by Andrew Ryan
There's little doubt Kellie Martin will have a much more enjoyable time this year on ER. Martin admits her first season on the acclaimed medical drama was a little rocky, mostly because she was already awed by the show's mega-hit status. But Martin wisely employed an actor's trick: She transferred her anxiety about starring on TV's top-rated drama directly into her portrayal of the bumbling but precocious med student Lucy Knight.
"There was a definite parallel for me in there," says Martin, "because Lucy was intimidated by a lot of things at the beginning and it's the same thing with me. I walked onto the ER set that first day and I felt I had never acted a day in my life. I was intimidated by the people I was working with, because I had watched ER for years. I totally forgot I had been acting since I was seven."
Things eventually settled down for both Lucy and Kellie. It helped that Martin's character was kept hopping. Among other activities, Lucy recieved an instant baptism in emergency-room medicine, battled a prescription-drug addiction and even had a brief romantic interlude with her medical mentor-nemesis, Dr. John Carter (Noah Wyle). "Those scenes with Carter were the best, because they're such opposites. Carter drives her nuts, because he tries to be perfect; and Lucy is a lot looser, but she still puts a lot of pressure on herself. Toward the end of the season, Lucy had learned to stand up for herself, and that's good."
Strangely, even though Martin will only be 24 in October, she's been acting longer than most of her ER co-stars. When she was seven, her aunt -- who worked as a governess for the late Michael Landon -- showed Landon a picture of her niece. Soon after, she landed a guest role on Landon's series Father Murphy, which was followed by offers to appear in commercials and other drama series. A child star was born. "Acting was definitely an extra-cirricular activity for me," shrugs Martin. "Some kids played soccer, some kids played tennis, I worked on TV shows. It was just what I did."
Her breakthrough role came in 1989 when the 13-year-old Martin was cast in the earnest ABC drama Life Goes On. She earned an Emmy nomination for her protrayal of Rebecca Thacher, loving sister to a brother, played by Chris Burke, with Down's syndrome. "It was unique because we did a lot of things that other shows don't have the guts to do. We had an HIV-positive character, and I don't think anyone has ever dealt with Down's syndrome the way we did. To this day, people come up to me and tell me that one of their family has Down's syndrome. I think the show really made a difference in people's lives," says Martin.
After four seasons of Life Goes On, Martin got her own series, Christy, about a young woman who teaches in the rugged Tennessee foothills, circa 1912. "It was hard-core," she reflects. "I was living in a Tennessee town of 200 people and working 14 to 16 hours a day. I was in every scene. I actually fell asleep once in the middle of a scene! It was the first time I had been away from my family. And I had to wear a corset, which didn't help."
Christy lasted half a season, after which Martin became a fixture on the TV-movie circuit in the early '90's. She played a variety of traumatized characters, including: a deaf woman with abusive parents (Breaking Through), a manic-depressive (Blue Heaven), a drug addict (Her Last Chance), a battered wife (If Someone Had Known) and the teen killer of a cheerleader (the fact-based A Friend to Die For). "During the period when I made a lot of TV-movies, they were all about issues and true stories," she says. "I thought all those issues were really important. I don't want to do any TV-movies now, unless it's something really important."
In 1994, in keeping with teen star tradition, Martin took a break from acting and enrolled at Yale to study art history (one of her acting idols, Jodie Foster, also went there). Still, it wasn't an easy decision. "Every day was tough," she admits. "Whether it was trying to make friends or learning how to study for a final. Remember, the entire time I was in high school, it was with a tutor on a set. I never went to a regular school. Students at Yale already know how to study, or how to write an essay. I didn't have those basics and I had to learn them."
It was during her second-last year at Yale that Martin recieved a phone call from ER executive producer John Wells. "When he asked me to be on the show, all I knew was that my character would be a medical student. That was a month before I started filming, so I had no idea what they wanted to do with me." Martin didn't, however, rush out to spend time with real-life medics to learn how to do their jobs. "Nah -- I know enough med students that I can call up and ask questions. I already knew what it was like to be a student, and we have a doctor on set at all times, so they can explain the details."
Currently, Martin is basking in post-nuptial bliss. She married her longtime beau, Yale grad Keith Christian, earlier this summer in a story-book Montana wedding (her Life Goes On co-star Patti LuPone sand at the reception). "The best part about being married is that I get to see my husband every day," she sighs. "Keith is taking the bar exams this summer and he already knows he's clerking for a judge next year. He's Mr. Make Plans; he would map out his whole life if he could, but then he married me -- so now he can't."
That speaks to one of the most important lessons Martin has learned in nearly 20 years in the business: Never make any long-range plans. "I never have and I never will, because you can't count on them," she says. "I signed a six-year contract with ER, but the ball is always in their court. If they choose not to renew my contract at any time, they are allowed to do so. Of course, I hope that never happens, because I'm on the best show on TV."