BO JACKSON, ACTOR.

Bo knows acting? Maybe, but don't expect to hear it from him. ``That phrase is gone, dead and buried. I had a party like they do in New Orleans to put it to its final rest,'' says the former pro athlete, who makes his screen debut playing a prison guard in ``The Chamber.''

Not only the former Nike ad campaign, but Bo Jackson's entire athletic career is a thing of the past, as far as he's concerned. ``I am now pursuing acting with a passion, because it's something I've wanted to do even before professional sports,'' says the former football and baseball star.

``The one thing I won't do is even go and read for a part where I'd be portraying an athlete, 'cause that is something I already know how to do.''

If growth is the issue, the imposing 6-foot-1 Jackson had a fine opportunity to learn when he landed a part opposite Gene Hackman in ``The Chamber,'' based on the John Grisham novel. Jackson plays Sgt. Clyde Packer, a Mississippi prison guard charged with watching over Hackman, who plays a racist killer on Death Row.

The two struck up an immediate rapport between takes. ``I didn't ask questions about acting, but I watched him, the way he carried himself on and off camera, and when it was time to play my part, I emulated him in that way,'' says Jackson. ``It was intense, but I never got nervous, 'cause I don't get nervous, and I don't get intimidated.''

An Alabama native who won the Heisman Trophy as a football player at Auburn University, Jackson adopted a soft Southern drawl for the role. ``I can turn the accent on and off,'' he says. Raised in Bessemer, a small town outside Birmingham, Ala., Jackson was playing catcher on a men's semiprofessional baseball team by the time he was 11 years old. ``I was the toughest damn kid in the that county,'' he says.

Now that he's in a game that's at least as tough as gaining yards on the gridiron for the L.A. Raiders, Jackson says he still expects to excel.

``I don't see myself becoming a B-rate movie actor. I think more of myself than that.''

For the past several years, he's been working with an acting coach and seeking opportunities. ``I've read for up to 50 different parts. I've turned things down, and I've been turned down for things,'' says Jackson.

``There is one other thing I won't portray, and that is a stereotypical gangster, pimp or dope dealer. I wouldn't want to have the kids in the park emulating me in that way.'' Though he claims he doesn't even enjoy watching sports anymore - ``I sit there and roll my eyes. It's boring'' - Jackson figures he'll always have a standard to uphold, one way or another. ``I'll always be a role model. I have no choice,'' he shrugs. ``I am a father.''

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Photo: (1--2) Now an actor, Bo Jackson, whose professional sports career included stints with football's Raiders and baseball's White Sox, doesn't even enjoy watching sports. ``It's boring,'' he says.

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