Jason Gedrick made his first splash as a young actor with a starring role in 1986’s Iron Eagle and he hasn’t stopped working since. Whether it was Murder One or Boomtown or Desperate Housewives or Luck or Dexter, he’s been a consistent television mainstay for the past couple of decades. His latest small screen turn is Raynard Waits in the Amazon hit, Bosch.

Bosch stars Titus Welliver (The Good Wife, Sons of Anarchy) as Harry Bosch, an LAPD homicide detective working to solve the murder of a 13-year-old boy while standing trial in federal court for the murder of a serial killer. Season one of the show takes its inspiration from three of Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch novels – City of Bones, Echo Park, and The Concrete Blonde.

In March, when Bosch had the biggest debut weekend of all Amazon Original Series and was the top-watched title on Prime Instant Video, across movies and TV series in its first four weeks, Amazon immediately renewed it for a second season. Co-star Jason Gedrick recently talked about the beginning of his acting career with Tom Cruise and Sean Penn to his most recent acting job.

You’re from Chicago and you went to school in Iowa. How did you get the acting bug?

I saw a play in Chicago when I was like 10 years old. It was the play Annie and I remember thinking, ‘I could do that.’ That was the first fleeting feeling I had. Then in high school on one of my lunch breaks, I went to a McDonald’s. They were shooting a commercial and there was that feeling again. Not long after that, I had the chance to do some extra work on two movies that were shooting in Chicago during the same summer, one was Risky Business and the other was the Sean Penn version of Bad Boys.

It’s kind of an interesting story how I got to be available for that, but the end game was that I got to be an extra on both of those films and I got to be somewhat social with both Sean and Tom Cruise. They gave me some insight as to what the business was about. It was lucky for me to get that up close and personal introduction to filmmaking. These were two guys who were clearly very ambitious and very confident. Also, on both of those sets there were some performing arts students who already had agents and they were telling me how they got agents so I took a few steps forward to get into the business.

You mentioned there was an interesting story. Do you want to share that?

The reason I ended up being an extra was that I was playing football and got injured. I couldn’t go to my summer two a day practice sessions and ended up taking a job in a café instead. I became at chef at this restaurant. I was 17 at the time and one of the waiters was an actor. He was in his early twenties and he told me they were casting for these movies [Bad Boys and Risky Business] and that I should try out. I thought, ‘are you out of your mind? I’m not actor.’ He told me that I was about the right age they [casting agents] were looking for and to go to this address and meet some people there.

So I went there and they told me that they would use me. I then went to my first day of background work on Bad Boys. We shot at this elementary school. Word got around that they were looking for people who would be glorified extras for a three week period. What was apparent to me was if you were going to be on the set long term, you were given a jacket, a juvenile hall issued jacket. They only gave those jackets to kids who were rougher looking and I had a baby face. Looks-wise, I was always three to four years behind the rest of my peers and that was still true at the age of 15, 16, so they didn’t give me a jacket initially.

They also had some actual juvenile inmates that were used for the movie that were there at the elementary school. They immediately handed the jackets to those kids since they were the real deal. I saw the biggest, meanest looking guy who was an actual inmate at the juvenile correction center and I thought to myself, ‘if I can get his jacket, then I will be on the set long term.’

Watching him, I could tell that he was the least interested, but they were going to use him no matter what, jacket or no jacket. He threw his jacket to the side and I grabbed it and I stuffed it behind a toilet in the boys room. I waited until the end of the day. He was a large guy so it was a large jacket. I put it on and it was huge. I kind of draped it up and rolled it under my arms so I wouldn’t look ridiculous. They asked me for my name when they saw the jacket and they registered my name. They took my picture and I was trying to scowl like I was tough. So that’s how I was able to be on the set for an extended period of time.

Later in the shoot, Sean invited a bunch of us extras to join him at a showing of Fast Times at Ridgemont High that had been released that summer. He was very much in character for Bad Boys so no one recognized him as Spicoli. Everyone was just blown away and couldn’t believe that it was the same person. It was just bizarre. One night, Sean asked if I wanted to grab a bite to eat. We were at this hotel in downtown Chicago and he had to make a phone call. He told me that if anyone came to the door to just let them in. He was on the phone with Jennifer Jason Leigh talking about the reviews for Fast Times at Ridgemont High which were just off the chart.

