Within Earshot of controversy

T.O.-based actor stars in delayed Buffy episode

"I always seem to get into these roles that end up being controversial," says former Toronto-based actor Keram Malicki-Sanchez a little sheepishly. "And I think that in some way, I ask the universe for that."

What's the old saying: Ask and you shall receive?

Throughout his already extensive career, Malicki-Sanchez, 25, has taken on his fair share of challenging and unconventional roles. His roles in the Canadian films Skin Deep and Boulevard, as a female transsexual and a drag queen prostitute, respectively, are a long way from his child actor days in such stage productions as Oliver! and Jacob Two-Two And The Hooded Fang.

And now he appears in Earshot, last season's long-delayed episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, which airs tonight on the WB at 8, and again Saturday on YTV at 7 p.m. It didn't air earlier because network execs deemed it mirrored the Columbine massacre too closely.

'Dark, brooding new kid at school'

In the episode, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) gains the ability to read minds and overhears somebody thinking about committing mass murder at her high school. It turns out that Malicki-Sanchez's character is one of the prime suspects.

"I play this dark, brooding new kid at the school whom no one talks to," he says. "He's kind of the outcast freak, he wears all black, he's the newspaper editor and he's very cynical."

Although Buffy fans were dismayed by the episode's cancellation, Malicki-Sanchez agrees with the decision.

"It had a terrible resemblance (to Columbine)," he says. "You've got to be sensitive. At that point, anything that even remotely resembles that kind of activity will seem to only reinforce that sort of behaviour."

Although he maintains that he doesn't want to "ever perpetuate the amount of senseless and mindless violence that happens on television," he says that Earshot is really a simple "What-if" story.

"What if you could read minds? How would it change your life, how would it affect your actions the next day?"

Since moving to Los Angeles three years ago when his friend Neve Campbell (Party Of Five) invited him to visit the set of the movie Scream, Malicki-Sanchez has been busy. He has roles in Drive Me Crazy, a teen comedy starring Melissa Joan Hart scheduled for theatres in October, and Cherry Falls, a horror-comedy about a virgin-killing psychopath, due to open in January. Right now, he's filming Happy Campers in North Carolina with Brad Renfro and Dominique Swain.

CROSS BETWEEN HOPPER AND BOWIE

Malicki-Sanchez describes his character in Cherry Falls as "a cross between Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now and David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust days." He plays the sexually ambiguous Rupert in Drive Me Crazy, while his character in Happy Campers is completely out-of-the-closet.

In case you're wondering, no Malicki-Sanchez isn't. He met his current girlfriend, Keri Lynn Pratt, who's appearing in the new series Manchester Prep, on the set of Cherry Falls.

"It's not so much that I have an interest in playing gay roles or playing sexually ambiguous roles," he says. "I feel that whatever work I do should do something to advance or to raise questions in those areas where we're not quite up to speed yet."

In addition to his busy movie and TV career, Malicki-Sanchez runs Constant Change Productions, a record label/publishing company. He also has his own band, Automated Gardens, and will soon release a book, The Cost Of Admission: A Compendium Of Lyrical Intent Poesis And Essaies. He credits the "open template" of L.A. for allowing him to create his own lifestyle.

"I love having that much control over my destiny," he says. "If it's about being motivated and loving what you do, then there's no problem in my department."