Playing to strengths

He has played Elvis Presley, Wyatt Earp and a one-eyed pirate named Captain Ron. He’s worked with Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro and a chimpanzee. At the age of 54, he has been a movie star for more than 40 years.

And now Kurt Russell, who began making movies for Disney in the early ‘60s, has come full circle.

He’s starring in another Disney film, “Sky High,” opening in theaters today. And it’s just the sort of clean-cut, spirited family outing that launched his career more than four decades ago.

“When I read it (the script), I thought, ‘This reminds me of the old Disney stuff,’ ” Russell says on the phone from Hollywood. “It has a lot of good sight gags and a lot of good lines, and it has something to say.”

It also allows him to don a superhero costume for the first time in his life. He plays super strong Commander Stronghold, married to high-flying Jetstream (Kelly Preston). Together they are the most powerful superheroes on Earth, although there are apparently plenty of others around as well – so many that young superheroes have their own high school, Sky High.

And that’s where young Will Stronghold (Michael Angarano) will be going. The only problem is Will doesn’t have any superpowers.

In fact, he may even end up a sidekick, which would be a huge disappointment to his father.

It’s something along the lines of “X-Men” meets “The Breakfast Club,” part high school angst flick, part superhero parody. But Russell says there was just enough truth to it to suck him in.

“This movie has all these light laughs, but it makes you think of the foibles and difficulties of being a teenager going to school, especially if people have great expectations of you,” he says.

Russell is not the type of person who’s overly concerned with others’ expectations. The son of actor Bing Russell (who played a deputy on the ‘60s TV hit “Bonanza” for six years), he landed a part in an Elvis Presley movie, “It Happened at the World’s Fair,” at the age of 10, then was personally signed to a contract by Walt Disney.

By the early ‘70s Russell was playing minor league baseball and ready to leave acting. But an injury pointed him back to moviemaking.

“I guess it was destiny,” he says. “It seemed to be what I was supposed to do once I got hurt and was out of baseball.”

By the late ‘70s he was shaking off the wholesome Disney image. He played crazed sniper Charles Joseph Whitman in a 1975 TV movie, then made a major impact as Elvis in another TV film.

His big breakthrough was playing Snake Plissken in John Carpenter’s “Escape From New York.”

Gone was the kid with a cute smile. In his place was the world’s most dangerous criminal, with bulging biceps, a hoarse whisper of a voice and a generally studly persona that would reappear in many Russell movies to come.

In fact, Commander Stronghold is just the latest in a series of heroic roles Russell has had, from “Tombstone” to “Tango & Cash,” “Big Trouble in Little China” to “Stargate,” “Backdraft” to “The Thing.”

And while he laughs at his heroic persona, Russell also understands where it comes from.

“In real life, I’ve always been a person who could get the job done,” he says. “Whether it comes across in comedy or drama, come hell or high water, I could get the job done. And I think Hollywood has tapped into that.”

Not that Russell has been too concerned with Hollywood in his career. Years ago he moved to Colorado with longtime love Goldie Hawn, and he has consciously avoided the showbiz scene.

Politically he’s an outspoken libertarian. And he and Hawn have never married, although they have a son, Wyatt, 19. Russell also has a son, Boston, 25, from his previous marriage to actress Season Hubley.

He knows not playing the Hollywood game has had an effect on his career.

“It can cost you a lot of liability,” he says. “I know it probably cost me maybe a different career.

“I just made a decision that, yeah, I want to live my life away from Hollywood, and I did. Maybe I would have had greater achievements staying in town and paying attention to connections, but it was a conscious decision to say, ‘Whatever it costs me, it costs me.’ “

Still, he seems to have few regrets about a life spent in show business.

“I can only tell you that the positives have far outweighed the negatives,” he says.

Having a sense of humor helps.

When confronted with the fact that he once starred in a 1975 movie called “The Strongest Man in the World,” and here he is again playing the strongest man in the world in “Sky High,” he laughs.

“In that movie it was a joke, and in this movie it’s an even bigger joke,” he says. “I’ve always been able to laugh at myself, and in this movie I’ve laughed a little larger.

“I don’t think I’m capable of looking at any human being and not seeing humor. Especially myself.”