WILLIAM L. PETERSEN: THE ‘MANHUNTER’ VISITS L.A.

With two tough-guy roles under his belt, in movies that have been labeled “Miami Vice”-like, you might expect actor William L. Petersen to come off as the big screen’s answer to Don Johnson.

But here he sits--in the suite of a West Hollywood hotel--without so much as a fashionable stubble. And he’s dressed casually, as opposed to color-coordinated, in brown cords, blue-green shirt and gray socks with Reeboks.

Indeed, the star of the recently released “Manhunter,” and last year’s “To Live and Die in L.A.,” claims he seldom wears pastels. Lighting his first of many Winston Lights, he added, “And maybe I’ve seen ‘Miami Vice’ twice.”

He doesn’t even hang out in the land of palm trees, perpetual sun and pink flamingos. His stamping grounds are Chicago, where he’s active in Remains experimental theater (which he helped form).

In town to spend a few days talking about “Manhunter,” Petersen was in both a friendly and introspective mood. (“I really haven’t done many interviews. So this is kind of fun. I like clarifying things.”)

Buoyed by largely laudatory reviews, he even got a kick out of negative views of his performance. (He laughed heartily at Rex Reed’s suggestion that he needed New York acting lessons.)

Petersen’s spent some time visiting theaters here and in New York where “Manhunter” is playing. At one New York theater the actor found himself surrounded by more than a dozen young ushers. “And this one kid goes, ‘So you’re the man hunter in this, right?’ You were also in “To Live and Let Die,” right?’

“And I go, no, that was Roger Moore. I was in ‘To Live and Die in L.A.’ And he says, ‘Oh yeah, that’s the one. Well then, lemme ask you, was that you doing all that running?’ ” (The film includes a long-winded chase sequence--on foot.)

With a laugh, Petersen continued: “I said, yeah, I do all my own running. I never have my stunt double do my running. And this kid looks at me in amazement, and goes, ‘Man, you’re fast!’

“I guess I have a big following with some audiences, because I run fast!”

Then there were his visits the previous night to the Village theater in Westwood (“I just wanted to make sure the thing looks and sounds right. You know, it’s so much better in 70 millimeter”) and later, to Mann’s Chinese in Hollywood, where the clean-shaven Petersen had a tough time convincing an usher he was the bearded guy in the movie.

“So we went in the theater together and we started watching the picture, and I looked completely different than I do in the movie. So he still didn’t believe me,” Petersen said with a laugh.

Fans of his first two films also may have a tough time recognizing Petersen when his third film, “Amazing Grace and Chuck,” is released. In it, he plays the father of a young athlete. (Petersen has an 11-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.) Petersen called the film (directed by Mike Newell) “a lovely American fable--the ‘80s answer to Capra.” (It has an anti-nuclear message.)

For the present, though, Petersen stalks far-from-Capraesque, high-tech thriller terrain.

In “Manhunter,” he plays Will Graham, a retired FBI forensics specialist tracking a serial killer (who murders families when the moon is full). As written and directed by Michael Mann (executive producer of “Miami Vice”), the film has a special twist: Will Graham is able to put himself in the killer’s mind-set, which means he’s able to think--and feel--what the killer will do next.

It’s a more sympathetic role than that of Richard Chance, his amoral cop of the William Friedkin-directed “To Live and Die in L.A.” “The challenge in that film was to find that glimmer that made the character human.”

That kind of challenge has more or less become a Petersen trademark, especially on the stage (where he frequently teams with his actress-girlfriend Amy Morton). In fact, it was his portrayal of convicted murderer Jack Abbott, in “In the Belly of the Beast,” that first garnered Petersen critical raves.

“That’s when I ‘became’ an actor. I was 30 years old,” said Petersen, now 33.

Running his fingers through his curly graying hair (“It’s these periodic trips to Hollywood that are making it happen”), he said, “You know what interests me about the characters I’ve been playing these past few years? Guys like Abbott and John Dillinger and Will Graham and Richard Chance aren’t just good guys or just bad guys, they’re both.

“I’m intrigued by this split between the dark side and the light side. I believe we all have this double-edged thing.”

He is less intrigued by the notion of becoming a Movie Star.

“Oh, no, I think of myself as a stage actor. My goal is to do at least two plays a year. And then if there’s a movie that I can also do, I want to do it with someone I want to do it with. I’m talking about the director. Because I look at film as a director’s medium, completely. And the theater is an actor’s medium, completely. On opening night, it’s the actor who has the power.”

Besides, he reasoned, being a full-fledged movie star means life in Los Angeles. “And I couldn’t live here. It would be too much pressure. L.A.’s such a completely different city from Chicago. People are in cars, on freeways, alone. There are no taverns here on the corner where you can meet. You have to go to a restaurant to drink. Here, I’ve got to go out and get a salad just to get a bourbon. And I don’t even eat salad.”

And then there’s all the studio politics. “I don’t even understand some of the people I’ve talked to. They seem to speak in a kind of shorthand,” said Petersen, who nonetheless seemed pleased to announce that, later that night, he was going to attend his first cocktail party, “where there are going to be studio guys.”

Mused Petersen, “The reason I want to go is to get the good bourbon. Bourbon’s getting expensive. So I’ll be slamming down shots. I guess everyone else will be drinking Perrier.”