Mike Colter happy Evil is testing his intellectual side
LOS ANGELES — Mike Colter is going from an acting job where his physically invincible character battled villains with superpowers to a new role where he plays a man who faces opponents who could have supernatural abilities. Colter’s path is taking him from being the star of “Luke Cage” to the new CBS psychological mystery “Evil.”
The series, which launches Thursday, shines a light on the origins of evil as seen from both the viewpoint of science and religion. Colter plays David Acosta, a priest-in-training with an interesting past. He teams with Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers), a skeptical psychologist and single mother, to investigate the Church’s backlog of unexplained mysteries. They will wade their way through supposed miracles, demonic possessions and hauntings to investigate each event.
Colter describes the discussions between his person of faith and Herbers’ person of science as the most interesting part of the series.
“Yes, my character is from the church. And, yes, my character does believe in God and the supernatural, but he’s just not looking for that. He wants to find the truth,” Colter says. “He’s there as much for the truth as he wants to make sure the Church doesn’t claim something that isn’t a complete reality.
“The conversation we have will show my character is looking for the truth and not just coming in and saying, ‘Yes. There is a demon.’ That’s not what we are doing here.”
Landing the role fit Colter’s plan perfectly. He wanted his next job after starring in the comic book-inspired series to be as different as possible than playing Luke Cage. That was going to happen with almost any acting job: Colter made history by being the first black lead superhero for the Marvel TV and film universe.
“What I was looking for was something that was completely different and could challenge me in a different way.” Colter says. “I was less interested in something that would be based in the physical, but more in the intellectual.”
Colter’s Luke Cage definitely was heavy on the physical. He wanted his next role to not be the kind of person who can walk into a room and have such a massive presence that people feel compelled to cower to him. When Acosta walks into a room, all he is trying to do is investigate a situation to have enough information to deal with it.
The new acting job comes to Colter after he has starred in a variety of film and TV roles including “Skin,” “Million Dollar Baby, “Zero Dark Thirty,” “The Good Fight,” Blue Bloods,” “American Horror Story” and “The Following.”
“Luke Cage” was his biggest acting break. He wasn’t caught completely off guard when the series was cancelled because the start date for the third season kept being delayed. He calls the end of the show unfortunate but takes pride in knowing the show ended with the fans wanting more.
Colter won’t say if he would agree to play Luke Cage again if the opportunity came up in one of the other Marvel projects. His approach is to avoid looking into the rear-view mirror but rather focus on what is next.
“Evil” is giving Colter a role he understands on a personal level.
“When I was a kid, I used to have these things they would call a ‘hag’ in the South. It was a spirit that would sit on your chest and restrain you while you sleep and not let you open your eyes and you would have trouble breathing,” says the South Carolina native. “That was something that would happen to me quite often.
“I talked to my mother about it and she told me what to do. I can’t remember what it was. There are a lot of unexplained things in the South, but I had no experiences with them. This was something I could not deny.”