Law & Order: Los Angeles: Skeet Ulrich

Skeet Ulrich has gotten a bum deal on TV series. Both Miracles and Jerichowere good and they both got abandoned, even with Jericho’s last hurrah of a second mini-season. His new gig should be more secure. Law & Order is a reliable franchise, so playing the Law part of Law & Order: Los Angeles should do well for Ulrich. He spoke with the Television Critics Association to launch the new spinoff.

CraveOnline: Did you get to do ride-alongs and stuff? 

Skeet Ulrich: I didn’t do a ride-along per se. I was on the streets.

CraveOnline: So you shadowed some cops? 

Skeet Ulrich: I have a really good friend of mine who is a deputy with L.A. county who’s set up. We were on call for four days with Homicide division with a specific team. There were three weeks at that point that L.A. didn’t have a murder which was astounding.

CraveOnline: What did you see when you were on the beat? 

Skeet Ulrich: Well, the body had already been transferred. Basically it was gang violence. We were down at 88^th and Hoover, I believe that’s Compton, from about 10 in the evening until about two in the morning. I think that’s part of what drives me to say we’re very fortunate to have the people we have on our police force doing what they do. It was basically gang violence. We saw, fortunately a store caught it on two different video cameras. One of the biggest problems that the detectives are having at the moment is reservists coming back from the marines and the army. From the video I saw it appeared to be the case. There was no twisting of the glock. This guy leveled in a full military position and assassinated this guy, shot him in the throat, shot him many times. 

CraveOnline: Did the people on the street know you were an actor during these situations? 

Skeet Ulrich: No. One of the detectives recognized me, before we were introduced was sort of starting at me. Usually what I get is “Did we go to high school together? I know I know you from somewhere.” I’ll be the last one to tell you I’m an actor. So no, not really. She kind of started to figure it out. 

CraveOnline: You took some risks with shows like Miracles and Jericho. Were you at all burnt out by that and looking for something somewhat more reliable? 

Skeet Ulrich: No, to me, it’s what I said. It’s a character I haven’t had the chance to delve into. I tend towards characters for a modicum of reasons. This is a walk of life I hadn’t stepped into and I’m fascinated by, mostly getting to know my friend who is on the force and seeing what he deals with and how he handles it was compelling to me. I think aside from network, film, TV, whatever, it’s always character.