Terry Morrow: Newcomer Liam McIntyre fills big sandals as 'Spartacus'

Spartacus (Liam McIntyre) has his hands full, usually with a sword, in "Spartacus: Vengeance," debuting on Starz tonight.

PASADENA, Calif. — Liam McIntyre couldn't believe what he just saw.

He stared and thought to himself: "Oh my gosh. I can't make sense of this."

Driving into town from Hollywood, he took a quick glance out his car window when he saw a picture of himself, dressed as a gladiator, in an advertisement for "Spartacus: Vengeance," the second installment of the legendary Roman slave-turned-rebellion leader, debuting tonight on Starz. The image took him aback.

"It's the weirdest feeling to see it," he says with a laugh during an interview. "I'm not sure I'll ever get used to it."

Until he got "Spartacus: Vengeance," McIntyre was an up-and-coming star on Aussie television, doing a few soap operas and such. He had a small role in HBO's "The Pacific," but he's sure he was edited out. Nothing he has done previously could prepare him for the media attention coming his way for starring in Starz's most popular series.

For this clean-cut actor ("I've never even had a drink before"), playing Spartacus puts him in a whole new arena.

"I feel like I have the opportunity now to play something a kid would love to do, to just pick up a stick and swing it around and play hero," says the 29-year-old, who has a girlfriend but no children.

Going into "Spartacus: Vengeance," he was scrawny — more than 45 pounds underweight. He was virtually untrained as a fighter and, most of all, was assuming the role made popular by the late Andy Whifield, who died from cancer in 2011.

The two never met in person but did communicate once online.

"I got an email correspondence from Andy while he was sick. He was going through the worst possible (fight) anyone could go through," McIntrye says, "and there he was writing to me saying, 'Bravo. Well done. Now here's what you need to do (for the role)' ... I hope I have enough in me that if I were in that situation I'd do the same thing for someone."

In taking the role Whifield, a fan favorite, had created, McIntrye realized he had big sandals to fill.

"Early on, I said to myself I couldn't try to fill his shoes. I just had to do justice to his legacy and what he did so well," says McIntrye, an only child who got into acting during his college days. "I can't be as 'Andy' as Andy was. I have to make this my own role.

"If I don't, I am just doing an imitation of (Spartacus) as Andy played him.

"Spartacus is still Spartacus. He'll look different. He'll sound different. But as long as that humanity is still within him then I am doing my job."

McIntrye, who likes to unwind playing videogames, is an animated sort, throwing his hands in the air and speaking quickly as his excitement over the role gets him charged up. After an interview, he apologizes for talking too much.

He got Spartacus through an audition. A friend and fellow fan of the show urged him to try out for the role, but he was sure he wouldn't get it. For one, he was underweight, having shed close to 50 pounds for a role had he just filmed for another project.

Producers quickly put him into a workout, where he worked with a military trainer to pack on muscle. Producers kept an eye on his progress.

He was also trained in swordsmanship and fighting techniques.

The oddest of all this, though, is just coming now as the attention to him in the role is beginning.

"I'm still in the world where getting this role is too good to be true," he says. "I still can't believe it. This is the weirdest life."

© 2012, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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