‘The Irrational’: Ron Canada Talks Playing Jesse L. Martin’s On-Screen Father and the Characters’ ‘Strained’ Relationship (Exclusive)

Tonight’s episode of The Irrational will guest star Ron Canada as Alec’s estranged father, and the actor spoke to PopCulture.com about the tense reunion. In the episode “Ghost Ship,” Alec and Marisa “investigate a mysterious ghost ship that has washed up on the shores of his hometown. This forces him to revisit his past and spend time with his father, with whom he has a fraught and complicated relationship.”

Since it sounds like their relationship isn’t the greatest, this would give the show the chance to dig into Alec’s past some more and explore his dynamic with his father, especially since it will play a bigger part in Alec’s story. “I think the audience will find it interesting and revelatory as more of the Alec Mercer onion gets unpeeled while he’s solving crimes,” Canada said. “He’s also dealing with personal issues and personal growth issues. And I think both things happen in this episode, which is pretty consistent with the best episodes of the series that I’ve seen. That’s the on-camera, on-screen part.”

As for the episode itself, fans will be seeing just how complicated Alec’s relationship with his father is. “The episode deals with an ongoing, not quite full estrangement, but a very strained relationship between father and son that goes back to events that are critical to the series and stuff that went on before the series began,” Canada explained. “And like any parent and child, there’s history. Most families have a complicated history. And this episode is about, aside from solving the crime together, their exploration of the schism in their relationship, how they each perceive it, and what happens as a result of this episode.”

Meanwhile, despite having to play a complicated father-son relationship, Canada and Martin’s relationship off-screen is the complete opposite. The two have known each other for years, as Canada even appeared on-screen with Martin in the Law & Order Season 18 episode “Bottomless” back in 2008. Martin gifted him a Law & Order T-shirt, which is “still precious to me, and I still wear from time to time,” Canada said. And because of both his dynamic with Martin and being an actor, it wasn’t hard to step into a strained relationship with him for The Irrational.

“At that level of acting, do you see the series stars? They’ve got a huge, horrible job,” Canada shared. “And my job as a guest star is to come in and make their week, my part of their week go well, to be prepared and to be able to step right in and create these relationships on the fly. And that’s what you do in television. You come in as a guest star in an episode, and you have to create instant relationships that appear to have the feel of truth to the viewer. But that’s why so many of the guest stars that you see all over television have deep, deep theatrical backgrounds. We’re the acting department.”

“We know what we’re doing. And all of those kinds of skills are what get employed because you have to get on No. 1’s wavelength,” he continued. “You have to have a sense of immediately if you watch the episode beforehand to get a sense of the style of that actor. And then you just try to pick up the tune, whatever they’re jamming. You try to come in with your instrument in tune and phase with them because they’re No. 1 on the call sheet and the network or the studio is invested in them for a reason because the public is invested in them. And so you try to sync, whether you’re antagonistic to them or an ally to them or an obstacle, you have to figure out what it is that you gotta do to make the scenes work. And they’re in their position because they make scenes work, and that’s the objective, to make shots on television to put together one scene at a time, and you try to make those work. And with a pro like Jesse, it’s easy.”

It sounds like it will be an interesting episode, but it will be exciting to see Ron Canada on The Irrational, and there’s no telling how things will go down between Alec and his father. Fans will soon be seeing what Alec’s relationship with his father is truly like when a new episode of The Irrational airs tonight at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.