HARLAND WILLIAMS / ACTOR

Can Harland Williams follow fellow Toronto native Jim Carrey from unknown comic to Hollywood mega-star? He’s giving it a go with the physical shtick of Disney’s goofball comedy “RocketMan,” his first starring role. But Williams, 34, also gets to stretch as co-star of Tamra Davis’ “Half Baked,” and in Barry Levinson’s “Wag the Dog” and, he hopes, in a TV sitcom being developed for CBS.

COMEDY FRONTIERS: “I’m willing to go anywhere to present physical comedy that no one’s seen before. Whether it’s like Jim Carrey in ‘Ace Ventura’ or Mike Myers’ crazy stuff in ‘Austin Powers,’ that’s a lot of new stuff. When I get a script, I look for new things I can do.”

OH! CANADA: “Amazing that all these funny people have come out of . . . a country where the entertainment industry is so limited. We all have this dream of coming to America and getting our shot. Or it could be due to all the log-rolling accidents. We’ve all had severe traumas to our brains.”

KIDS’ STUFF: “I’ve seen a lot of scripts lately that are children’s books written into screenplays. You’ve seen a few , like ‘Matilda’ and ‘Jumanji.’ Kids’ books translate into good screenplays and have great imagination behind them.”

RUNNING ON EMPTY: “I’ve been in three movies [“RocketMan,” “Dumb and Dumber” and “Down Periscope”] and all of them had flatulence jokes. I gotta get a script that had Pepto-Bismol soaked in it or something. Don’t get me wrong--everyone loves a great flatulence joke. But I’m interested in cerebral stuff as opposed to intestinal.”

BIG BREAK: “The first time I did ‘Letterman’ three years ago is when calls started coming in. It was a dream come true, and . . . I had a really good outing.”

FUNNY MONEY: “I enjoy the business part of show business. I love strategizing and breaking things down. It’s like having two careers--one minute you’re on stage acting goofy and the next minute you’re in a boardroom talking about millions of dollars.”

EXTRA CRISPY: “In terms of business meetings, I do them at KFC. All mine seem to be related to junk-food restaurants, but I had been doing a lot at Wolfgang Puck’s at Sunset and Laurel. It was closest to my home in Laurel Canyon.”

ON DECK: “There’s a comic named Nick Dipalo who I find astounding. A very edgy comic, but not fake . . . and some of his stuff is hard, but it’s true. He performs in the L.A. clubs and has a real chance to break out big.”