Thomas Dekker: John Connor Mans Up!

When we talked with cute actor/director/musician Thomas Dekker before the premiere last season of his now hit show "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles", he was excited to play the role of John Connor, savior of the future. This new season brings a more macho John to the airwaves, one who is putting away his teen-angsty "why me?" vibe in favor of kicking butt and taking names and all without his emotions. Of course that decision will be challenged when hot Leven Rambin joins the show as John's new high school love interest.

We wanted to hear something about the new season and what has this hottie been up to while on his break? Plenty, it turns out. For our casual Beverly Hills chat, picture Thomas in casual wear and sporting a new, much shorter haircut. Hey, what's with the shorn locks anyway? Read on.

TeenTelevision: We talked with you when you were starting the series and you were excited. Is it what you hoped it would be and are you getting to contribute as much as you had hoped?

Tom: Absolutely. It's much better than I thought it would be. Certainly, from the get-go, I didn't know if it was going to be good at all before I read the pilot script then thought it was very clever, intelligent and unique but it's definitely, this season is a thousand times better than last season and I liked last season.

TeenTelevision: Do you get to get more physical and kick a little butt yourself this season?

Tom: Yes, it's more complicated than just that. I like more just getting to portray rage so I don't know if it's physically kicking ass but it's emotionally, much more satisfying.

TeenTelevision: Do you get to be a little more of a protector yourself, help someone else?

Tom: Yeah. Sarah and John kind of switch from time to time.

TeenTelevision: You look different. Did you do any feature films during your hiatus?

Tom: Oh yeah. I did a ton of stuff on hiatus. I did My Sister's Keeper with Cameron Diaz and Alec Baldwin that's why I shaved my hair and eyebrows, thus the hair is growing back out from that. I did a little horror film called Laid to Rest that our Special Effects make-up designer on the show directed and the film I directed called Whore is coming out later in the year with Megan Fox and Rumer Willis and Ron Jeremy and Lena from the series and my album is coming out on i-tunes and everything in about a month so lots went on for a short break.

TeenTelevision: Wow, you've been a busy dude! What is Laid to Rest about?

Tom: Robert Hall directed it and it's got me and Kevin Gage and Lena's also in it and Bobbi Sue Luther and it's a horror film about a girl who wakes up in the middle of America in a little town in a coffin and a murderer is after her. She can't remember anything of her life and is piecing it together. I come in halfway through as a guy who is in the wrong place at the wrong time and we all just did it as a favor to Rob because we love him and he helped me with Special Effects make-up on Whore, my film. It's a gory, balls-out slasher horror film. It's fun. It's a good time.

TeenTelevision: Now that the show has been on a while, are more fans recognizing you or can you still be a bit invisible?

Tom: I'm really lucky. I've been able to hold on to a great deal of my anonymity. I was recognized a lot before the hair went. When the hair was long and the show was airing, it was quite a lot but when I shaved my hair and eyebrows off, since then it's pretty much been 'no'.

TeenTelevision: So why was that necessary for the character you played in My Sister's Keeper?

Tom: He's dying of cancer. I don't have that much screen time but it's a really important role and it was a joy to work with [director] Nick [Cassavetes] and all those actors.

TeenTelevision: When you are off set, do the cast members on "Sarah" get to hang out and have any fun? Is everybody too tired and just sleeping?

Tom: Yeah, lots of sleep. You're right. I'm at Lena's house like every night for dinner but I don't have any kind of real crazy, young social life. I got too bored of that. We watch a lot of films in our trailers. Me and Lena watch a lot of horror films and old, culty, like John Waters stuff.

TeenTelevision: It's cool that you two are very close. That doesn't happen all the time on a show.

Tom: Never happened to me before in 15 years. I don't think there's any big reason. We're just really similar people and I was raised most of my life in England in an all-English family so I think there's a sense of humor that is innate in there. It's different from American humor and, immediately, from meeting her on the pilot, it was like that. It hasn't been something we've had to build towards either. It just kind of happened.

TeenTelevision: Where is home now?

Tom: Pretty much here [L.A.]. My house is still in Nevada with my family and I try to go back as much as possible but on this schedule, normally you work until about seven in the morning Friday night so I don't get to go home much.

TeenTelevision: Can you say anything about the arc that your character John will be going through this season?

Tom: Josh [Friedman, show creator] and I have been concocting this thing from the start. From the get-go, we had this arc in mind. I was actually very pleased to see that there were a lot of people on line going 'he's not the hero enough. He's not the savior enough. He's too weak. He's a mama's boy'. I was very happy about that because the plan was to give people that, make them want to see the adult, the hero and then bring him in. It's much more exciting for the audience.

TeenTelevision: So, we'll see some real changes in the way John handles things?

Tom: Yeah. I think we intended to bring this end at the end of first season but when the Writer's Strike killed it it's kind of better to introduce the new John in the new season. He's supposed to be sixteen when the show starts so I couldn't blast all that out so he is very angry but not in the petulant, whiney, teenaged way that he was in first season. He's taking care of business rather than wish this wasn't him and 'why is it me'. He is ready. He's still not happy about it but he's taking that anger in his life and putting it to work stopping this. In a weird way Sarah and John are splitting more and more this season yet he's becoming more and more like his mother in the warrior sense.

TeenTelevision: Cool. So do we see this pick up right after last season's finale?

Tom: Right after last season ended, this one starts.

TeenTelevision: We hear that Summer Glau's Cameron character turns bad. Is that why john is so ticked off?

Tom: Can't say but I think he doesn't want to feel. That's the biggest difference was that John was strong and intelligent and ready to fight but he was also very much enamored of his feelings. He was young and it's a horrible life he's lived but, this season, he doesn't want feelings. Feelings get in the way and he's hard, cold and he's a fighter.

TeenTelevision: Any physical scars or battle wounds to match what happens in the films or....

Tom: I think I get pretty beat up in the first episode but they go away. I got a real scar on my back from filming.

TeenTelevision: Ouch! Have you shot anything with John's new high school friend played by Leven Rambin?

Tom: Oh yeah. We're shooting everything out of sequence which is a bitch [laughs] but she's in episode two and three and we filmed two already and we're filming three next.

TeenTelevision: She's the closest thing he's getting to having a girlfriend, right?

Tom: Yeah. I think his thing with her is tough because on the one hand, he's running away from the high school thing, from the being normal. He's given up on it. The dream is gone and a girlfriend should go along with that but I think he's just desperate for some kind of outlet of normality and she brings that, just being an ordinary girl. It does create quite the rift between him and his mother but it's an interesting bond. She's a very persistent character. It's not like he pushes her to like him. She pulls him in. I think part of him is almost kind of annoyed [laughs] and the other part of him really wants it.

TeenTelevision: I smell a love triangle. There was a lot of chemistry between you and Summer's character first season. Is that over now?

Tom: Here's how the show is working and I'm realizing it's why I like it; things come up, they go away but they only go away for a bit and that's true of people. You suppress things but they're always there. There's a lot of things about these characters in the plot that get covered over with other things but it comes back. So, it's not dead but it is definitely different. He feels differently about her this season.

TeenTelevision: Okay but how does Summer's character react to John having a girlfriend?

Tom: I think Cameron has certain human emotions but again, it's a question of 'can she feel love? Can she feel jealousy?' I don't know really. I think she probably deems her more as a threat at this point. She doesn't trust any outsiders and neither does Sarah. I don't think Cameron is necessarily jealous but she doesn't like her. That's for sure.

Sounds like some fun tension brewing!

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.