For the last five years, Michael T. Weiss has managed to remain as mysterious as the human enigma he played each week on NBC’s The Pretender, “I love being an actor, but I’m not so crazy about being a celebrity,” says the 38-year-old Chicago native. “I don’t feel the need to have everyone know what color my underwear is.” Or, for that matter, his marital status, “I am single in the marriage sense, but not in the emotional sense,” he says. Weiss, who studied acting at the University of Southern California, has played everything from Steven Weber’s lover in 1995’s “Jeffrey” to a 350-pound cop opposite Snoop Dogg in the upcoming thriller “Bones.” But now, thanks to a huge Web-driven campaign, Weiss is back with Pretender reruns airing daily on TNT and the first in a series of original movies, The Pretender 2001 (January 22, 8PM/ET). So what will the film be about? Well, that’s a secret, too.

In The Pretender you play Jarod, a genius who takes on various identities to help people in need. If, like your character, you could transform yourself, what would you be?
I’d probably be some kind of holistic doctor or devote my time to the environment. I’m a naturalist. I have a gas-electric car, I eat organic food, I believe anything you wash down the drain should be nontoxic. I also recycle madly. If I use a can in Australia and I can’t find a recycling bin, I’ll fly it back to the States with me. And if I didn’t act, I’d probably have long hair and a beard, too.

Is there any role you wish Jarod would play?
The twisted, dark sadness in Jarod is what I think is the most interesting (part of him). So I’d like him to pretend to be an aspect of society that isn’t necessarily positive, anything from a pimp to a street addict. But the inside joke has always been that if I complained too much, they’d make me a rodeo clown for an entire episode.

You can handle it. Look at what you did in the movie “Bones.”
Yeah, I play an evil 350-pound cop! It took five hours of makeup. I looked like Jimmy Hoffa. But it was fascinating to see how people react to you. They either think you’re jovial and tell you lots of jokes or they don’t know how to act and get really uncomfortable around you.

What else is coming up?
We just wrapped another Pretender movie [to air on TNT later this year]. My character and Miss Parker (Andrea Parker) finally have scenes together. There’s even some attraction.

Wait, hasn’t it been hinted that they might be related?
You’re not going to get that out of me!