Cop drama seems tailor-made for actor's serious intensity

Sooooo serious!

So no-nonsense.

Edward Norton, who refused to do interviews for the commercial-minded "The Incredible Hulk," agreed to talk about his new film, "Pride and Glory," which opens today in local theaters.

The character he plays faces a moral decision, so he wants to talk about "the moral dilemma of America today." He certainly doesn't want to talk about himself.

To be honest, he looks more like a nerdy, yuppie, skinny intellectual than a movie star. He'd probably like that description. One of his professed goals in life is not to be recognized in the subway in New York City. Yet?

Yet, he is one of the more respected actors of his generation. There are Norton fans who await his next movie with the intensity some people once did with Brando's next move. He has turned in a couple of performances that remain among the best in recent decades. There was the naive-appearing altar boy with a Southern accent who fooled everyone in "Primal Fear" (1996). There was the violent, neo-Nazi, white supremacist in "American History X" (1998). He got Oscar nominations for both.

He played an Austrian magician involved in a doomed love affair in "The Illusionist" and a stuffy husband opposite Naomi Watts in rural 1930s China in "The Painted Veil." Both were surprise hits. There were a lot of films, in contrast, that slipped under the radar of mainstream movies.

His private life remains private, although there have been publicized linkings with Courtney Love, Drew Barrymore and Salma Hayek. There were also rumors that he had sold out to commercial pressure to star in "The Incredible Hulk," offset by a fight with the producers and his disowning the movie and refusing to talk about it. In fact, there have often been disagreements on his sets with other actors, directors and creators. Call them "creative differences."

He is a Yale graduate (majoring in history, not theater), and he lives in New York (not California). From a wealthy family, he grew up outside D.C., on the Maryland side, where his father was a federal attorney during the Jimmy Carter administration. His grandfather James Rouse was a real estate developer who was a pioneer in creating the modern super mall.

He's been around for almost the entire seven years it has taken twin brothers Gavin and Greg O'Connor to get "Pride and Glory," their original script, made into a movie. The brothers grew up the sons of a New York City cop, and Norton felt they were the people who "needed" to make this movie.

"It's a movie about loyalty and people confronting the necessity of telling the truth even if it means betraying your family," Norton said. "Cops are an institution that closes ranks against those on the outside, especially in the face of corruption. I have the role of a person who has to decide between family loyalties and institutional loyalties.

"That's something I wanted to play. The real challenge was to play this character without judging him. I never want to judge a character I play. They are individuals separate from me, yet I need to understand them. To face his dilemma is something outside me."

Norton plays the detective son of the chief detective, played by Jon Voight. He is assigned to investigate the murder of four cops in what appears to have been a routine drug bust, but the facts suggest that someone from "inside" tipped off the drug criminals. Slowly, it looks as if his brother (played by Noah Emmerich) and his brother-in-law (Colin Farrell) might be involved. There are those, including his father, who think he should keep quiet.

Norton rode with New York cops on the beat for weeks in preparation for the part - and getting the speech pattern. It's part of his process. He watched "Coal Miner's Daughter" over and over to get the speech patterns he used in "Primal Fear."

For "American History X," he added 30 pounds of muscle to his skinny frame by lifting weights nonstop for three months, drinking protein shakes and shakes made of blended roast beef. He then lost weight for "Fight Club," opposite Brad Pitt.

Norton has known he wanted to be an actor since age 6 when his baby sitter, Betsy True, took him to see a musical called "If I Were a Princess." He never got over it. She, incidentally, went on to play Cosette in Broadway's "Les Miserables."

Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?") became his mentor and cast him in the Off-Broadway play "Fragments" in 1994. Norton became the director of Albee's Signature Theater and remains on its board.

His movie debut came two years later and has continued with things like a Woody Allen musical - "Everyone Says I Love You" (1996) - as Drew Barrymore's preppy love interest. He also played a lawyer in Milos Forman's "The People vs. Larry Flynt" (1996). He dated his co-star Courney Love and played guitar with her rock band, Hole.

The contradictions pile up. He reportedly wrote the script for "Frida" for his girlfriend, Hayek. He made a cameo appearance in it as Nelson Rockefeller.

Yet, he chose a broad comedy, "Keeping the Faith" (2000), for his directorial debut, playing a priest opposite Ben Stiller as a rabbi. He co-starred with Marlon Brando in Brando's last film, "The Score," and remembers, mainly, showing Brando an episode of "The Simpsons" in which the Simpsons appear in a musical version of "A Streetcar Named Desire."

Yet the only movie he mentions is the one true disaster of his career, "Death to Smoochy" (2002), a dark comedy about a star of a children's TV show. It's a legendary bust.

Some predicted trouble between him and rival prince Colin Farrell, who plays the corrupted side of things in "Pride and Glory."

"It was a great privilege to work with him," Norton said. "He's intense. He's tough, and he's committed. He is ready to stay as long as we work, into late hours, and always with enough energy to give it his best."

Norton, who never smiles during interviews, said he thinks "Pride and Glory" is particularly appropriate "because we are at a time in American history when we need to speak up against power, but it's just a coincidence that it's being released now. It's really an action story, but it's the kind of action film in which every bullet counts."

He's filming "Leaves of Grass" in which he plays twins - one a conservative professor, the other into drugs. Next, he's doing "Motherless Brooklyn," a 1950s crime drama adapted from the novel by Jonathan Lethem. He'll not only star but will be the producer, director and screenwriter. He's teaming with Brad Pitt to produce a 10-part TV series about the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Even with all this outward activity, you come away from an Edward Norton meeting wondering what he was thinking. He's one of those people who always seems to be thinking about something he's not saying.

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