Associated Press

It’s a 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 in the US this Friday.

“I don’t want to get bored,” Kutcher, 25, told 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 he finds the fabric of his present life unravelling in ghastly new ways.

The film also stars Amy Smart, Eric Stoltz, Melora Walters and William L Scott.

Kutcher shows depth and range many might not expect from an actor who’s specialised in acting the fool in ‘That ‘70s Show’, 2000’s surprise mini-hit ‘Dude, Where’s My Car?’, last year’s comedy ‘Just Married’ and 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.

Williams evolved from frenzied stand-up 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.

“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.”