She’s Entering a Critical Phase

Actress Kellie Martin--blond, blue-eyed and fiercely bubbly--is a television veteran, one of those people, at least until now, more defined by her roles than her own name.

She was teenage Becca Thatcher on the well-regarded ABC family drama “Life Goes On” (1989-93), then segued a year later to the title role of CBS’ “Christy” (1994-95), portraying a young missionary teacher in the early 1900s in the mountains of east Tennessee. She played a psychologist last year on NBC’s short-lived “Crisis Center” and has appeared in more than a dozen TV movies.

Just turned 23, she’s now one of the regular NBC Thursday night crew on “ER.” Taking time off from her college education at Yale, Martin plays third-year medical student Lucy Knight, newcomer to the emergency room and, of course, to “ER,” which is in its fifth season.

Despite her resume, Martin sounds anything but jaded as she chats during a fast break on the Warner Bros. set in Burbank. After all, she did latch on to television’s top-ranked show.

“Last spring when I was at school, my mom called. I was, like, studying for finals, I dwas in this terrible mood, and she called me in my dorm room. She says, ‘Kellie, they want you to be on “ER.” ’ And I went, ‘Mom, don’t joke around with me.’ I didn’t say ‘joke,’ ” she adds with a grin.

When the formal offer came through, also by phone, Martin re-enacts it with a certain breathiness--”I said, ‘Yes, absolutely.’

“I’ve always respected the show a lot,” she says. “I like to work on shows that I respect. . . . This place is so well run. Everyone’s, like, so much fun to work with; everyone has this light attitude and of course they can be serious when there’s a serious scene, but really everyone’s like cajjj.” (As in casual.)

If she sounds more Valley girl than Yale--she is an art history major, with an impressive 3.6 grade point average after three years--Martin laughingly hints that it’s because she’s focusing on the words to come in her next scene. Not that she doesn’t have her lines down pat and her movements sorted out as she goes toe to toe with Noah Wyle (Dr. John Carter, her physician supervisor). But it’s those clunky, multisyllabled medical terms that she must get just right on the exacting series. Much like cramming for exams.

Meanwhile, Yale, which she chose because Jodie Foster went there, is on hold. “School is my fun--school is not my work. . . . Oh, I work very hard, but I’m not worried about grad school.”

As Martin sits on some steps awaiting director Jonathan Kaplan’s call, she keeps her right foot elevated. The previous weekend, she suffered a fracture playing tennis, and her foot is encased in a blue orthopedic slipper. On set, the crew shoots above the slipper. Martin forces herself not to limp.

Her scenes with Wyle and Laura Innes (Dr. Kerry Weaver) run smoothly, and Kaplan emits a rat-a-tat-tat of “Cut. Print. Perfect.”

“She’s doing very well,” Wyle says, “far better as an actor than [Lucy] is as a medical student. That first episode”--in which Martin appeared in every scene--”she had to hit the ground running, and be fully prepared and [integrated] into our style, our mode. Move fast, don’t take any moments for yourself, throw every sappy sentimental line away. . . . We were all thoroughly impressed.”

Later, settling into her trailer, Martin points out that if someone said, “What do you want to do next in your career?” she would have said, “Something like ‘ER.’ It’s a critically acclaimed show. It’s a top-rated show. I’d always done shows that were always critically acclaimed or well thought of but never got the ratings. People didn’t see it. And that was always very frustrating.”

Her career on television began at age 7 with a guest spot on Michael Landon’s NBC series “Father Murphy.” Martin’s aunt was a nanny for Landon’s children, and Kellie was friends with his daughter Shawna.

Martin’s love of acting came with “Life Goes On,” in which her character had to cope with a brother who had Down’s syndrome and a boyfriend with AIDS. Becca is still the role she feels closest to. “I started playing her at 13. Like, I had my first kiss, I learned how to drive, I had all these experiences [on] ‘Life Goes On.’ It was really an important time in my life.”

Martin’s life has not been without pain. Her parents separated when she was 15--”and 15 is not like 8,” she says, then brushes the hurt away. “But my parents are awesome, and I see my dad all the time.”

As for Lucy Knight, Martin describes her as a “really bright girl who has really bad practical skills. She gets scared because she doesn’t want to fail. So when she can’t do an IV, she doesn’t tell them she can’t do it, she gets someone to help her.” Is Lucy going to fall in love? “I hope Lucy loosens up enough to fall in love,” notes Martin, whose boyfriend, Keith Christian, 24, is in his final year at Columbia Law School.

* “ER” airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on NBC.