‘Major’ win

When actor Graham Patrick Martin joined the cast of the TNT drama “Major Crimes” last year, he felt major pressure to succeed on the spinoff of “The Closer.”

“I was kind of nervous just because my character was going to be a pivot point between the shows,” he says about portraying Rusty Beck, a homeless hustler and witness in a homicide case who was first introduced in last summer’s series finale of “The Closer,” which starred Kyra Sedgwick.

“I was afraid if my character didn’t work and people didn’t buy into it, then the whole show would tank — and it would be my fault,” he says. “It was very terrifying, but kind of the reality of the situation.”

Martin, 21, had no need to worry. In its sophomore season, the series is the second-highest rated cable show in overall viewers this summer, right behind the TNT hit “Rissoli & Isles.”

The blond-haired, blue-eyed Louisiana native — who occasionally lets slip a trace of a Southern twang when speaking — started acting at age 8 at a performing arts camp in upstate New York. In 2005, at age 13, Martin’s family moved to New York, where he attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts on the Upper West Side and hired an acting coach.

After two years of school, commercials and guest roles on shows such as “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” his agent scheduled his first Hollywood audition — for the role of older son Trent Pearson on the TBS sitcom “The Bill Engvall Show.” He got the part.

When that show wound down in 2009, he was hired for a recurring spot as Eldridge Mackelroy, the best friend of Jake Harper (played by Angus T. Jones) on the hit CBS sitcom “Two and a Half Men.”

The baby-faced Martin landed his “Major Crimes” role as his part on “Men” ended in 2012. In the cop drama, which includes much of the original “Closer” cast, Rusty enters into both protective custody and foster care under the narrow eyes of Captain Sharon Raydor (Mary McDonnell) of the LAPD Major Crimes unit.

In a recent phone interview from Los Angeles, Martin talked about playing youthful roles, working with pre-Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence and his aversion to technology.

How did your two years in New York work out?

“New York was kind of this great transition. When you’re, like, an 11- and 10-year-old actor, pretty much all that’s required is you have to be cute and memorize lines. I found this acting teacher, Ann Ratray, and she really showed me, at age 13, how it isn’t just memorizing lines and showing your dimples. She introduced me to good work and good plays and really opened my eyes to that aspect of acting.”

You found success in Hollywood right away on “The Bill Engvall Show,” working alongside Jennifer Lawrence, who played your older sister.

“It was really exciting because it was kind of both of our first big gigs. When it premiered, I just remember her texting me, ‘We’re rock stars.’ And I find that funny because now she really is a huge rock star. She was incredibly talented, and it was a really fun experience for both of us to grow together in that setting.”

Your height, 5-foot-7, and slim frame help you look like a teenager.

“Oh, that’s very generous — I’m 5-foot-6½. On a good day, I’m five-seven, after yoga. I’ve always been kind of a small guy. I can still play 16, 17 — I can’t complain. I think it’ll be a problem when I stop feeling that young energy and still look young. But I still feel like I’m 15 years old, you know?”

Rusty on “Major Crimes” is an emotionally realistic role, but your preparation excluded visiting a homeless shelter. Why was that?

“I decided to do online research. What makes the most sense was to go and meet these kids who I’m going to represent on television. I’d gotten as far as calling to see if I could come by and do anything that they needed me to do. But I don’t think I could in my right mind — it just felt wrong to hang out with these kids who are facing this reality, and then turn around and go and make a bunch of money off of it.”

In the recent Anna Nicole Smith biopic on Lifetime, you played the older version of her son Daniel, who died of an overdose only months before she did. Was that a tough part for you?

“I had never played a real person before. It was challenging because people know their personality — and you don’t want to just become a caricature, like an ‘SNL’ character. I really more focused on the psychology of what he went through — this child who grew up with a mother who struggled with addiction and was also in the national spotlight. Dipping into that and finding the voice from inside of him, rather than what’s been portrayed by the media and other outlets.”

“Major Crimes” is on hiatus right now. How do you generally spend your off-hours?

“I try to stay in acting classes as much as I can. I hike all the time. I go to the beaches, and my friends and I just took up surfing — and I’m terrible at it.”

And you’re on Twitter.

“But I don’t spend too much time on social media because people are spending more time looking at screens than they are looking at the world. When I was younger, people would say that by the time you die you spend two weeks of your life waiting at a red light. Now by the time we die, imagine how much time we will have spent looking at a screen.”

Of course, we set up this

interview via text message.

(laughs) “Yeah, yeah, yeah — I do text. As passionate as I am about being anti-technology, you kind of do have to conform to the way you do business these days, which involves technology.”

Do you have any advice for Anthony Weiner regarding his texting issues?

“Oh, no — I mean, who needs advice from a 21-year-old kid? It’s just a testament to how technology can be dangerous in many different aspects. My advice to everybody would be, you know, instead of sending a text message, smell a flower. Instead of tweeting and surfing Facebook for an hour, why don’t you take a walk around your block. There’s a lot of beauty in this world, and people are wasting it looking at a little screen.”

MAJOR CRIMES

9 p.m., Monday TNT