WORLD WARY
‘Reverie’ star doesn’t trust virtual reality
“Heroes” hunk Sendhil Ramamurthy returns in the spooky drama “Reverie.”
REVERIE Wednesday, 10 p.m., NBC
WITH many people in the real world already embracing virtual reality, “Reverie” star Sendhil Ramamurthy said his new series, which shines a light on the pitfalls of VR, may not be so far-fetched. “What exists in “Reverie” doesn’t exist now but it’s not too far out. In 10, 15 years max it’s totally in the realm of possibility,” he told The Post. Ramamurthy, 44, plays Paul Hammond, a dreams specialist and the caretaker of Mara Kint (Sarah Shahi), a former hostage negotiator who’s trying to rescue people who’ve overstayed their welcome in the pleasurable virtual world of the show’s title. Her mission each week is to reunite comatose players with their families and friends.
Ramamurthy — best known for playing scientist Mohinder Suresh on the 2006-10 NBC drama “Heroes” and its 2015-16 sequel, “Heroes Reborn” — spoke by phone from Manhattan, where he lives with his wife, actress Olga Sosnovska, and their two children, Halina, 13, and Alec, 10. The Reverie program is meant to be a positive thing, but will Paul grapple with darker aspects of it?
There have been so many instances where intentions were clearly good — Mark Zuckerberg wanted to connect people around the world [with Facebook], k], not influence elections. ns. Paul is so gung-ho aboutout the program because he struggled with panic attacks and Reverie helped him to address issues. He wants others to experience it. But there are negative effects. Do you see Paul as a good guy?
Absolutely. But he’s also the guy who’s dying to push the boundaries. That’s been one of the fun things to play, Paul’s push and pull. What worries him? His biggest fear is that Reverie is meant for one person and we don’t know what happens when you put a second person in. We can’t just put somebody’s life at risk. It’s one of the show’s themes: Is technology always a good thing? It’s very clearly not. In real life, I’m not even getting into a self-driving car. Time to blush: You’ve been called a heartthrob since “Heroes.” An Entertainment Weekly writer recently said about your show, “My Reverie would be me discovering how handsome handso Sendhil Ramamurthy murt still is, over and over again.” I hadn’t read that [llaughs]. I literally amam blushing. If you ccould see the mirror riright now, you’d see a brobrown man blushing. And lalast week you made Huffington Post’s list of “The 50 Best Celebrity Hairstyles To Try Right Now”? They love its “curl and texture.”
That’s hilarious — I had no idea. I remember the first year of “Heroes” I came in second for the sexiest man mane. First was Patrick Dempsey. I never heard that term before but always refer to my mane now. Would your wife agree? She’s a fan of the hair, for sure. She’s got a thing for Omar Sharif — that’s why she chose me. So that says something.