‘Dead’ Star Finding Life in Not-So-Nice-Guy Roles : Movies: After his MTV series, Jack Noseworthy switches to playing a trashy punk in ‘S.F.W.’ and an angry hothead in ‘The Brady Bunch Movie.’

For the last six months, Jack Noseworthy has been seen as the consummate good guy--his MTV series “Dead at 21” was in its third round of repeats before it was finally pulled a few weeks ago. But with the release of his two latest films, Noseworthy won’t have to worry about being typecast as a nice guy.

The first film, “S.F.W.”--a kind of Generation X-meets-”Natural Born Killers” (“S.F.W.” stands for the movie’s oft-repeated phrase “So F---ing What”)--offers Noseworthy as Joe Dice, who the actor describes as a “white-trash-trailer-park, foul-mouthed punk, who spends a lot of time anesthetizing himself.”

In “S.F.W.,” Dice and pals Cliff Spab (Stephen Dorff) and Wendy Pfister (Reese Witherspoon) are kidnaped and held hostage for 36 days at a mini-market. All activity is taped on video and then aired nonstop on television--tabloid at its worst. “It’s a good movie for the MTV generation,” Noseworthy says.

The 24-year-old actor, who wears a worn army jacket and constantly runs his fingers through his long locks, looks like an amalgam of his characters--and definitely part of that same generation.

“It’s actually kind of funny I was held hostage in ‘S.F.W.,’ ” he says with a laugh. “In ‘Alive,’ I was stranded for 72 days in cold snow.” He grips the table and leans forward: “I want to do a movie where I’m holding the hostages and not being controlled by outside forces!”

When “The Brady Bunch Movie,” based on the ‘70s TV series, opens on Feb. 17, he gets his wish--sort of. This time around, Noseworthy plays Eric, an irritable grunge-band singer and neighbor to the effervescent Bradys, who Eric loathes. Noseworthy dubs the film “the funniest script I read this year.”

He found it a big relief to juggle the last episodes of “21” and “The “Brady Bunch Movie.”

“I was spending all this time in this very serious, very emotional TV show where I had to be 50 different places at the same time, in this comparatively low-budget television show. Then I was on this big-budget movie, where I wasn’t a main character, so there wasn’t any burden on me. I’d go there for a few hours and get made up and then beat up a Brady and go home. It was like an American dream!

“I’m the angry kid,” he says, describing Eric. “Michael McKean plays my dad and Jean Smart is my mom. The movie is really funny, man! It’s really stupid and really funny.” He sees it “like the first ‘Wayne’s World.’ ”

But television audiences may still associate him with nice-guy Ed, who develops a chip on his shoulder after he finds out he’s got a nasty chip in his brain that must be removed or find himself--you got it--”Dead at 21.” Noseworthy dubs it “a cross between ‘The Fugitive’ and ‘Total Recall.’ ” Despite three-time repeats, those original episodes may be resurrected yet again. However, according to an MTV spokesperson, no new episodes are likely to be made.

Prior to “21,” Noseworthy, perhaps surprising to his MTV generation fans, began in musical theater.

“The early part of it, my career came out of nowhere,” recalls the Boston native, who has a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Boston Conservatory. In 1988, he was offered a role in the touring production of “Cats,” which he accepted without hesitation. “When you’re 18 and you’re offered a chance to tour in a Broadway show, you can’t turn it down, but eventually I realized that’s not what I wanted to do.”

While he may have determined that musicals weren’t his true calling, he became a part of the original company of “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway” and then the long-running “A Chorus Line.”

When Noseworthy landed the lead in the Los Angeles production of “Equus,” he decided he’d found his place. The role won him a Los Angeles Drama Critic’s Circle Award for best actor.

Noseworthy’s first segue into contemporary teen roles came as a skateboarder (“most of my stuff was cut out, though”) in “Encino Man” and the CBS sitcom “Teech.” Then, in 1993, he won the role of chain-smoker Bobby Francois in the acclaimed “Alive.”

“This is what I love to do,” the Los Angeles resident says of acting. “I go to acting class every day, I’m that passionate about it. What I’m hoping to do this year is look for a job and to work with people who have as much respect for the work as I do.”