CRAIG: My next guest is the star of CBS' Friday night juggernaut "Now and Again." Clip from show: >>THEO: Maybe this enhancement was a bad idea. >>AGENT: Perhaps we need to open him back up, just do some fine-tuning. >>MICHAEL: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah! This is great. >>THEO: What's that? >>MICHAEL: I don't know. Either two people are on their honeymoon or somebody's watching a porno. CRAIG: Please welcome Eric Close! [cheers and applause] CRAIG: There he is. I mean, out of nowhere you're huge now. You're the guy. You're it. ERIC: Can you believe it? CRAIG: Yes. ERIC: It's unbelievable. I got to tell you something. This is a milestone for me tonight. CRAIG: Meeting Ice Cube? ERIC: Yes. No. Meeting you. This is -- this is my first late night talk show I've ever done. CRAIG: Oh, wow. [cheers and applause] ERIC: And you're the man. CRAIG: Well, let me just say -- ERIC: I will always be grateful to you. CRAIG: Don't forget us. Don't forget us. ERIC: I won't. I'll be back. CRAIG: You looked good when you walked out. I couldn't tell. You didn't fall. You came out here, shook my hand. You knew to go to the chair. ERIC: I watched Cube. I saw what he did. Settled in, did something like this. CRAIG: I don't know what it means. Here's the thing -- this show is fascinating. Can you explain the premise? Because some people think it's too complicated. ERIC: Well, yeah. I was confused when I first read the pilot, and basically what happens, it's very simple. John Goodman, who was in the pilot, plays this middle-aged insurance salesman, got a wife and a daughter. CRAIG: Rosanne. Rosanne Barr. ERIC: Yeah. And he's -- things aren't going well for him. He's kind of an old dinosaur in the insurance company. This young kid played by Chad Lowe takes his job and he ends up going out with his buddy and partying. That night he's on his way home and gets shoved in front of a subway train by accident and is killed. Next thing you know, he wakes up and there's this guy talking to him. CRAIG: Right. ERIC: The next thing you know, he wakes up in a hospital. And it's John Goodman. He gets out of bed, goes to the mirror to get a drink, and when he looks in the mirror, it's me. what's happened is the government has taken this guy's brain, John Goodman's brain, and put it in my body. And my body has been bioengineered by the government as a secret weapon. CRAIG: In my opinion, you have a better body than John Goodman. ERIC: Just slightly. [cheers and applause] ERIC: Actually, I think he's a pretty sexy guy. CRAIG: No. You're wrong. No. But this is a fantasy. The show is more of a fantasy for John Goodman to be in your body. ERIC: Right. Right. CRAIG: That's how I'm interpreting it. I don't know. But is that the first episode? How do we know? Do we have to know that episode three and four that's the premise? ERIC: Well, they recap it every time they do the show. They explain it. They have this guy with a voice who goes, a young man who was an insurance salesman and go through that whole thing. Now he has this new life. The thing about my character that keeps him going is the fact that he has this wife and daughter that he believes that he's going to have contact with again one day. He's not supposed to because the government says they'll terminate them if you ever do. But his hope is he'll be able to be with them again. That gives him hope. CRAIG: The show is doing well. "Entertainment Weekly." Did you hear what they said about you? A smart aleck wit, a soulful charm and a bod that makes the $6 million man look like chump change, it raises the question, why isn't this guy already famous? That's you. Why aren't you already famous? ERIC: I have no idea. Glenn asked me that question when we met. In the audition. He said the same thing. I walked in and I had already done a number of series that hadn't been on the air. He said, to who are you? Why haven't I never met you before? That's the nature of television. If something doesn't hit -- it may be a great show but if it doesn't hit, you've got to kind of start over again. CRAIG: Maybe you're -- I don't know if this is the right way to say it. Maybe your agent sucks. [cheers and applause] CRAIG: How many years -- you've had a number of -- "Dark Skies" failed, "Magnificent Seven," "McKenna." How many -- how many years you been doing this? ERIC: I'm an overnight success.10 