J.R. Martinez is heading to the season finale of "Army Wives" this weekend, playing a therapist helping a soldier through recovery.
"In a weird way, I actually know what that's like because I went through it myself," the actor and former "Dancing with the Stars" champ told Billy Bush and Kit Hoover on Access Hollywood Live on Tuesday.
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"Being in recovery for two and a half years, I knew how therapists talked, I knew what they essentially would say to me to kind of motivate me or if I was having a bad day, so it was really easy to play that character and be that physical therapist," he continued. "At the same time I was expected to be a motivator, which is who I am, it's what I do, so, in a lot of ways, it wasn't acting, it was me kind of having an opportunity to be myself."
J.R. actually filmed his guest spot on a special day this summer.
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"As you get older, you don't celebrate your birthdays any more. You don't go out and party. You don't do Vegas like Michael Phelps and all them, and [Prince] Harry. You work now and plus, I'm a dad, you work now and it was actually on my birthday that I did 'Army Wives,' which is June 14," he said.
The actor spent several years as a regular on the now-canceled "All My Children," and he revealed it was the ABC soap where the acting bug really bit.
"Acting is fun, man. I stumbled upon it in 2008 [through] 'All My Children,' and I thought [I would] just have fun with. It'd be something cool to say I did one day, 'I was on the show with Susan Lucci and all the big ones of daytime television,' and it evolved and I actually got the bug," J.R. said. "I love the art of acting, so it was really cool [that] 'Army Wives' reached out to me and said, 'Hey, we'd love for you to be part of our finale.' It's a great show."
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The "Army Wives" season finale airs Sunday at 10/9c on Lifetime.
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