Michael T. Weiss told SCI FI Wire that he goes evil Pretending to be the bad guy in the upcoming supernatural horror film Bones. “I play this fat, corpulent evil cop,” Weiss said in an interview. “I had to gain a hundred pounds of prosthetic weight, not real weight.” Weiss added, “It’s a fun gangster horror film, like an urban Shaft meets a horror film.”

The film stars Snoop Dogg as Jimmy Bones, legendary protector of a thriving neighborhood who comes back 20 years after he’s murdered to take vengeance on those who betrayed him. While Weiss said playing good guy Jarod on TV’s The Pretender was an actor’s “dream,” he also enjoyed taking on the role of the bad guy in the film. “The wonderful thing and the problem with playing Jarod is that Jarod is such a nice man. He’s such a good person. He sees the world pretty black and white. For me as an actor, a lot of characters aren’t so nice. It was fun to play someone who was kind of … despicable,” he said with a laugh. “His energy level and what he thinks of as important are completely different. So in that way, when people go out to see that movie, which I hope they will, they’ll see I am nothing like Jarod. Jarod was a character. It’s always fun to play another one.” Bones opens Oct. 24.

Fans of Pretender, meanwhile, won’t have to wait long to find Weiss back in the more familiar role of Jarod. He will star in TNT’s The Pretender: Island of the Haunted on Dec. 10, the second Pretender movie since the series was canceled after a four-year run on NBC.