Playing a killer with a few bolts loose, an Aussie comic explodes.

Some roles you just can't turn down. But if Eric Bana was willing to play Mark (Chopper) Read, Australia's most notorious criminal, it's hard to imagine a role the actor wouldn't tackle. Jailed for a botched kidnapping, Chopper at one point in the film stabs a rival in the neck, then politely offers the man a cigarette as he bleeds to death. But it's not the brutal scenework that makes the part such a doozy -- it's the real Chopper Read, the one who's out on parole. Who was fully intending to see "Chopper," the movie that bears his name. Read, already a fan of Bana's asked to have the actor play him. ("He thought I had the necessary level of insanity," Bana jokes.) But what if he didn't like Bana’s performance? What if Read had a few comments -- that he'd like to deliver in person? "Yeah, it did cross my mind," says Bana, 32, reclining in a Manhattan hotel room. "But it wasn’t until the film came out -- and I heard he thought it was quite amazing -- that all that fear came up. It was like driving on a freeway and a car runs a red light and just misses you. You don’t think about it for a few seconds. Then you go, 'Whew.'"

Bana's performance in "Chopper" tends to draw much the same reaction: Whew. The film, by writer-director Andrew Dominik, is based on memoirs the real Chopper wrote behind bars. But whenever the truth didn't live up to his loony standards, he embellished. The movie bravely calls his bluffs, giving Bana, a chameleon of an actor, the chance to show all sides of Read: hilariously unhinged, but also desperate and confused. Dominik shoots the early prison scenes in stark blues and whites, the later scenes in a hazy brown, and his artistry helps paper over a somewhat choppy (sorry) script. Bana, for his work, won Australia's top to acting prizes and a major role in Ridley ("Gladiator") Scott’s next film, "Black Hawk Down," a retelling of the U.S. engagement in Somalia.

A hotheaded sadist, an elite American soldier -- pretty stern material. But before turning to film, Bana was... a stand-up comedian. He also hosted a highly rated Aussie TV comedy show. Still, Bana, who lives in Melbourne with his wife and infant son, radiates normalcy. He talks easily -- and, despite his comic roots, feels no need to crack jokes. The only hint of unrest comes when the subject turns to filming "Black Hawk Down." "We're staying here," says Bana, holding up a book of matches from the Hilton in Rabat, Morocco, "And in keeping with all capital cities, it’s a f---ing hole. There’s only two English TV channels, CNN and the BBC, so you get either the Nasdaq report or f---ing foot-and-mouth. It’s like 'Groundhog Day'." Take it, Eric. After your tango with a killer, the Nasdaq sounds like a nice change of pace.