"Angel" star David Boreanaz will pull double duty on a January episode of the series.

In addition to his usual leading role as the vampire-with-a-soul title character, Boreanaz also makes his directorial debut with the episode, titled "Soul Purpose."

"It was a really fantastic journey for me," Boreanaz tells Zap2it.com about stepping behind the camera. "I had a great time."

Except for one thing: "I found myself immersed in the work so heavily that I really needed some sleep, but I couldn't because I had to shoot the next episode," he says. Nonetheless, Boreanaz found the experience rewarding and hopes he gets a chance to direct again somewhere down the line.

In the episode, Angel is disturbed by a series of dreams in which Spike (James Marsters) takes over Angel's role as champion, continuing a plot thread from earlier in the season. Boreanaz says Marsters and the rest of the cast responded well to him as a director.

"They really gave me everything they had and were very supportive," he says. "I wanted them to make it an enjoyable experience for them as well -- to really enjoy the rehearsal process and make them feel [the episode] was partly theirs, because it is. I feel that way when I rehearse when we're with another director, so I wanted them to be part of that as much as they possibly could."

"Soul Purpose" is scheduled to air Wednesday, Jan. 21.