Jackie Earle Haley chats with Total Sci-Fi’s Tara Bennett about his career resurgence and his role as Guerrero, a hardcore tech-whiz in the action-packed series Human Target, based on the Vertigo comic.

How is it working with Mark Valley, who plays the impulsive hero of the piece, Christopher Chance?

Mark is an awesome guy. He’s just a wonderful actor. And I specifically love what he’s doing with Chance. I mean this thing is so wonderfully steeped in that ‘80s tone like Die Hard or The A-Team, and Mark just seems like he’s nailing it.

There’s also a great crotchety rapport between your character of Guerrero and Chi McBride’s Winston. Is it fun to work together?

Chi is hilarious. He is a fun guy to hang around, and it’s always great to hear him go on one of his political rants. Though he’s so different from his character and I’m so different from my character, I think the fun we have somehow transfers into our roles – even though our characters are kind of at odds with one another. It’s really fun playing off one another and discovering these characters together as we go.

Will we see more of all three characters’ back-stories as the series progresses?

Yes, I think that to us from the very beginning, the back-story of these three guys was important. Not just as a mystery for its own sake – it defines where they came from and their shared experience defines their relationships now.

What was interesting to us was that they all share this one traumatic event; a very big mythic experience. It was interesting to us to see how that rippled through their current relationships. I think before the end of this season, you’re going to learn a lot more about them and a lot more about that event.

Since your return to acting in 2006 with Little Children, you have worked exclusively in film. How’s it been working in TV again?

It’s a much faster process, although these guys are really doing a heck of a job technically. I mean these things look like little movies; it’s amazing what you can do on TV now.

I think the biggest difference is in the development of the character. So often you get a screenplay and then you work with the directors and writers as you learn who this guy is, what his back-story is, what brought him to this point. Then you dive in and do the work.

That’s true of Human Target, but so is the reverse of that. You try to figure out a lot before you start shooting, but so much of the development and the answers come later. It’s a different process because instead of making one two-hour movie, hopefully we’re making 100 one-hour movies.

With your movie career doing so well, was it difficult to commit to just doing one project?

I definitely had to pause to think about it, especially with the movie thing tracking so well. Suddenly the notion of doing a television series… I had to really consider the medium. It had been so long since I’ve dealt with any of these issues – the last time I looked at this stuff it was like the early ‘80s, and I think since then that the lines between television and movies have blurred quite a bit.

Everything’s probably a risk no matter how you look at it, every choice that you make, but it just seemed like such a fun show. It was comic-based and I love that. I had such a great time on Watchmen. It really seemed like a neat character and a wonderful opportunity, especially if this thing becomes a hit.

It would be a great show to work on episode after episode and to see what it’s like to work as an actor on such a demanding, ongoing basis. And also to get to develop Guerrero and see that character become a more integral part of what’s going on in Chance’s back-story. It’s pretty exciting.

You’re also the new Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street remake. How does playing Freddy compare to Guerrero?

A Nightmare on Elm Street was a great experience but at the same time, it was pretty harrowing in terms of the make-up. It was so arduous and uncomfortable. I would take all of that uncomfortable feeling and hand it off to the character between “Action!” and “Cut!”.

We were doing some re-shoots over the Christmas holidays and I have to tell you, in the middle of doing those re-shoots, I started to miss Guerrero. I really did. Getting into make-up for Guerrero versus getting into make-up for Freddy is like night and day. It made Guerrero just seem all that more pleasant.

Which of your own personal traits have you imbued into Guerrero?

Saying “Dude”! I mean that just kind of came out when we were shooting and then the guys embraced it. I guess I kind of say “dude” every other word. That’s so embarrassing. I hate that I admitted that, so scratch that! No, absolutely nothing. (Laughs) The long hair – that’s what it was; it was the long hair…

Human Target is currently airing on Fox in the US. It will begin soon on the Sci-Fi Channel in the UK.