Since becoming a movie star for playing the lewd and crude Stifler in the American Pie movies, Seann William Scott has traveled the world over. But aside from a brief visit during the taping of an MTV special in 2003, the actor hadn't spent any time in Miami until this week.

''Even though I had been here before, I feel like yesterday was really my first day in Miami,'' an animated and engaging Scott said over a sushi-and-beers interview Monday at Lincoln Road's Sushi Samba to publicize his new film The Promotion, which hits theaters Friday. ``I got in and immediately thought, it's so beautiful here, the girls are beautiful -- even the climate is amazing, because I actually like the heat.

'Then I went up to the roof of the Gansevoort [Hotel in South Beach] and there were these three girls with their tops off just running around and jumping in the pool like it was nothing. I was thinking `Is this Miami or is this heaven?' I asked some guys there 'Is this normal?' And they were like, 'It is here!' ''

In The Promotion, Scott plays an assistant manager at a supermarket who engages in a passive-aggressive war with a co-worker (John C. Reilly) over an upcoming promotion. The movie is a showcase for Scott's ability to nobly suffer indignities that make the audience laugh with him instead of at him.

But despite being known mostly for his comedic talents, Scott is a diehard fan of horror films. ''I didn't sleep well after watching The Mist,'' he says when the conversation turns to movies. ``I shouldn't have watched it at night. I thought that movie was [bleeping] scary. I loved the idea of how a bunch of people of different classes and races would react when facing the possible end of the world -- especially after 9/11 and all the other terrible things that have happened.''

Although The Promotion, like The Mist, unfolds mostly inside a supermarket, it harbors no tentacled monsters or winged bugs. But it does have a melancholy undertone, exploring the mounting desperation working-class families face in these economically dire times.

That sober realism lurking beneath the film's laughs gives The Promotion its bittersweet edge -- something Scott is thrilled preview audiences are recognizing.

''I've watched it three times with an audience now and I'm probably never going to see it again, because I had such a great experience every one of those times, seeing how people were connecting with the characters,'' he said.

• The Promotion opens in theaters Friday. See a review in Friday's Weekend section.

-- RENE RODRIGUEZ

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