An "ER" Hunk Goes Off the Deep End

By Stephen M. Silverman

08/08/2001 at 01:00 PM EDT

"ER" hunk Goran Visnjic, 28, promoting his new movie "The Deep End," told PEOPLE that his film role was a bigger stretch than his TV persona. "When I play a character on 'ER,' " he said, "I act from my own perspective and how I would act in that situation. (But) when you're a bad guy coming to blackmail someone's kid, then you don't know how to react." Visnjic's character tries to extort $50,000 dollars from a mother (played by Tilda Swinton), and despite the bad-boy nature of the role, Visnjic jumped at the opportunity. "I thought it would be a great thing to do. It's not a crazy, violent movie. It has some sense of real life to it." Although the hunky actor spends nine months out of the year in L.A. filming "ER," he is currently taking time out to film a World War II drama in his native Croatia. As for his TV role, the cranky Dr. Luka Kovac, "The last few episodes, he is a little more happy" says Visnjic.