Another epic role for Jeremy Sisto USA Today – June 27, 2003 By Miki Turner LOS ANGELES — In the past four years, Jeremy Sisto has walked on water and made blind men see, having portrayed Jesus in the CBS miniseries of the same name. He has posed nude for a minor and made a pass at his sister as the bipolar Billy in HBO's Six Feet Under. On Sunday he'll rule Rome, and on Monday he'll die by the hands of his so-called friends in TNT's four-hour Caesar (8 p.m. ET/PT each night). These roles sound like the stuff of great careers. But given a choice, Sisto, 28, says he'd prefer to let the larger-than-life icons rest in peace and focus on intriguing and mysterious guys like Billy. The California-born, Chicago-reared actor says he has had about enough of playing ancient folks in epics. "I don't think I want to do any more 2,000-year-old legends," he says. "I think I'm done with that. Plus, togas are awfully inconvenient. You're always tripping over them." One reason Sisto wanted to play Caesar was because, like Jesus, the role just seemed an "outrageous and absurd" idea when it was offered to him. Directed by Uli Edel (The Mists of Avalon), Caesar chronicles the Roman leader's life from his early conflicts with Sulla (the late Richard Harris) and Pompey (Chris Noth) to his brutal assassination. "I was intrigued by what little we really know about him, and that he was self-empowering," Sisto says. "There was just something about the overall story that I thought would be good for me to play." Which JC was harder to capture? "They were both challenging," says Sisto, who before taking the role of Caesar was more familiar with the Shakespeare play than with the man himself. "Caesar was not quite as clear-cut as Jesus. With Jesus' journey, as soon as he decided to take it on, he knew what it was about. With Caesar, he had an original idea, but along the way he loses his way." Sisto's career is just as filled with originality. At 17, he played the son of Kevin Kline and Mary McDonnell in Lawrence Kasdan's 1991 movie Grand Canyon. Four years later, he co-starred in Clueless opposite Alicia Silverstone. He has had more steady work on TV, where his versatility — and his "commanding presence on screen" as Jesus, Edel says — convinced the director that Sisto could lead the Roman Empire. "The (Caesar) we know from other movies was already old," Edel says. "There's no depiction of Caesar growing into manhood. I needed someone able to play 18 to 56. Jeremy had this capability." In Six Feet, his Billy Chenowith is alluring and dysfunctional, sexy and sinister, cuddly and creepy. "A lot of doctors have told me Billy is right on the money," Sisto says. "People have just responded to the character. Sure, they get a little creeped out and freaked out by him, but he's so well written that he's actually really engaging." In his recent movie roles, Sisto is less idiosyncratic if no less creepy. In Wrong Turn (in theaters now), hegets lost in the woods and is hunted by cannibalistic mountain men. In Thirteen (August), he plays the substance-abusing boyfriend of Holly Hunter. Sisto is now producing and starring in One Point O. "It's a psychological thriller —Barton Fink meets The Matrix," he says. Though it doesn't sound like a perfect fit for Jesus or Julius, Billy should feel right at home.