Freddy Krueger didn’t scare me. Until I faced the prospect of talking to him.

Granted, I suspected that actor Robert Englund would be nothing like the crispy, undead child killer who became an immediate horror-film icon when Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street was released in 1984. And yet, sitting alone in a near-deserted corner of the newsroom, I began to wonder if, upon picking up the phone, a deformed tongue would pop out of the receiver and that horrible voice would cackle of my imminent doom.

Instead, Englund turned out to be the sort of friendly, talkative, infectiously enthusiastic guy who loves the movies, his fans and the razor-fingered ghoul who made him a household name.

Being an icon, says Englund, “is not something you think about. I realize it maybe twice a week, when someone comes up to me and tells me some great story … (like) how they first saw one of my movies and what it means to them.”

Englund is getting “back into the makeup” for Freddy Vs. Jason (opening today), in which Krueger goes mano a mano with Jason Voorhees, the hockey-masked bane of camp counselors from the Friday the 13th series.

“There’s a nihilistic garage-punk match made in hell there that people were wondering about,” says Englund.

While many of Englund’s young fans assume that he was an unknown before Elm Street came along, he appeared frequently on the big and small screens throughout the 1970s and early ’80s. He first became popular not as Freddy Krueger, but as Willie the friendly alien on NBC’s V, a hit miniseries and subsequent weekly TV show. (NBC is currently working on a continuation of V, which Englund hopes to be a part of: “Willy’s going to be a little older and balder,” he says.)

Afraid of being typecast as a lovable extraterrestrial, Englund decided to find a project that would allow him to display his darker side. When he went to meet with Craven, he put kohl from his sports car’s ashtray under his eyes and stared Craven down, hoping that his menacing behavior would land him the role.

“I wanted to do something different, and work with Wes, and meet the challenge of the makeup,” says Englund.

The film, made for a paltry $1.8 million, eventually grossed $25.5 million. It put New Line Cinemas — which, at the time, was turning out mostly low-budget horror and cult films — on the map. Indeed, the case could be made that without Freddy Krueger, New Line wouldn’t be around to bankroll the Lord of the Rings films.

Unlike many of his horror-film peers, Krueger is memorable due to Englund and Craven’s ability to turn him into a wisecracking antihero. But even Englund admits that in some of the later installments, the slasher’s jokiness might have taken away some of his power.

“I (always) gave directors the option of a James Bond/Dirty Harry (style quip), or something dark and nasty and evil,” says Englund. “Too many times, I think, the directors relied on the joke, because it’s such an easy thing to cut to. They might’ve made a better choice with something more vicious and mean.”

Horror movies have gotten nastier and scarier lately, and, luckily, so has Freddy. “He’s meaner and crueler again in Freddy Vs. Jason,” assures Englund.

Englund seems genuinely excited about the new film. “Somebody at New Line Cinemas realized that there was this great rumor, this great what-if,” he says. “We were wondering who would win.”

Even though Krueger is Englund’s on-screen alter ego, his career also has taken less widely acknowledged directions. Since the last Elm Street film, 1993’s underrated New Nightmare, he has had a featured cameo in the teen screamer Urban Legend, and guest appearances on TV shows such as Charmed and The Hughleys. He also has made several straight-to-video and foreign films, ranging from a light Italian comedy to a serious film about life in the former Yugoslavia/Bosnia.

“It’s great,” says Englund of his experience abroad, which he calls “a direct result of the success of `Nightmare,’ and Freddy’s being international.”

“What’s fun for me is to be in Europe or Thailand or Japan and find some great old memorabilia, some great circus art — like of me eating Patricia Arquette,” he says, referring to the series’ third installment, 1987’s Dream Warriors. “That’s the fun part for me now.”