The Rock: Getting smart or just getting old?

LOS ANGELES

Now that he's out to get smart, don't call him The Rock.

For that matter, don't call him The Scorpion King, either.

Call him Dwayne. Dwayne Johnson.

It's not quite Bond - James Bond - but actor and former wrestler Dwayne Johnson is trying to step up to the A-list in Hollywood with an emphasis on laughs, not maulings. He's co-starring with Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart and Anne Hathaway as the memorable Agent 99 in the big-screen adaptation of the classic 1965 TV series "Get Smart." It opens today.

Carell, the former 40-year-old virgin, plays Agent 86 (Smart), who longs to work in the field after years as an analyst for the secret government spy outfit CONTROL. The good guys have pledged to outwit and destroy KAOS, a group dedicated to taking over the world.

Johnson plays the superstar Agent 23, the one whom everyone else wants to be like.

"Yeah," Johnson mused for a second. "I did think of James Bond just a bit in playing him - certainly more than Maxwell Smart. But it's played for laughs. I love self-deprecating humor, and this is meant to be self-deprecating. You have to find the balance. This is a guy with a little bit of arrogance, but not offensive."

Agent 23, who was not in the TV series, protects Smart from the office bullies and supports the bumbler's efforts to become a real agent.

"Get Smart" is Johnson's first big-studio, above-the-title credit without any reference to The Rock. It was just a few years ago that he left his multimillion-dollar wrestling career to try Hollywood. (He is reluctant to admit that wrestling involved "acting.")

His film debut was in "The Mummy Returns" (2001) as The Scorpion King, a Conan the Barbarian type who wore little other than body oil. He got more attention than the Mummy and was signed for a starring role as "The Scorpion King" (2002). It had the biggest April opening at the time but still didn't spark a sequel. It was time to get funny, a move that led directly to his decision to take third billing in "Get Smart."

Johnson has gone from being billed as The Rock to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to Dwayne Johnson. He's slimmed down, too, looking a little more like a regular guy than Mr. Universe.

"I had to carry all that weight around for football and then for wrestling, but now the less-intimidating look is better for roles, particularly comedy roles."

That's not to say "Get Smart" doesn't have its testosterone-testing action scenes.

"We have a scene in which I'm hanging off a high-speed SUV that's out of control, just me and Steve's stuntman." (Johnson waits to see if you'll chuckle as you notice he's affectionately putting down co-star Carell.) "I shouldn't put Steve down. He did have the courage to show up and look over an action scene before he'd back up and turn it over to his stuntman. But he's a comic, isn't he?

"Seriously, there is nothing so satisfying as making a good action scene. At the end of the day, you go home and you think you've done a day of work, but I don't think there's as much future in it. Let's face it. You could kill yourself. I'm in this business for the long run. I'd like to run a studio. I'd like to be able to pick movies and green-light them. Sure I'm just learning, but I'm learning every day."

As for Carell, who has taken over the role played by the late Don Adams on TV (1965-70), Johnson adds, "I never really got Steve Carell's humor." (He waits to see if you'll smile).

Johnson watched "Get Smart" on TV as a kid but said he's relieved that his character was not in the series.

"Steve and Anne Hathaway were really worried about not doing an impersonation of the originals. I didn't have to worry about that. I saw it, as a kid, as broad comedy, a spoof of the spy movies that were so popular at the time."

He doesn't see Smart as dumb. "Maxwell was a bungler, but he always got the job done. He tries harder. The laughs are in seeing him work so hard."

As for Hathaway, "She proved here that she can do physical - run, jump - right out there with the guys, and besides, she's beautiful and intelligent. She can look pretty and kick butt at the same time. That's the kind of woman I like. A whole generation of boys had dreams about Agent 99 as played by Barbara Feldon. I think Anne has risen to the challenge of re-creating the role."

Alan Arkin (who won the Oscar for "Little Miss Sunshine") plays The Chief in the $100 million-plus movie.

"Alan is going into my record book as my favorite college professor. He's a veteran comic genius. I just studied him on the set. He was very gracious with his time, talking to me about comedy."

Johnson was born in San Francisco and raised in Hawaii. He was an All-American football player in high school and a star defensive lineman for the University of Miami Hurricanes. A shoulder injury limited his chances at a pro career, but he did play in the Canadian Football League.

He decided to follow in the footsteps of his World Wrestling Hall of Fame father, Rocky Johnson. He's a third-generation wrestler; His grandfather, Samoan High Chief Peter Maivia, also was a wrestler. In the seven years he wrestled professionally (1996-2003), Johnson, 36, broke box office records across the country as well as pay-per-view record setting.

"Arrogance was kinda what I played, but it had to be likeable too. That's sorta the same role as Agent 23."

However, he's cut the sly, raised-eyebrow look. "That's strictly The Rock."

His autobiography "The Rock Says" became No. 1 on The New York Times best-seller list after its publication in January 2000. He has a 6-year-old daughter, Simone Alexandra, with Dany Garcia Johnson, whom he describes as his "devoted partner."

At 6-4, he is not yet ready to play Hamlet.

"I don't expect to give an Oscar performance, but I do expect to stay in the game. I think I have more of an instinct for what audiences want to see than for serious acting. That should be worth something."

And Johnson says he is ready to play comedy. He took big steps playing a bounty hunter in "The Rundown" (2003). He played a gay bodyguard in "Be Cool" (2005), and he did comedy for TV's "Saturday Night Live," which turned out to be the highest-rated show of that show's 2000 season.

But his comedic breakthrough came with the Disney movie "The Game Plan," which became the surprise family comedy hit of last year, grossing $92 million in the United States alone. Suddenly, his target audience went from action fans to the family trade.

Johnson was talking at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles just after a short airplane hop from Las Vegas, where he's working on the Disney movie "Race to Witch Mountain," an update of the 1975 family classic "Escape to Witch Mountain."

"I play a taxi cab driver who picks up these kids who have paranormal gifts."

He'll follow that with the starring role in "Tooth Fairy." "Yes, I have the title role. I'm the tooth fairy, but I have a bad wing so I can't fly too well."

That's vulnerable. That's going for the laugh. That's the new Dwayne Johnson.

Belly laughs, without a bruise in sight.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com.