Los Angeles ? It is one thing for an actor to land a role as a loving family man on a network drama. It is another to be cast to play a fist-throwing, fast-shooting government agent.

Christian Slater got both with the starring role in the new NBC drama “My Own Worst Enemy.” The series launches Monday at 9 p.m. Central.

He gets to play Henry Spivey and Edward Albright, two halves of the same person. In order for Henry to lead a normal life, he has been conditioned to forget his life as a government operative. But when he is needed, Edward can be summoned. And Henry has no knowledge of what has happened.

Drama arises when the barrier between the two parts of the character’s personality begin to dissolve. How will Henry deal with the more violent side of his personality? How will Edward handle the chance that he really could become his own worst enemy?

The role requires Slater to slide back and forth between the characters with ease. The task has been made easier by the producers, who have Slater play the opposite sides of his characters on different days.

But maybe the biggest adjustment for Slater is making the transition from his life as a film star to being the lead in a weekly television series. He credits experience in theater with getting him ready to make the leap to TV.

“I think going to London and doing theater there and doing that kind of schedule, doing eight-shows-a-week, Monday to Saturday, kind of prepared me a great deal for this kind of schedule,” Slater says during an interview at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. “I think I thrive on continual motion myself. I like to continually be working, and sometimes when you’re doing a movie you sit in the trailer for six, seven hours a day, and by the time you get out to the set, you’re like exhausted and you’ve kind of lost your mind in the trailer hanging out by yourself.

“So with this there was just not a lot of time to sit around and think. It was just like, ‘Let’s go, let’s go,’ and it just kept moving. It was a very, very fast train.”

The films that have taken up most of the 38-year-old actor’s time include “Bobby,” “3000 Miles to Graceland” and “Heathers.” And Slater is no stranger to television, having appeared on series from “My Name is Earl” to “The West Wing.” But in “My Own Worst Enemy,” the onus is on Slater.

Slater has been working on subtle differences between the two halves of his role. He says Edward is a lot more confident than Henry is, and Edward is left-handed while Henry is right-handed.