It’s his turn to be funny

The characters Michael Pena plays often find themselves in mortal danger in heavy dramas -- “The Shield,” “Crash,” “The Lucky Ones” -- and, as a soldier in “Lions for Lambs,” he even gave his life. But the actor discovered with his role in writer-director Jody Hill’s “Observe and Report” that dying is actually easy -- it’s comedy that’s hard.

“I think I was the worst actor on set,” Pena says by phone while driving to San Diego. “There was a scene with me, Ray Liotta, Seth Rogen and Anna Faris -- I messed up almost every take, and I had one line in it,” he says of his laughing so much through the filming. “It wasn’t one scene, it was almost every scene, dude. But you know what, Jody would crack up. Seth would be cracking up like crazy.”

Pena’s overriding memory of making the film? “Basically, it was us trying to keep our [stuff] together,” he says.

“This is the genius of Jody Hill, and I hope I’m not letting out his secret or anything,” Pena says. “He would come up with lines for you to say, whatever zone you’re in. But other times he would tell you to improvise, and be angry, but only on certain words. It’s actually really funny. ‘Just be angry when he says words like “the people.” Every time he talks about “the people,” find something to be angry about.’ You’d be amazed, man, how that kind of improvisation can bring about something funny.”

The broad and sometimes brutal comedy of “Observe and Report” (think of it as “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” as made by Quentin Tarantino) is far from anything else in the actor’s oeuvre, especially considering his bizarre role in the movie. He confesses to “an affinity for playing the everyman,” largely because of a background that includes farmer parents. But while the “Observe” change-up was clearly a draw for him, it was also an obstacle.

“Me being the ‘Crash’ guy, Jody’s like, ‘I don’t know if this dude’s gonna be funny,’ ” he says. “God bless my managers and my agent; they wanted me to get an offer [rather than having to audition] because it was originally a small part.” But Hill and his casting team just weren’t seeing it. “They’re like, ‘Yeah, the guy from “World Trade Center”? I was in stitches, how funny he was.’ They didn’t give me the offer.

“So I went and auditioned with this guy in my head. I even gave him a last name -- Dennis ‘Chiavante,’ ” he says, with some mustard on those last two syllables.

Dennis is the loyal right-hand mall cop to Rogen’s Ronnie, head of security at the shopping center. Ronnie is trying to catch a serial flasher while competing with Liotta’s jaded detective and trying to romance Faris’ makeup-counter girl -- all while dreaming of becoming a real policeman.

“Not only is Seth great at delivering the actual comic lines,” Pena says, “but I think the reason I like his movies so much and why I was so willing to depart from the norm is that he’s also very good at setting you up. He’s an unselfish comedian. Sometimes the only funny guy’s the lead guy. But [Rogen] likes to spread the wealth. I think that’s a very smart move. He wants you to slam-dunk it. He wants you to be funny.”

Pena’s Jheri-curled, blinged-out, lisping sidekick has big dreams too.

“I think he wants to be a full-blown pimp,” Pena says. “There’s this movie called ‘American Pimp’ by the Hughes brothers . . . Dude, I thought it was a farce. I thought it was not serious. They’re like,” he launches into an unintelligible stream of pimpese ending with: “ ‘What’s your problem?’ The only time you’d see this was in ‘I’m Gonna Git You Sucka,’ you know?

“I also took a little bit from a guitar player from a well-known band, who I personally know, who I’ll keep anonymous. He’s from Toledo, Ohio. And all I can say is his band was on Carson Daly last week. He’s actually a white dude with kind of a ‘fro, and he would always say, ‘Aw, hell no!’ ”

At no point did Pena specify that the band Nico Vega, with its Toledo-raised guitarist Rich Koehler, played Daly’s show recently. As to Dennis, it may have been Pena’s bold character choice, which was not spelled out in the script, that won him the gig.

“There’s a scene in which Dennis is checking out the ladies pretty hard-core, and that’s what triggered me,” he says. “Maybe this guy’s a pimp. Maybe he’s just using the security gig at the mall as a steppingstone into pimpdom.”

Pena likes to imagine a happy ending for the mysterious Dennis Chiavante Esq.: “He probably built himself an empire in Mexico. I think he broke away with some cash and all of a sudden he thinks he speaks Spanish perfectly and then he’d be like” -- he breaks into some absurdly gringo-pimp espanol, “ ‘Hey hombres, que pasa? Where are my mujeres?’ ”

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