After playing politically motivated ex-police Captain David Aceveda on FX's The Shield for the last six seasons, actor Benito Martinez is now looking ahead to the final season of the popular, gritty, and hard-nosed series. With The Shield "The Final Act" about to begin on September 2 at 10pm on FX, the cast is preparing to end their run as one of the pioneering shows that put FX on the cable map.

This week, as we log the date to catch "The Final Act", we were invited to take part in a conference call with Benito Martinez to get the scoop on how he and Vic will be starting the season, whether there's anything he'd like to see his character do before the end, and what he has planned for the future beyond The Shield.

THE DEADBOLT: Was there anything you were hoping to see David accomplish before the end of the series?

BENITO MARTINEZ: Oh, that’s a good one. Wow. What I wish the audience could see more of was David out there serving the community a bit more in his political arena and how he was able to effect change that way. But, you know, it pales in comparison to what they were able to do. I lack the imagination that the writers have. I really have to say I am very satisfied and complete in the journey that David was.

THE DEADBOLT: You provided your own voice for the video game, correct?

MARTINEZ: Yes.

THE DEADBOLT: What kinds of challenge does that bring as compared to acting in front of the camera?

MARTINEZ: You know, when you bring your voice to different voice-over things, like video games and cartoons, and I do tons of stuff like that in voiceovers and whatnot, it’s very fun and freeing. But when you bring yourself or an image that looks exactly like you on a character, it’s very constricting because you’re like, "That’s not how I would look when I said this line." You have to get over it and you really have to say, "Do I look like that and do I move like that?" When they put it all together, you are, "Do I sound like that?" It’s very odd because it’s too close to home. The fun part about doing voice-overs and all that stuff is that you’re not yourself; you’re some other looking thing and sounding thing and whatever else. So that is the biggest challenge.

THE DEADBOLT: Cool. You’ve been on the show for seven years, when it finally wraps are you looking to just do film or do you want to jump back into TV again?

MARTINEZ: You know, we were lucky, I would love to do TV again and I’ve already done a guest spot on a couple of different shows. We were lucky to not have the bump and grind of all year long on a show, so we’re not burned out in that regard as far as the series. It’s like we made a movie every year, because we did 13 episodes for about five months. That’s generally if you have a great role in a movie you’re going to work about five months, so we made a movie every year kind of feel to it. I’m ready to do the bump and grind of a big series, long series and long hours, and stuff like that because I’m not burned out from it. Of course, great film roles they always take you to another place. I’d love to do more of that, but I keep doing lots of voice-overs, some TV spots, and some film roles have come along, so I’m okay. I’m happy with the way it’s kind of shaping itself up. I’d love to do more theater, but that’s always a difficult thing to do for timing.

THE DEADBOLT: Are David and Vic still in alliance at the beginning of Season 7, and how do you hope that will play out?

MARTINEZ: Yes, they’re still in alliance, but it gets very complicated very fast. David and Vic are always two sides to the same coin because they want their own mission accomplished. They want the other one to serve them. They’re always at odds going, "I’ll help you but you’ve got to take care of my thing." True to form, these two guys say, "Yes, we’re going to help each other out. Oh, by the way, let’s do my thing first." They go, "Okay, but let’s do this thing first and then your thing." We do that fast. It falls apart real quick, wheels fall off, and mayhem ensues. Yes, we do start off together, but we don’t last together very long.

THE DEADBOLT: Your next project is Not Forgotten, a film.

MARTINEZ: Yes, the last thing I filmed I’m playing the President-elect of the United States of America on The Unit, so, President-elect Castile. We just finished that last week. And before that, Simon Baker, Paz Vega, and myself, a film called Not Forgotten. I just finished the looping on that two weeks ago, ten days ago, something like that.

THE DEADBOLT: Since you’re always cast as a cop, I was wondering, do you think you look like a cop? What’s the reason?

MARTINEZ: I have no idea. That’s one of those things. I want to be a lawyer. I want to play a lawyer, a doctor, or I’ll play anything you want me to play. On stage, I’ve always played the rogue, I’ve played the clown. I come from a comedy background, playing different things like that. The cop thing just keeps recurring for me, and, hey, you know what, I like playing them. It’s not a problem.