On View : Back to the Drawing Pad

When audiences last saw Jack Whitfield in the 1992 Showtime thriller “The Sketch Artist,” he had just made the horrendous discovery that the murderer he was drawing a bead on was actually his wife.

Whitfield, played by Jeff Fahey, is back on a new case in “Sketch Artist II,” premiering Saturday on Showtime. This time around, Whitfield is assigned to work with Emily (Courteney Cox), a blind woman who had been raped and almost murdered by a terrifying serial killer (Michael Nicoloshi).

Emily, who has been blind since she was 11, is extremely perceptive, to the point where she can visualize features based on touch. Though Whitfield is at first skeptical of his blind “eye” witness, she correctly guesses his hair color because of its texture. Having touched the rapist’s face, Emily is able to give specific details to Whitfield about the suspect. Though the murderer-rapist is caught, the trial hinges on the jury believing Emily’s description.

Whitfield, says Fahey, has evolved quite a bit from the first “Sketch Artist.”

“I wanted him to be different,” says Fahey, whose new ABC series, “The Marshal,” begins Jan. 31.

“It is years later and he has grown, even though he’s still in a bit of a funk. He is not as lost in this as he was at the end of the first one.”

When he got involved in the sequel, Fahey says, he worked with director Jack Shoulder and the producers to ensure Whitfield’s evolution.

“I wanted to show a lighter side,” he explains in a phone interview several months after the film’s completion. “I wanted the character to be more accessible, even though it can’t be drastic because I didn’t want him to be someone different. But you can actually see how he has changed and grown. I always try to do that with the roles that I play.”

Having a different director on this project also helped Fahey. “Jack had a completely different take on it,’ Fahey says, “though I appreciate what the first director, Phedom Papamichael, did. You have to remain loyal to the character, but at the same time respect the opinion and the vision of the new director coming in. So it is a constant evolution. I really enjoyed it for those reasons.”

Whitfield, Fahey says, is still wrestling with a lot of demons in the sequel, including the fact he is facing job burnout. But his encounter with Emily helps him overcome some of his problems.

“By the end of the show, you see how she changed his life,” Fahey says. “He changed and, through the course of this experience, changes her. She is the one who can’t see and she allows him to see more.”

The role of Emily is a real change of pace for Cox, who currently stars as the mother hen Generation-X’er on the hit NBC comedy series “Friends.”

Sitting in her trailer on the set of “Sketch Artist II,” Cox glances over at her acting coach and her two girlfriends during the interview. The actress, who first got wide notice 11 years ago in the Bruce Springsteen video “Dancing in the Dark,” doesn’t know if Emily is the most dramatic role of her career.

“It is so hard when people ask these questions,” she explains. “This is probably the most complex role I have ever done. There’s a lot going on with this character.

Because it’s never defined in the script what caused Emily’s blindness, Cox devised her own scenario. “She had a traumatic accident,” she says. “There are so many different types of blindness that I found out about during research. This is one of the ones where you can look normal.”

Emily, she says, is a very independent woman. “She teaches speech,” Cox says. “She has a nice relationship with her husband (Jonathan Silverman) until this happens. I have never been raped, but from learning about it, it does put a strain on your relationship. He wants everything back to normal and she needs time. I have a lot of conflict going on there. There is so much to play all the time.”

Whitfield is a savior to Emily. “She finds solace in this man,” Cox says. “She feels safe. They don’t have an affair or anything, but if she wasn’t married they probably would.”

Cox had little time for preparation before she began the film. “I got this part on a Thursday and started on Tuesday,” she says with a laugh. “I immediately called my acting coach to help me with everything. I went to the Braille Institute and did research and took home management classes to watch how blind people get around in their houses. I took mobility classes, which show you how the sighted people walk the blind.”

Though the emotional scenes have been challenging for Cox, acting blind has been easy. “It is really easy to let your eyes go out of focus,” she says. “I can honestly say I have not seen one person in this movie. I mean if I didn’t talk to them during lunch, I wouldn’t know what they looked like. It is so weird because you’re focusing on them and focusing on their words--not their expressions.”

“Sketch Artist II” airs Saturday at 8 p.m. on Showtime