DRAMATIC THREAT SCOTT CAAN PULLS NO PUNCHES DISCUSSING HIS LOVE OF THEATER.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

``I smoke too much,'' says Scott Caan, as he lights up his third cigarette in 30 minutes.

It's just one in a series of unguarded observations from the 26-year-old star of the just-opened ``American Outlaws.'' Caan, who plays Cole Younger of the Jesse James-Cole Younger Gang, pretty much says what's on his mind, when it's on his mind. Example: ``It's come to a point where I think theater is the acting Mecca. ... Is that a good analogy? Sometimes I say things and I think, 'What the (expletive) did I just say?' ''

Or, ``Am I going to (stink) in a movie? Sure. I may not be great, and it's because I try something and it doesn't work.''

Slightly intense, unfailingly polite and with a flair for the offbeat, Caan recently showed up for a press junket for ``American Outlaws'' dressed in a floor-length black bathrobe with accompanying black fedora and red pajama bottoms. If he looked like he just came from a lingerie party at the Playboy Mansion, Caan explained, that's because he had.

The eldest son of actor James Caan - who has also given more than his share of salty interviews - Scott opted to go naked in the film ``Varsity Blues'' out of a sense of fairness. (The script called for only the women in the scene to be nude, which Caan thought was ``sexist.'') He was also arrested in 1998 following a barroom brawl in West Hollywood.

But the man who turns up for a porch-side interview at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood - although a physical dead ringer for his father - isn't looking for a fight. If you want to see him fired up about something, just ask him for acting performances he has admired.

Thus prompted, Caan launches into a detailed breakdown of Mark Ruffalo's work in the film ``You Can Count on Me'': ``All that was was textbook good acting, and I think that's how everyone should be,'' he said. ``And he also comes from the theater.''

If Caan the Younger has live stage and acting nirvana on the brain, it's because he's doing the dramatic triple threat: starring in and co-directing a play he has written. ``Almost Love,'' a three-character comic drama, opens tonight for a week-long run at Playhouse West in North Hollywood, the acting school and repertory company where Caan got his training.

``Almost Love,'' born out of conversations between Caan and friends about the difficulties surrounding a twentysomething's relationships, then joins the Playhouse West repertory schedule. Caan and co-stars Val Lauren and Laura Katz will return to restage it when time and scheduling permits. (The performance has a few September dates scheduled as well.)

In Caan's case, there doesn't figure to be a lot of time for live theater. The busy actor, who lives in Hollywood, has recently finished roles in ``Novocaine'' opposite Steve Martin and Helena Bonham Carter and ``Ocean's Eleven,'' Steven Soderbergh's much anticipated remake of the 1960 Rat Pack classic, with George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon.

``I'll go do anybody's movie,'' he says. ``If I find something I like in it, I'll say, 'Let's go do it.' Good, bad mediocre or whatever it is, if a director wants me in his movie, I take it as a compliment. And at the end of the day, if the movie's no good, I'll live to fight another day.''

Scott Caan the screenwriter has a pretty full dance card as well. ``Chasing the Party: How Hugh Hefner Saved My Life,'' a comedy about crashing the Playboy mansion, is at Jerry Bruckheimer Productions with Caan slated to star. Two other screenplays are also in development.

Later this summer, he's off to Toronto, where ``Novocaine'' will play at the Toronto Film Festival. This week, however, Caan is a creature of the theater, and to hear him tell it, he couldn't be happier.

``If you love acting and you've ever experienced theater, then you know that in a movie it's almost impossible to live out that experience, unless you're a Pacino or a De Niro or somebody who gets to pick their parts,'' says Caan, shifting his muscular compact frame in a patio chair.

``It's very rare that you get a part that at the end of the day you feel like you've really lived out, and for me going back and doing theater is like where I get to do that. I realized that over the past couple of years, and I hope to God I never lose that, and I never rest on my laurels.''

