This is not a story about drinking with Johnny Knoxville, something that’s been written so many times by now, it has practically become its own subgenre within the gonzo journalism canon.

Well, OK, the interview did take place at a bar, and alcohol was involved, including a round of tequila shots that Knoxville ordered and suggested drinking “stuntman”-style, which entails snorting the salt and squirting the lime juice in your eye.

That’s about what you’d expect from the guy who created “Jackass,” the MTV reality series that made self-induced pain not just acceptable but fashionable, and made the charismatic Phillip John Clapp from Knoxville, Tenn., an instant star.

Only he’s not that guy – not all the time. He looks like that guy, with the trademark smoked aviator sunglasses, faux-hawk hairstyle and facial scruff, the stylishly distressed denim button-down, cut-off pants and worn-out Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers.

But sitting down for a beer at a midtown Manhattan hotel bar, Knoxville is more Southern gentleman than jackass. The 34-year-old is unerringly polite, addressing a waiter as “sir” and his interviewer as “ma’am” in a low, slow voice with a slight twang that emerges now and again.

He speaks earnestly about the forces that shaped him growing up (the music of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, the writing of Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson) and those that influence him now (his wife, Melanie, and their 9-year-old daughter, Madison, whose name is tattooed over his heart).

This combination of contradictions – the rowdy party boy coupled with the sensitive romantic – has prompted comparisons to a number of Hollywood icons.

“Dukes of Hazzard” director Jay Chandrasekhar likens Knoxville to Burt Reynolds, or a “funny Steve McQueen.” (The movie, by the way, which is a big-screen version of the ’80s TV series, essentially requires Knoxville as Luke Duke to ride shotgun while Seann William Scott’s Bo Duke stunt drives the General Lee. Both yell “yee-haw” a lot. Reynolds himself shows up as the villainous Boss Hogg.)

“I wanted this movie to feel as much as possible like a cousin of ‘Smokey and the Bandit,’ and Burt Reynolds had that sort of rakish good looks, he did his own stunts, he considered himself sort of a ladies’ man,” Chandrasekhar said. “I feel like Knoxville has a number of those qualities. He’s done so much really funny stuff, he’s Southern, he’s got a certain toughness to him.”

John Waters, who directed Knoxville last year in the sex comedy “A Dirty Shame” – and with whom he shares an appreciation for humor that pushes boundaries – described Knoxville as both “a movie star and a great actor,” and expects that he’ll carve out an eclectic career similar to Johnny Depp.

Knoxville’s acting coach in Los Angeles, meanwhile, sees similarities to Jack Nicholson.

“They’re both inappropriate men who are honest about themselves, and that’s extraordinarily appealing,” said Cameron Thor, whose clients include Sharon Stone and Drew Carey.

Knoxville’s reactions to such comparisons?

“Wow,” he says, taken aback. “That’s a really cool thing to say. I mean, God, if I get one-fortieth of the way there, I’ll be all right.”

Whatever Knoxville does, though, some people still assume he’s that “Jackass” dude, 24/7.

Guys at bars have come out of nowhere and bashed him in the head. Girls have approached him and burned him with cigarettes and lighters.

“I kind of brought it on myself, so …” he trails off. “Worse things could happen.”

When asked how he plans to show he’s capable of more than “Jackass,” he grows slightly defensive – but remains polite.

“I don’t want to distance myself from ‘Jackass’ at all. I’m proud of ‘Jackass,'” he says. “It got me here and opened up all kinds of doors. It’s something me and my friends did. I’m very, very proud of it.”