LOS ANGELES — Justin Timberlake is well aware that the public’s new perception of him as a movie star — one on indefinite hiatus from his platinum-plus pop music career — comes with certain perks as well as a few potent liabilities.

Timberlake’s colorful performance as Facebook co-founding father Sean Parker in the David Fincher-directed box-office hit “The Social Network” netted him the best reviews of his still nascent film career and sparked speculation that the onetime Mr. SexyBack may land an Oscar nomination for supporting actor on Jan. 25.

Consequently, the six-time Grammy winner’s stock as an actor has shot through the roof. Timberlake recently wrapped his first leading role, in the romantic comedy “Friends With Benefits” opposite Mila Kunis, and he’s currently filming his debut action-hero role  in the sci-fi thriller “Now.”

But Timberlake acknowledged that the lengthy break from his recording career — his last album was released in 2006 — has created a backlash among some fans. “They’re looking at me like, ‘Why aren’t you staying with one path?'” he said. “They look at me like I’m ungrateful for my music career because I want to do film.”

Timberlake said acting isn’t a fluke; he considered coming to Los Angeles to break into television as early as 1995, before future band mate Chris Kirkpatrick persuaded him to commit to ‘N Sync, which went on to become the most popular boy band of the decade.

His decision to quit ‘N Sync in 2002 and develop a solo career was greeted with as much, if not much more, shock and dismay by millions of screaming fans.

“I faced the same feelings when I went solo,” said Timberlake. “I had the same obstacles in music. I still do. But I feel like I should pose the question to everyone else: If you had this opportunity, what would you do with it?”

“Entertaining is in my blood,” he continued. “I make no bones about the fact that I have always wanted to work in the forum of film. I take this seriously. I’ll be 30 in January, and I’m saying to myself, ‘If I’m going to do this, I need to do it now.'”

Timberlake now has finished three consecutive films for Sony Pictures — he followed up “The Social Network” with “Friends With Benefits” for its Screen Gems division and the ribald comedy “Bad Teacher” (costarring ex-girlfriend Cameron Diaz) for Sony subsidiary Columbia Pictures — and studio co-chairman Amy Pascal says it’s a testament to his versatility and on-screen skill set.

To hear it from various Hollywood movie honchos, the wellspring of interest in Timberlake’s acting services can be traced back to one source: his stints guest-hosting and appearing in digital videos for “Saturday Night Live,” for which the entertainer won two Emmys.

“Look, comedy and music are both about rhythm and timing,” Michaels said. “We just saw that — in the old-fashioned sense of it — he’s an entertainer. I think people saw for the first time, in the same way you would have 40 years ago with Dean Martin or any number of performers, here was a star.”

Timberlake’s appearances on the show were enough to convince producers of the combination live-action/computer-generated animated adventure-comedy “Yogi Bear,” that he would be perfect to provide the voice of Yogi’s furry sidekick, Boo-Boo.

By Timberlake’s own estimation, the C-word doesn’t enter the equation when it comes to weighing his professional prospects. “I don’t know what a pop ‘career’ is. I just wanted to be in music,” Timberlake said. “I don’t necessarily crave to be a movie star. I just want to be an actor. I don’t look at it as a career — I just feel lucky. That’s not to say I’m going to take every opportunity that comes up. But now I have more chance to plot out a path.”

For the time being, that path does not involve recording or performing music. But Timberlake said he looks forward to a time when he can combine acting with his singing and producing talents for a movie project and even envisions stealing a page from the David Bowie concept-album playbook on a future album.

“I want to conceptualize something a little bit more,”Timberlake said. “And it’s probably because of the experience I’m having working with directors and screenwriters and getting to play cool characters. If that means I come up with, like, my version of ‘Ziggy Stardust,’ so be it. Who knows?”

“What I’ve learned from acting in movies, I want to apply to music and see what happens.”