JASON LEE / ACTOR

Having co-starred in director Kevin Smith’s “Mallrats” and “Chasing Amy,” Jason Lee is part of the rising class of young, indie-oriented actors. Now co-starring with David Schwimmer in “Kissing a Fool,” he has an opportunity for wider recognition. The former professional skateboarder, 27, is also set for Smith’s next, “Dogma,” with fellow “Amy” alumnus Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Chris Rock.

“CHASING” ACTORS: “People are wanting to work with everyone from ‘Chasing Amy.’ Right now I’m doing a bit part in a Tony Scott film, ‘Enemy of the State,’ a big political thriller that costs way more than ‘Chasing Amy,’ but it came from that. He’d seen ‘Chasing Amy’ and wanted me to do this role.”

GREAT SCOTT: “The thing that got me interested in that was the fact that as a director [Scott] can do something gentler like ‘True Romance’ and then something big like ‘Crimson Tide.’ A nice range of filmmaking.”

COOL WORLD: “It’s really ‘cool’ to like these smaller movies. Somebody doing a gigantic film, that’s fine, that’s their world. But they want to keep it as cool as possible, so they’ll put someone in it who’s had films at Sundance many times.”

STILL INDIE: “ ‘Kissing a Fool’ happened to get bought by Universal, a huge studio. But the film is actually just a $4-million production. [It] looks like I took this huge step up and did a big Universal film, but it’s just that [director] Doug Ellin wanted me in his $4-million film and I thought I’d like it.”

HOT PROPERTY: “There’s a script called ‘Mumford’ by Lawrence Kasdan that I’m going to be involved with after ‘Dogma.’ . . . Apparently this is a script that people are really talking about, and I didn’t even know it.”

SO CLOSE: “I’d love to work with the Coen brothers. ‘The Big Lebowski’ will be great. I really wanted to be in that. I read for it for the part of the assistant, but it went to Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was in ‘Boogie Nights,’ the longhaired guy who tried to kiss Mark Wahlberg’s character.”

IT’S NOT HIS PARTY: “I’m definitely not one of those young actor kids that finds parties to go to on weekends or goes to clubs every week and knows the bouncer. I’m just not part of that scene. I’m only in this industry because I’m an actor and I happen to make movies.”

OLYMPIC SKATEBOARDING?: “Vertical-ramp skating could be a great Olympics sport. . . . But it’s probably hurt by the perception that skateboarders are just a bunch of morons. Snowboarders are worse, though.”