\n<\/p>\n
When Morris Chestnut first heard about \u201cWatson,\u201d a new CBS medical mystery<\/a> set within the Sherlock Holmes mythology, he was interested. But once he read the script by Craig Sweeny \u2014 the show\u2019s creator and one of the writers behind that other Sherlockian CBS series, \u201cElementary<\/a>\u201d \u2014 he grew even more excited.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has so many crazy, creative ideas,\u201d Chestnut, 56, said. \u201cSo I rushed to it. I said, \u2018I have to do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWatson\u201d opens as Chestnut\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s treating patients, and while he\u2019s treating those patients, he somewhat also has to treat himself,\u201d Chestnut said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Studying to be a doctor is stressful, but so is studying to sound like one, and it requires a certain level of sacrifice \u2014 especially for an N.F.L. addict.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I\u2019m doing the show, I literally have to pick one game on Sunday,\u201d Chestnut said of learning the medical jargon that flows like honey from Watson\u2019s mouth. \u201cIn the middle of commercial breaks, I\u2019m looking at the script.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut the guys who are playing, they\u2019re making a living and I have to make mine,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n These are edited excerpts from the conversation.<\/p>\n I go to bed early and I wake up very early, and it\u2019s 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\u2019s just essential to who I am as a person.<\/p>\n My normal gym doesn\u2019t open until 5 a.m. So I have a membership at a gym that\u2019s open 24 hours. Then there\u2019s another gym where I go to play basketball. I have three memberships that all serve their own purpose.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n When I get on the treadmill, when I get on a StairMaster, it\u2019s my discipline that pushes me through. When I\u2019m playing basketball, I\u2019m just having fun. I\u2019m hanging out with the guys. I\u2019m talking mess to the guys. I\u2019m getting the cardio without feeling like work.<\/p>\n That\u2019s my favorite time of the year. On Sundays, I\u2019m literally watching football from 10 o\u2019clock in the morning till 8 o\u2019clock 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 \u201cMonday Night Football.\u201d I call myself a football loser.<\/p>\n Not only do I love it \u2014 it\u2019s soothing to me \u2014 but it\u2019s also therapeutic. It\u2019s helpful in my work because it triggers thoughts, triggers memories, triggers emotions. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n I have a huge, huge sweet tooth, and when I\u2019m working and I know I\u2019m going to have a shirtless scene, I\u2019m more disciplined with my eating. Most people are picking the restaurants by the entree. I\u2019m picking the restaurant by the lava cake.<\/p>\n My wife and I have very different viewing tastes. But the one thing that we both love to watch together are crime docuseries. I\u2019m pretty sure we\u2019ve seen every single version of \u201cForensic Files.\u201d And we\u2019re always watching \u201cDateline.\u201d I don\u2019t like the ones that don\u2019t have a conclusion. I can\u2019t invest an hour or two to not have a payoff.<\/p>\n I love being comfortable. If I\u2019m 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\u2019m running errands. And then I have an even more elevated suit, like this one, when I\u2019m doing interviews or I\u2019m traveling on the plane.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n 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\u2019s basically another language for me.<\/p>\n My kids are 27 and 26. They\u2019re 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\u2019ll watch that together. My daughter, she\u2019s more of a horror movie fan, so we\u2019ll watch those together. On her birthday, she called me and said, \u201cI want to see a movie.\u201d So I\u2019m thinking, \u201cI don\u2019t recall any horror movies being out.\u201d And of course it was \u201cWicked.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nMeditation First Thing in the Morning<\/span><\/h3>\n
3 Gym Memberships<\/span><\/h3>\n
Pickup Games<\/span><\/h3>\n
N.F.L. Season<\/span><\/h3>\n
R&B<\/span><\/h3>\n
Dessert<\/span><\/h3>\n
Crime TV<\/span><\/h3>\n
Sweatsuits for Different Occasions<\/span><\/h3>\n
Learning a \u2018Second\u2019 Language<\/span><\/h3>\n
Family Time, Screens Allowed<\/span><\/h3>\n