NEW YORK -- Usher is a hip-hop superstar. Usher Raymond IV wants to be a movie star. He appears ready to pay his dues to get there.

"It was an opportunity to step away from who Usher is and be Usher Raymond IV as an actor," the charismatic entertainer says of starring in the romantic action drama In The Mix. The youth-oriented project is part of his strategy to establish a dual career on stage and on screen.

In the movie, Usher plays a New York club DJ who happens to be friends with a Sicilian-American mob family headed by Chazz Palminteri. The plotting gets heavy, and often cliched, when the mob boss hires Usher to protect his daughter (Toronto's Emmanuelle Chriqui) from a threatened hit by a rival gang.

Romantic sparks, dormant since the two grew up together, are re-lit and things get complicated. The inter-racial aspect of the romance is touched upon only briefly (one of the reasons Chriqui, a Canadian of French-Moroccan Jewish heritage, says she was attracted to her role).

In The Mix was a tough shoot. Made on the cheap, filming was crammed into four weeks. The weather was miserable: cold, wet and relentless. Usher contracted a serious flu bug. So, the Sun asks, Why bother to slog it out on a movie set when you're already in a comfort zone as an established star in music?

"Well, I'm interested in expanding my gift as far as I can possibly reach," Usher says, his eyes peeking out from under the rolled brim of a fashionable toque. "Just because one (career) works doesn't mean you can't go for more. They say the sky's the limit but there's always space." Usher quietly chuckles over his own metaphor.

Born in Chattanooga, Tenn., he turned 26 on Oct. 14. Raised with his younger brother James by their choral director mom, Jonnetta Patton, Usher has been involved with music from the age of six. The family moved to Atlanta when Usher was 12 and the music saturation continued. Patton eventually became Usher's manager. His first single, at 14, was Call Me A Mack from the Poetic Justice soundtrack. Still 14 and struggling with a breaking voice that required professional coaching to tame, Usher recorded his debut album. It was released when he was 15 in 1994. A gradual climb then turned him into a soul, R&B, hip-hop legend with million-sellers and Grammy Awards.

Still citing his mother as one of his best friends, Usher says they are planning a methodical approach to the acting career. "In the same way it took me time to build myself as an artist, it will take the same amount of time as an actor."

The strategy includes trying "to work on as many different roles as you possibly can," he says. "I plan on working on all different types of film, man."

Usher's strength is natural charm, but his on-screen experience is limited, including a debut in The Faculty (1998). The same year, he took a role on the soap The Bold And The Beautiful.

In the drama Light It Up (1999), he had his most substantial part, although the movie did poorly. "Being part of an ensemble like that," Usher says now, "you really learned a lot. Just being among all that energy. The more I'm around (talent), the more excited I am and the more motivated I am."

Usher later appeared in Texas Rangers (2001) and returned to music, eventually taking a break to shoot In The Mix. Then he hit the road again to tour for his enormously successful fifth album Confessions. He says he will take another break from music, and especially touring, to concentrate on a new movie project (he has been announced for The Ballad Of Walter Holmes but did not land a role in Dreamgirls, despite media speculation).

"I don't plan on stopping here," Usher says of In The Mix. "This is something that is not just a hobby. This is a career to me and ... it's going to take time. I remember 11 years ago, nobody knew who Usher was. I was just a kid who had a dream to some day be a singer who people could recognize and chant his name, maybe. Look what happened!

"Now I'm on somewhat of a hiatus. I don't plan on going back on a stage until some time in 2007. It is not the first time I've done it. I've always taken a little pause from music to do some acting. And then I go back to music. I don't want to wear out my welcome, you know."

The "welcome" in music is still enthusiastic. "I've had a great year," Usher says. "A great two years with Confessions. Give it some time (now). Let it breathe."

He may be on hiatus but the recent release of the flashy, three-disc DVD entitled Usher -- Truth Tour: Behind The Truth, Live From Atlanta is keeping his profile up in music. The set combines performance footage with biography and hype. The box reads: "Usher: The man, the myth, the mogul! In a never-before-seen perspective of the No. 1 artist in the world."

Usher, who executive-produced the DVD in tandem with his mother, obviously is not exactly shy about boasting. Yet he came on the set of In The Mix and blended in effortlessly, according to veteran co-star Palminteri.

"What makes him an exception is that he didn't come on the set like some hip-hop singer," Palminteri says of Usher. "He came on the set wanting to know about acting. He didn't come with his posse. And he treated it like he respected the work a great deal. And he was humble. It was like, 'If you can help me, help me!'

"And that's smart, you know. If I was going to do a concert and I was a singer and I happened to know him, I would talk to him about it. He could help me. It's the same thing (on a movie set). His ego was great and that's the key. You have to set it aside sometimes to learn."

For his part, Usher says, "I recognize in everything that I do that, with ego, nothing is going to get accomplished."

In The Mix director Ron Underwood, who was hired after his leading man was cast, is a believer. "Usher is perfect for the role, I think. Having made it with Usher, I can't imagine anyone else in the role."

Long a fan of Usher as a stage performer, Underwood says he saw potential: "He has something very special and I thought he would be a very good actor. I've seen his other roles but he's never had a leading role like this before. But I saw in him an openness and an ability to reveal himself through his character. That is pretty special and unusual and is what makes a movie star."