James Earl Jones passed away recently, but he left a living legacy for actor Jesse L. Martin. The performer, who stars in “The Irrational,” remembers the day he met Jones.

“When I was in college, James Earl Jones came to speak at our school, and I was so excited because he was James Earl Jones. I got a chance to walk up to him and introduce myself, and I asked him if he could give a young actor — and I remember saying, ‘going into the theater’ — any advice, what would it be?

“He said, ‘If you can think of something else to do, do that. Because you may not make it, and you certainly won’t make a great living doing it,’ ” Martin recalls.

“Now, my idea of what was successful as an actor coming up, particularly after I went to school in New York City and graduated, I thought if I got my Equity card — and those who don’t know, an Equity card is you’ve joined the theatrical union, which means that you’ve kind of made it as a theater actor. When I got my Equity card and I did my first Broadway show, you couldn’t have told me I didn’t make it,” he says.

“I had done all the things I’d ever dreamed of in that one moment where I got my Equity card, and I was doing a Broadway show. I didn’t know it would lead to so many other great moments on stage, and I’d get to be part of one of the best-known Broadway shows ever in ‘Rent.’

“But I thought I had literally made it to become everything I needed to be that first moment on stage. And yes, you don’t make a whole lot of money. TV helps, though, a little bit. If you get on TV, somehow Broadway says, ‘Ehhh, you’re worth a little bit more.’ ”

Martin, who starred as Detective Ed Green for nine years on “Law & Order,” says he would’ve done theater for nothing. “I would literally do it for free. It’s the best experience you could possibly ever have,” he says.

He landed a juicy role on “Ally McBeal,” the part of an alien on “The X-Files,” followed by “The Flash,” “Law & Order” and now “The Irrational,” in which he plays a professor and authority on behavioral psychology. Now in its second season, the show airs Tuesdays on NBC. His expertise enables him to aid the cops on complex cases.

Martin says he’s not sure why he’s often cast as part of the long arm of the law. “I talked to an agent, who wasn’t my agent a long time ago, and he was trying to tell me the story about how people are chosen.

“He’s like, ‘If you become known as the detective, suddenly that becomes a trope and everybody’s looking for a ‘Jesse Martin type.’ Luckily, they keep finding me for the ‘Jesse Martin type’ that has been created, and I feel very grateful for that because I’m not ready to give up my trope,” he says.

“I’m going to hang onto it for as long as I can. It’s like it has evolved where I am adjacent to the trope now and creating a whole new one. So, hopefully, the next trope, whatever it may be, will be evolved that way too. ... People keep asking me to do it, so I’m grateful for that.”

Martin thinks playing a scientist has informed his own work. “I find myself having science to back up what I’ve always done as an actor,” he says.

“Like actors — if you’re worth your salt in any way, shape or form — your whole job is to look at human behavior and reflect it, whether it be on stage or on film or small screen on television. I’ve been doing that all my life.

“Kids do it with their imaginations every single day. They figure out how to behave like a monster or a police officer, and I do that as a career. I just didn’t have scientific terms for it coming up. Now I do. I can see it from a science angle. (In) actor training, it was always from an emotional place, like, it gets people to feel this way or feel that way. And what does that look like in the body? Now it’s like I’ve got terms to describe it. So I feel a little bit smarter.”