Thursday’s episode of “Backstrom” will shed light on “a very dark experience” that the eponymous detective’s roommate endured, actor Thomas Dekker told TheWrap during the latest installment of “Drinking with the Stars.”
“Episode five that’s airing this week, this is sort of the turning point where we get a lot more information about Valentine’s past. There’s a very dark experience that he went through that is sort of connected to the murder case that they’re solving,” Dekker said. “From there we really delve into how these two seemingly opposite characters — but very similar characters, I think — came together.”
Dekker, who plays petty thief Valentine on the Fox cop drama from the creator of “Bones,” said he was fortunate enough to have the “unheard of” privilege of directly shaping his character, who stars opposite Rainn Wilson.
“I just said screw the breakdown, I’m just gonna do what I want with it,” Dekker said. “I was the only one in the audition that went in the mohawk and the eyeliner and the leather and the whole kind of boy with the dragon tattoo thing … I thought they’ll either love it or hate it, and they actually loved it, and so the character became a complete collaboration between Rainn Wilson, myself and Hart Hanson, our showrunner.”
So what’s it like working with the guy who played Dwight Schrute on “The Office” for nine seasons?
“Rainn despises the fact that I’ve never watched ‘The Office,’ which wasn’t a conscious choice, I just never did. I’m very, very picky with my TV shows,” Dekker said. “When I told him that, he was ‘pretend devastated,’ but I think he actually was, deep down.”
“He and I have a very similar, dark sense of humor and we’re both heinously cruel to each other all day, but in the most loving, brotherly, familiar way,” Dekker added.