David Heavener: Hunk Filmmaker or Bullied 4th-Grader Seeking Justice?

“I don’t see myself as a ‘hunk,’ ” says David Heavener, who stars in the just-released “Prime Target” as a renegade cop transporting a Mafia boss across the country for the FBI. “But when I do a movie, I get to play that fantasy, pretend I am one. See, I remember myself in the fourth grade. I wore glasses, was shorter than everyone, and got picked on by the class bully.”

These days, Heavener dispenses justice on the big screen regularly (“Target” is his ninth low-budget feature in less than five years), and serves in multiple capacities as writer, director and producer. “It’s not confidence--it’s hunger,” he says of the ability to wear so many creative hats. “I never want to feel like I can do it. I want to feel like the odds are against me. If I didn’t, I’d get fat and lazy, go fishing.”

A native of Louisville, Ky., Heavener headed for Nashville at 16 and “starved” for seven years (moonlighting as a private investigator) before striking pay dirt with a string of songwriting hits, including “A Real Cowboy” and “Love to Love You.” A move to Los Angeles followed, then an offer to score a film--then an offer to star in it. In 1989, he formed his production-distribution company, Hero Films.

Home is Topanga, where he lives with a cat named Mr. Gibbons and a pet rat named Max--his co-star in “Twisted Justice” (1990). “Actually, we didn’t meet on the movie. I bought him with a girlfriend, and when we broke up, I got custody of Max.”