There was a knock on the door and this guy came in beaming with confidence. I said, ‘hi, my name’s Jason. Sean said you’re in town shooting a movie too.’ He said, ‘yea, my name’s Tom. Are we going to grab a bite to eat or what?’

This was Tom Cruise of course. He had worked with Sean previously on a movie called Taps. So I ended up going to dinner that night with Tom Cruise and Sean Penn before they had broken. Risky Business was just being filmed and Fast Times had just opened. People weren’t quite sure who they were yet, but they were already so serious about the profession and so clear about their destination.

We finish dinner and Sean says, ‘let’s do an improv.’ I asked what an improv was and Sean said, ‘let’s pretend I took Tom’s wallet and you guys have to track me down and beat the shit out of me to get his wallet back.’ We were at this upscale mall called the Watertower Place in Chicago right on Michigan Avenue. Sean said he was going to get lost and that Tom and I had to find him. There’s a glass elevator and the next thing you know, Sean is climbing up the elevator to get out so we know where to find him. We find him in this corner and we act like we’re punching him to get Tom’s wallet. We were then running down the escalator like three, four, five stairs at a time. I’m laughing so hard I can barely contain my hysteria. We run out of the mall and a security guard starts chasing us shouting, ‘what happened? What happened?’

Tom looks at him deadly serious and says, ‘he stole my wallet man.’ I’m trying so hard not to laugh when Sean comes out. We go to the record store. They were going through the soundtracks, vinyl soundtracks back then, and there was the Fast Times soundtrack and on the cover is Sean with two babes on his arms. I think they found a Taps soundtrack as well. The whole night was surreal. Both Sean and Tom, on set though, were extremely focused and serious. As an extra on those films, I saw their work ethic and I tried to carry that with me.

Apparently it worked since you’ve worked steadily since the 80s and not many people can say that.

[Laughing] That’s true. I’m very grateful for that. Not that I owe anything to Sean or Tom, but I still want to give that ultimate performance where they would say, ‘good for him.’

Well maybe they will catch your new TV show Bosch on Amazon. For people who might not be familiar with Bosch, could you tell people a little about the show and your character?

Bosch is based on the series of books by Michael Connelly featuring the protagonist, Harry Bosch, played by Titus Welliver. They were finally able to convince Michael Connelly, after many years, to let his books be adapted. I actually read for the role many months before I was cast. My character doesn’t appear until the second episode of the series so they had already shot the pilot. They had made some changes and reshot some footage before they cast me, a character who’s misunderstood, Raynard Waits.

It’s just been a dream experience. Michael Connelly welcomed me with open arms. Early on, I asked Michael how soon and how quickly he’d want it known that [Raynard] is who he is. How should I play it up to the audience or should I not play it at all? He shared this really cool metaphor. Imagine this sling shot being pulled back and that’s the first few episodes. When you let go, that’s every episode after. It was a very insightful shortcut into understanding the show’s trajectory.

Getting into my character a little bit, there really wasn’t that much written about Raynard in the books. The book that really pertains to Raynard Waits is Echo Park. I read the book, but there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot that conveyed who [Raynard] was. I was able to discover [my character] along the way. It’s built in the he’s evil or nefarious on some level. The real question is what traps don’t I want to fall into as an actor? I want to find the character’s point of view. Why is he this way? How could he justify that? Is it an urge like a drug or is it an urge to reach his end goal? What may have happened to him that shut down part of his psyche? You get into the abuse and it becomes less about aggressive acts than it is about changing wrongs that were done to him to settle the score. It makes it much easier to justify those more harrowing scenes.

So why should people watch Bosch.

It comes from a great writer, Michael Connelly with a proven track record for one. He’s sold over 60 million books. Bosch has an incredible pedigree with the makers of The Wire. Amazon allowed Bosch to not be like every other show. For instance, the show takes its time in setting the groundwork in the calm before the storm kind of way before you’re suddenly immersed in this wild pursuit. There’s something attractive about the fact that we’re all capable of violence on some level if pushed to the brink.

Season 1 of Bosch is available on Amazon.com. Season 2 will be available in early 2016.