When I catch up with Callum Blue, he’s in a convertible, heading out to water ski after wrapping a day’s shoot on the successful Showtime series "Dead Like Me." "The life of an actor!" he jokes, as if he knows how terribly non-grueling that sounds. He also has a few pressing matters to clear up before we can plow headlong into our interview.

"I’m not actually dead in real life," he says seriously.

Actually, he has a point. Unlike Mason, the undead character he plays on "Dead Like Me," Blue can’t just take a leisurely swim in ice-cold water without suffering consequences. "They made me get into a freezing cold lake naked at three o’clock in the morning [while filming a recent episode], so it was kind inevitable that I was doing to be sick."

He also can’t store a massive stash of heroin up his backside – or participate in any of the other schemes that make Mason such a quirky and memorable character. From making a "living" by stealing from his reaps to playing the part of a red-nosed clown who makes obscene balloon "animals" at a children’s birthday party, Mason is at times crude, at times childlike, and is consistently one of the most entertaining characters on the show. The London transfer’s main interests in death seem to be boozing, getting high, and never taking anything seriously. Yet Blue acknowledges there’s a hidden depth to his character that will be explored more in the show’s second season. "Under every clown there’s a very sad person." Blue says. "With all the death around him, he has to kind of be the clown to deal with it."

Mason is also something of a ladies man – that is, if he could get the ladies to notice him. He has a special affection for Daisy, a fellow reaper whose interest in men is limited to the living – preferably the rich living. Still, Blue notes that the two characters have a special rapport.

"When it comes to Daisy, I think she’s more in love with him that he is with her, and I think she doesn’t want to be involved in that kind of love because it’s too depressing. And being a Grim Reaper you can’t have a relationship. It’s not like we’re normal people, and I think that we all kind of stick together, because it’s so hard for us to be around all the death," he says. "I think the relationship between Daisy and Mason is very interesting because it’s not a romance. It’s more a very screwed up relationship where they’re clinging on to each other for some kind of security, almost."

Not a romance – yet Blue refers to an upcoming storyline as a "love triangle" between Mason, Daisy, and a character played by Eric McCormack. It seems like Mason and Daisy may still have some interesting interactions ahead.

One thing Blue brings up that is great about working on "Dead Like Me" is the level of interaction that the writers and actors have, where they work closely on building the character and take suggestions freely from the actors – something that’s not always common on television series. One such scene where Blue’s input was taken was the previously mentioned freezing cold lake scene – although he started to regret it once he was in the water. "Mason thinks that he’s going on to the other side, because he’s done something very bad, and this is the episode with Eric McCormack. And he goes to take this guy’s life that he thinks is overtaking him as a grim reaper, so it’s his last reap, and he thinks that it’s all happening. And this guy goes into a lake and gets shot by lightning, and it was my idea for Mason to get into the lake as well. So we both swim out naked together, and one of them gets struck by lightning, and nobody knows who it is."

Aha! Then it’s his own fault that he got sick as a result.

"Exactly. I can’t complain; it was my idea completely. When I was actually IN the lake, I thought "Why the HELL did I say I would…" he interrupts himself, laughing. "Really, I’m stupid."

Blue’s sheer affection for his "Dead Like Me" alter ego is obvious: here is a man who would risk his own health for the perfect shot; who gleefully revels in Mason’s onscreen antics. "He is fun to play." Blue enthuses. "It’s an amazing experience for an actor, to be on something that’s so great, you know? The character has so much scope to kind of go crazy with it."

Crazy is certainly the perfect word to describe Mason, who, by the way, killed himself in search of the ultimate high - by drilling a hole in his skull. The ancient practice, called trepanation, fascinated Blue so much that he took the time to study it as a supplement to his role.

"I wanna do it!" he says, referring to trepanning – but hopefully not the death part. "Honestly, it sounds so fantastic! It’s like, we’ve all got a third eye that we need to open up, and it went back to the Middle Ages, and the monks used to do it, and that’s why they’ve got that bald spot on their heads right now, it’s just a continuation of trepanation. If I find something interesting, I will research it. If I don’t, I won’t. You know, ‘cause I don’t think it has an effect on what you do on the screen, but if there’s one thing I love about being an actor it’s that it teaches me so much, and I’m forced to learn about things, you know? And I never listened at school; I was a complete dropout, so it’s about time I started learning about things."

So, if he were to die, would he follow the lead of his character, or do something else entirely?

"I’d wanna jump out of a building…and then stab myself mid-air." He pauses. "Well, maybe not… I’d want my corpse to be very well preserved, because I’d want to be put in a glass case. And be preserved for a long time."

I remark that it is quite unfair that we can’t be mummified any longer, ancient Egypt style, and Blue agrees with me, commenting "Let’s put it in our wills. We have to be mummified, me and you."

The thought quickly jumps into my head: being mummified along with someone as attractive as Callum Blue? Not a bad way to spend the afterlife. After all, if you’ve got to pick your heartthrob from "Dead Like Me's" reaper crew, Blue’s Mason is it. Maybe it’s the British accent. Or the mischievous grin. Maybe it’s the fact that for most of season one, he was a lovable loser who couldn’t get a woman to look his way.

Blue, however, is starting to get an influx of attention in that area, thanks in part to his role as a prince ("That character was so bloody boring. I’m much more drawn to the darker side of life. So I couldn’t wait to get out of those tweed suits.") in the recently opened girl-friendly movie "The Princess Diaries 2."

"I was number 26 for Elle Girl." Blue says, referring to the teen magazine’s list of eligible men. "I’ve done a lot of interviews [recently] for YM magazine, and Tiger Beat, all those."

So is he ready to become a new idol, alongside Justin Timberlake and Leonardo DiCaprio? "Actually, older women are not interested in me, it’s always the ten-below women, you know, which isn’t that good for me. So I’m not looking forward to that kind of attention at all," he says good-humoredly.

Of course, Blue already has garnered a fair share of adoration as a result of "Dead Like Me," whose fan base he praises for their intelligence and maturity. "I’m lucky enough—we’re on a cable show, and it’s not a huge amount of attention at the moment and I like it that way. It’s the right amount of attention. I’d like for it to stay that way. ‘Cause I don’t think I’d be apt to being mobbed in the streets. I think that would be horrible."

The "right amount" of attention still includes Web sites that feature banners that scream "Test your compatibility with Callum Blue!" and let you kiss the actor – in a manner of speaking.

"There’s one thing that I have found [online]. There’s my picture and then you could click on my picture and "kiss" Callum Blue, and lip-marks would show up. It was hilarious so I sent it to my mom." He laughs, clearly amused by the whole concept.

"She loved it. She was like" – he does the perfect imitation of a mom-voice - ‘Oh, my son’s made it!’"

But don’t look for a future in teen friendly flicks for this rising star. "It was so great to play such a different part [in the Princess Diaries]. It was - he’s got a side-sweep and a tweed suit and he’s a prince - you know how different that is from Mason. I don’t think you can get any different. So it was nice to get away from Mason a bit. But I’ve said this before, it’s like I could NOT wait to get back to being a drug addict, ‘cause it’s so much more fun."