Global ambassador of geekery Wil Wheaton appeared this week on Larry King Now to discuss his career and promote his upcoming show The Wil Wheaton Project. Described by Wheaton as “sort of like Talk Soup for nerds,” The Wil Wheaton Project will premiere on May 27th at 10 PM EST on SyFy. Speaking with King, Wheaton spoke about past works like Stand by Me, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and The Big Bang Theory.

On working with River Phoenix in Stand by Me, Wheaton remarked, “We all knew that Stand By Me was going to be something special. We all just felt it on the set. I don’t think any of us were prepared for it to become what it became… [River Phoenix] felt everything and it’s what made him such a wonderful, wonderful actor.”

On being invited to play The Big Bang Theory‘s evil Wil Wheaton, the actor commented, “I just thought that the email was a joke from one of my friends so I just ignored it… In drama I play villains. My function in scripted entertainment is to be the guy you love to hate. It’s always more fun to be the villain.”

And regarding the hot-button issue of net neutrality, Wheaton said, “All the dystopian cyberpunk fiction that I loved in the ’80s… it was cautionary! It wasn’t a how-to manual! The more things are consolidated, the easier it becomes to push out unpopular ideas, the easier it comes to shape a national conversation…that’s really dangerous toward what I think are really fundamental American ideals.”

Get your own geek on with the affable actor and writer by watching the full interview from Larry King Now…now!