Leader of the Pack

In the current “Easy Wheels,” a gag-ridden takeoff on biker movies, Paul Le Mat is the leader of a motorcycle pack called the Bourne Losers. His three goals in life are to track down evil, destroy it and find a really good light beer.

“I naturally gravitate toward offbeat roles like that,” the 44-year-old actor said, smiling. “I’m not like everyone else. I have to accept that. God has coordinated my life that way.”

Le Mat first cruised onto the film scene as aging hot-rodder Big John Milner in George Lucas’ 1973 hit “American Graffiti.” His long-haired, scruffy good looks kept him bumping along, with choice leading roles coming up every few years in “Aloha, Bobby and Rose,” “Handle With Care,” “Melvin and Howard” and the acclaimed TV movie “The Burning Bed.”

In each case, backed by strong reviews of his performances, it seemed as if Le Mat might rise to stardom and become a household name.

“You have to get the right role, the right material to make that happen,” he said. “It just hasn’t happened yet. I tested at one point for ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark.’ There just aren’t that many good roles out there.”

For Le Mat, that acting is hard work with long hours. And then there are all those lines to be memorized. But, he quickly pointed out, “the money is good.”

He continued, in a more serious vein: “I’m in this acting profession, although I’m convinced it’s something I should not be doing. It leaves me unfilled. The problem is I don’t know what I should be doing instead.”

Le Mat plays the lead role in “Veiled Threat,” which is based on the slaying of an Iranian journalist in Orange County, but the film so far is without an American distributor.

“At least ‘Easy Wheels’ is in release, even though they haven’t spent too much money on publicity,” Le Mat said. “The film’s not controversial, I don’t think. It has girls with big breasts and hot motorcycles. I wear a leather jacket and have visions. What more can you want?”