Even with a latte in hand, Karl Herlinger looks like a villain or, at the very least, someone capable of extreme road rage.
His eyes are set close together, his brow quick to furrow. The television actor from Kailua can wither with a glance.
"I get cast a lot as a bad guy," he said recently at a Kaimuki coffee shop. "I think it’s the way I look. But I’ve also gravitated toward those roles because they are fun. And it’s interesting to find the humanity in the badness."
Of course, that makes him perfect for a menacing role in Monday’s season finale of "Hawaii Five-0" (9 p.m., KGMB). Herlinger is the second Hawaii-born actor in as many weeks to wear the bad-guy mantle on the CBS hit. (Last week it was Mark Dacascos, aka Wo Fat.)
Herlinger plays a character named "Toothpick." He won’t elaborate on the part except to say he creates mayhem for the "Five-0" team — and he hopes to stress out the show’s fans.
"If I have done my job right, they will either love hating me or there will be some kind of level of disgust," Herlinger said.
Having a guest spot on a series shot in his hometown is a dream come true, said the 40-year-old Herlinger, who was born at Castle Hospital, grew up in Enchanted Lake and graduated from Kalaheo High School.
The actor, who now lives in Los Angeles, said the final episode will leave fans hungry for the season three premiere.
"This episode has a lot of action," he said. "It has a great start and it doesn’t let up. It’s what you want a finale to be."
Herlinger has been a working actor, on stage and television, since graduating with a degree in theater arts from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1994. His first TV role was on "Law & Order," but his first appearance on a series was in 1979 as a background extra in the final season of the original "Five-0."
He had never seen the old "Five-0" episode until he found it on Netflix last week. His parents wouldn’t let him watch it — Herlinger was only 7 — because the plot involves a child who gets lured into a car by strangers.
"They were protective of certain types of influences at a young age," he said. "I later watched the show, but I think at the time they just wanted to preserve as much innocence as possible."
Herlinger and his wife, Malia Musick, have a 5-year-old daughter they protect just as much. (They’re expecting a baby boy in August.)
"She has never seen anything that I have done because everything I have done has pretty much been some kind of violence," he said.
HIS acting roots are decidedly innocent, though. As a boy he tagged along with his older sister when she took dance and acting lessons, and wound up onstage. His résumé through high school included "The King and I," "Music Man" and "Fiddler on the Roof." But he also appeared in a stage drama for Honolulu Theatre for Youth and said the experience was powerful.
"It added a level of depth to the art that I had not thought was there before," he said.
While he was in Hawaii shooting "Five-0," Herlinger began sending Twitter messages from the set. He kept the plot secret but aroused fans by saying he was going to turn the Steve McGarrett character into mochiko chicken — and including a photo from lunch.
"I made a conscious decision to do that for this show," Herlinger said. "Prior to this I didn’t tweet a lot. I thought it would be fun to tweet as the character and really engage the public."
Herlinger got tremendous response and exchanged numerous messages. But he kept the plot secret, in part because the final scene of the finale wasn’t even printed on his version of the script; the ending consisted of blank pages with asterisks on them.
But the fans didn’t know that. He kept them hanging as only a villain could.
"It’s fun to have a secret and toy with people," he said. "All of it feeds into this character."
AND that’s a wrap …
Mike Gordon is the Star-Advertiser’s film and television writer. Read his Outtakes Online blog at honolulupulse.com. Reach him at 529-4803 or email mgordon@staradvertiser.com.
