LOS ANGELES -- The Rock is running from action to comedy. Seann William Scott is running from comedy to action. They meet in the middle in The Rundown, an action-comedy in which both flex new muscles in their budding careers.

"It was great to do comedy," said Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson, who's kept his wrestling name while forging into films. He first played an ancient warrior in the two The Mummy movies and their 2002 prequel, The Scorpion King. "It was also great to wear a hot suit instead of a loincloth."

Scott is best known as carnal Stifler in the American Pie gross-out comedies. The Rundown is his second leap into action's arena; his first was the 2002 flop Bulletproof Monk, with Chow Yun-Fat.

"Actually, I've always been a pretty psycho athlete," said Scott, 26, who shows off his pecs on the cover of the new Teen People. "For the Pie films I gained weight, but normally I train all the time and stay in shape in case an action role comes my way."

"The studios freak out," the Rock said. "We'd try stuff in rehearsal, then get a phone call on the set. But my family was more concerned when I was wrestling. That was more real."

"I just don't want to look silly," said Scott, who prefers an Indiana-Jones action style "where a guy gets his butt kicked, has a certain wit and gets back on his feet."

Scott was hurt in one scene -- by the Rock, who was cutting loose his bound wrists.

"I thought it was a prop knife," Scott said. "When it happened, he was casual, like Clint Eastwood. 'Sliced him' -- that's all he said."

The injury required stitches, "but they did such a good job you can barely see the scar," he said. His only souvenir is the knife, "a pretty good wrap gift" from the Rock.

"We wanted good old-fashioned butt-whippings, with guys getting hit hard and falling off hills," director Peter Berg said of the $92 million movie. "We used CG (computer-generated effects) subtly to enhance that. The goal is just to make it look real."

"At least the story wasn't sacrificed for the action," the Rock said. "And we didn't pick up guns till the end."

He won't be armed for his follow-up, either, a remake of 1973's Walking Tall, with the Rock as a lone, club-wielding lawman cleaning up a small town.

Scott has put nothing else in the can since co-hosting the MTV Movie Awards with Justin Timberlake in June.

He's delighted that American Wedding, the third Pie film, topped $100 million at the box office. "I'm competitive, so that milestone excites me," Scott said. But you won't see him play leering Stifler again.

"That would be asinine," Scott said. "I did everything I wanted to do with him and had a great time on those movies, but I don't think that genre can last."

Scott has his own production company, Identity, which has a first-look deal with Universal. He's developing "a male version of Amelie" for himself and a comedy for a child in which he won't appear.

He's also open to doing a Rundown sequel, but kept it out of his contract.

"I learned how lucky I was with Pie, when I was the only one who hadn't signed for a second one," said Scott, who then negotiated a higher fee. "No sequel options -- that's the way to go."

The Rock, 31, doesn't want to make a Scorpion King sequel, either, and he considers his wrestling career over. "There's not much left for me to do in wrestling," said the first seven-time World Wrestling Entertainment champ.

The Rock lives in Florida, where he grew up, with his wife and their 2-year-old daughter, who knows her father's work only through action figures.

"She plays with my dolls," he said.