Anthony Michael Hall Recalls Landing the Lead Role in ‘The Dead Zone’

There are numerous celebrities who can boast to having received the Stephen Colbert Bump. Anthony Michael Hall, meanwhile, can lay claim to receiving the Stephen King Bump. After rocketing to fame in such John Hughes teen classics as Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, the actor was experiencing something of a career downswing when he got pulled into The Dead Zone, the TV adaptation of King’s 1979 novel. “By the time I had that opportunity, I was really thrilled by that and grateful,” Hall tells Yahoo TV in this video.

In The Dead Zone, which ran from 2002 to 2007 on the USA Network, Hall played Johnny Smith, a man who awakens after a terrible car accident with the psychic ability to see the future. (Christopher Walken previously portrayed the role in David Cronenberg’s popular 1983 film adaptation.) Each episode involved Johnny foreseeing a crime and attempting to prevent it from happening.

Related: Role Recall: Anthony Michael Hall Remembers ‘Breakfast Club,’ ‘Sixteen Candles,’ and More

Hall remembers working with the camera crew to create a signature visual style for Johnny’s transitions from the real world to his mental projections of the future. “It became kind of the look and style of the show, and was a really interesting dynamic visually.” Nearly a decade after the series finale, he’s still grateful for his Dead Zone days. “I felt challenged as an actor, and they really gave me a great opportunity.”