On Dec. 20, people across the country will be glued to their television screens, biting their nails and waiting for “the carver” to be revealed on the season finale of “Nip/Tuck,” is the story of two plastic surgeons and their families who have to deal with family problems, deception and the carver, who attacks and cuts those who represent physical beauty and has a grudge against the doctors for fixing his “art.” Pulse caught John Hensley, who plays Matt McNamara on the show, and got him to discuss his character, the show and plastic surgery.

Paul Nemeth: What reactions do you get from people who watch the show?

John Hensley: It varies, to be honest with you. I mean, for the most part, people who seem to watch the show will come up to you on the street. One word that I’ve heard a lot from the first season is “addictive.” As far as my character is concerned, I’ve heard everything from, ‘Man, I’ve just had so much fun watching you’ to ‘Man, if I was your dad, I’d have broken your nose, too.’ You know, really across-the-board stuff, which is all fun and I honestly take as a compliment.

PN: How do you get into character?

JH: To be honest with you, I try to leave that up to the writers. What I mean by that is that “Nip/Tuck” as a show is so unpredictable that you don’t really know what’s coming around the corner. So you learn early on that you just got to turn it all over to the writers. I find that the most productive days I have at work, regardless of what set I’m on, is that the more I let go and get out of the way, the more opportunity there is for natural interaction between people to occur. If there’s one thing that you learn pretty quickly on a set, it’s that it’s an enormous collaboration, and that you’re one very, very, very small piece of a whole. I find that whatever character you’re playing generally shines more the less you try to force that character upon others.

PN: What do you think your character’s best and worst qualities are?

JH: The first thing that pops into my head is trust. I think trust is Matt’s best and worst quality. You know, it only hit me this season, even though it’s been this way since the beginning, that every single woman in Matt’s life that he’s been romantically involved with has manipulated him significantly in some shape or form. So, in that way, I’d say that trust is not one of his best qualities. Maybe he needs to be a little more skeptical. When it comes to other relationships in his life, and also the one he shares with himself, I think maybe the trust needs to be strengthened a little bit.

PN: “Nip/Tuck” is about plastic surgery. What is your view on that issue?

JH: Oddly enough, the show has softened my viewpoint on plastic surgery. I used to have a very black-and-white view of it. I never understood why people would electively do things to themselves that I found personally unnatural. That being said, after having worked on the show, even though I believe it, for the most part, portrays plastic surgery in a cautionary light, what I think it also does is shows the reasons why people might make those decisions. I am certainly, in my life, guilty of finding answers in the wrong places. It may not be under the knife of a plastic surgeon, but it has certainly, at one time or another, been found at the bottom of a bottle of Jim Beam. So in that way, I kind of get it. I have more empathy for people who might choose to do something like that. I realize it’s a bit of a gray issue.

PN: Everytime the carver cuts somebody, he says, “Beauty is a curse on the world.” Being in a profession where looks matter, do you agree?

JH: No, I don’t. Because what is beauty? I think beauty is so much more than, you know, the physical side of somebody. I mean, Christ, a person can perform a beautiful act. Is that beautiful act a curse? No. Do I think there is a great danger in comparing one’s inside to another person’s outside? Yes. I think it can be a curse when we start putting measuring sticks up against each other. I’d like to believe life is a lot bigger than that. The carver wants to liberate people from the bondage of projection, which I think, in a weird way, would be nice if people liberated themselves from that.

PN: Any hints about the carver’s identity?

JH: If I gave you a hint that even remotely lead to the identity of the carver, do you have any idea how fast they would can my ass on the show? You wouldn’t have a chance to submit your article before I’d be fired, so, no. I can say this: In reading the episode, in which the carver is revealed, I will say I really truly didn’t know until they wanted me to know. It definitely took me on a ride reading that script, trying to figure out who the carver was.