STEPHEN Moyer is thinking about the paranormal. The 37-year-old Essex boy's latest role in spooky one-off drama Empathy sees him play Jimmy, an ex-con with a gift for seeing into other people's lives, and while it may sound more fiction than fact, Stephen thinks differently.

"If you'd asked me if I believed in the paranormal this time last year I'd have said no," the actor confesses. "I used to be an atheist, but I've chilled out a bit on that. A couple of things in the past year have made me think maybe there is something to it.

"One of my best mates has had something happen to him that made me change my whole belief system," he continues.

"When this script fell on the mat I thought, this is my mate's story. He's had some extraordinary things happen and he's been very special to me when I've been through some dark times."

He says the tale is a long one, and he doesn't want to name his friend, but this is the short version.

"I was in America and I was pretty down, a friend of mine was dying and I wanted to be at home.

"I'd got a text message from this friend, but thought I'd read it later.

"When I got home, I sat on my bed with my legs crossed and remembered the text message.

"It said, `When you read this you are going to be sat on your bed with your legs crossed, and this is what's going on, and this is what you've got to do'.

"It's what he told me to do that changed everything. And he's a hod carrier!"

The actor, who is probably best known from his role as long-distance lover Michael in Channel 4's recent series NY-LON, says the experiences of his pal proved invaluable as he researched the part of Jimmy, a father-of-one who discovers on his release from prison that when he touches people, he feels what they are feeling.

"He doesn't think of it as a power, he thinks of it as an affliction," Stephen explains.

"He finds himself in a situation where he could help out in a murder inquiry, but he doesn't have an alibi.

Murder

"Because of his previous, by putting himself in the position where he says, I know what happened, he puts himself in the frame for the murder.

"He's a damaged, flawed, tormented soul. He has lived quite an ordinary life but has a flash point temper."

It's that temper that landed him in jail in the first place.

One day, he returned to his home to find his wife had been raped by a neighbour. In a fit of anger, he viciously assaulted the attacker.

Because of his violent past, the police are reluctant to believe his 'visions' concerning their murder case, and it's up to Jimmy to prove he is telling the truth.

It's a pretty dark story, but Stephen says the violent scenes were his favourite to play.

"I'm not like that in real life, so when I get the chance to punch a bit of air and let out a bit of steam, I love it," he grins.

Stephen says he wanted to be an actor from a young age, having taken part in school productions and joined various amateur dramatics groups, but decided to start taking it seriously as a teenager, despite his parents' concern.

"They said stay at school and get your A levels, get some stuff behind you," he remembers. "I did and I got none. I literally did - an N, a U and an N - NUN! I got my place at drama school nine months before the exams, so I just stopped working and made paper aeroplanes.

"I said to my son not that long ago, 'what do you want to do when you're older?' He said, `I'm going to have to go away and think about it'. So off he went.

"He came back and said, 'Daddy, I've decided that I want to be an actor'. I was like, oh jeez! Cut to him dressed in a cardboard cloud with cotton wool all over it, his face painted, crying his eyes out saying he didn't want to go on stage for his school play! I said, 'but you told me you wanted to be an actor', and he said, 'yeah, I only want to do telly!'"

Next up for Stephen is a big move across the Atlantic to Los Angeles, where he has just won the lead role in the US show True Blood. And he can't wait to move to LA and a lifestyle which sounds like all of his dreams come true.

"There's a bit of a British enclave," he says of the Californian city. "There's this Friday night expat community, it's very weird.

"You have Robbie Williams and all of his gang, and Damian Lewis is out there, and Jack Davenport."

So will Stephen be joining Robbie's infamous footie team?

"I might have to," he laughs. "I do like a bit of football."

The article above was found on Google and was published originally on Manchester Evening News