Video: Jesse L. Martin Is Heading Into Season 2 of THE IRRATIONAL

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Tony Award-winning star Jesse L. Martin is getting ready to kick off season two of his hit NBC series called The Irrational on October 8th at 10 p.m

And I caught up with Jesse in Vancouver right before the big event

Alec Mercer, fancy professor by day, inspect the gadget by night. completely irrational

Exactly. Every crime can be explained by science. You ever heard of a hero placebo effect

Sunk cost fallacy. Patternicity. Are you going to keep giving me mortal clothes or is there someone I can arrest

People are irrational, but predictably so. You want to learn more about zero-sum bias

Among other things. The irrational, new October 8 on NBC and Peacock

First of all, Jesse, it is great to see you, my friend. Broadway World fans cannot wait for season two

How excited are you? I'm very excited. Let me first start by saying

I am absolutely thrilled to even be talking to Broadway World. I mean, it's not every day I get to do that

And I dims my peoples. So I'm super glad. Thank you. Well, I have to tell you

I fell in love with this series last year. You're kicking off season two

What's it like? Tell me how excited you are for season two. Well, I think any actor would be really excited

to continue the work that they started. So I'm super excited about that

I love the fact that we got the chance to establish these characters in season one

and now we get to play a lot more. And of course, the network is giving us several more episodes

to do so, so we get to go crazy with these stories

And, you know, this is one of the most complex characters that I've gotten to play on television

So I'm super excited, man. It's been fantastic so far. All right

Let's talk about this incredible man you get to play. play. Talk about this role and what you love about him. I have to say, it's the scientific mind, right

The idea of paying attention and really, you know, taking in human behavior is nothing new to an

actor. That's what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to reflect human behavior. But the idea that

there science behind it There a psychology behind people making completely irrational decisions to quote the show is absolutely fascinating to me I think there an audience here too People love docu you know crime mysteries

where, you know, you get to follow the crime and even in your own brain say, you know

I think I know who did it, or I know why they did it, or how they did it. These things are fascinating to people

So the idea that I get to do it in a scripted program with this great character is phenomenal

So you have like 16 episodes filmed already? Like, how many have you done

We're on the 16th one now, yeah. That is great. You know, you spend a lot of time at NBC

You were on Law and Order, of course, with our dearest friends, the late grade Jerry Orbach

You play the tech. Edward Green. I mean, now, I want to hear a story

because all my friends, it was all theater people who worked on Law and Order. Sure

And I understand that the breaks took place in Jerry's trailer where you'd watch old Tony Award numbers

Tell me about those. spending with Jerry in his trailer. Well, I mean, look, most of the things didn't happen actually in Jerry's trailer because

Jerry usually spent his own time in his trailer. So nobody was going to, you know, you know, take over the Prince of Broadway's trailer

But that being said, a lot of those things did happen on set

Now, so I was privy to a whole lot of stories about old school Broadway, right

where Jerry would talk about being, you know, in the pajama game or, you know, Chicago, you know, and this actor, and like how he met his, you know, first wife and his second wife

It was a lot of crazy things. And, like, the bigger things was realizing the scope of not only Jerry's talent, but Jerry's career

Because we'd be on the street sometimes, and people would scream, Lenny Briscoe, you know, because he was absolutely adored in the streets of New York City

Everybody really resonated with Briscoe as a character. But a lot of people had no idea that Jerry was such a Broadway talent

that he had that voice, that he had that charisma on stage. So it always blew my mind when people came and they were like

you're a singer? And now they do that with me. I love that

Well, speaking of Broadway, would you like to return to Broadway and do something

Absolutely and always. Like always, always, always, always. I know now that the last thing I got to do on Broadway was Shakespeare I did Merchant of Venice But the truth is there so many more Shakespeare pieces I love to do so many roles I love to explore if Broadway would ever have me back

I can imagine being on Broadway in the musical capacity, but a big part of me wants to hit the dramatic stage in a way

I have never gotten to do anything close to getting a role in any August Wilson plays

and I would love to. But honestly, Broadway is such a great

great community and such a great place to be that I would do anything

I'd even consider doing props in the basement of the Broadhurst. You know, because it's really interesting with your career

You started on stage. I'd love to ask stage actors, did you grasp the film cameras and TV cameras right away

Or was it a learning curve for you? It was definitely a learning curve for me because, you know, we're always, we've been trained

to within an inch to project, yeah, and to project to that back of the theater

And boy, was I good at that. So you get into an intimate space, like a camera space

and you learn almost immediately that you're doing too much. You're doing way too much

Luckily, some of the best spaces I'd been in were with theater actors who were suddenly in front of cameras

and all you had to do was watch them. I mean, you do have to play the room, right? So you get in the space with somebody like a Jerry Orbach or an S.A. Pathan-Mercerson or Sam

Waterston. And you're like, oh, yeah, bring it back and just, you know, play the room that you're in

Yeah. You know, you're known to legions of theater fans, especially here at Broadway World

for your Tony Award winning role of Tom Collins in Rent, Jonathan Larson's landmark masterpiece musical

You must have so many memories. Would you just share one with our audience of how incredible that show was

was absolutely incredible. I think that the one thing that sticks out in my heart and brain always

is the first performance we ever did when we realized that we had lost Jonathan and in tribute

because we had so many people who were invested in the show who were coming to see it that night

We decided we wouldn't do a full performance. We would just line up a few tables

sort of conference style, and do a stage reading. of the show and something happened in the middle and the people who know at the end of the first act we do La Vibre in the Life Cafe And of course in the Life Cafe is these tables that are lined up just like they were for the stage reading

And God bless Anthony Rap, he decided to just get up on the table and start doing it for real

And that changed the whole trajectory of that night. And Michael Gryfe came backstage during the intermission

He said, put on your costumes. We're actually going to just do the show full out

And so we did. We did it full out. And that I'll never forget

And I couldn't have think, I can't think of a better tribute to somebody we had just lost

You know, isn't the old adage, the show must go on. And it went on in such a beautiful way at that moment

Well, you know, talk about this show you're in now. I mean, what an incredible ensemble cast you were working

with what do you enjoy the most about working with them and just working on this show jesse uh well first

of all they're absolutely wonderful talents and great people to work with on a regular basis you do

television you're working 14 to 16 hours a day so you know it's it's important that you actually

get on with the people you're working with and i certainly do one of the best things i love about

you know working in television in general but particularly this situation is the idea that i could

very easily invite some of our people from the stage, particularly Broadway, to come and play with us

Our show is ripe for those opportunities. We've had certain people there, like you'll see in this

new season, you'll see Ron Canada, who everybody knows from stage. And the idea that I could do

what I learned in Law & Order, which is bring Broadway into that smaller space, right

which leads to a broader audience. That's the best opportunity I could possibly have

And I know that the rest of our cast feel the exact same way. We hope that we can draw in some of those talents

Well, like I said, no one does it better than NBC. We cannot wait for season two, which kicks off on October 8th at 10 p.m

I and many others are going to be there, my friend, to see you and make magic. Thank you so much, sir

Jesse, always a pleasure to see you, my friend. And next time we see you, hopefully it'll be on Broadway in an

August Wilson play. From your words to..