It’s a bit frustrating to me how many of the images available in an image search of ER are publicity shots, not actual stills from an episode. I mostly don’t want to use posed pictures of people on the set; I want to use pictures of people actually acting. Honestly, I think the place most people think of Eriq La Salle from the show is from the opening credits, where he’s seen celebrating in a way that I can only find as a gif. Because with ER, it’s more than just “I think of the person from ER.” It’s “I think of them doing this one specific thing on ER.
Honestly, where I really think of Eriq La Salle from ER is being a jerk. He did that a lot. He was obnoxious and self-centered and treated a lot of the people in his life like crap. Many of the doctors did; that was where a lot of the recurring drama of the show came from. It’s worth noting that Dr. Peter Benton believed, rightly, that he was under more pressure than wealthy, white Dr. John Carter (not of Mars) ever was, and that influenced a lot of his actions, both toward Carter and toward other people. Carter was not supposed to be thought of as the kind of jerk Benton was, but Benton was also, to me at least, a much more interesting character.
They also developed his family life in a way that not a lot of ensemble shows did with black characters. He had a sister, a girlfriend, eventually a son. I strongly suspect most of his character’s arc was based on white writers’ expectations about what the character arc of a black character’s arc would be. Though I will note that the pilot script I’ve read doesn’t mention anything about the character’s ethnicity from what I can tell, so that’s very nice. And that script is not exactly subtle in its racial politics, I can assure you. And given that La Salle has been directing and producing more than acting lately, I wonder how much input he had on the whole thing.
Honestly, of all the people who could’ve been breakout stars from the show, La Salle’s failure to achieve greater success is the most surprising to me, though of course also not. He was 32 when the show aired, which is a decent age for an actor to become a big success. He’s a little over a year younger than George Clooney, after all. He does fine work on the show—maybe he never shows much of a sense of humour, because Benton didn’t really have one, but still. There should’ve been more opportunities for him, and I’ve got one guess as to why there weren’t.
He has done other work, though I haven’t seen most of it. Honestly, about the only thing I remember seeing him in other than ER is another NBC show. On the episode of Quantum Leap where Sam Leaps into a ’60s girl group, Eriq La Salle plays the sleazy “promoter” who is trying to seduce the sixteen-year-old girl Sam is there to help. It’s a small role, but La Salle acts the hell out of it. In a just world, he’d get more attention than this, and I’m a little ashamed that I probably wouldn’t have gotten to him if I hadn’t decided to profile a bunch of people from ER.
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