CAAN ARTIST DRAWS ON TALENT : `ERASER' ROLE PUTS CAP ON TROUBLED PAST.

Byline: Joshua Mooney Entertainment News Wire

``You don't care if I smoke?'' James Caan asks - although it's clear he's going to smoke no matter what you think. ``And don't say, `I don't care if you burn,' '' Caan adds, cracking himself up.

At 57, Caan's still the tough-guy jokester. Someone offers him coffee, but he waves it away. ``Nah - gets me too jacked up,'' he says, rattling around his hotel suite in search of an ashtray. ``Unless you can snort it.'' A none-too-oblique reference to the actor's problems with cocaine in the past, perhaps? Caan has never been less than candid. Finally, he settles down, ready to chat. For a guy in late middle age, Caan moves fast and often.

Today, however, one gets the feeling that Caan's energy is coming from within - a natural high. His topsy-turvy career is in good shape and, with a new wife and 7-month-old baby, it's not too naive to think that the legendary carouser is settling down.

Caan, who rose to fame in the '70s as a macho leading man in big-event dramas like ``The Godfather'' and ``Brian's Song,'' saw his career and personal life implode in the '80s. But the '90s have seen a comeback for the tough New York actor. Critical and commercial success in the films ``Misery,'' ``Flesh and Bone'' and ``Honeymoon in Vegas'' have proven that Caan, while older and a bit grayer, is just as forceful a screen presence as he was in his glory days.

Now Caan is only days away from the release of his first-ever big summer action film, the thunderous Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle ``Eraser,'' in which he plays an explosively frightening bad guy. What was the actor's first reaction to the idea of playing the villain in a Schwarzenegger epic? ``My first reaction was, `I don't do 'em,' '' Caan says. Despite a sometimes-careening career, integrity has always been a mainstay of Caan's personal acting credo. ``But then I read the script - it was great. And Arnold was great. Plus, I thought it wouldn't be stupid to be in a big commercial movie.''

``Eraser'' is everything we've come to expect from the pumped-up Schwarzenegger action formula: lethal villains, big guns, bigger Arnold, and plenty of one-liners delivered in the minimalist deadpan Arnold style. Industry pundits expect this to be yet another summer smash. This time, Schwarzenegger plays a marshal working in the federal Witness Protection Program. Caan is his boss, the guy who taught him everything he knows and, it turns out, the man behind the plan to sabotage Arnold's efforts to protect a key government witness, played by singer and former Miss America Vanessa Williams.

James Coburn's also on hand as the head of the Witness Protection Program. Three generations worth of macho movie men must have meant plenty of testosterone on the set. ``Yeah, well, Jimmy's great,'' Caan says of Coburn, ``and Arnold and I had a lot of fun. We did a lot of that macho stuff, but we were always poking fun at it too.''

Caan seems to relish every scene he has in ``Eraser'' - he plays the fed turncoat as part cocky Mafioso, part power-obsessed government snake, part cynical con man. But this is the kind of colorful supporting role that Caan, back when he was being touted as a rugged leading man in the '70s, probably wouldn't have taken. He says he welcomes diversity at this stage in his career. ``I'd still love to play the leading man and be the hero - but it's like playing the sax. If you only play `Yankee Doodle Dandy,' that's not playing the sax. I don't look at roles always in terms of how long I'm on screen.''

There's always been an element of unfulfilled promise in Caan's career. That he had charisma and acting chops was undeniable. That he always made the right moves in his career and his life was debatable. Beginning in the '60s, Caan's early work included two films for legendary director Howard Hawks (``Red Line 7000'' and ``El Dorado''), and two films for up-and-coming filmmakers Robert Altman (``Countdown'') and Francis Coppola (``The Rain People'').

His first major public splash came when he played dying football star Brian Piccolo in the made-for-TV movie ``Brian's Song'' in 1970. He soon followed that with his best-known role, Sonny Corleone in Coppola's landmark 1972 gangster saga ``The Godfather,'' for which he received an Oscar nomination. Throughout the '70s, Caan did fine work in good movies, like the intense, critically acclaimed drama ``The Gambler'' and the hit cop comedy ``Freebie and the Bean.'' But Caan also let other actors step into roles he could have had - Jack Nicholson got ``One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' and Dustin Hoffman landed ``Kramer vs. Kramer.'' Both actors won Oscars for parts Caan had turned down while Caan languished in flops like ``Comes a Horseman'' and ``Harry and Walter Go to New York.''

In the '80s, Caan lost the drive to reshape his career. Despite good reviews for ``Thief'' and ``Hide in Plain Sight,'' which he also directed, the actor generally acted with bitterness toward the film business. A new generation of leading men was coming along while Caan, it was rumored, was sinking into drug abuse. He talks about those days now with the openness of someone who has gotten past the dark times: ``I went through my period of drugs and all that stuff. There was a time when I was runnin' bad. Where I come from - Queens - I'm supposed to be a tough guy, an athlete all my life. Tough guys, nothing's supposed to own you. What I did was just stupid.''

Caan's mistakes weren't overlooked by Hollywood, and he admits his career suffered directly because of them. Even in the early '90s, the following headlines showed up in Los Angeles papers: ``Caan accused in beating,'' ``James Caan may face misdemeanor charges,'' ``Caan testifies he lent cash to suspected Mafia figure.'' Truly, this was a guy who knew how to find trouble.

``I frightened a lot of people off, understandably,'' he acknowledges. ``Whether half that (stuff) was true or not, the point is I was in the wrong places.'' The point is also that Caan eventually figured that out for himself and cleaned up his act. ``I had some good friends and after a couple of years I went to this place and, you know, so far it's been good,'' he says gruffly of his rehab efforts. ``I don't miss it, I tell you that.''

Through it all, Caan says, no one in Hollywood doubted his abilities as an actor. ``That's the greatest thing I have to hold on to: It wasn't, `Can Jimmy do this?' It was, `Is Jimmy gonna go bonkers?' '' Caan says with a laugh. ``It's certainly taken a couple of years. But since then, people are calling me, offering me work, basically rooting for me. That's unusual, and it's nice.''

Ultimately, Caan credits his re-emergence in the '90s to his own ``attitude change,'' and to finding the energy to reinvent himself for a new generation of filmgoers who don't know who he was. What brought on the changed attitude? ``Age, probably,'' he laughs. ``I've settled down. Having a 7-month-old baby helps.''

When asked what drives him at this point in his career, Caan becomes thoughtful and quiet for a moment. ``See, I'm misunderstood for some of the things I say,'' he explains. ``When I say acting isn't my life, people misconstrue that as my not caring. But my life is my family and my kids (Caan has three older children from a previous marriage). That's real. But that's not to say I don't want to be the best actor in the world. That motivation is still there. I want to be the best.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) ``I thought it wouldn't be stupid to be in abig commercial movie,'' says James Caan, left, of his role in ``Eraser,'' with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

(2) Caan's breakthrough role came in ``Brian's Song,'' the '70s tear-jerker about the real-life friendship between Chicago Bears running backs Brian Piccolo (Caan), right, and Gayle Sayers (Billy Dee Williams).