SLIME SPREE

James Remar was so nervous about playing the hero in New Line Cinema’s “Quiet Cool” that on the first day of filming, “I asked the director (Clay Borris) a few minutes before the first shot if he could get another actor.”

But Borris kept him in, and Remar went on to etch Joe Dillion, a New York City cop who goes to Washington State to help a friend stop corruption in a small town. The film, which wrapped May 20, is scheduled for an October release.

Why was Remar so uneasy as a good guy? He’s always been bad--he tormented Eddie Murphy in “48 HRS.,” tantalized Al Pacino in “Cruising,” taunted Richard Gere in “The Cotton Club” and terrorized his co-stars in “Band of the Hand.”

“Unfortunately,” said Remar, “Hollywood sees me as some of the villains I’ve played--most of which have been real slimy characters.”