COME OVER ‘HERE’

Love sees Portland hipster through personal turmoil

ADOPTED Colombian orphan Ramon Boatwright (Daniel Zovatto) is a gamer who begins to have frightening, perhaps cosmic visions in the new family drama “Here and Now.” His mother, former therapist Audrey Bayer (Holly Hunter), fears he is having a schizophrenic episode (this mental health disease runs in her family) and freaks out. His therapist, Dr. Shokrani (Peter Macdissi), wants the 22-year-old Ramon, who has a promising career ahead of him designing video games, to speak for himself. But he can’t always articulate his feelings. The only refuge from this personal turmoil seems to be Henry (Andy Bean), an older man who works in the laundromat/cafe not far from Ramon’s Portland apartment.

“Here and Now” is Alan Ball’s first series since “True Blood,” which ran for seven seasons on HBO. The new show tackles issues of race, religion, sexuality and politics with a large cast headed by Hunter and Tim Robbins, who play the parents of three adopted kids and one biological child. Zovatto, 26, spoke to The Post about his character’s weird storyline by phone from the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills.

How did you feel when you learned that Ramon’s storyline would center around these disturbing visions?

Challenge accepted. You wish for these opportunities. It was obviously a combina- tion of excitement and willingness. A big pie of emotions. And it was six months of feeling crazy and not like myself. But it was a thrill.

Henry comes into Ramon’s life at a significant point. What is the effect on Ramon?

He’s everything to Ramon. He is this joker card. Ramon doesn’t know a lot about him. He knows that Henry cares for him. He’s a safety net and feels with Henry that he has somebody in his corner.

Did you do any research on schizophrenia?

I actually have a person who’s very close to me who’s gone through that with a family member of hers. It’s a very tricky thing. It can be everything from stories of hearing voices or that the government is tracking you or something is living inside your ear. It’s scary because it makes you feel very alone. The biggest thing is the impotence of wanting to do something [to help], but not being able to do very much.

Did you play video games growing up?

I never had an Xbox. I played “FIFA” soccer and “Madden NFL.” That was the extent of my gaming career. For this, I wanted to make sure I had an amazing-ass computer. I downloaded all the games, like “Warcraft.” I spent 10 to 12 hours in front of the computer, barely sleeping, not taking a shower. Getting into the rhythm. Ramon’s trying to discover himself through video games so I tried to live his life every day for as long as I could.