From 2004: Drama For Kutcher

It's a grand tradition, actors best known for playing the goofball taking their shot at serious thespian status. Tom Hanks. Robin Williams. Bill Murray. Steve Martin ... Ashton Kutcher.

Yes, even the lovable dimwit from "That '70s Show" is showing off his dramatic chops, starring in the dark and convoluted thriller "The Butterfly Effect," which is playing the Sundance Film Festival before opening theatrically Friday.

"I don't want to get bored," Kutcher, 25, told The Associated Press at the Sundance Film Festival, where "The Butterfly Effect" premiered over the weekend. "I don't want people who come to see my movies to think they know what they're going to get each time, because I want to keep doing something different and keep it interesting."

In "The Butterfly Effect," Kutcher plays a college student haunted by repressed childhood memories who learns he can travel back in time to inhabit the body of his younger self and undo traumatic events. In doing so, though, he finds the fabric of his present life unraveling in ghastly new ways.

The movie also features Amy Smart, Eric Stoltz, Melora Walters and William Lee Scott.

Kutcher shows depth and range many might not expect from an actor who's specialized in acting the fool in "That '70s Show," 2000's surprise mini-hit "Dude, Where's My Car?", last year's newlywed comedy "Just Married" and the current hit "Cheaper By the Dozen," in which he had an uncredited bit part.

Actors who broke into Hollywood in antic comedy roles often try branching into more sober projects, with varying success. Hanks went from silly to sublime, following "Splash," "Bachelor Party" and other light comedies with back-to-back Academy Awards wins for "Philadelphia" and "Forrest Gump" and becoming one of the heavyweight leading men of his generation.

Williams evolved from frenzied standup comic to Oscar winner for "Good Will Hunting," while former "Saturday Night Live" star Murray is a best-actor contender for next week's Oscar nominations. Success in dramatic roles has eluded other top funny men, including Martin and Jim Carrey.

A more solemn Kutcher could be a tough sell for his fans, considering the filmmakers behind "The Butterfly Effect" initially were appalled at the thought of him starring in a movie they had struggled to make for seven years.

"We thought, no way is `Dude, Where's My Car?' going to be in our movie that we've been fighting for for all these years," said J. Mackye Gruber," who wrote and directed "The Butterfly Effect" with Eric Bress. "We've been trying for seven years, and what, we're going to have him?"

Bress and Gruber went to Kutcher's house reluctantly for a first meeting after the actor's name came up. Instead of sitting down with the "That '70s Show" doofus, the filmmakers "did a complete 180," finding that Kutcher had meticulously dissected their script and had an exhaustive grip on the story and character, Gruber said.

"I had truly believed he was the character he played on TV," Bress said. "When we first met Ashton, he was such a different person than I expected, where you're looking for that character from TV and he just wasn't there. Everything he had to say, all his questions about the script were so insightful."

"Smarter than any other actor we looked at," Gruber said. "We looked at each other when we left his house thinking, well, we feel a little stupid now. I think we found our guy."

The acting chops of comic actors often go overlooked, Kutcher said.

"I think people really underestimate the difficulty of comedy," Kutcher said. "When you do a dramatic piece, you've got a hundred different emotions that you can get out of your audience, that you're striving to get out of the audience.

"When you do a comedy, it's just one thing. If they don't laugh, you fail."