The first chapter in Jack Martin’s Hollywood career is coming to a close. NBC’s La Brea is set to conclude this year, bringing the network program to a close after three seasons. La Brea represented Martin’s first big break in Hollywood, as the 25-year-old had only acted in short films and self-taped TikTok videos prior to being cast in the David Appelbaum creation.
“This is going to sound stupid, but I feel like I learned how to be an actor,” Martin told ComicBook.com when asked about what he took away from his three-year experience on La Brea. “I feel like I didn’t really understand literally what the job of an actor is until you are on a set like this, and you see all the intricacies of it that wouldn’t normally be talked about. What your actual responsibilities are as a performer, as a person, how you need to set your time aside, how you should be interacting with people.”
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Martin plays Josh Harris, the son of Natalie Zea’s Eve and Eoin Macken’s Gavin who plummets into a sinkhole in Los Angeles that leads to a primitive land.
“What’s so lucky about this job, it was my first post-grad job period, is that we got so many reps,” Martin continued. “I got more reps of acting on the show than you get on 99 percent of jobs in Hollywood because there’s so many episodes. There’s so many scenes.”
La Brea‘s made camp in Melbourne, Australia, shooting all three seasons in the land down under.
“We also lived there. We’re in Australia, which is a 14-hour time difference,” Martin noted, pointing out that even people he was digitally communicating with were either just waking up or about to go to sleep. “All the people I’m interacting with a hundred percent of the time are people involved with the show. It was like language immersion, but for three years, and for acting.”
That acting immersion was a two-way street as well. As much as the environment he was in encouraged him to evolve, Martin himself embraced the opportunity.
“He was always someone who came in and really wanted to work hard and learn about it. He hadn’t been in a show like this, and he was someone who wanted to learn and was eager to do that,” series creator David Appelbaum said. “He had a natural ability in front of the camera and took the job seriously and cared about it. I think the show definitely took a chance on Jack and was rewarded for it. He is a really strong presence in the show.”
Martin now leaves La Brea with a degree’s-worth of experience, and like a graduation, that exit from Australia was an emotional one.
“If I’m being completely honest, I sobbed,” Martin reflected on his last day on the La Brea set. “It was the craziest feeling. Most people know me from doing comedy and doing sketch stuff, but the reality is I’ve spent basically 24/7 of the past few years doing this, living in Australia, shooting the show, preparing for this character. You just kind of don’t believe it’s going to end. It just keeps going. When it actually ended and I wrapped, I took off that jacket for the last time, I was like, ‘I cannot believe I’m never picking it up again and doing this again.’”
As Martin alluded to, most of his notoriety comes from sketch comedy on social media. Martin took off on TikTok with various POV videos, unscripted one-shots of satirical characters from various walks of life.
“I’ve had some ideas,” Martin said when asked about expanding his TikTok personas into something more, a la SNL’s sketches turning into feature films. “I’ve had some things that I’ve wanted to do. One thing that I was going to do that I still may end up doing would be a satirical podcast fully in character as one of those characters. I’m still working that out because it’s got to be done right. I love doing that stuff. Satire is my favorite thing, and the longer form I can do that, the better.”
La Brea Season 3 premieres on Tuesday, January 9th.
