IN THE movie The Score, Ed Norton finds himself wedged between the powerhouse duo of Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro. And he readily admits it was an offer he could not resist.

"It was the main reason I did the movie," he says.

"I would have been excited to do something with either one of them, but it's really cool to do it with them both."

Norton's response is genuine. But was a secondary motive -- the chance to upstage two boyhood heroes in one tour de force performance -- also driving the 32-year-old? Just the type of challenge that would appeal to the super-confident Norton.

Producer Gary Foster gives a telling insight into what spurred Norton in his latest venture.

"Norton said to me, 'One of the reasons I'm doing this movie is to see if I'm as good as I think I am. I have to go toe-to-toe with De Niro and Brando and see how it works'," Foster says.

"Norton's the young hotshot who thinks he can take the world -- in the film and in real life -- and I mean that in the best of senses."

Frank Oz directs while De Niro and Brando are the drawcards in this clever heist movie -- but Norton steals the show.

His performance as Jackie Teller, a skilled but greedy and impatient thief, swamps De Niro who seems happy to walk through another role with another workmanlike but far from standout job.

Norton's performance also exposes Brando for what he is -- overweight, overpaid (he scooped up almost $20 million) and over the hill.

In a much-publicised bust-up, Oz accused Brando of overacting in the movie. Brando responded by refusing to publicise the film, or talk to Oz.

"We had a problem in our relationship and he is not that enamoured with me right now. We both behaved badly," Oz told The Sunday Mail.

Norton, however, stands by someone he says he now calls a friend.

"I met him a while ago, and hung out with him a little. He is great," he says. "You know, it's fun.

Marlon hangs around, he plays chess. I showed him The Simpsons episode where Marge gets cast in a musical version of A Street Car Named Desire. Marlon loves funny shows, tapes and things.

"I didn't get starstruck when I met Marlon because he is just a funny guy, just a nice guy. Likes to tell jokes. He's fun to be with."

Set in Montreal, The Score is based on the dynamics between the characters played by Norton and De Niro.

Nick Wells (De Niro) owns a jazz club. He is also a master safecracker who carries out his raids on foreign soil, never in Montreal. Besides, he wants to retire.

That is until Max (Brando), his fence and business partner, talks him into one last job with Jackie (Norton).

For the Yale-educated Norton, The Score is the latest stepping stone in what is proving to be a carefully planned career.

The Oscar-nominated, Golden Globe-winning actor has taken home a bunch of lesser awards in a little more than a handful of feature films. He has, however, resisted the temptation to cash in on his success. For him, it has been about quality, not quantity. The most obvious examples are as a brutal neo-Nazi in American History X and a split-personality office worker opposite Brad Pitt in Fight Club.

In The Score, he again revels in a dual role.

"Most of the movies I have done have been like that," he says.

"Anything where you have to create two different personas is challenging, it makes you wonder whether you can pull it off or not. "Can you create a character and then have that character pretend to be someone else in a way that the audience finds is believable?"

Norton's mood, surly at the start of the interview, lightens considerably when he talks about The Score and the craft of acting. But mention his status and fame, and the surliness returns.

"I don't want to be Marlon Brando," he says. "I am a huge fan of Marlon -- like a lot of other people -- and De Niro as well. But I always kind of sigh a little bit when people feel compelled to ask, 'Do you want to be like them?' I just want to do my own thing."

Norton guards his private life jealously, but his love life still makes the gossip pages.

Courtney Love's boyfriend of a couple of years, he was most recently involved with actor Salma Hayek.

He spent three months writing the screenplay for Hayek's new film, a biography of famed Mexican painter Frieda Kahlo. He will talk about the film, but not their relationship.

Norton's love of privacy extends to a dislike of the telephone and a preference for communicating via e-mail. He has a mobile phone but rarely gives out the number, using it only to "call out".

Someone who does have that number is actor Kevin Spacey. The two have been looking for a project to collaborate on but "we just never found the right thing," Norton says.

"There are lots of people I would like to work with but it will still be bad if you try to force it.

"You have to be disciplined because if you do something stupid it doesn't matter how good the actors are, it is still going to be stupid."

The Score is now showing.

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