years. CRAIG: That's what they say in Hollywood. It takes 10 years to become an overnight sensation. ERIC: I think this is my ninth year really plugging away at it. But I have to say, I -- it's a bit deceiving because I've had a really good career so far, and I consider it successful regardless of the recognition of the public. To me, I've been able to make a pretty decent living and I've got to do a lot of great work, a lot of great projects and met a ton of great people. CRAIG: It sounds like you're an artist, Eric. ERIC: Yeah. CRAIG: You're also, they say you're a sex symbol. [cheers and applause] CRAIG: I mean, there -- cover of "TV Guide." ERIC: Can you believe that? CRAIG: Yeah, I can believe that. You're a star, man. ERIC: I couldn't believe it. CRAIG: You're the big E. ERIC: This is the final cover of -- of 1999, before the millennium. CRAIG: The century. ERIC: The last "TV Guide" cover of the century. That's a real honor. CRAIG: You're it. It is. Do you take your shirt off a lot during the show is what they tell me? ERIC: You know, it sucks because, you know -- CRAIG: Do you need to take it off now? Can you get through the interview without taking it off? Guys, do you want him to take off his shirt? ERIC: I had a lot of salt today. I'm a little, you know -- CRAIG: A little puffy? ERIC: Little puff today. Yeah. They do make -- I don't take my shirt off a lot but I'm always wearing tank tops. It's sort of this thing. CRAIG: Same thing. ERIC: Yeah. You know, I -- I'll be honest. At first it was -- I didn't like that whole thing about this part of the business, where you -- CRAIG: Being a sex symbol? ERIC: Yeah. I kind of fought against it thinking I want to be an actor. I want people to respect my work. CRAIG: Right. ERIC: But Glenn -- CRAIG: You keep saying Glenn. ERIC: Glenn Caron. He basically said to me after this the pilot, he said, "Eric, you looked a little feminine." CRAIG: You looked feminine? Yeah. I was going to say -- ERIC: Guys, if someone said that to you, how would you feel? You'd be hitting the gym. Right? Am I right? CRAIG: You were kind of skinny. To me, you look a little too pretty. You know? ERIC: I know. CRAIG: It's the leather jacket. ERIC: Talk to the makeup artist. CRAIG: But I think you can be a sex symbol - I me, you could be, if you played your cards right, the next David Hasselhoff. I mean, again, depends on your agent. ERIC: I can't sing. CRAIG: You can't sing. ERIC: I can't sing. You know, the sex symbol thing, like I was saying, you kind of -- you think at first you want to fight it. But I realize guys like Mel Gibson or Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, they're sex symbols but they got chops. You know what I'm saying? That's what it's about. The sex symbol thing is about skin deep and goes so far but it's part of the package to be a leading man. When that happens, you've got to accept it and say this is a great thing and it means that something's going right. CRAIG: Do you get noticed a lot more when you go out now? ERIC: Jeez. It's amazing. I got little tastes of it throughout the last few years. Every once in a while a show would start to go and people would say I like you on this or that. Then it would disappear. So, I kind of was ready for it, but then all of a sudden just like overnight, people - come up to me in the subway, because I live in New York. They'll come up and say, man, I love your show. Or I usually don't do this - some woman watched - reached out and grabbed me in the crowd. Who was that? CRAIG: Here's a little advice on how to handle this. ERIC: Tell me. because you're a player. See, I haven't - you're a player. I haven't reached player - CRAIG: You're supposed to be cordial to these people, but if you want to be a real star, blow some of them off, not now, get away. Be rude sometimes, maybe 2 out of 5 autographs you give. Ok? ERIC: Ok. That's good advice. CRAIG: And don't give out your phone number to the ladies that often. You know? ERIC: That could be a real problem. CRAIG: Are you single or married? ERIC: No. CRAIG: He's married. ERIC: Happy. CRAIG: That ruins the whole image right there. That's too bad. ERIC: My wife, she's the bomb. She's schiznit. She is, man. CRAIG: Whatever that is, yeah. There you go. I like that. Good luck. You're doing a hell of a job for the network. We're proud of you. ERIC: Thank you. CRAIG: Be right back after this.