The Rock’s walk

Ways to make oneself feel small: Consider our place in the context of the universe. Stand at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Share a hotel-room sitting area with the Rock.

The wrestler’s already broad profile threatens to expand beyond his prodigious form as he chases down movie stardom.

Case in point: “Walking Tall,” the remake of the 1973 Southern revenge yarn taken from real life and starring Joe Don Baker as Sheriff Buford Pusser.

The Rock stars as Pusser stand-in Chris Vaughn, a soldier who returns home to find his neighborhood corrupted by an immoral casino owner. The owner targets Chris for extinction, but the former soldier survives and vows to clean up the town by any means necessary.

The third-generation wrestler — he and tag-team partner Mick Foley lost to Evolution in the recent Wrestlemania XX — has acting ambitions as big as his pectorals.

“Once I make a decision to make the type of movies I wanna make, then it requires a whole other level of commitment, coaching and responsibility,” the Rock says during a recent visit to the District to stand up for “Tall.”

The Rock’s steely discipline was forged in college. He played football for the University of Miami and might have been a professional had injuries not stopped his forward momentum.

With that dream deferred, he turned to the family business — wrestling.

He took his stage name from his father, Rocky Johnson, but fame didn’t come easy.

Count World Wrestling Entertainment impresario Vince McMahon among those unswayed by the Rock’s early promise.

“I told him I wanted to be the best wrestler he’d ever seen,” says the Rock, whose biceps bulge out of his short-sleeved shirt like Popeye’s after a double helping of spinach. “He looked at me like I had three heads.”

The two decided to temporarily turn his wrestling persona into a “bad guy,” and suddenly, the fans took notice.

He became the sport’s biggest star, and while other faux grapplers such as Hulk Hogan have dabbled in film, the Rock’s chances for a full-fledged acting career appear better than average.

Spend a few minutes talking film with the Rock, and it’s clear he isn’t looking for Shakespearean roles, just ones that don’t pigeonhole him as a cinematic fighting machine.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s transformative film proved to be Ivan Reitman’s “Twins,” the 1988 comedy that let the future Governator expand his underdeveloped acting muscles.

With his next film, the sequel to “Get Shorty,” the Rock is expecting his own “Twins.”

The forthcoming “Be Cool” strips away any action crutches in favor of writer Elmore Leonard’s tart dialogue. The film stars John Travolta as loan-shark-turned-movie-mogul Chili Palmer. Chili abandons movie work for the music business after his latest film flops. Among his first acts is a homosexual ex-bodyguard played by the Rock.

“You’ve got guys like Nicolas Cage and Tobey Maguire, who can do action,” says the aspiring actor. “If I can turn around and do comedy and a film like ’Be Cool,’ where there’s no action involved, then … that’s where you find balance in it.”

The new “Walking Tall” changes superficial details from the original, such as the character’s name and the story’s setting, but its core values of retributive justice survive the remodeling.

The Rock draws parallels between the late Mr. Pusser’s heroics and the actions of our military overseas.

“I believe in what we’re doing over there with our troops. … I connect Buford with that,” he says.

For the first time during the interview, the Rock doesn’t sound like a member of the acting community he’s so eager to join.

The wrestler, who addressed the Republican National Convention and made an appearance at the Democratic one in 2000, makes no bones about his blue-collar roots.

“I’m proud of where I come from and my background,” he says. “Eight years ago, I was sleeping on a urine-stained mattress. I had seven bucks in my pocket.”

His wrestling days showed him the country’s heartland, towns far removed from the elites on either coast.

“When I was wrestling, I was going to these little towns that don’t have pro teams. I’m staying at the Red Roof Inn, eating at the Waffle House,” he says.

“It’s blue-collar, and they’re real,” the Rock recalls of those he met along the way. “Some actors are just artsy-fartsy and not very real at all.”