in the classroom than I would in the field. So, there are many avenues for me to process this procedural thing that feels full. This is a great evolution for a job that I really, really love and appreciate.”
Mercer’s teachings, Martin says, have given him insight into behavior. Sample: “the Ben Franklin effect.”
“If you get someone to do you a favor, even if it’s a simple favor, they will like you more and, therefore, engage more," he says.
Jesse L. Martin
Martin tests the education wherever he goes and recites the show’s dialogue wherever he might be.
”I’m always running it in my head,” he says. “So, if I’m at the grocery store, it’s in my head, and I do something weird where I may talk out loud and not realize it.
“I’ve been at the gas station saying these things, and I’m sure people have been like, ‘What is wrong with that dude?’”
It’s all part of the process. Before Martin was on television, he had a healthy career on stage. There he had to memorize whole shows and spout them eight times a week.
Even though he toured and appeared on a soap opera, Martin didn’t figure he had made it until he got his Equity card and got his first Broadway role.
“I didn’t know it would lead to so many other great moments on stage and get to be part of one of the best-known Broadway shows ever in ‘Rent’ (he was Tom Collins), but I thought I had made it and become everything I needed to be that first moment on stage," he says. "You don’t make a lot of money, but it’s the best experience you could possibly ever have. You can’t put a price on that. If I had time to do theater every year, I would do it over and over and over again.”
After that big “Rent” run, he had a run of television shows until he was cast in “Law & Order.” He moved on to “The Philanthropist,” “Smash,” “The Flash” and, now, “The Irrational.”
When fans approach him on the street, he can gauge what show they’ve enjoyed.
“Usually, with ‘Rent’ fans, they’re very, very emotional,” he says. “With ‘Law & Order,’ they’re usually older and very sort of coy about approaching. ‘Law & Order’ is always an experience for people where an important part of their life was happening.” The show was either in the background or “the focus to help them get through a moment.”
With “The Irrational,” it’s how he shares a moment in the classroom.
Jesse L. Martin stars as Alec Mercer in "The Irrational."
In the second season, Martin and company deal with the effect of discovering who was the bomber in the first season.
“That trauma has led to a big part of his identity, … and part of that is physical — the scars on my body,” Martin says. “We’re finding that Alec vacillates between feeling really self-conscious about the scar because the traumatic part of his identity has been solved” and doing away with it.
“I’m learning something about what a scar does for people and their identity and how it presents to the world and how it’s reflected back,” he says.
Because the series gives him a chance to learn plenty about a character, Martin enjoys the details that have emerged.
“Oftentimes when people go through a traumatic experience it becomes part of their identity. ... That bleeds probably for the eternity of the series, which I think is really fascinating," he says.
When he was between jobs, Martin says he talked to an agent who explained how casting works.
“He’s like, ‘If you become known as the detective, suddenly that becomes a trope and everybody’s looking for a "Jesse Martin type,"'" he explains “I feel very grateful for that because I’m not ready to give up on my trope yet. I’m going to hang on to it for as long as I can.”
