Hollywood's next heartthrob? It has to be Hugh.

NEW YORK -- If there's a blueprint for being designated Hollywood's next rising star, British actor Hugh Dancy has already ticked off most of the boxes on the checklist.

Make the girls swoon in a series of romantic leading roles -- check. Dancy played hero on horseback to Anne Hathaway in "Ella Enchanted" and to Keira Knightley in "King Arthur." Hold your own against one of Britain's most formidable actresses -- check. The actor earned an Emmy nomination playing the seductive yet scheming Earl of Essex opposite Oscar winner Helen Mirren in last year's HBO miniseries "Elizabeth I."

Prove your stage chops and acting range in a pivotal role in a high-profile play -- check. Dancy is currently starring on Broadway in the landmark British war drama "Journey's End." Date a famous young actress -- check. Dancy acknowledges that Internet rumors linking him and Claire Danes are in fact true.

To top it off, Dancy has not just one but four high-profile films lined up this year. They include the star-studded ensemble dramas "Evening" (co starring Danes, Vanessa Redgrave, and Meryl Streep) and "The Jane Austen Book Club" (opposite Maria Bello, Emily Blunt, and Amy Brenneman), "Savage Grace" (with Julianne Moore), and, finally, "Beyond the Gates," a drama about the Rwandan genocide that opens today.

During interviews at a Manhattan hotel and at the Belasco Theatre , where the acclaimed revival of "Journey's End" is playing, the 31-year-old actor exhibits thoughtfulness, warmth, and a playful wit, and he appears to be taking all the attention that's being showered on him in stride.

"I'm aware that it's a big year for me, and that's a happy thing. But it's not like I've planted a big red flag in the ground and will dance around it, shrieking, 'This is my year!' " Dancy says, with a laugh. "Maybe if I had come out of the gate right at the beginning and suddenly went straight into leading man adventure roles . . . But it has been a gradual progression."

With his brooding eyes and sly, heart-melting smile, Dancy certainly has the dashing looks to go along with the talent. Dig below the surface, though, and you'll find an actor of intelligence and grace who's more interested in improving his craft and deepening his understanding of characters than landing on the covers of glossy magazines.

In "Beyond the Gates," Dancy plays Joe Connor, an idealistic young Englishman teaching at a secondary school in the Rwandan capital of Kigali. The school also serves as a temporary base for UN peacekeeping forces. When the killing spree begins, Tutsi refugees, who have been targeted by the majority Hutu, show up at the school seeking safe harbor. Dancy's character functions as the conduit for a Western audience watching the events in the film.

"Little by little, Joe's awareness of what's going on around him grows, but his refusal to engage with it also grows. And his innocence trips over into kind of naivete, which trips over into denial, which eventually kind of implodes on him," says Dancy.

Dancy deftly navigates the character through his initial do-gooder enthusiasm, into helplessness at the gathering threat and frustration at the inaction of the UN and the West, and then horror and guilt as the crisis explodes.

The film's director, Michael Caton-Jones , speaking by phone from London, calls Dancy "a Hugh Grant with brains," and says that he reminds him of a young Leonardo DiCaprio.

"They are both known as eye candy, but if you work with them, you see very clearly that there's a lot more there, beneath the surface," says Caton-Jones, who directed DiCaprio in 1993's "This Boy's Life." "What you're always looking for in an actor is honesty of expression. . . . Hugh brought a natural intelligence, but he's also not afraid to look like a geek, to be fallible, to be a human being."

Dancy's interest in acting was sparked as a 14-year-old at boarding school. As punishment for some misbehavior ("smoking and drinking, mostly"), Dancy was sent off to the school theater to straighten out.

"I'd like to think it was a really enlightened decision [by school officials] that demonstrated some insight into my character," says Dancy, with a laugh. "But I think they were just at their wits' end and didn't know what to do with me."

He quickly caught the acting bug, but decided to study English at Oxford rather than attend drama school. However, his education has undoubtedly come in handy, particularly when having to dive into complex roles like the distraught, whiskey-sodden Captain Stanhope in "Journey's End," R.C. Sheriff's 1929 drama set along the front lines of World War I.

Dancy says he sought to balance the character's two extremes -- the hardened exterior and the soft underbelly of the enthusiastic young man he once was.

"You really get to stretch some muscles playing this part," says Dancy. "You get to do some very big, extreme acting and some very finessed, understated acting at the same time."

"Journey's End" isn't the only work that has stretched the actor's muscles recently. In "Evening," due out in June and based on the best-selling novel by Susan Minot, Dancy plays a crucial supporting role as the son of a wealthy Newport, R.I., family during the 1950s (the film is also set in the present day).

"I'm playing a character who's crippled emotionally by the stifled atmosphere of his upbringing and who really has no idea who he is [inside]. He's looking for somebody else to ground him. And the way that he deals with it is to drink extensively. . . . So it was fun to dip into being a complete disaster of a human being."

Later this year, Dancy will be seen in "The Jane Austen Book Club," an ensemble drama written and directed by Robin Swicord; and "Savage Grace," a true crime tale about the dark underbelly of high society, based on the life of American socialite Barbara Baekeland , who was murdered in London in 1972.

"I feel like I've been spoiled by the variety of roles that I've been able to do and the people I've gotten to work with these last couple of years," says Dancy. "I've just really enjoyed myself."

As for the media-concocted labels that get tossed his way, the actor says they don't bother him because in his experience they don't stick. Plus, he's learned to accept the nature of the Hollywood hype machine.

"Getting attention and having people know who you are is basically the only kind of control that you can ever get over your life or career as an actor," Dancy says. "Even that's pretty minimal, but at least it's something. So once you figure it out, then you realize that it's a game you have to engage with."

Caton-Jones, for his part, is confident that Dancy has a bright future ahead and will be able to handle any media glare that may shine on him. "He's been working long enough to know that if the fickle finger of fate points at you, you have to laugh at it and treat it for what it is. Celebrity is not important. The work is important. And Hugh understands that."