Kevin Michael Martin Talks ‘The Last Ship’ Season 4 [Exclusive Interview]

The Last Ship Season 4 has the crew of The Nathan James in new territory. They’re also adjusting to the return of Tom Chandler, which is met with some complicated feelings.

I recently spoke with Kevin Michael Martin, who plays Eric Miller on The Last Ship, about Tom’s return, what it’s like behind the scenes, and what we can look forward to for the remainder of the season.

Of course, we also had to chat a bit about the new look many of the characters are sporting this season.

Martin said creator Steven Kane contacted Martin, along with Travis Winkle, Jocko Sims, and Bren Foster to ask them to grow beards for Season 4. “I was stoked on that idea. I was thrilled because I always look like this baby, so I thought, ‘this Season 4 opener is gonna be great,'” Martin said.

“When I’m not filming, I usually have scruff, so by the time Steven Kane had contacted me, I already had the makings of a beard,” he continued. “I know Travis and I were given a head start; that’s why our beards are bigger this season than Jocko and Bren’s. I loved it. I grew it out as long as I could. It was tough to maintain, you know, every once in a while food would get stuck and stuff. It got to a pretty burly point.”

Not everyone loved that beard on Martin, though! “My mother was just like, ‘That is the most awful thing I’ve ever seen on your face.’ And she couldn’t ask me to shave it because I had it for work,” Martin laughed.

Growing the beard wasn’t the only reason Martin was excited about this season.

“When I read the script and we were in this foreign land that we really haven’t experienced or explored before, I was just excited. I’m still a kid in the business, so I was really stoked to get started on that,” he admitted.

“We raised the bar in terms of action, which I really didn’t think was possible, but we did it. I was really excited to be able to do all the stunt work and all the shooting, and kind of get back into the grind. And at the end of the day, whenever the four of us (Martin, Winkle, Sims, and Foster) are together, we always have a blast. So I was the most thrilled seeing that the four of us were kept together, and it kind of seemed like that strategy was, hopefully, going to stay the same throughout the season.”

We’ve already gotten a chance to see Eric Miller, Danny Green, Carlton Burke, and Wolf Taylor working together closely this season, and even off camera, the four of them are great friends.

“We are as close, if not closer, behind the scenes,” Martin said. “They’re like my older brothers.”

“I think that’s a brotherhood that is sort of rare in Hollywood. The fact that you have four guys who get to act on a show together who are just as close off the show is awesome,” he added.

For Martin, one of the most significant struggles of working on the The Last Ship in the beginning was making the transition to drama.

“I was primarily a comedic actor when I came onto the show. I had come off a couple of sitcom pilots. So it’s great, and it’s a great way to stretch my capabilities,” he noted.

Martin also experienced a challenge in the filming of The Last Ship Season 5, though he couldn’t say much about what that meant just yet.

“I had some severe challenges in Season 5 that were new and that caused me to go very deep into a place I’ve never had to go before,” he hinted. “There are some struggles for me that I go through as a character.”

Even though Martin was primarily a comedic actor before The Last Ship, the decision to join the show was a no brainer.

“I was absolutely obsessed with Michael Bay, and I was coming off a lot of momentum booking pilots, but none of them had gone. I went from feeling very big in Hollywood to very small,” Martin recalled.

Then his agents called and told him about a small part in a show by Michael Bay. “My manager said, ‘Kevin, I know you like Michael Bay. Do you want to do this?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I do!'”

One of the major differences this season on The Last Ship is that it began without Tom Chandler as captain of The Nathan James. And as exciting as it is that he has finally returned, it’s clear the crew has some mixed feelings. That’s especially true for Miller, as we already saw on The Last Ship Season 4 Episode 5, “Allegiance.”

In preparing for the season, Martin said creator Steven Kane called and explained how all of this would affect his character, saying, “‘You see Eric’s character as a father figure. You started in the service young, and you’ve kind of looked up to him, then you specifically feel like he sort of ditched you, and you don’t know how you feel about that.'”

“You’ll see those feelings come out in Miller a little bit more as the season progresses,” Martin went on.

“I think he looked up to him, and he just disappears. Now Miller almost resents him, because Tom just shows back up and thinks everything might return to normal. And even if Tom doesn’t feel like that, Eric Miller feels like Tom feels like that.”

Martin also said there’s a lot to look forward to for the remainder of the season.

“I firmly believe that the stunts and the action level are the strongest this season by far. I don’t know if I’m biased to that because we all grew beards and put on muscle weight, or if it is just essentially the most action-packed season we’ve ever worked on, but there are some episodes coming up where the action and the hand to hand combat is stellar. And it’s even better because some of those fights I got to really get into.”

As far as what’s next for Martin, he’s open to different possibilities.

“If I had a plan, sure, I would love to go back to comedy. I would love to get on a sitcom and really show what I’m capable of, but if another stellar drama is placed in front of me and I think I really have a shot, then that’s the route that my career’s taking me.”

Be sure to catch Kevin Michael Martin on The Last Ship, airing Sundays at 9/8c on TNT.

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