‘ER’ star grows into the role of ‘Spartacus’

Even those who loved Kirk Douglas in the classic 1960 version of “Spartacus” will have to confess that Goran Visnjic, “ER’s” resident heartthrob, out-ripples Douglas, pec for pec, when he takes on the slave-turned-gladiator role tonight and Monday in the USA Network’s two-part “Spartacus” miniseries, based on Howard Fast’s historical novel.

A month before he reported to work on the project last summer in Bulgaria, Visnjic decided to get into gladiator fighting shape. “I started going to the gym every day for three hours just to build up my body, because those gladiators had been treated very well,” says Visnjic, a lean, blue-eyed 6 feet 4. “They had the best care. They had great food and a minimum of eight hours’ exercise.”

He admits, though, that his toned physique looks slightly out of place in the first third of the film when Spartacus is a lowly, starving slave.

“My character looks too pumped up for a slave working in a gold mine,” he says with sheepish smile.

The 31-year-old Croatian, who joined the cast of NBC’s top-rated drama series in 1999 as Dr. Luka Kovac, was confident that the Spartacus tale was worth retelling when he stepped into Douglas’ substantial sandals to play the leader of the slave rebellion against the Roman empire in 72 BC.

“What Spartacus did in his lifetime, that is one of the biggest events in human history,” he says. “I think he deserves in this century at least a couple of movies.”

Visnjic returns to the present in “Close Your Eyes,” his first starring role in an English-language project. In the supernatural thriller, which opens Friday in limited release, Visnjic plays a Croatian-born hypnotherapist practicing in London who sees visions from his patients’ minds. The film, shot in summer 2001 while “ER” was on hiatus, is his answer to “What did you do on your summer vacation?”

“Close Your Eyes’ ” appeal? “It was a good opportunity to play a lead character,” he says.

-- Susan King