Marton Csokas: a worker's ethic, a pinch of Thoreau, a dollop of mystery, and a dash of Russell Crowe

For actor Marton Csokas, the nagging fear that every job could be his last is one of his profession's greatest appeals. "If you look at the larger picture, every day could be your last. That's terrifying but also very liberating," says the New Zealand-bred actor who's currently starring in the psychodrama Asylum as a mental patient romantically involved with the wife (Natasha Richardson) of his sanitarium's chief psychiatrist. Such a Zen outlook seems to have served Csokas (pronounced CHO-Kash) well--although his chiseled looks and a smoldering onscreen persona that recalls Russell Crowe haven't hurt.

Born to a Hungarian father and New Zealander mother, Csokas, who began acting more than a decade ago, was best known as the charismatic warlord Borias on the TV series Xena: Warrior Princess until he was cast as Cate Blanchett's elf-king husband in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. More recently he played a swaggering nobleman in Kingdom of Heaven and appeared in John Dahl's The Great Raid.

Though Csokas is beginning to garner more attention, he's mindful of the effort it's taken to get here. "As for self-reliance, people like Thoreau and Emerson are very much a part of my vocabulary," says Csokas, who next stars opposite Charlize Theron in the sci-fi adventure Aeon Flux. "I've washed plenty of dishes in my life, and those are the times, weirdly enough, when you really find your place in the world."

Juan Morales is editor in chief of Emmy magazine.

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