Told that his "delicate handsomeness" is a perfect match for his role in the Restoration drama, Stage Beauty, actor Billy Crudup laughs (The film is currently playing art house theaters nationwide, including Cincinnati's Mariemont Theater). Such a comment would be odd if not for the character Crudup plays -- famous 1600s London stage actor Edward "Ned" Kynaston, whose forte was portraying women at a time when women were prohibited from acting.

"I was not attracted to myself at all as a woman and that was disappointing," Crudup says, speaking recently after the Stage Beauty's Toronto Film Festival premiere. "I am quite critical of myself but at a certain point it just becomes a bit neurotic. However I'm not so facile with my sub-consciousness that I can turn it off. Although I don't think ultimately it helps me perform or be a more creative or relevant artist."

Crudup is too serious to consider Stage Beauty a farcical drag show, his Some Like It Hot moment. During an afternoon interview, he talks at length about gender issues, sexual identity and the importance of fantasy in acting. It's a conversation that reflects Kynaston's own words in the film.

"The interesting thing about this role is that Ned is interested in the theatrical expression of being a woman, he's not interested in being a woman," Crudup says, speaking energetically, emphasizing each sentence with a bright-eyed smile. "For me, the focus was on the superficial expression of femininity. I think the reason he was interested was because it was a way to get attention. There was desperation involved in it that did not allow me to be too frivolous with it.

"There have been times in my life that I have felt more delicate than others. But when I read the script, I felt this was going to be difficult, and it wasn't just because I was being asked to play a woman. It was because Ned was so good at it.

"It was a bit like when I played (music in) Almost Famous, and I hadn't played guitar before. It would be fine if I had been asked to play a guitarist who sucked, but I was asked to play a magnificent guitarist."

Crudup has made great use of his Shakespeare playacting skills and delicate handsomeness throughout his acting career, but nothing appropriates these attributes like British director Richard Eyre's smart, engaging Stage Beauty, an adaptation of American playwright Jeffrey Hatcher's play Compleat Female Stage Beauty.

Crudup, making great use of a towering wig, exquisite makeup and ornate dresses, is every bit as lush as the film's detailed 17th-century setting.

Crudup's goal is lofty. In his time, Kynaston was considered the most beautiful woman of the London stage and famous for his womanly performance as Othello's Desdemona.

Asked later in the day, Hatcher, who adapted his play for the Stage Beauty script, agrees that Crudup has what it takes to play Kynaston, both in looks and talent.

"He's fantastic in the role" Hatcher says.

A romance between Kynaston and his pretty stage dresser Maria (Claire Danes) adds comic bounce to the film's re-creation of Restoration theater life and its political climate.

Crudup acts onstage as often as he appears in films, and he regularly performs Shakespeare, especially Othello, which was Kynaston's choice play. The difference is that Crudup has never played a female role, and he's not convinced he's done justice to the gender reversal.

Actors frequently dress up for interviews and the photo ops that accompany them, but Crudup's clothes are everyday casual, an extension of his curly brown hair and shaggy facial hair.

His body of work is eclectic: Without Limits, a drama about Olympic runner Steve Prefontaine; The Hi-Lo Country, a western based on a Sam Peckinpah story; the independent road drama Jesus' Son and the romance mystery Waking the Dead, an adaptation of Scott Spencer's novel.

Crudup's golden moment was to be Almost Famous, filmmaker Cameron Crowe's reminiscent drama about his teenage days as a Rolling Stone journalist. In the film, Crudup played Russell, the lead guitarist in the band Stillwater.

But movie careers seldom turn out as planned. Almost Famous turned out to be the rare box-office flop for Crowe, and Crudup remained on the cusp of fame, waiting for the next big project. In the meantime, he remained true to the type of independent stories that have always attracted him.

Crudup played a resistance fighter, starring opposite Cate Blanchett in the little seen World War II drama Charlotte Gray and a wayward father in the solemn road story World Traveler. More recently, in director Tim Burton's Big Fish, a tale of about a father who recounts his life to his estranged son, Crudup starred opposite Albert Finney.

Crudup's voice is better known than his face, thanks to a lucrative career in voiceovers. While he'll never admit it, there are real benefits to a career that exists below the radar, especially when one wants to protect one's personal life. Last year, Crudup left longtime girlfriend and fellow actor Mary Louise Parker, who was eight months pregnant at the time, for his Stage Beauty costar, Claire Danes. The breakup received its share of tabloid coverage, although nothing close to the Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman variety of gossiping.

Asked to comment, Crudup keeps smiling and answers firmly: "I'm not going to discuss my private life."

The 36-year-old Stage Beauty star might not realize it, but public fascination with actors' private lives is another case of the off-stage blur between his and Kynaston's life. The stage stars of Restoration England also had to deal with an enamored public hungry for any and all details about their favorite actors. Some things in the acting world haven't changed -- no matter if someone is wearing male or female clothing. ©