BY BOB STRAUSS >FILM WRITER

Like his "Ocean's" buddies - George Clooney, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt - Don Cheadle is as socially conscious as Hollywood stars come.

This is often evident in his work, like his Oscar-nominated starring role in "Hotel Rwanda" and the best picture-winning "Crash," which Cheadle appeared in and co-produced. (He's also producing the upcoming Showtime series based on the film.)

Now the 43-year-old actor has produced and stars in the espionage thriller "Traitor," which opened Wednesday.

Cheadle's Samir Horn is a Sudan-born U.S. special-ops agent and devout Muslim who, early in the film, is seen selling weapons to Yemeni insurgents and, later, planning bombings in France and America. How rogue Samir has actually gone is a question that a pursuing FBI agent (Guy Pearce) and audiences must wrestle with.

Cheadle's breakthrough role was as a scary sociopath in the 1995 "Devil in a Blue Dress." Today, the actor - as unpretentious and funny as he is thoughtful - seems to have found a good balance between enjoying life and doing what he can to confront some of the world's crueler realities.

World events clearly interest you. Is that what attracted you to this project?

When this movie came across my desk, it was interesting because it encapsulated a lot of the conversations, inside this one character, that were being had on a national level. Questions about security, and what is this radical Islam? And what is nontradical Islam, who are Muslims really and what do they believe?

Then there's what would you do to be safe? How far would you go? How much sacrifice is involved? How much of yourself would you sell out to protect others? All of these questions were encapsulated in Horn.

"Traitor" is a bit of a hybrid, a thriller that tries to view terrorism and Islam realistically.

Look, this movie isn't like "Paradise Now." We don't go into the minds of suicide bombers and try to understand their psychology. But it is a little deeper than, I think, "The Bourne Identity." We're dealing with something that is actually out there. Hopefully, while it's entertaining you you're thinking about stuff.

How did you approach playing a Muslim?

Once I started reading up on the faith and reading the Koran, it's amazing how similar the monotheistic religions really are. Islam, Judaism, Christianity; they all come from the same root. And from the same place, the same small area of land. So the positive tenets that people in the religion support, that's what Samir is dealing with.

His religion tells him he can't kill innocent people and call himself a man of faith. But sometimes you're put in a position, as a soldier, that requires collateral damage.

And you learned Arabic for the job?

Well, I had to learn the Arabic that I spoke. Learning how to say the words I had to say in the film is a much different notion than learning the language.

You're seen as a humanitarian. Did you ever think that might work against you in "Traitor"?

One of the things that the director and I talked about was, are people going to believe for the first half of the movie that he's as bad a guy as he seems? What's funny is that 10 years ago, like you said, people were going, "Are we really going to believe that this guy can be kind and help people?"

I can't try to drive from ... how people are going to buy me. I just have to go into the role believing that I can play that in a way that, hopefully, has a lot of veracity and reality to it.

We know about your efforts to stop Darfur genocide. What other causes do you support?

I do different things with different organizations. A lot of them I don't talk about, because I'm not trying to somehow become the focal point of that. And, also, I don't want to go and listen to all of the good things that I'm doing. I only took this advocacy and activism role for Darfur because I was asked to do it. After "Hotel Rwanda" came out and it made such an impact on people, a congressman from Orange County, Ed Royce, who had come to a screening, and his committee co-chair Donald Payne, asked me to join their delegation to Darfur. And, of course, I did.

You won the L.A. Film Festival's Spirit of Independence award a few months back ...

I bought that. It was about $20 Gs. That's pretty cheap, as far as awards go!

... And in presenting it, Halle Berry joked that you iron clothes and watch cartoons.

That was in the spirit about, "Let me try to embarrass Don." She called my wife and said, "So tell me stuff about Don." That's how that whole thing came down.

But ... do you really dig ironing clothes?

I'm not a fan of ironing. I don't like to walk around wrinkled. It's like, I don't like to be hungry, so I'm a fan of eating.

Any thoughts about your co-star in the "Ocean's" movies, the late Bernie Mac?

It was tough because it was very sudden - 50 years old is young. I just think about how gregarious he was and how generous he was. If people around Bernie were happy, then Bernie was happy. And that's just a great testament to the kind of person he was.

You seem to be in a pretty good place right now, professionally. Feel that way to you?

I cannot complain. I've been fortunate enough to do most of the work that I've wanted to do and be in the kinds of films that I want to be in. Now I'm in another part of my career as a producer. Inside of three years, which is a very short time for a company like this, our Crescendo Productions has had two movies come out and two more that are in the works. I think things are just clicking along pretty good right now.

As long as I can retire in seven years, I'll be good!

Bob Strauss, (818) 713-3670

bob.strauss@dailynews.com