One man’s ‘Revolution’

Billy Burke was partying in Vegas when he got the call from his agent about this TV show called “Revolution.”

“Jon Favreau and Eric Kripke want to sit down with you.”

Burke immediately left what he was doing and got on a plane back to Los Angeles.

“We met on a Sunday and they sat there and started pitching me on the idea of the show,” he says. “I stopped them in the middle and said, ‘You don’t have to pitch this. I’m in, based on what this show is and what the pedigree is here.’ ”

Burke, 46, was initially cast as Sebastian Monroe, the dictator of the East Coast of the United States after a strange power outage robbed the entire world of electricity.

“We shot the pilot with me in that role,” says Burke.

Kripke and Favreau also started shooting without anyone cast as Miles Matheson, the show’s central character.

“The character of Miles is really meant to be a character who’s in his 40s,” says Kripke, who along with Favreau executive produces “Revolution.” “Miles starts the series as a reprobate who has a really dangerous and nefarious past. He represents the idea of an ex-warrior, someone who has hung up their guns, or in this case, their swords.

“I never wanted to be Luke, I always wanted to be Han Solo,” says Kripke, referring to “Star Wars.” “For me, that’s the gold standard in leading men. I’ve spent my entire career dealing with my feelings for Han Solo.”

“For this show, the lead needed to be Han Solo meets Humphrey Bogart in ‘Casablanca.’ That’s not an easy part to cast. The actors were either too young, or didn’t have any history or world-weariness, or they weren’t able to kick ass.”

This sounds like half of Hollywood. Apparently, Burke had enough of a mix of world-weariness and virility that he unknowingly nailed the audition.

“After shooting my part of the pilot, Eric called me and said, ‘I think you’ll find this good news: We’d like you to play Miles.’”

Overnight, Burke’s world changed.

Prior to this, Burke was perhaps most famous for playing Charlie Swan, clueless father to vampire-wannabe Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) in the blockbuster “Twilight” series.

“That was a great gig,” says Burke. “I flew in and had the luxury of my character being completely oblivious to everything that was going on.”

With “Revolution” as one of the few shows to break out this season, Burke has moved to the forefront of prime-time actors.

“Revolution” is an action-packed genre drama, full of adventures, explosions and violence. Miles Matheson, once the leader of Monroe’s brutal militia, is now running with the rebels. It’s a given on this show that a character, major or minor, dies in nearly every episode, and the show also routinely features people getting stabbed to death or being riddled with bullet holes.

For Burke, playing Miles is almost as much about his ability to keep up as it is about his nonchalant acting style. He’s been acting, singing and writing music since he was a kid growing up in Bellingham, Wash., but “Revolution” is the first time he’s played an action hero.

“I had almost zero training going in,” he says. “Well, actually, it was just zero.”

“It has been the most physically challenging thing I’ve ever done, and I’ve been doing this for a long time. I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he adds. “There are days when I come home and I feel like I’ve fallen off a building. But I got into the business to do stuff like this. When I was a kid, this was the kind of role that I imagined myself in.”

Burke’s role model, however, was Burt Reynolds, not Harrison Ford.

“It was well-known that he did all his own stunts,” says Burke, and that was something he wanted to emulate.

“I will do anything,” he says, “and I do almost everything myself. But when there is something extra heinous to do, I have a great stunt double, Eddie Davenport, and a great stunt coordinator, Jeff Wolfe. He’s done a really good job of creating the style — or nonstyle, as it were — of fighting in the show.”

Matheson made a big entrance in the show’s pilot, almost immediately revealing that there was a lot more to this guy than just being a washed-up bartender who was seeking solace in a bottle. When he’s attacked by Monroe’s militia, he neatly disposes of some eight armed men with just a sword.

“I did about 95 percent of the sword-fighting scene myself,” he says. “That’s still the longest fight sequence that we’ve ever done. We had 21 days to shoot the pilot, but we just have nine days for the rest of the episodes.”

The series is fast-moving, and the entire story can shift in a second if you aren’t paying attention. For example, in the episode that aired April 8, viewers learned why the power was turned off and what Rachel Matheson (Elizabeth Mitchell) knows about it. Viewers also learned that there’s quite a back story between Miles and his now-widowed sister-in-law.

Although Miles keeps busy fending off people who are trying to kill him, he has certainly stolen his share of moments with some of the show’s beautiful women, including Mitchell and his fellow freedom fighter, Nora (Daniella Alonso).

In the show’s Monday night episode, Miles and Monroe will face off over Emma, a woman they both fell for. She’s played by “24’s” Annie Wersching. (There’s a fair amount of casting crossover between “24” and “Revolution.”)

When asked about Miles’ romantic meanderings, Burke tries to laugh it off: “I put it this way: people gotta make babies in the future,” he says.

In the end, Miles’ most important female relationship is with Charlie (Tracy Spiradakos), his niece, who is becoming as fierce and fearless as he is.

“She’s starting to take on some of his characteristics, and he’s taking on some of hers,” Burke says. “It’s a pretty cool dynamic, and it gets more interesting as it goes.”

Kind of like Miles himself.

REVOLUTION

Monday, 10 p.m., NBC