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Dennis Hopper now a TV kind of guy

Television is giving Dennis Hopper a sense of freedom he used to feel in movies.

“You can suddenly be freer on cable television than you can on film these days,” says Hopper, who stars in“ Crash” (Starz, Friday, 10 ET/PT), an adaptation of the Oscar-winning film.

“There are no sexual blocks, no language restrictions. And they’ve done a great job writing it,” says the actor, who came to prominence directing and starring in 1969’s “Easy Rider.” The movie broke filmmaking rules and helped usher in an era of creative freedom.

Hopper, 72, plays larger-than-life music producer Ben Cendars, whose drug use is partly responsible for unpredictable mood swings. “It seemed like a part I could really have some fun with. He starts playing with guns and [there are] orgies and on and on,” Hopper says from Paris, where he was being named a commander in France’s National Order of Arts and Letters.

When he took the part, Hopper thought of music impresario Phil Spector, with whom he once shared an office. The character’s sometimes extreme behavior, which isn’t based on Spector, rings true to Hopper’s own experiences and observations from a wild, younger life in Hollywood.

“I was just around it. I’m using myself,” Hopper says. “I was fortunate enough to get sober 25 years ago. My life did change. But I have great memories of that time. Not all bad, either.”

Since pay-cable Starz is known for films, an adaptation of the movie makes sense for the network’s first dramatic series, programming chief Stephan Shelanski says.

Shelanski understands that adapting a best-picture winner “is a double-edged sword. People are going to have very high expectations because the film is so great. The thing that helps us feel comfortable is that the creative team from the movie is involved in the TV show.”

Structurally, it’s similar to the film, tracing the random intersection of lives in diverse but often separated Los Angeles. To differentiate TV’s “Crash,” which was filmed primarily in Albuquerque, the tone and content of the 13 episodes vary from the film, adding a little more lightness and levity while not focusing quite as much on race and class, says executive producer Glen Mazzara (“The Shield”).

On TV, relationships get to play out over time between the characters, including Ben’s black driver (Jocko Sims), a frustrated Brentwood woman (Clare Carey), a gang member turned EMT (Brian Tee), an illegal immigrant (Luis Chavez) and a hot-headed detective (Nick Tarabay). His lover and fellow officer (Arlene Tur) has an impulsive partner (Ross McCall) who finds lust at first sight with Inez (Moran Atias) when he crashes into her car.

“We’re trying to create stories people will come back to week after week, whereas the film had such a tone that it could be difficult to watch every week,” Mazzara says. “It’s a tough movie.”