Lauren, ``Almost Love's'' co-star, co-director and fellow acting student at Playhouse West, doesn't figure that will happen any time soon. ``He's very spontaneous, very fresh, in-the-moment and responsive,'' Lauren says of Caan. ``I personally in the past year have seen a side of Scott I do not think the general audience has seen.''

We've seen him goofy (in the wrestling themed ``Ready to Rumble'') and in the buff (``Varsity Blues''). In ``Novocaine,'' which opens Oct. 19, he'll play a ``lunatic drug addict obsessed with his sister crazy person drug dealer.''

David Atkins, the director of ``Novocaine,'' says he was looking for someone to play ``a scary (expletive).'' While screening the film ``Boiler Room'' to take a look at the work of Giovanni Ribisi, Atkins was instead drawn to Caan.

``The word that comes to mind is 'explosive.' In my film, he explodes,'' said Atkins. ``But rather than screaming and yelling, he played it in the opposite direction - very subtly, but very explosively when the time came. I thought he had some large engine burning deep inside him, and you just have to ask him for it. When the time came, bang! there it was.''

``Ocean's Eleven'' will see Caan and Casey Affleck playing a couple of ``goofy go-between driver'' brothers who help the Ocean gang pull off three casino heists.

And no matter what Soderbergh (``Traffic'' and ``Erin Brockovich'') has planned next, Caan says he'll be there if asked. ``I just talked to someone doing his next movie and I told him, 'Tell him I'll come and do one line.' The cast was amazing. I found that all the most talented people are also really the nicest people.''

Caan's ``Almost Love'' character, if not entirely autobiographical, springs from the endless conversations he and actor friend Desmond Harrington have had on the subject of relationships - building them and keeping them. It's a spin on reality, says Caan.

``I had been going through this thing with my girlfriend the past year and a half where we'd break up and get back together. I think a lot of people can relate to that,'' says Caan. ``The left side of my brain is telling me I want to sleep with every woman in the world and the other side of my brain is telling me I met this great girl and if I let that go I'm going to regret it.''

The three-character format - and the work habits of the entire Playhouse West team - has given Caan and his cast the chance to work through the material in a particularly satisfying way. His return to Playhouse West comes after a lengthy live stage hiatus. And Caan says he has returned to stage work and classes not out of a need to reclaim some dramatic self discipline.

``Now it's all about really digging it,'' he says. ``We made $24 last week because our theater runs on donations. Some days you think, 'God, why can't they all just come and see this? I want to work on my play.' You forget about the business side of things.''

Not everyone in the business will work in the smaller, less visible, less lucrative world of theater, admits Caan. Some don't like the medium, he says. Others, like Clooney, are too busy.

``I got pretty close to Matt Damon,'' says Caan. ``If someone told him that he couldn't do a movie for six months, I guarantee you he'd be in the theater trying to do something.''

Caan's name alone may draw people to the small stage on Magnolia Boulevard, but the actor isn't above doing a little promotional work of his own. A few minutes after our interview is concluded, Caan races past me toward Sunset Boulevard where his car - containing the ``Almost Love'' publicity material - is parked.

``I just saw Harvey Keitel,'' he explains ``Got to get him an invitation to my play.''

``ALMOST LOVE''

Where: Playhouse West, Studio II.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday. Also 8 p.m. Sept. 15 and 22; 7 p.m. Sept. 16 and 23.

Tickets: Donation requested. Call [phone] for reservations.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) CAAN MAN

Second-generation actor Scott talks about stepping into the family business

(2 -- color)``I'll go do anybody's movie. If I find something I like in it, I'll say, `Let's go do it.' Good, bad, mediocre or whatever it is, if a director wants me in his movie, I take it as a compliment. And at the end of the day, if the movie's no good, I'll live to fight another day.''

David Sprague/Staff Photographer

(3 -- color) Scott Caan, left, who plays Cole Younger, rides with Colin Farrell and Gabriel Macht in ``American Outlaws.''