‘Torchwood: Miracle Day’ Heats Up With Love Scenes For Mekhi Phifer, John Barrowman

Mekhi Phifer made the jump from playing a government agent on FOX’s “Lie to Me” to portraying one on sci-fi drama “Torchwood: Miracle Day,” but his new show on Starz is very, very different. For starters – his character, Rex Matheson, is already getting some action.

“There will be a** cheeks,” he laughed as he talked about Season 1 of the sci-fi thriller with Access Hollywood at Comic-Con 2011 last week in San Diego. “Definitely there’s that raciness. That’s the beautiful thing about being on Starz/BBC is that we get to not be so held into a box. We get to be outside the box and we get to be unorthodox in our approach to storytelling, so you will get to see a lot of wonderful things throughout the series.”

The show, a spin-off of the British drama “Torchwood,” stars Mekhi, alongside Alexa Havins (Esther Drummond) and original stars John Barrowman (Capt. Jack Harkness) and Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), who trying to figure out why on “Miracle Day” everyone in the world (except for Jack) suddenly becomes unable to die.

The series, which will air its fourth episode on Friday at 10 PM, also stars Bill Pullman as fictional child killer-turned-cult figurehead Oswald Danes, who Rex’s group are keeping a close eye on as they work to figure out how the former prisoner fits into “Miracle Day” and PhiCore, the fictional drug company profiting off the extended lives of humans.

“I think he’s our biggest speed bump,” Alexa said of Bill’s creepily charismatic character. “He pretty much is the thorn in the side and it all plays out, his involvement and where his place in the whole puzzle is.”

“We’re looking into him because we think he’s got something to do with this whole event with ‘Miracle Day,’ but how it twists and turns around is an interesting thing at the end, because we need his help, that’s all I say,” John told Access.

While Esther and Rex are new to the Torchwood team, Capt. Jack and Gwen have a bit of a head start on things, and for fans of the original series, as Season 1 of “Torchwood: Miracle Day” progresses, they’ll get some presents in the form of an intense John/Eve scene.

“In Episode 7, there’s a really great romance between myself and… I’m not telling you who,” John explained of his upcoming love scenes with one of Jack’s former male lovers from “Torchwood.” “That episode also focuses on Gwen and Jack’s relationship and it’s not what you expect and [writer/creator] Russell [Davies] said that’s a gift from him to us as actors because he loves what we’ve been doing with the characters.

“But also this romance — it’s really nice to see a romance represented on television between two men, that’s not just gratuitous, it’s love and it’s really beautiful and it’s also very sexy and hot and I’m very, very chuffed by that,” John added. “And also, the scenes that [me and Eve] have together, all I’ll say is that they are brutal.”