Jesse L. Martin shares how grieving widow begged ‘Law & Order’ to change controversial episode
Jesse L. Martin has opened up about one of the most emotional moments from his years on Law & Order.
In an interview with People Magazine, the actor shared that a real-life murder victim’s grieving husband once showed up on the set pleading producers to change an episode.
Martin recalled, “I’m gonna keep it a little bit mysterious, but give you the point. There was a point later in my tenure there when it looked a little like things were getting closer to the original story than it felt comfortable to do.”
He added, “There was one particular instance where there was something that happened in Manhattan where someone was murdered, and the case was in court.”
“We were doing a version of said story, and one of the persons that was involved, who was the spouse of the person murdered, was well aware that we were doing a version of that story,” Martin said.
The actor recalled, “Someone knocked on my trailer door, and it was the husband of the person who was killed. He was there with his child — a little baby — and he was in tears.”
Adding, “He was like, ‘This could mess up the case for us. I need your help. I don’t want this to happen.’”
According to Martin, the husband believed the show’s upcoming episode closely resembled his late wife’s murder case.
After listening to the grieving husband, Martin immediately brought one of the show’s producers over in hopes of easing the situation. “Law & Order’s always been changing the stories enough, so it wasn’t really that story it was inspired by, but for whatever reason, this person believed that we were literally just telling that story.”
Martin said, “It’s the first time I felt like even though I wasn’t responsible, I had felt totally responsible for what this story actually turns out to be because I didn’t want it to affect him, obviously, or his family, or the story, the legacy.”
While moving forward with the episode, the story was altered. “There was a piece in it that mimicked it, if you will, but it wasn’t the same story at all,” Martin said.
He added, “it shows you how small town New York City can be, because how did he even know we were doing that story? Or how did he know to think that it was somehow telling their story?”
Jesse L. Martin starred as Detective Edward ‘Ed’ Green on the series from 1999 to 2008.
