Adrian Pasdar: Out of Character

Image credit: Theo Klein / face to face / Retna

ADRIAN PASDAR

When you hear the name Adrian Pasdar, the word musical doesn't exactly leap to mind. Which is why EW.com had to get the man who plays Heroes' dark and mysterious Nathan Petrelli on the phone this week to talk about Atlanta, the Civil War musical he has cowritten (with Marcus Hummon, a Grammy-winning songwriter who has penned songs for the Dixie Chicks) and codirected (with Randall Arney). It opened Wednesday at Los Angeles' Geffen Playhouse.

When he called, Pasdar had another surprising thing to reveal: ''I met with some people from Nick Jr. — just walked out of their office.'' Yes, it seems that Pasdar and his wife (that would be Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks) are developing an animated series for kids based on their own experiences... on a ranch in Texas.

But wait, there's more! By the end of the conversation, Pasdar discussed his other hobby: Between takes on the lot, he films his Heroes pals doing some rather unheroic things. And he posts the clips on YouTube.

So now, when you hear the name Adrian Pasdar, you'll think dark and mysterious... as well as musicals, kids' TV, and goofy Internet videos. Read on to hear this man of many talents talk about all of that and more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So, a musical, eh? Not exactly what people would expect.
ADRIAN PASDAR: It's something I've always wanted to do and I've never really had the opportunity. Who would come to me to direct musical theater unless I wrote it?

What inspired you to write a musical about a soldier from the North who dons the uniform of his enemy to survive battle?
I remember being 15 [years old] in history class, daydreaming. It was snowing outside, and I was looking out, and we were learning about the Civil War. I remember thinking, what would it be like? I remember learning that all the leaders, all the generals and colonels, they all were at West Point when the war broke out. They had to decide, if they were from the South, whether to go back and fight for the South or stay fighting for the North. A lot of them, obviously, decided to fight for the region that they had come from. And I always wondered if somebody who was from the South elected to stay and fight for the North, and then were trapped behind enemy lines and had to figure a way out. How would that manifest? I had that in my heart since I was 15. It's been one of those things that truly rested in my soul since I was kid in high school.

How did you team up with Marcus Hummon?
Marcus and I were doing dishes at a dinner party about six or seven years ago, and I shared that story with him. He was drying the dishes and they started backing up, and I went, ''Hey man, step up.'' And he's like, ''No man, seriously, we have something here. We need to make a play out of it.'' One of the things I'm most proud of is actually saying I'm going to do something and doing it. So we stepped into the abyss and came out on the other side with this play.

Why are you a codirector rather than the director?
The strike, as unfortunate as it is, could not have landed at a better time for me [to give him more time to work on the show]. I had to agree contractually to codirect, because at the time there was no strike. I had to codirect with Randall Arney [artistic director of the Geffen]. I was a little hesitant about that at first. I thought it was going to be a compromise, but it turned out that the play would not have been as good if Randy hadn't been involved. He challenged me on every point, and it made it better. It turned out to be a beautiful marriage.

That's certainly not your only successful marriage. What kind of input did your wife give you on Atlanta?
She came and saw a dress rehearsal, which was a complete disaster. Everybody was like, ''Why did you invite your wife?''

Because the dress rehearsal is supposed to be bad?
Yeah, exactly. If the dress goes well [according to theater lore], you're in trouble. We didn't have that problem. Our dress was a disaster, but it was great, actually, for that very reason. It highlighted all the points that we needed to address. Natalie had an armful of notes. Every single one of her notes was valid and insightful. She spoke with such a true voice. She was invaluable to the process.

NEXT PAGE: ''What's challenging [about making Heroes] is: It's not stupid TV, it's not a reality program. It actually is complex. There's many layers to Heroes.''