It's hard to believe how quickly time flies now that Law & Order: SVU is about to kick off its 10th season. Although SVU has featured a slew of guest stars over the past decade, the 10th season premiere welcomes two familiar faces in the form of former Roseanne daughter and ER regular Sara Gilbert and former Beverly Hills 90210 star and heartthrob Luke Perry. While Gilbert steps into the shoes of a traumatized rape victim, Perry takes on the role of an abusive father under investigation in the 10th season premiere of Law & Order: SVU, which airs Tuesday, September 23 on NBC.

On a conference call this week, The Deadbolt's Troy Rogers removed his blazer, loosened his tie, set his fake investigator badge down on his desk, and interrogated executive producer Neal Baer, Sara Gilbert and Luke Perry on the season debut, their characters, and stepping into guest roles on SVU. Before it was over, Deadbolt Detective Rogers also interrogated Luke Perry on suspicion that he could be stepping back into the role he made famous in the '90s.

THE DEADBOLT: Sara, how did you do to get into the head of your character?

SARA GILBERT: I worked with my coach, who I love, and then I also talked to a couple of rape victims to - and one in particular who had had post traumatic stress disorder to kind of figure out what that’s like.

And, you know, I guess she talked about a lot of numbness and stuff, so that really helped me understand how it’s hard to function and what happens. And then I just tried to think about losing the things that are most important to me. What would make me so disabled that I would, you know, start to lose the things in my life that are - that mean something to me.

THE DEADBOLT: Luke, I noticed that you’re also playing a cult leader on another show. What do you enjoy about playing the bad guy?

LUKE PERRY: Well, I don’t see them as plainly bad, first of all. I mean, nobody is bad all the time. Nobody sits around being bad 24/7. So there are always moments where you got to try to find the humanity to people who may be considered the bad guy. And, you know, I thought this is one of the things about this particular script with Law & Order that as I read it, at first I saw it kind of in primary colors.

And the more I read it, the more I started to realize there was so much room in there for me to find places [the guy can pass] and likeable because in his mind he’s doing a good thing. And you just have to - that’s the beauty of acting. You give yourself [the room]. You know, these guys provide you with scripts that [allow you to do that] particularly [in this case], a place to work to allow [your abilities] to show.

NEAL BAER: From what Luke just said, what’s really interesting about his character is he’s a really good father.

PERRY: That’s right.

BAER: And that’s - and that comes through. He really loves the kid and so it’s not just good guys, bad guys. And Sara’s character was a good mother and because of the circumstances is no longer a good mother. But one will hope that she becomes one. So it’s very complicated.

PERRY: Yeah, and that’s like life. Life really is like that. It’s not all black and white.... I think Neal was very eloquent about pointing out that someone who does bad things doesn’t always make them a bad guy. I felt that my character on SVU is a really good father, a really great guy that loved his kid and wanted to see the best thing happen for him. And it’s complicated, there’s a lot of layer to people, and these guys did a really good job of putting script together around that.

GILBERT: And I agree with Luke. Like when you look at the great villains that we’ve seen and loved in TV and movies, you love to not like them and I think part of that is approaching it with like a, you know, dimensional kind of way - like that it’s not just that they’re all evil or we wouldn’t love them, you know. And that’s part of the enjoyment of supposedly evil characters.

PERRY: Yes.

THE DEADBOLT: Luke, just one more quick thing. I guess I’ll be the first to ask - The most recent 90210 episode had a reference to Dylan. Does that mean that we’ll see you there soon?

PERRY: They own the name and likeness, sir.

THE DEADBOLT: So that’s a yes or no?

PERRY: That would be a no.

Other Conference Call Highlights:

How Neal Baer feels about having someone in office who supports a ban on abortion, even in cases of rape or incest:

"Well, I can only speak, obviously, personally. You know, it worries me because any time you have a law with someone that has opinions that cover every situation all ways without dealing with the real tragedies that occur, and obviously instance of rape or incest and what that means to the mother, the woman who’s pregnant by the rapist or through incest, is really troubling to me personally. It’s not something I can imagine myself. Well, I can imagine it but it’s not something I can fully feel or understand and wouldn’t want to make those kind of judgments for someone who is in such a tragic situation."

Luke Perry on what he looks for in a guest starring role:

"It has to be, for me, something that is absolutely different than anything else I’ve played and it needs to be on a show that knows what they’re doing. I haven’t done a lot of guesting. It’s hard to do it because you’re the new person in the room. You don’t always know what you can say and how you can say it and when you can say it. And a show like this, where everyone is pretty secure in themselves and their craft and what the show is about, is great because they give you a lot of room to play, a lot of room to move, and they also took really good care of me for the time I was there. So that was pretty good, I like that."

Perry on already knowing some of the Law & Order: SVU cast members:

Sara Gilbert on her character:

"My character is a rape victim and she has post traumatic stress disorder from the incident, to the point where she can’t really function anymore and in order to, basically, save her child she has to give him up. Then I end up seeing him again; I run into him when I come in to the station."

Luke Perry on whether he’s going through a type of renaissance:

I’m finding better parts to play, how about that? A renaissance, I don’t know. I’m not exactly sure what that means to be honest with you. But if it’s a renewal, yeah. The interesting thing is, I’m still the same old me. I’m the same old guy; I approach the work the same way. But what’s been interesting about this part on SVU and the other show - I had a chance to talk with the producers beforehand, so it wasn’t just, ‘Let’s find a guy who fits the shirt and get him in here.’ They had given some thought to my participation in it and I really appreciate that. Because a lot of times when shows get going, there’s no time for - they just grab whoever’s available... get them in get them out. And these guys seem to put a lot more consideration into it than that, so I’m happy to go to work for them."

Gilbert and Perry on getting into the roles at the beginning of the day and shaking it off at the end of the night:

GILBERT: I find that it’s not easy to shake a role. I find that it really kind of sticks with you through the shooting and - Like whenever I read a script, I’m kind of like, ‘Uh oh, this is going to be a bummer for a few weeks,’ or ‘This will be easy emotionally.’ It really - When you say words all day and go through situations, it’s pretty powerful.

PERRY: Yeah, you know, the saying is true. Some characters you can just - literally I can just walk out of them at the end of the day, never think about it again and go home... Some of the stuff that has a little more gravitas to it, it just - it does, you know, there’s so many things especially with this show because it’s all happening right now and it’s all about stuff - it’s all very contemporary.

"So even after I’m done doing it, I walked away from it and for a couple weeks I still - things would happen and it would make me think about it. It would still be relevant in my mind. And once you’ve played a part, you sort of - and you put yourself in the position of the “bad guy” you start to see things a little bit differently. And, you know, it’s funny that Sara - I knew that was going to be your answer to this... because I could tell just from the few days that we were together here you had like a weight on your shoulders every day at work.

GILBERT: Yeah, and I feel like with some characters you can go to lunch and forget about it. Like you were saying, you kind of can go in and out and I think the heavier characters require a discipline where you kind of keep yourself in it because otherwise you’re back from lunch and they’re like, "Okay, we’re rolling," you know, and you’re just like - still eating your sandwich in your head and it’s just not going to work.