BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Most actors wouldn’t admit it, but for at least one, life was just too easy. Anson Mount was kicking back in Los Angeles, auditioning for roles and soaking in his suntan the natural way.

“It was so easy to just roll out of my bed and go for a jog on the beach and go to an audition and go to the beach. It was a lovely lifestyle. But I wasn’t struggling against anything,” he said.

With all that ease, something had to change, he says. “I moved back to New York City from Los Angeles a few years ago …. To move back to New York from a place that’s so comfortable, that’s hard. It was time to get back to where I had a community, and it was time to stop competing for work I was not interested in. I just felt bored,” he said.

“I found myself being 36 years old and found myself dyeing my hair and trying to be the best-looking guy in the room. I just couldn’t live with it. I wanted to be back in New York and grow my hair out and start pursuing the roles I wanted to pursue.”

He may not be the best-looking guy in the room, but he’s the man you want to watch in AMC’s rollicking Western, “Hell on Wheels,” airing Sundays.

The network that already dished up “Broken Trail” to massive appeal has done it again with this saga about the building of the transcontinental railroad and the tent city (dubbed Hell on Wheels) that accompanied it across the plains.

Mount (“Conviction,” “Crossroads”) plays a Johnny Reb fueled by revenge for his wife’s murder who winds up foreman on the railroad line with all the wrong enemies.

It’s a gritty role that suited the man with the steely eyes and trimmed beard. “It’s hard for me to do anything unless I put myself into it 150 percent, so it’s all or nothing for me,” he said.

That doesn’t mean he’s a perfectionist. “You give it 100 percent, then you have to let it go. I wouldn’t be sane if I were a perfectionist,” he said. “You have to be able to get to the point as a professional to walk into an audition and throw your pages into the trash and go on. Otherwise you’ll go nuts.”

He learned that through necessity, he says: “Just realizing when I was mentally healthy and spiritually healthy and when I was not, then realizing I had to rearrange my priorities. Now if I decide, you know what? I’ve got some downtime, there’s a part of the world I haven’t seen. I’ve got a little extra cash. When I first started out I would say, ‘Oh, I’ve got a job. I’ve got to be really careful.’

“But I’m an actor, I work for myself. So now I plan my life the way I want to live it, and if a job comes up I decide if I want to do the job. And if I want to do the job, I do the job. There are times when I’ve canceled my vacations and times when I’ve turned down jobs. You’ve got to live your life.”

Mount describes himself as a studious late bloomer as a boy. “I was a glasses-braces-nerd, stuffed in trash cans when I was a kid.” He was 13 when his father died.

He says watching his mother grow strong under the burden of loss taught him a lot. “I think it allowed me to develop my own personality with a little more freedom — which is the ironic thing. And to get to a place in your life where you’re adult enough to not feel guilty about realizing that maybe there were benefits in growing up in a single family. I definitely think it was a pivotal part of who I am.”

It may be why he’s so determined not to settle. Even a master’s degree from Columbia didn’t arm him for the fight, he says. “When you’re in school until you’re 25 and you get out and suddenly structure is not handed to you, if you’re smart you realize that you need to create structure for yourself,” he said.

Mount is not married, nor does he have a girlfriend. Next up is a feature film, “Cook County,” due out Friday. “I’m so proud of this film,” he said. “I dropped 25 pounds and play a meth addict.”