stuart
townsend

With rugged good looks and a versatile acting talent, Irishman Townsend has struck gold in Hollywood.
Shirt: Carol Christian Poell.
Townsend tackled a live production of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending at London's Donmar Warehouse.  Two of his best films  
will be in 2004.    
step up and ask about prices.  For the benefit of the women standing there, Dan would start up a conversation with me in which I explain that I'm in town from Ireland to visit my girlfriend.  Finally, I ask if he has change for a 50 and mention how it's all the money I have.  At this point, Dan takes the bill, slams down the briefcase, and runs off with my money.

As Futterman would disappear down the crowded street, Townsend would lament about how he couldn't go see his girl or even get home.  Feeling pity, the women generally gave him train fare, which is about $35.  That's when, Townsend says, he gave the money back and explained how they were preparing for the film.

He recounts, "You could see the sad look on their faces, like, 'We trusted you.'  It made me feel really guilty."

Like most actors, Stuart Townsend prepares for his film roles in vastly different ways, especially considering the breadth of his character portrayals.  Over the past six years, he's played a psychotic killer, an indestructible superhero, and even the Vampire Lestat, but his most inspired prep came for a street hustler role in 1997's Shooting Fish.  For this independent comedy, the director made Townsend and co-star Dan Futterman get in character by pulling off real life street scams.

"Dan would pretend to be selling perfume from a briefcase on Oxford Street," recalls the Dublin-born actor, "and whenever women looked at the product, I would