After only three weeks on the set of “Law & Order”, Jesse L. Martin concludes, “This is probably the best job I’ve ever had!” Coming from the 30-year-old actor who’s landed plum parts on “Ally McBeal”, “The X-Files”, and critically acclaimed starring roles in 413 Hope St. and Broadway’s Tony Award-winning musical, “Rent”, one could only suspect that the easygoing Virginia native has found some sort of actor’s nirvana. Or, more simply, the job he’s been waiting on for over five years.

“I got a role on the show one time, but it was really small”, says Martin of an earlier L&O casting. “It was a radio thief named Earl the Hamster. But I figured if I took that role, I wouldn’t get cast in any other on the show, so I didn’t take it, even though I needed the money so bad and I wanted to play the part. But I thought if I waited it might pay off”. Did it ever. While still working on the “Ally” set in Los Angeles, “I heard through the grapevine that Ben Bratt was leaving Law & Order”, says Martin during a conversation this summer at Pasadena’s posh Twin Palms restaurant. “I didn’t know anything about what they were going to do casting wise, but I wanted it. I wanted it so bad”. So I called my manager and he called Dick Wolf’s office and before you knew it, I was in Dick Wolf’s office asking for the job.

“I get back to New York, and I hadn’t been back in New York for more than a day, and there’s a million messages on the machine saying “Jesse, you have to call your agent!” I called my agent and she tells me that a couple development deals have come through at other networks and they were going to make Dick Wolf aware so that we could get some kind of deal for Law & Order. Apparently Dick Wolf said “I really like him so I’m gonna make an offer. I didn’t need to hear more than that, so I said I want that job. So here I am”

It’s a Hollywood fairytale, and in the end, this Cinderfella has found his perfect fitting glass slipper. Don’t expect, though, that Martin will be trying to fill Benjamin Bratt’s shoes. Unlike Bratt’s cool and collected copper, Martin’s hotheaded detective Eddie Green is a complex character. When it comes to his work, he wants to be effective, but graceful. Like aggressive graceful says Martin. “He knows how to get down to people’s levels-or up to people’s levels. But he’s a flawed human, and one of his biggest flaws may be that he sort of has a gambling problem. He doesn’t see that as a flaw at this point. It’ll be interesting to see how this whole thing plays out”.

Martin’s own “back story” is also interesting. After his parent’s divorced, Martin’s mother moved he and two of his four brothers to Buffalo New York, where the “really little kid with a thick hillbilly accent”, found his niche on the stage of a fourth grade play. “Suddenly I was this popular person”, he remembers. “People became very interested in me”. The sense of dejavu must be overwhelming for Martin as he walks through a crowd of reporters and photographers screaming his name as the blue-suited chocolate hunk glides into the trendy Southern California restaurant. It’s obvious that people are still interested in him, especially industry bigwigs.

“The funny thing is that I can never even come close to saying that I’ve been picking or choosing my roles”, he says. “It’s more about literally what’s come my way. Ally was handed to me by David Kelley. He and Michelle Pfeiffer came to the opening night of “Rent” on Broadway and they knew me from that and David Kelley, literally, offered me the role. “Then David Duchovny saw me on Ally McBeal and decided that I was the guy for this role on The X-Files, which was, to me, like this huge, huge thing! I was overwhelmed by that whole thing. I thought I was going to cry-and I don’t cry that easily. It has been absolutely amazing to me. It’s hard enough to get a job, but to be offered things is phenomenal to me.”

Having gained fame on the stage and small screen, Martin will take a starring urn on the big screen this fall in the independent film Restaurant with Hughley’s star Elise Neal, and will be seen in the upcoming telefilm Deep in My Heart with Anne Bancroft and ER’s Gloria Reuben [ed. note: this was already aired on February 14, 1999] Meanwhile, Martin, back on the set in Manhattan, is receiving shouts from passersby. “It’s like everybody knows I’m going to be on this show and they say congratulations to me on the street. It’s like I’ve got all New Yorkers as my friends, who sort of pat me on the back as I walk along the streets which is very, very cool”. Very cool indeed.