When Morris Chestnut first heard about “Watson,” a new CBS medical mystery set within the Sherlock Holmes mythology, he was interested. But once he read the script by Craig Sweeny — the show’s creator and one of the writers behind that other Sherlockian CBS series, “Elementary” — he grew even more excited.
“He has so many crazy, creative ideas,” Chestnut, 56, said. “So I rushed to it. I said, ‘I have to do it.’”
“Watson” opens as Chestnut’s character, Dr. John Watson, is rebuilding his life six months after the death of his dear friend and partner, Sherlock Holmes. Holmes has left Watson a parting gift: a medical clinic, in Pittsburgh, devoted to curing rare disorders.
“He’s treating patients, and while he’s treating those patients, he somewhat also has to treat himself,” Chestnut said.
Studying to be a doctor is stressful, but so is studying to sound like one, and it requires a certain level of sacrifice — especially for an N.F.L. addict.
“When I’m doing the show, I literally have to pick one game on Sunday,” Chestnut said of learning the medical jargon that flows like honey from Watson’s mouth. “In the middle of commercial breaks, I’m looking at the script.”
“But the guys who are playing, they’re making a living and I have to make mine,” he said in a video call from New York before talking about the gym memberships and pickup basketball games that keep him camera-ready while he indulges in his favorite food group: dessert.
These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Meditation First Thing in the Morning
I go to bed early and I wake up very early, and it’s good for me to have that quiet time to myself before the day gets started. I do a lot of work before people are even up. It’s just essential to who I am as a person.
3 Gym Memberships
My normal gym doesn’t open until 5 a.m. So I have a membership at a gym that’s open 24 hours. Then there’s another gym where I go to play basketball. I have three memberships that all serve their own purpose.
Pickup Games
When I get on the treadmill, when I get on a StairMaster, it’s my discipline that pushes me through. When I’m playing basketball, I’m just having fun. I’m hanging out with the guys. I’m talking mess to the guys. I’m getting the cardio without feeling like work.
N.F.L. Season
That’s my favorite time of the year. On Sundays, I’m literally watching football from 10 o’clock in the morning till 8 o’clock at night. Football was my first love before I loved girls as a kid. I played Pop Warner. I used to sit at home and watch Howard Cosell on “Monday Night Football.” I call myself a football loser.
R&B
Not only do I love it — it’s soothing to me — but it’s also therapeutic. It’s helpful in my work because it triggers thoughts, triggers memories, triggers emotions. It’s such a challenging industry, and music played a huge factor in me going forward because there were some love songs that would have a lot of positive affirmations in them. I used to sing them to myself to keep myself going.
Dessert
I have a huge, huge sweet tooth, and when I’m working and I know I’m going to have a shirtless scene, I’m more disciplined with my eating. Most people are picking the restaurants by the entree. I’m picking the restaurant by the lava cake.
Crime TV
My wife and I have very different viewing tastes. But the one thing that we both love to watch together are crime docuseries. I’m pretty sure we’ve seen every single version of “Forensic Files.” And we’re always watching “Dateline.” I don’t like the ones that don’t have a conclusion. I can’t invest an hour or two to not have a payoff.
Sweatsuits for Different Occasions
I love being comfortable. If I’m not on a set, my daily life will require a sweatsuit when going to the gym. I have a slightly more elevated sweatsuit for when I’m running errands. And then I have an even more elevated suit, like this one, when I’m doing interviews or I’m traveling on the plane.
Learning a ‘Second’ Language
It is so intense doing an hour drama, especially a character such as Watson, where he has to spew a lot of medical jargon. I can say a word before lunch perfectly. But sometimes we go off into the late hours at night and it’s basically another language for me.
Family Time, Screens Allowed
My kids are 27 and 26. They’re figuring their life out and what they want to do for the next 10 years. So we kind of have to balance that. My son is also an Eagles fan, so we’ll watch that together. My daughter, she’s more of a horror movie fan, so we’ll watch those together. On her birthday, she called me and said, “I want to see a movie.” So I’m thinking, “I don’t recall any horror movies being out.” And of course it was “Wicked.”
