"BRITISH STAR OF THE FUTURE IS GOING THROUGH A FAZE"
USA Today, by Elysa Gardner
March 29th, 2007
Source

After a string of well-received movie roles and a star turn opposite Helen Mirren in the HBO miniseries Elizabeth I, Hugh Dancy is being touted as one of Hollywood's hottest young British imports. So why, one might ask, is he spending some six months tied to the New York stage in a revival of an old ensemble play?

"It fell into my lap, in the most fortuitous way," Dancy, 31, says of his decision to co-star in Journey's End, the 1928 World War I drama now at Broadway's Belasco Theatre.

Having lunch with Dancy, you get the sense that a lot of things have worked out fortuitously for him. Almost ridiculously good-looking, he exudes the easy charm of a guy who is used to attention and affirmation.

But this son of a philosophy professor, who himself studied literature at Oxford, seems intent on not being dismissed as another pretty face. Dancy says it's "mainly coincidental" that many of his roles have been literary and historical figures. His upcoming films Evening and The Jane Austen Book Club were inspired by novels.

Yet listening to him discuss his work, it's obvious that Dancy is serious-minded about his profession. Of his "sidestep into theater," he allows, "It's difficult, because film can be such a ladder. There's pressure to maintain a sense of your career building steam. It's very hard to say to people, 'Time out.' "

But Dancy has loved the stage since acting in plays at school, where his roles included the neurotic Dale Harding in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. In Journey, he portrays Captain Stanhope, a dashing British officer who conceals his terror with booze and bravado. "He leads this group of men and galvanizes them; he's very strong. But in other respects, he's falling to pieces. "

In the recently released film Beyond the Gates, Dancy plays an idealistic teacher also caught in the ravages of war, this time in Rwanda, during the genocide of the 1990s. In another upcoming movie based on a true story, Savage Grace, about the 1972 murder of American socialite Barbara Baekeland, Dancy's character has a relationship with Baekeland, played by Julianne Moore. Sort of. "Relationship might be a euphemism." Dancy has even less to say about his link to Claire Danes' character in Evening, due June 15. That's likely because the young actress is dating Dancy, who insists that he "doesn't engage" speculation on his personal life.

Asked if he and Danes live together, Dancy proves true to his word. "We're here in New York together," he answers, with a polite terseness that discourages further questions.

Dancy is more forthcoming about his career plans, which include returning to theater when time allows. "I never really had one actor whose picture I put on the wall, saying, 'I want to be that guy.' But the people I do look up to tend to juggle — like Ian McDiarmid, who was in Elizabeth and then won a Tony Award doing Faith Healer on Broadway last year. He's a fantastic example."

Of suggestions that he's being groomed for a bigger, busier film career, Dancy quips, "Who's doing the grooming? It really comes down to luck, to what's coming around the corner. If you have a good moment, you just try to capitalize on it as best you can."

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