Townsend first gained the notice of an admittedly small American audience with his co-starring turn alongside Dan Futterman and Kate Beckinsale as awkward techie turned con-artist Jez in the comedy "Shooting Fish" (1997). Sporting a most unfortunate hairdo and a disarming goofiness, Townsend won fans if not the girl. That same year Marc Evans' "Resurrection Man" would prove the actor's remarkable skill and versatility, with a positively riveting turn as a gun-wielding psychopath leading a gang of brutal Loyalists in 1970s Ulster. He next was featured in the 1998 French film "Mauvaise passe/The Escort" as a young man who introduces Daniel Auteuil's 45-year-old runaway to the gigolo lifestyle.
His endearing and certainly benign appearance made him an unlikely candidate to play a cool heartbreaker, but Townsend possessed just the right alluring spark to pull off such a role in Michael Winterbottom's "Wonderland". Here he played Tim, the ultimately disappointing romantic hope for lonely waitress Nadia (Gina McKee). Townsend next appeared as a 17th-century court jester in "The Venice Project" (1999), Robert Dornhelm's time-travelling comedy-drama set against the backdrop of the Biennale that was screened at the Venice Film Festival mere months after filming where it was met with a less than stellar reception. The actor fared a bit better at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival where he was featured in two motion pictures. Townsend had the title role of the modern Irish comedy "About Adam", playing a magically seductive young man who individually and very personally wins over an entire family, not unlike Terence Stamp's Visitor in Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Teorema". In the British-German co-production "Simon Magus", a 19th Century-set magic-infused look at life in a Central European shtetl, he was cast as the enterprising dairy farmer Dovid. Although Townsend was replaced by Viggo Mortensen in the cast of the highly anticipated "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, his proven talent would assure the young actor a career trajectory that continued this upward climb.
It wasn't long before Townsend got his moment to shine, as he was cast opposite late R&B singer Aliyah in the Anne Rice vampire movie "Queen of the Damned" in 2001. The movie was was originally set to go straight-to-video but was released following Aliyah's tragic and untimely death in a plane crash. Townsend exhibited his seductive powers as a vampire who comes back to the modern world as a rock star. This was immediately followed by his most high-profile starring role in 2002, when he played a father who outwits the criminals who kidnap his child in "Trapped," also starring Charlize Theron, Courtney Love and Kevin Bacon. His next major outing was as the famous literary 19th Century literary charcacter Dorian Gray in the comic book action adventure "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (2003). After headlining the little-seen indie gambling drama "Shade" (2004), Townsend appeared opposite his real-life paramour Charlize Theron in the wartime melodrama "Head in the Clouds" (2004) as a a working-class Irish student drawn into the tulmultuous life of a brash, promiscuous party girl.
The actor next headed to the small screen playing supernatural detective Carl Kolchak in ABC's reboot of the classic Darren McGavin suspense series "Night Stalker" in 2005 .