Michael Jai White effortlessly conveys a gravitas and moral center as the title character in Friday’s well-crafted revenge thriller “Oscar Shaw.”

His Oscar, a retired cop getting by on his pension, meditates 20 minutes daily and wears a double-breasted suit. Oscar delights in an orderly existence – until he becomes a protector to a troubled boy and an avenging destroyer of the gang members who murdered his best friend.

“I felt very close to the character,” White said in a phone interview. “Years ago I almost was a cop myself. It’s something close to my heart; I felt was a civic duty. So much so that I joined the reserve police when I got to California.

“I have a lot of close friends who are police officers and a lot of family members and my brother just retired from the Secret Service. It’s very close to who I am.”

Oscar, when threatened by inner city criminals and killers, has little choice in eliminating a gang who would sex traffic the teenage girl they’ve kidnapped and who murder with impunity.

Killing, White emphasized, “is not his intention. He’s brought to that place. In some ways, it reminds me of (Charles Bronson’s vigilante ’70s classic) ‘Death Wish.’

“But Shaw is not the vigilante type. He’s about justice. And a little conflicted when he has to take the lives of these predators.

“Like a lot of people, he’s fighting certain dark things in his past. He’s been ostracized by the police and he was set up.

“Like a lot of people he’s dealing with our traumas. The way he’s dealing with his trauma is to meditate, to put himself in a place where there’s hope on the horizon.

“I feel there’s a lot of people who struggle with that these days, and he represents us all in these chaotic times. People who simply want a happy life.”

At 58, White, a martial artist, writer, director and actor, feels after three decades-plus his best is what’s happening now.

“I have a very eclectic career,” White reflected. “I’m known in the action world and the dramatic world, the comedy world, television, all at one time. A lot of irons in the fire — and I have yet to show all that I’m capable of.

“I really enjoy all of the different hats I wear, which is why some people have described me as underrated. It’s understandable, because people want to pigeonhole, categorize you.

“But it’s up to myself to really show what I’m capable of. Sometimes that takes a while for people to catch up.

“I feel I’m in in my stride now. I’m just as excited now as I was 30 years ago and believe I’ve actually got my best work ahead of me.”

“Oscar Shaw” is available on streaming platforms Friday