The set of “Faster” was no exception. Asking Johnson what his character’s ratio of words spoken to bullets fired is, he smiled and played along: “Let me see. Words spoken to bullets fired? 1 to 25.” And Johnson is also infectiously enthusiastic about returning to action after films like “The Tooth Fairy,” “Race to Witch Mountain” and “Planet 51.”

“When you talk to the writers [Tony and Joe Gayton], I don’t know if they referenced this to you, but [their pitch] was ”’ Bullitt’ meets ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” Those guys, when they write, they write ’70s-style. When your main character has one main, driven focus, it doesn’t get overintellectualized, doesn’t get too complicated. While a lot of the characters can be complicated — well-layered — the main point of the story is very straightforward.”

Johnson also gets to work opposite some great character actors, including Tom Berenger as a prison warden. I ask about the intimidation effect of being opposite Berenger — or, more crudely, what the ‘shrivel factor’ was when working with an iconic tough guy like him. Johnson needled me … nicely.

“‘Shrivel factor?’ There’s women here! … It was a pleasure. I’ve been such a fan of his for a long time now, found out he wanted to play the warden, loved it. We shot that scene in about a half a day. It’s great; that’s essentially the first time we see the Driver with the warden, and he’s quoting ‘The Prophet,’ and saying, ‘I want you to get help. Do you have any questions?’ My answer? ‘Yeah, sure, where’s the exit?’ Working with Tom was great. Not only is he very talented, but he’s a great storyteller, too. He’s had stories for 15, 20 years — in the business, outside of the business — so it was a treat for all of us, sit around and talk shop, guys being guys.”

Finally — and on an improbably self-serving level, as it was a chance to talk about one of my favorite meat-and-potatoes action films of the past decade — I had to ask Johnson, What do we have to do to get you and Peter Berg in a room to make ‘The Rundown 2′ happen? Johnson — graciously — entertained the question.

“He wants to do it. He talked about it a couple of months ago. He’s my buddy, man. I love Peter. I would love to. It’s interesting, because we essentially started our careers at the same time, 2000, 2001. He had that great movie about Vegas ['Very Bad Things']. I was just in ‘The Scorpion King.’ Started our careers about the same time. Then we parted after ‘The Rundown.’ I wanted to work in other genres, become a better actor; he wanted to work in other genres, become a better director. So coming back and working with Peter Berg would be awesome. Whether it’s ‘The Rundown 2′ or anything else, we’re constantly looking for something to do together.”Faster” crashes into theaters Nov. 24.