Memories From The Set: Eric Mabius Talks Past Gigs On The O.C., CSI: Miami, Ugly Betty & More

Millenium

Mabius followed up his stay at Chicago Hope with an otherworldly turn on Fox's end-of-days drama. Though his character, Samiel, seems like he's a demon of some sort, [15-year-old spoiler alert!] he's actually an angel who's there to save Frank Black's ailing daughter. "I love antiheroes like that, the red herring," he says. "You think he's the bad guy who ends up being the good guy."

Party of Five

Though he shot several episodes as Brian Stillman, the rebellious son of Kyle Secor's Evan Stillman, "That was a storyline that never got off the ground," Mabius says. Indeed, Julia's romance with her editor (Secor) was a short-lived affair, meaning there was little need for his bratty kid to hang around afterwards. Still, "It was fun," Mabius says. "The show was an institution."

Get Real

This one-season Fox drama is most notable for its cast, which included several now-huge Hollywood names (Anne Hathaway, Jesse Eisenberg) in early roles. "All my stuff was with Anne," with whom Mabius shared a mutal friend: Heather Matarazzo, his co-star in the indie film Welcome to the Dollhouse. And that helped a little... given that his character had to assault the future Oscar-winner on a date. "She's a pro," Mabius remembers. His only regret is that the role couldn't go uncredited; when he'd played a similar thug in a movie, he'd asked for his name to be removed from the credits because parts like that are "creepy, and I don't want to put that out into the world," he says. Alas, "They wouldn't let me do that on a TV show."

Fastlane

"I got to play a really cool, muscular, spike-headed surfer guy" in the slick 2002 action series starring Peter Facinelli (the Twilight movies), comedian Bill Bellamy and Tiffani Thiessen (Saved By the Bell), Mabius recalls. "The episodes were fun to look at, it had a great soundtrack, great camera angles and the colors were vibrant." Although his storyline involved drug-dealing surfers, you don't see him hang 10 during the hour; though he surfed a little in his youth, Mabius says surfing and acting don't mix. "They get a little upset when you break things and you have to be in front of the camera," he says, laughing.

The O.C.

During his run as the reviled Jack Hess, Harbor High's dean of discipline, Mabius expelled Marisa, got punched by Ryan and was ultimately run out of town by Summer. The character made such an impression on the Fox teen drama's audience that Mabius even felt it while hiking a remote part of Nova Scotia with his wife years later. A knock on the door of their rented cabin one day revealed the pre-teen daughter of the cabin's owner – offering a walking stick with Mabius' O.C. character's name burned into it. "It was so amazing," he recalls. "She was so shy and sweet. It was wonderful." And the stick? "I still have it."

CSI: Miami

When speaking about his experience on the CBS procedural, Mabius chooses his words carefully. We'll just let him tell you: " I had a big part. I was the lead investigator for a crooked cop within David Caruso's group of cops. I'm there to investigate them. But I had one scene with a certain someone, the very first scene –for the first time in my life, I stepped off set, got my phone and called my representatives. I said, 'I don't care what you have to do, get me off this job please.' So by the time we moved to the third scene, my scenes were done and they had given my parts to [another actor]. He read my lines, and that was the only day I was on set...I've never been talked to or directed or talked down to by another person in my life on set [like that]."

Eyes

Fastlane creator John McNamara later went on to head up this short-lived ABC P.I. series, and Mabius loved working alongside actors like Tim Daly (Private Practice) and Natalie Zea (Justified)... while it lasted. (ABC wound up cancelling the show before the end of its first season; a bunch of episodes went unaired.) "That was a very comfortable job," Mabius says. "I could've seen that going for a long time."

The L Word

"It was a dream job," Mabius says of his time on the Sapphic Showtime series. "That was the easiest job in the world for me because I was the only guy" – he played Tim Haspel, sometime hubby of Mia Kirschner's Jenny Schecter, for three seasons – "and I would do my couple of days an episode and then go travel the interior of British Columbia and have a great time with my then-girlfriend, who's now my wife." He admits that "It was a very complicated job, because inevitably if you put that many women together — as it would be with guys, I guess – there's a different kind of... guys have a different way of handling conflict." Despite the "complex personalities" involved, though, "I did come away from that job with several friends, which was nice."

Ugly Betty

Upon first reading the pilot script for the adapted telenovela that would become Mabius' biggest credit, "I really knew that it had a chance of becoming something," he says. So he postponed his honeymoon to test for the part of publishing playboy Daniel Meade... though he didn't think he had much of a shot. "I just thought that they were going to cast someone who was more overtly smarmy or not very likable, which usually happens," he recalls. So he went on to test for a little supernatural show called Heroes, where the decision was down to him and Milo Ventimiglia for the lead. But Betty's siren call was strong. " So I went and shook hands, and the job was mine."

Ugly Betty (Cont'd.)

"I think everyone was shocked when the show was cancelled, not the least of which were the cast members," Mabius adds with a rueful chuckle. "We tackled a lot in the course of the series but I feel we still had a few directions to go." Betty fans will be happy to know that the cast still keeps in touch and recently held a reunion. "That's rare," Mabius says. "That doesn't happen on any other show, I think." And just in case you weren't already in serious Mode-nostalgia mode: "Judith Light will always be my surrogate mom," he adds. "I just love her so much."

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Mabius' latest venture is set in the postal service's dead letter office, where a team of folks – including his character, Oliver – work to bring missing, illegible or otherwise delayed mail to its intended recipients. "We deliver it right when people need it most," he says, praising the show's writing and its creator, Martha Williamson (Touched by an Angel). "She's one of the most talented, collaborative writers I've had the joy to work with," he says. "I feel like this is going to blow the lid off of Hallmark, because they're tackling subjects that aren't as easy, and the show's not sappy at all... It's something you can watch with the entire family, like the great TV that I grew up with."