Thanks to Jon Heder, the idea of a “Napoleon complex” has come to take on an entirely different meaning than the one previously established by the little Frenchman with a world-sized chip on his shoulder.

Since this gangly red-head’s emergence onto the Hollywood scene, people everywhere have embraced awkwardness, shyness and overall low self-esteem.

Yeah, right. We laugh at those losers. This is probably why Heder has had so much success portraying the same character (with minimal variations) in his last few films.

The latest, “School for Scoundrels” co-starring Billy Bob Thornton, follows loserly Roger (Heder) and a group of similarly ill-fated men through their secret class on manhood, taught by Dr. P (Thornton).

Heder admitted in a conference call with University reporters that he has taken away some of Dr. P’s lessons and has implemented them into every day life.

“It’s always pretty cool to be dangerous, I guess. Also, wherever you are, the place is lame. I believe everywhere I go is lame. Not just restaurants, not just clubs. I don’t even like the place where we’re at right now. We’re in some hotel and it’s lame,” said Heder.

Heder considers himself to be very similar to Roger but says he hopes he isn’t as big of a loser.

“It was kind of nice to play a character that is not that far from who am I – I guess in real life – I mean I hope I’m not that much of a loser. But it was more like, you know, nice, I was happy to get a film out there where I’m like playing more along the lines – you know more natural instincts of what I would do and who I am,” Heder said.

His advice for people lacking confidence consists of the following: “First off, they’re thinking about themselves too much. Get over yourself and become comfortable with who you are. Go for the girl and make a fool out of yourself – it’s OK.”

He insists that a real man is one who has gusto, who has principles he lives by and who is willing to make a fool out of himself for the good of mankind. In other words, Heder sees himself as fitting within his own guidelines.

When asked about his tendency to play the same “Napoleon” role again and again, and whether or not he was afraid of being typecast, Heder insisted that he wanted to try a variety of different roles.

“I want to be the next James Bond,” said Heder. “I also think it would be sweet to play an elf, particularly one that gets to shoot magical arrows.”

Thornton added that aside from all the tough guy characters he plays, he’d like to try out the role of a superhero, preferably the world’s toughest milkman.

In the movie, Roger picks up everything that Dr. P teaches to the class right away and quickly rises to become his star pupil.

But once Dr. P meets Roger’s love interest, things quickly start going downhill for Heder’s character, which means violent laughs for the audience.

While it seems like a challenge for Heder’s character in this film to get the girl, he admitted he’s never had a problem with it in real life.

“I think the farthest I ever went (to impress a girl) was I tried to draw a picture of my now-wife. When we were dating, I drew a picture of her but it wasn’t as good as I thought it’d be. And I think she felt the same way – but I ended up getting married to her, so I guess that some of it worked,” said Heder.

As expected, Billy Bob Thornton (who was Halle Berry’s onscreen love interest and Angelina Jolie’s off-screen partner) doesn’t ever waste much energy on getting women to like him.

“I don’t try too hard, really. Maybe when I was a teenager I probably did something stupid,” he said.

Both actors have had an instance in their lives where someone else has tried to steal their love interests from them.

“I dated a girl once that I really liked have a girl go after her,” said Thornton. “But I kind of liked it.”

This role for Thornton is yet another test of his acting skills.

While he has played many slime-ball roles in the past, Thornton claimed that those characters always ended up having some heart – Dr. P doesn’t fit into this category since he lacks any redeeming qualities.

“In terms of roles, I always like to be different, you know, as much as possible in every movie. I think it’s good for the audience when they look at the character instead of the actor. I like comedy and drama both; I grew up doing drama mostly. And I’ve had a lot of fun

with comedies, but in terms of one being harder than the other, I think comedy’s probably a little bit harder, at least in my experience. Because the various sets on comedies I’ve done have been the stiffer sets. Whereas the drama sets have been a little looser and more fun, which is really weird,” said Thornton.

Thornton has a film out this winter that he already rates as one of the top five favorite films he has done in his career.

He predicts a career full of similar successes for his young co-star Heder, who has become a sort of real-life understudy for Thornton.

“The guy’s in love with me – ace it,” said Thornton.

“To this day, I still call him up once a week after church on Sunday and ask him his thoughts about life and what I should do. And I don’t know if it’s starting to fade out because I thought our relationship was going to work out, but he’s just full of hot air,” said Heder.

“School for Scoundrels,” starring Thornton, Heder, Michael Clarke Duncan and Ben Stiller opens Friday nationwide.

“Any time you put an old guy with a young guy it’s just a load of laughs,” promised Heder.