Tia Carrere wants to play villain on “Hawaii Five-0”

This is evil so good, you can’t resist: Tia Carrere reinventing the famous "Hawaii Five-0" villain Wo Fat.

No, it hasn’t happened — at least not yet. But the Hawaii-born actress and Grammy-winning singer said today that she’s imagined herself in the role since mid-summer.

And it doesn’t matter that the original Wo Fat was a man — so was Kono, now played by actress Grace Park.

"How cool would it be if Wo Fat was me in a Versace leather suit with Christian Dior sunglasses with sharp nails?" Carrere said by telephone from Los Angeles. "She would be a dragon lady but sadistic, absolutely. She would have so much fun."

In the original "Five-0," Wo Fat was played by Khigh Dhiegh, a New Jersey native of Anglo-Egyptian-Sudanese descent. From the pilot to the series finale, the Red Chinese spy was Steve McGarrett’s nemesis.

"He had a perfect tone of menace," Carrere said.

The 43-year-old Carrere, who was discovered while a student at Sacred Hearts Academy and cast in the 1988 indie film "Aloha Summer," had expressed interest in the new "Five-0" earlier in the year. But there were no suitable parts, so she kept working on other projects, including the TV series "Warehouse 13."

Carrere has had a variety of acting gigs, from the "Wayne’s World" comedies in the early 1990s to the upcoming "You May Not Kiss the Bride" and the part of Rell Sunn in "Wave Dancer."

She even has a link to the new "Five-0", having worked with executive producer Peter Lenkov on the 1995 film "Jury Duty."

Her singing career also has kept her busy recording albums with Grammy Award-winning producer Daniel Ho. Her third album, Ikena, won a Grammy in 2009.

But Carrere really likes the idea of being bad. She was the memorable bad girl Juno Skinner in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film "True Lies."

"I would rather play the villain," she said. "It’s more fun to be able to be that bad."