Dan Futterman was pretty much done with acting.

When he graduated from Columbia University nearly two decades ago, he put in the requisite time as a struggling actor, working nights as a waiter in a Mexican restaurant while auditioning for acting parts during the day. Within two years, he started getting work in commercials and in the theater.

On stage, his biggest role was in "Angels in America," and in film, he is best known for playing Robin Williams' son in "The Birdcage." On TV, you might remember him as the brother in the series "Judging Amy."

But the former English major has been concentrating on writing in recent years, and he was nominated for an Academy Award last year for his screenplay for "Capote," which won a best actor Oscar for Futterman's childhood friend Philip Seymour Hoffman.

"At this point in my life, I am more interested in writing than acting," the soft-spoken Futterman explained over a late-afternoon snack of finger sandwiches and fruit in a sun-drenched Hollywood hotel suite.

"I'm not terribly ambitious about my acting career now," he added. "I don't think a lot about being in front of the camera anymore and, besides, I think I'm better at writing than I am at acting."

His reluctance to act was forgotten once he was offered the role of Daniel Pearl in "A Mighty Heart," which opens Friday.

Pearl is the late Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped by terrorists in 2002 while on his way to an interview in Pakistan. His nearly month-long plight captured the world's attention, and videotapes of him in captivity were released on the Internet. His grisly execution was witnessed around the world.

His journalist wife, Mariane Pearl, wrote a book in 2003 detailing her experience of trying to free her husband, and director Michael Winterbottom's film is based on her account. Angelina Jolie plays Pearl's widow in the film, and Futterman's role is shown mostly in flashbacks during the couple's happier times.

Mariane Pearl was five months pregnant when her husband was kidnapped, and their son Adam is now 5. She says she wrote the book and agreed to the movie so their son would know his father.

Futterman, 40, said he vividly recalls the Pearl tragedy, and was reluctant to take the role, even though it would be the most important role of his career.

After meeting with Winterbottom, he still wasn't convinced. Then he arranged a lunch with Mariane Pearl.

"I was nervous about meeting with her," Futterman said, "but she immediately made me feel comfortable. She told me it was OK for me to be doing this."

Futterman then met with Pearl's parents, who live in Encino, Calif., and with Pearl's Wall Street Journal colleagues.

"Danny's parents were so nice to me," Futterman said.

"They insisted that I stop worrying about portraying their son. They kept reassuring me, and told me that I was the right person to play him."

Winterbottom, who shot the film in a gritty documentary style, said he knew Futterman was the right actor for the role as soon as he met him.

"He is warm and has a great presence," the director said. "He also is intelligent, and I felt that the audience could believe that he was a journalist."

Futterman said he read many of Pearl's Wall Street Journal articles, particularly the ones he wrote in Pakistan, to get a sense of Pearl as a writer, and even met with Pakistanis who worked with him. He also visited key locations, including the restaurant from which Pearl disappeared.

"I think this is the most research I've ever done for a role," he said.

But Futterman said the research was worth it, not only because of the sense of responsibility he felt toward the Pearls, but because he identified with Daniel Pearl. The actor said he felt a kinship toward the reporter when he was abducted because both men were writers, were close in age and had families.

Although his role is a key component in the film, it is clearly Jolie's movie, and Futterman said he has rarely been more impressed by another actor.

"First, you've got to understand that we shot essentially two different movies. There was the film I was in, which was about Danny and Mariane's good times. And then there is the film about what happened after Danny's kidnapping.

"Angie is astonishing in this role. I am so impressed with her. She has this incredible ability to focus on what she is doing at that moment, whether it is parenting her kids, her charity work or her acting. She is able to shut out everything else, which is not easy to do when you're Angelina Jolie and photographers are chasing you down the street.

"And Michael's method of shooting this movie helped to deal with a lot of those distractions. By making the cast and crew part of the environment, people didn't always notice her. Sometimes, they noticed her (she and Brad Pitt were mobbed in India), but not always."