My worst moment: ‘Bosch’ and ‘Wire’ star Jamie Hector and the time Jerry Orbach came to his rescue on ‘Law & Order’

The seventh and final season of Amazon’s “Bosch” premiered last week and star Jamie Hector, who plays Det. Jerry Edgar, said it promises plenty of closure. There’s a new case to solve, per usual. And Jerry is grappling with “decisions he’s made in the past — of killing someone and dealing with the consequences of that. Even though the person was on the wrong side of the law, it’s still weighing heavily on his shoulders.”

Working alongside Titus Welliver in the title role as Harry Bosch, Hector says the pair clicked “right from the beginning, it was right away. We have so much in common — that’s my guy.”

Hector first gained wide notice playing Marlo Stanfield on HBO’s “The Wire” and his resume since includes shows such as “Heroes,” “Power,” “The Strain” and “Queen of the South.”

When asked about a worst moment in his career, he recalled his first major TV appearance on the original “Law & Order,” a show that became a rite of passage for many New York-based actors.

My worst moment …

“Before you make it to LA, everyone has to make it through the ‘Law & Order’ circuit. That’s like the badge. At the time, I was training at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute when I booked the job (in 2000). I think I played a witness to a crime. I was a day player and it was a huge deal for me because I had lines.

“It was probably one of my first times on set and I wasn’t familiar with the process. So I got to work at 5 a.m. and they didn’t knock on the trailer door to call me to set until 5:30 p.m. and we shot something for maybe five minutes. And I was like: Oh, this is how it works? I was exhausted just waiting around all day, I could have taken a nap! Because I was a day player, they didn’t feel it was necessary to tell me, ‘Listen, we’re running behind.’ So I just sat in the trailer and waited. I’m new, so I don’t know how it’s supposed to work.

“So the next day, my call time was 5 a.m. again. I was under the assumption that it would be the same process: They call me in early and make sure I’m here, but I have the whole day to do what I want. So you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to take a nap. If you there at 5 in the morning, that means you had to wake up at 3:30, and had been up late the night before preparing because this was the job that was going to put me on top of the world — at least that’s what I thought. And I had been there more than 12 hours the day before. So I was exhausted. Plus the anxiety. All of those things combined.

“So I took a nap and I fell into a deep sleep. And 15 or 20 minutes later, somebody comes to the trailer and bangs on the door. I jumped up and caught an immediate headache. That’s been my experience all my life, if somebody shocks me out of a deep sleep, my head hurts. And I said, ‘What’s going on?’ and they said, ‘We need you on set.’ So I said, ‘OK, I guess it’s different today.’ (Laughs)

“I get dressed. I go to set. The other actors are there. My head is pounding and I’m in a state of shock because I had assumed they were going to call for me 12 hours later. They call ‘action’ — and I can’t remember any of my lines.

“So I said, ‘Sorry guys, I’m so sorry. Let me recollect myself and we can get back to it.’ They call action. I still can’t remember my lines: ‘I’m so sorry, guys.’ Alright, let’s do it again. Action. I still don’t have my lines. And that’s when the stand-in turns around and says, ‘Who hired this guy?’ (Laughs) And I was like, ‘Oh my god, did you just say that? You feel you can do a better job than me?’

“But this process went on and on and on. The director was getting frustrated, the producers were getting frustrated, and I’m just standing there trying to remember the dialogue. They’re on a schedule and I know they’re thinking: We need to move on and we hired you because you can do the job, so do the job. My head was pounding. Now I’m nervous. The pressure was on. The tension was building.

“And then Jerry Orbach (who played Det. Lennie Briscoe) put his hand on my back and looked me in my eye and said, ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s gonna be all right, you’re good. Don’t let anybody put you under pressure.’ And I was like, ‘Wow. Thank you, man.’ And I turned around and delivered the lines and got through the scene.

“And as soon as I delivered those lines, I was expecting a little praise because I finally got it, but instead everybody said, ‘Moving on!’ and left me standing there by myself (laughs). Truth be told, after they walked away, I don’t think they even thought about me, that’s how fast they left (laughs). It was crazy. I’m thinking there’s going to be a round of applause, but it was like the curtain dropped and everything was gone (laughs).

“So I went back to class the next day and I said to my coach, ‘I’m never going to work in Hollywood again. This is it. It’s over. I’m about to go find another profession.’ I really thought my career was finished, because you assume that the first job you get is the most important job ever. It’s going to be the thing that catapults your career. Or the opposite. And my coach said, ‘Don’t worry about it. Things like this happen, they’re not going to hold it against you.’

“And fortunately they didn’t, because fast forward two years later, I worked on ‘Law & Order: SVU.’ And then fast forward after that, I’m working on ‘The Wire’ and who comes through to direct an episode? None other than the director who directed me on ‘Law & Order.’ He didn’t remember me but I remembered him!”

Has Hector ever found himself reassuring a guest actor who is feeling flustered?

“Absolutely. That’s all I do. That is a lesson learned, what Jerry Orbach did for me. He was the only one that treated me with that level of respect and he considered the way I was feeling at the moment and he consoled me. He understood that you’re not going to get a performance out of this guy by twisting the screws. And his little tap on my shoulder is what got me through the scene. So for me moving forward, that’s all I do. Anybody comes on set and I see that they’re nervous, I’m like: ‘You made it through the casting process for a reason. So let’s just take our time.’”

The takeaway …

“Don’t go to sleep unless you know the schedule and you can build in 15 minutes before lunch or something like that. So stay awake, stay ready, stay in work mode.

“I did end up watching the episode of ‘Law & Order’ when it aired and I loved it (laughs)! I was present because Jerry allowed me to be present. So I didn’t have any twinges watching it.”

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