‘He Fell Back Down the Ladder’: ‘The Irrational’ Guest Star Ron Canada on Channeling Eli’s Addiction and Relapse (Exclusive)
Tonight’s new The Irrational brought Alec back together with his estranged father, played by Ron Canada, and the actor spoke to PopCulture.com about the reason for their strained relationship. In the episode “Ghost Ship,” Alec and Marisa head to Alec’s hometown to investigate a mysterious ghost ship that washed up on the shores. He was forced to revisit his past and spend time with his father, with whom he has a strained and complicated relationship.
Throughout the episode, it was revealed that Eli suffered from addiction, and it put a strain on his relationship with his kids. Even while the two were working together for the case, it was clear just how bad it had gotten over the years. At the end of the episode, though, he admitted to Alec that the reason he didn’t reach out after Alec was hurt in the bombing was because he was drinking and had relapsed. It was a very vulnerable moment and one that was needed for years that will likely change Alec moving forward. When it came to filming the scene and digging into those emotions, Canada said it’s “the job.”
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“I think that Eli’s relapse was triggered by Alec,” he shared. “And to me, I think that he had been on the right path until the pain of seeing his son so damaged was more than he could bear. And he fell back down the ladder. He collapsed. But, as far as the emotions are, again, at a certain level, it’s your job to be able to access your own. An actor has nothing to work with but him or herself. And your ability to access the parts of you that are going through that have gone through or are like what the character is going through is the job. If you can’t do that, you don’t appear on major television programs, or you don’t appear more than once or twice, and I don’t know.”
“You can see how many titles and how many decades I’ve been doing this with all kinds. Like The Game with Kevin Bacon,” Canada continued. “You can get to just about everybody through me, through Ron Canada. So, I’ve been fortunate to be given the ability to analyze this script and then to search within myself because there’s nowhere else for it to come where it will appear to be real for those parts of my own personal pain or joy or whatever that relate to what the character is going through. So that’s the job. Simply as I can put it.”
It wouldn’t be surprising if Eli Mercer were to come back in the picture for another episode in the near future since it seems like this relationship could be reconciling. Fans will just have to wait and see what’s next in new episodes of The Irrational airing on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.
