He's playing a cop with a chip on his shoulder investigating a crime of passion in One Hot Summer Night, an ABC movie now shooting on location in Vancouver.

"I saw Darden on Geraldo Rivera's show one night and he seemed very relaxed, and revealed all sorts of different aspects of himself, and I called my casting people to find out if he was interested in acting, and he was very interested," the movie's writer and co-executive producer Michael O'Hara, says, explaining why he felt the lanky, intense, bald-headed Darden would be right for the role of "a jaded cop with a sardonic sense of humor."

Darden, who has wanted to be an actor since high school and plans to pursue this new career with all seriousness, had previously played a small part in the CBS hit Touched by an Angel (he played a preacher helping gang kids). He also lost out to former Mayor Ed Koch of New York to be the judge on a new version of People's Court.

His role in this murder mystery is his first substantial part--if you don't count the O.J. trial. He co-stars with established actors, Barry Bostwick, the mayor in the sitcom Spin City, Brian Wimmer, who used to be in the series China Beach and Erika Eleniak of Baywatch.

Bostwick is the sports tycoon who is murdered. Eleniak and Wimmer, his wife and her lawyer are the prime suspects. But no one, not even the lead cop, is seen in their best light in this latest in ABC's Crimes of Passion franchise, which previously included She Woke Up Pregnant, the network's highest rated original movie last season.

O'Hara admits Darden's co-stars were a bit bemused at first by his casting, but are now respectful of the neophyte actor's efforts. "He's very focused and disciplined. It's obvious that he's a rookie, but he comes to the set very well prepared, and we are happy with him" says O'Hara, describing his production as a "TV movie that violates a lot of rules."