A few years ago, Vin Diesel and The Rock were considered the chief contenders in the battle for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s mantle as the movies’ mightiest action hero.

The two go head to head on Friday, with Diesel, 37, starring in Disney’s “The Pacifier” and The Rock, 32, among the starry ensemble supporting John Travolta in “Be Cool.”

At this juncture, The Rock has a decided edge, co-starring in a comedy with Uma Thurman, Cedric the Entertainer, Andre 3000 of Outkast and Steven Tyler. The Rock, born Dwayne Johnson, is building a hit resume that demonstrates he could be much more than a Schwarzenegger clone.

In “Be Cool,” he dons an Afro to play Elliot Wilhelm, the gay bodyguard of Vince Vaughn’s sleazeball music industry producer. Elliot is sensitive about his homosexuality; he knocks out anyone who dares to call him a derogatory name. But at heart, he’s not a bouncer – he’s a wannabe actor and singer.

Elliot has a trademark eyebrow-raising gesture that shows the extent of his talent, a direct reference to The Rock’s wrestling-era trademark.

“Obviously Elmore (Leonard, the writer/screenwriter) was sending up The Rock in the book,” said “Be Cool” producer Stacey Sher. “And when we got the call from his agent who said that The Rock had read it and loved it and wanted to play it, well, we thought we’d gone straight to heaven.”

“I love self-deprecating humor,” The Rock said. “I’ve always been a big fan of that, and to have that running joke throughout the movie of, `Look, I have talent!’ – I thought that was a great joke, too. I wasn’t taking this role specifically to get away from the action genre. I took the role because for me it was a meaty role and a challenge.

“You hear this all the time from actors, that we’re waiting for that role where they can be fearless and they could jump off the cliff,” he continued. “For me, that was this role. I saw an opportunity to play a guy who was in a world that he didn’t want to be in, but at the same time, he still felt like he had something to offer the world through song and through dance. He was a gay man who was proud.”

In some ways, Elliot isn’t that removed from The Rock.

“I connected with Elliot. I knew him. He was this aspiring actor – and that was me five years ago,” The Rock said. “He was the guy who didn’t really have any money – and that was me eight years ago.”

Still, The Rock is playing a guy who seems pretty dim. Elliot does an audition monologue from “Bring It On,” the Kirsten Dunst cheerleader movie, and he misses the point of what a monologue is by playing not one but two roles. Even worse (and funnier), he plays two women.

Elliot’s audition is The Rock’s favorite scene in “Be Cool.”

“I don’t think that Elliot is a stupid man; I think that he’s an earnest man who’s genuine,” he said. “That’s the reality of Hollywood and the entertainment business. There’s a lot of people like Elliot out there right now – outside. We could go out there, and they’re the aspiring actors who will drop a monologue at the drop of a dime on you. By the way, I live it every day, too. People are always coming up to me: `Hey, I’ve got this idea’; `I have a CD’; `Do you want to hear me do this?’ So I’ve seen it before.”

The Rock isn’t worried about upsetting his fans.

“I think that the audience, my fans, will be very supportive because at the end of the day I think that they would just appreciate me taking on the role.”

He’s back to action in his next movie, “Doom,” inspired by the best-selling video game. And if anyone is happy doing action, it’s The Rock.

“It’s funny because I love Ben Affleck. Last year, he said, `I don’t want to blow anything up. I don’t want to shoot any guns anymore.’ Well, I love blowing (expletive) up and shooting guns,” he said. “But I’ve always wanted to just continue to diversify and take on movies that were entertaining at the end of the day. I’ve been really, really fortunate to have gotten decent material, and I’d like to continue to do that.”

His fact-based “Gridiron Gang” will film this summer.

“It takes place in a teenage prison camp in the Malibu mountains. When kids can’t go to prison for example, say, murder, they get sent to these camps first. I’m literally transforming all these kids’ lives.”

Meanwhile, his wrestling career has ended.

“My contract was up at the end of the year last year,” he said. “It was an interesting way that it all came about because I wasn’t contacted or notified or anything like that by anyone from the WWE.”

He was in Prague filming “Doom” when it ended.

“My own team of managers and everybody, they’re congratulating me, like, `Oh my God, what a wonderful career you’ve had.’ It moved me to have so much love from them, and then it was just one of those things that sort of hit me like a ton of bricks because I loved the interaction, the fans. So I wish that it would’ve gone down a little bit differently.”

Unlike many wrestlers who are legally unable to use their moniker in other venues, The Rock will be The Rock as long as he wants.

“We made that agreement, obviously, a couple of years ago. I’m able to go out and use the name The Rock and be billed as The Rock in movies.”

credit: Boston Herald