Omar Epps is a master of understatement.
“People really seem to dig the show,” the actor says of “Resurrection,” his new ABC drama, which has enviably averaged 11 million viewers for its first three ⛦episodes.
The series’ uniqueness is clearly a draw. “It’s ✤not that it’s a hard sell, but it’s more of how do you promote this thing without it being categorized as another ‘Walking Dead’ or something like that,” he tells The Post by phone from LA. “Market the show with its own identity — and then it’s up to the ൲people.”
Epps portrays J. Martin Bellamy, a customs agent who travels to Arcadia, Mo., to reunite 8-year-old Jacob Langston (Landon Gimenez) — a boy who drowned 30 year𝔉s prior, but has mysteriously reappeared in China — with his incredulous parents, Henry (Kurtwood Smith) and Lucille (Frances Fisher).
The enigma grows as more☂ people seemingly return from the dead, and Bellamy exhumes Jacob’s grave, which still contains the boy’s remains.
What does that all that mean f🅠or both viewers and ꦏthe story?
“More questions!” he says with a laugh. “The mystery really kicks in. The characters are stil🐟l trying to figure out if this is even really happening or just a mistaken identity. It’s gonna be a fun ride.”
Epps says he enjoyed mo꧅lding his role in𒁃to one that is far from stagnant.
“Bellamy’s process starts out as intellectual. He’s trying to do his job, but as the season pro💯gresses I think the audience will see it become more emotional because he has a connection to this young boy — essentially, to his family — and then, to the town,” Epps says. “We get to see him go deeper down that rabbit hole. Hಞe’s gonna have a lot to deal with.”
And, like viewers, Epps himself was initially🗹 fascinated by the show’s fresh concept. “I’ve played everything that was out there, and this show just had its own voice,” he says. “It jumped out to me.”
For the 40-year-old Ep🍰ps, a married 🍬father of three, “everything” includes film and TV roles — and more — stretching back to his teen years.
A Brooklyn native and self-described “normal latchkey kid growing up in the ’hood,” Epps showed his creativity by writing poetry and music starting around age 10. After studying drama at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and the Performing Arts, he landed first film role — opposite rapper Tupac Shakur — in 1992’s “Jui🐽ce,” which deౠpicted the lives of young men coming of age in Harlem.
“When we were doing it, we w💯ere all just kids having a great time, you know?” Epps says, adding, “And it was a film that, I think, spoke to💙 all of us in our individual ways.”
He was especially impressed with Shakur. “Tupac was a force of nature. I mean, even back then, who would have known he woꦺuld go on to become a legend?” he says of the singer and actor, who only four years later died in an apparent gang-relate𓂃d shooting in Las Vegas. “But he was just an incredible artist, and we had a lot of fun working together.”
In the early 19𒊎90s, Epps was also a budding hip-hop performer and spent about a year as a backup dancer and singer on tour w🍬ith Queen Latifah. “I was 18 and it was my first time really traveling the country,” he says. “Latifah’s a great person, so I learned a lot. It’s one of my best memories.”
He moved to LA about 15 years ago, but adds that his native New York inspired him. “I always say I’m biased, but it is really one 🦹of the greatest cities on the planet. There’s just so much ar⛦t and so many different cultures that you can experience a lot of the world in one small place,” he says. “Those life experiences really helped shape me as an artist.”
Over his career Epps has landed in a number of films, including the 1999 big-scr🍎een remake of the ‘60s cop drama “The Mod Squad” — opposite “Homeland” star Claire Danes — and the 2004 Jude Law movie “Alfie.” In addition, Epps has his own seven-year-old movie and television production company, BrooklynWorks Films, 🌌which currently has several projects in development.
But he’s perhaps best known for playing doctors on two🌞 different TV series.
From 1996-97, Epps was on “ER” as Dr. Dennis Gant, who met a horrific end when he was hit by an elevated subway train. Later,𝔉 he played Dr. Eric Foreman on the 2004-12 Fox hit “House M.D.,” a role for which he☂ twice won an NAACP Image Award.
“‘House’ was a phenomenal experience,” Epps says. “I remember the first day we were shooting the pilot and the last day we shot on the set. I played one character for eight years — I’d never done that before — so that definitely cha🦋llenged me creatively. The whole thing just has a sacred place in my heart.”
Now, on “Resurrection,” the seasoned Epps appreciates playing opposite newcomer Gimenez, whose role as Jacob is his acting debut. “Creatively, man, he really did his thing. The fact that this is his first gig I think lent an innocence that plays well,” he says of the 10-year-old actor. “I ꩵenjoyed working with Landon; he stepped up to the plate.”
With that in mind, Epps reaches back to his own early days as a writ🌠er, pulling inspiration from an elementary school essay in which Epps wrote that he wanted to become the first black president of the United States. Someone beat Epps to the punch, of course, but his writing had a broader message.
“It was less about actually running for president and more about dreamin🦹g ꦐbig. That’s really what I get from it now,” he says. “You can achieve anything you want — you just have to see it.”
And how f🀅ar along is Epps on his own journey? “I feel 🗹like I’m just getting started,” he says.