Seven a lucky number for Henderson actor

It’s still early, but the number seven is proving to be a lucky one for Henderson’s Thomas Dekker.

Having portrayed the male lead in his two most recent series, Fox’s “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” and The CW’s witchy teen soap “The Secret Circle,” the actor is enjoying life a little farther down the call sheet on Fox’s quirky detective dramedy “Backstrom” (9 p.m. Thursday, KVVU-TV, Channel 5).

“It’s more freeing. I get to play a bit more,” Dekker, 27, says of his colorful supporting role. “I don’t have to worry so much about the whole thing relying on me. I cannot express how much fun I’ve had on this gig.”

The gig in question is Gregory Valentine, the flirty, gothy, eyelinered thief who lives on a barge full of pilfered antiquities with Everett Backstrom (“The Office’s” Rainn Wilson), the head of Portland, Ore.’s Special Crimes Unit.

Written by “Bones” creator Hart Hanson and based on the antihero of Leif G.W. Persson’s novels, the series focuses on the misanthropic Backstrom, who sees the worst in everyone.But in doing so, he’s able to notice clues no one else does. In TV shorthand, he’s basically Dr. Gregory House with hypertension. And hepatitis. And anemia. And an enlarged heart.

“You’ve got two people who appear to be polar opposites but are actually very much the same person,” Dekker says of the characters. “Because they don’t trust anyone but each other, they don’t particularly like anyone but each other, and they barely like each other.”

Although Dekker stresses that he and Wilson “really love and admire each other,” that relationship, with all the barbed jokes and insults it entails, continued offscreen.

“His favorite was always to call me ‘No. 7,’ because that was my number on the call sheet,” the daily schedule that lists each actor’s start time in descending order of the role’s size.

“I would just call him Dwight all the time,” Dekker continues, laughing, “because the only thing anyone knows him from is ‘The Office.’ “

In a separate phone call, Wilson raves about his co-star.

“Thomas Dekker is truly one of the very best actors I’ve ever worked with in my life,” he says. For context, in addition to the likes of Amy Adams and Kathy Bates, Wilson has shared the screen with three reigning Oscar nominees: Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone and his “Office” soulmate, Steve Carell.

“He’s astonishingly good,” Wilson says of Dekker. “He’s so quick, and he can go from high comedy to deep tragedy on the drop of a dime. He’s just a fascinating person, and he creates fascinating characters.”

Dekker is so invested in his latest creation, he’s taking time out of a trip to Disneyland, “sitting in a quiet little corner” for a half hour, to discuss Valentine.

Wait a minute. There’s a quiet little corner of Disneyland?

“There is. It’s the smoker’s corner,” he reveals with another laugh.

“Backstrom” has followed a long and winding road to the screen since being ordered as a CBS pilot in July 2012. Despite the change in networks, and numerous changes to Valentine, Dekker has been a part of the series every step of the way.

“It’s been an extraordinary journey with this character,” he says, “and unlike any experience I’ve had, certainly on any other TV show.”

Dekker has plenty to compare it to since entering the acting business as a 5-year-old. He’s also been a cast member of “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show,” had recurring roles on “Heroes” and “7th Heaven” and guest starred on everything from “Star Trek: Voyager” to “CSI.” And he’ll live on in reruns forever as Bobby, the sick young Yankees fan who got his hands on the team-signed birthday card Kramer sold out from under George on an episode of “Seinfeld.” (“I get two sentences into describing that episode, and everybody remembers it,” he says. “That show will just never die.”)

Valentine was envisioned as a recurring character who would turn up every few episodes. “He was sort of supposed to be this very preppy, kind of feminine gay guy who was sort of just coming in for the jokes every now and again,” Dekker recalls.

Knowing that the character had lived on the streets as a prostitute, he thought Valentine should have a harder edge. So Dekker showed up for his audition with what he calls “The Boy with the Dragon Tattoo” look.

“To my shock, which so rarely happens in television, Hart (Hanson) basically just a few days later said, ‘We don’t really know what that was, but we liked it better than what we kind of had in mind.’ ”

As Dekker’s chemistry with Wilson grew, so did Valentine’s presence on the show. The character began working his way into other parts of the series, letting Dekker interact with other cast members including Dennis Haysbert and Reno native Kristoffer Polaha, while becoming an integral member of the crime-solving process.

“Hart is such a collaborative showrunner,” Dekker says, “that we really kind of created Valentine as he is now together.”

The “Backstrom” team has crafted a series that defies easy — some would say any — definition. There are certainly comedic elements, but some episodes, such as the kidnapping case when Valentine discloses his abduction from the streets, are unquestionably dark.

“It’s been a hard show to describe,” Dekker admits. “I often think that the best things in entertainment are the ones that aren’t easy to put into a box.”

Since wrapping the seven-month “Backstrom” shoot in Vancouver, British Columbia, late last year, Dekker has been returning to the Henderson home he bought as a 12-year-old to help his mother, Hilary, revive her local one-woman production of “Shirley Valentine.” (His father, David, a regular presence in community theater, passed away in 2010.)

“There’s nothing more grounding and relaxing and liberating than coming home to Vegas,” Dekker says. “And that really hasn’t changed at all over the years. I love my home city. I really do. I never get tired of it.”

He has two movies — “Fear Clinic” and “Enter the Dangerous Mind” — coming out on DVD and video on demand in the next two weeks. He’s also developing “My Vegas,” a novel and screenplay about a young girl from the outskirts of town.

“My goal is to tell a story in Vegas that doesn’t set foot on the Strip,” he says.

And he’s prepping “If Only I Could,” his second writing-directing venture after 2008’s “Whore.” He calls it his “first proper-budgeted, actually-have-money feature,” and he hopes to begin filming it in April.

If his luck holds and “Backstrom” earns a second season, he’ll spend the summer in Vancouver once again portraying the character he treasures.

“I don’t see a lot of myself in him in a lot of ways,” Dekker says of Valentine. “But then in other ways, because it was from my input, I do feel like he’s my little co-creation. And I’m just having so much fun.”

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567.