“The Luckiest Man in America,” now in theaters, resurrects a TV quiz show scandal that gifts character actor Paul Walter Hauser with a terrific leading role.

In 1984 ice cream truck driver Michael Larson, a contestant on “Press Your Luck,” managed to beat the game and win thousands. A clip of the real Larson in the end credits vividly illustrates how faithful the film and Hauser are.

“We’re pretty faithful to this really great character, not only with his wardrobe and hair,” Hauser, 38, said in a phone interview from Beverly Hills. “I stayed away from making him overly jovial and happy to portray his thought process as the game goes on.”

This is a man of many layers. “From the very beginning something is off. One of the studio execs says, ‘Oh, the guy’s quirky.’ But you find there’s a deep sadness in him.

“He’s doing this for his family. But also because maybe he’s a gambling addict? And is he a compulsive liar? Is he who he purports to be?

“Those questions get answered as you slowly unfurl the character by the film’s end.”

His research included YouTube and decades-old Game Network documentaries. Hauser discovered “footage of the real Michael Larson but also you get to talk to the two contestants that were on each side.

“They’re alive, I believe, and they’ve done interviews about what he was like.”

Is Larson alive?

“No. He’s dead as Dillinger, died in the late ‘90s. Of (throat) cancer I believe. He was a cigarette smoker.

“And he had the FBI chasing him throughout the ‘90s because he (allegedly) did some pyramid scheme where he ripped a bunch of investors off of millions of dollars.

“It just so happens that back in 1984, when he played ‘Press Your Luck,’ that was one of the more honest days of work he ever had in his life.”

Hauser has stood out, starring as wildly different characters in Clint Eastwood’s “Richard Jewell” and the “Black Bird” true crime series.

“I got sober after ‘Black Bird’ and have almost three-and-a-half years of sobriety. That has really helped build my confidence and made me a more self-aware person where I feel a lot healthier in my body and my mind.

“I just knew that for me to be the best version of a dad, a husband, and a friend and an actor, I had to get rid of a bunch of stuff.”

That change means, surprisingly, he now wrestles semi-professionally. “I’ve had 16 matches and in the last couple of months lost 30 pounds.”

And that has nothing to do with luck.

“The Luckiest Man in America” is in theaters