As fun as 90210 is, sometimes an actor just has to branch out, or remember his roots. We’re always happy to talk with Michael Steger about either. You know him as Navid Shirazi from West Bev, but Michael has definitely been around the theatrical block.

We spoke with the actor about his work and it turns out he’s gotten quite experimental.

You were in two Bollywood films in 2005 and 2008; what was that experience like compared with American film-making?
It is completely different and really great. It was a very magical experience working in a foreign country.

Read on about Michael’s other adventures in acting, including his work with “Alice in Wonderland” director Tim Burton.

Would you ever consider acting in another Bollywood film?
I don’t know, I’m very much about trying new things. But I definitely want to go back to India.

Do you have any plans to work in other feature films?
I’m constantly reading scripts, but no plans yet. A lot of it depends on the characters I read and what characters I think I can get into.

You’ve acted for television, film, theater and even a music video; what kind of acting is your favorite?
I would say the theater. The live audience is something you just can’t replicate. With television you shoot a five or ten-minute scene and then you take a two hour break, and then you do it again. It’s a lot of repetition. A play you just do all at once, it’s a completely different thing.

You acted in The Killers’ music video for their song “Bones,” directed by Tim Burton. What was it like working with him?
It was awesome. I almost didn’t do the job until I saw Tim Burton was on it. I was the last person lined up for the audition and I almost didn’t get to do it because I had somewhere else to be. But I auditioned and they called me and told me I had it.

Tim was the most meticulous guy, he had to make the hair perfect, the clothes, scene, everything. In the scene where Devon Aoki, the actress who was in the video with me, and I were kissing, we had to recreate a scene from “From Here to Eternity.” We were on the beach and we had to kiss at the exact moment that the wave was crashing over us. Tim is definitely an artist and it was great to work with him.

If you couldn’t be an actor, what would you be?
There were periods in my life where I really wanted to get into astronomy. I had this class in college at like five in the morning, it was tough. Then for a while I thought I would be a dermatologist or a dentist. But I guess I just caught the acting bug. Finally, I had a friend in college that told me “you know what, if you really want to act you should do it seriously, not part-time.” So I was kind of on the five-year plan for a while when I switched majors from biology to theater, but it really ended up opening a lot of doors for me.