Direct, Clipped Style Seems Like Serling, But the Tattoos . . .

Picture this: An anthology series featuring tales of mystery and terror--the host stares straight and steely eyed at the camera and delivers terse opening and closing commentary to each story. The setting seems familiar, but something’s not quite right. Rather than a coat and tie, this host sports a tight black T-shirt, his muscled arms bulging and covered with tattoos.

Rod Serling reincarnated in his own twilight zone? Nope. It’s Henry Rollins, full-time rocker and some-time actor, who landed the gig as host for Fox’s “Night Visions,” a summer series reminiscent of Serling’s classic “Twilight Zone” and ‘70s revival “Night Gallery.”

A singer with the influential ‘80s L.A. punk band Black Flag, Rollins, 40, has remained a strong, hard-edged but thoughtful presence in music (his Rollins Band’s 10th album, “Nice,” will be released Aug. 21) and with his frank personal and social observations on the spoken-word circuit (among numerous books and audio documents is the recent two-CD “A Rollins in the Wry”). Along the way he’s spun a steady if sporadic film career with credits including “Heat” and “Lost Highway” and roles in the upcoming comedy “The New Guy” and the drama “Scenes of the Crime,” the latter alongside Jeff Bridges and Noah Wylie.

Question: How much are you channeling Rod Serling in your “Night Vision” bits?

Answer: You have to be careful that you don’t. He’s such the man, and this is such a Rod Serling-esque part, and me the always-comic imitator type, you find yourself falling into that. And the director would go, “Uh, no Rod. All Henry.”

Also, the copy I’m given is so terse and so clipped. I took very specific direction. It’s not like we’re doing “Citizen Kane.” Two lines, you look at it once on the TelePrompTer and it’s memorized.

Q: Are you meant to be a menacing presence?

A: I don’t think so. I’m the sober voice of reason on either end of a hysterically insane situation. My thing is more, “Look how this guy screwed up. Not me!”

Q: How did this come about?

A: I had had some meetings earlier last summer with Fox about potentially being in “The X-Files.” They said, “We like you a lot. Are you interested in having a small recurring part?” I said, “Yeah,” which doesn’t get you the part, but you get to have meetings about talking about it. I met them and they were cool and they said, “We want you to work here and here.” But I said I couldn’t do that because I’d be on tour. They said, “OK, we like you and we’ll keep you in mind for other things,” which is a polite way to get you out of the office.

I went on tour and came back and my agent showed me “Night Visions” and said, “How about you as host?” I said, “Yeah, I’ll audition.” And he said, “No audition. The part is yours if you want it.” Rarely does that happen to a guy like me. If you’re Brad Pitt or a real actor you have people knocking on your door night and day. For a fish like me, it’s a fine opportunity. Two weeks later I was on the set doing it--much to my disbelief.

Q: Were you a fan of “The Twilight Zone” and “Night Gallery?”

A: Sure. I’m an American. I grew up with that. I was a bigger fan of “Night Gallery.” It was cooler, in color. I saw it as a baby-sitter at 14 or so. That was the show that would scare . . . me on some nights.

Q: Do you think this could raise your acting profile?

A: I might get more voice-over work out of it. But I don’t think it would nail me any more acting jobs. But it’s been a lot of fun.

Q: Do you have your next acting job lined up?

A: No, the band is all I’m thinking of--the new album and a tour starting in August. I’ll be flat-out rockin’ and rollin’ through November, and then there are some speaking dates, then back with the band in January.

It’s an honor when you look around and see how many people don’t get to record and tour anymore. I never had a big record, and maybe that’s allowed me to keep going. I do fine, everyone makes money. Never had a gold record or anything, but never had far to fall down.

I do have meetings [for acting possibilities] coming up, but those are just, “The director wants to meet you because he listened to you in college.” But you never get work out of that.