No, your eyes were not deceiving you. That was indeed former "Alias" star Bradley Cooper in the April 2 episode of the new USA Network crime drama "Touching Evil," airing Fridays at 10 p.m. ET.

But if you missed him, don't worry, Cooper and his character, Agent Rivers, are sticking around for five additional episodes.

On a chilly late-winter night in Vancouver, B.C., Cooper -- battling a persistent cold -- takes a break from filming to talk about how he came to the series, which stars Jeffrey Donovan as Dave Creegan, an insightful investigator with an elite FBI unit who battles the aftereffects of a near-fatal bullet to the head. One of the show's executive producers is Arnold Rikin, younger brother of "Alias" star Ron Rifkin.

"I had just shaved my head," Cooper recalls. "I'm next-door neighbors with Ron, and I'm good friends with Arnold through Ron. He came in and said, 'I love your haircut, man. I'm doing this show, "Touching Evil," you've got to come on.' I said, 'I'm going to do this movie right now, but afterwards, I'd love to.' He said, 'Maybe you could play a serial killer.'"

After completing a single guest shot on "Alias" last fall, reprising the role of reporter Will Tippin (and showing off his new shorn look), Cooper headed to British Columbia to shoot the ABC Family movie, "I Want to Marry Ryan Banks," with Jason Priestley.

"I was up shooting that," Cooper says, "and Arnold called and said, 'Hey, look, there's this character, Rivers, and there's this arc, do you want to do it?' I said, 'Why don't you send me the pilot?' I saw the pilot, and I flipped. Dude, it was amazing!"

Fans of the original British version of "Touching Evil" may already realize that the story arcs of Cooper's Rivers and the one played by Shaun Dingwall are somewhat different -- and that goes for their personalities as well.

"I didn't think I could bring what the Rivers character was in the original series," Cooper says, "which was a guy who was academic. That's not me. They explained him to me as young and fresh, book-smart. I said, 'Seeing the pilot, what would be interesting to see is a guy who's cocky in an opposite way of Creegan. He's all about the procedure. He doesn't care what you have to do to get the guy, just get the guy, but he's not so up in the stratosphere.'

"It was good that they heard what I had to say. They totally worked with me."

The final result is not only different from the British Rivers, but also different from the well meaning but often-misguided Will.

"If Creegan is a street fighter," Cooper says, "Rivers is a prizefighter. It's all about one punch. He's like a laser. He's focused. He's like Holyfield. It's all about precision, smooth, crisp. He believes in the system, and he uses the system as much as he can, but he's not a maverick or a loose cannon.

"He's also not a moralist. He has no problem if you want to sleep with one of your witnesses. He doesn't care what you do in your off time, as long as it doesn't interfere with the investigation. Also, he sees the joy in his job. He loves his job."

The character hit the ground running in his first episode, where he is forced to gun down an armed suspect, played by Sebastian Roche, husband of series regular Vera Farmiga.

"In the first episode, he comes in and kills somebody," Cooper says. "You get very quickly that he does do his job and will go in without gloves. He's gun-happy, and he makes no apologies. He kills somebody in the line of duty. Other people thought, maybe he didn't have to go that far. But he has no problem saying, 'I don't care what you think. I had the shot, I took it.'

"So, it's fun to play a guy like that. It's fun to have a gun. I'm like a kid, a gun and a badge, are you kidding me? I shot as shotgun in 'Alias,' and I had a gun in that last episode, but never had the holster. The holster is everything."

Although, Cooper didn't quite get to put what he wanted in the holster. "I wanted an Israeli-type gun, and they said, 'You have the standard FBI issue.' I said, 'I want the black leather holster,' they said, 'No.' I said, 'I want the biggest, most high-tech, kick-ass gun.' They said 'No.'"

By the time of this night's shooting, with one more episode left in his arc, Rivers and Creegan sit comfortably side-by-side at the conference table.

"In the beginning," Cooper says, 'Creegan's saying, 'Who the hell is this cocky guy? He thinks he's going to be able to walk right into my show.' Little by little, Rivers has grown on Creegan, and Creegan has grown on Rivers. They have the same point of view, it's just skewed a little bit."