Million-Dollar Actor

You may fault Russell Crowe as a person for his volatile temper that often gets him into tight situations but you can never find fault (well, almost!) with him as an actor. He’s a million-dollar actor. Once you see him bigger-than-life on screen, you forget the person and get engrossed only in his performance no matter what role he’s playing, whether as Maximus, the Roman general-turned-gladiator in Gladiator (which won for him Best Actor honors); as the title role in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World; the schizophrenic Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash in A Beautiful Mind; and now, in Universal Pictures’ Cinderella Man, as the legendary boxer Jim Braddock who, down to literally begging for food for his family with his career in the doldrums, inspired a nation during the Great Depression by beating his deemed worthier opponents, including Max Baer who was touted as the unstoppable and unbeatable champion.

Ron Howard, who directed Crowe in A Beautiful Mind and Cinderella Man, described the "famously mercurial" actor in a recent Newsweek interview this way: "Directing Russell is like shooting on a tropical. The weather is going to change several times a day, but you’re shooting there for a reason. Sometimes, those dark clouds are just what you need. And sometimes, you wish it would stop raining so you can do the sunny scene."

Crowe, 41, was exactly the way Howard described him during the press junket for Cinderella Man first week of June in Manhattan. He was unpredictable. He showed up five hours late for the press conference and round of interviews, leaving co-star Renée Zellweger (as Braddock’s supportive, strong-willed wife Mae) by her lonesome on the spot. When he finally arrived in a jogging suit, Crowe flashed a quiet smile, waved at the 50 or so entertainment journalists from around the world and joked a bit as he took his seat at the presidential table, "I walked all the way here. I didn’t want to take a cab. You know how New York cab drivers are." Nobody laughed.

But the night before, during the press preview of Cinderella Man, everybody was stunned by yet another powerful (they say, "Oscar-worthy") performance by Crowe who, a week later, was hailed by critics for being a great actor (never mind if, two days after that press junket his volatile temper got him into trouble with the front-desk man at the hotel he was staying in – but that’s, uh, beside the point).

As I said, you can forgive the man for his volcanic temper but you can’t forget him for his versatility and magnetism as an actor.

Some excerpts from the glowing reviews of Cinderella Man:

• From USA Today (by Mike Clark) A premier boxing movie and a forceful Depression remembrance for the socially-conscious, Cinderella Man also ices it for stargazers that Russell Crowe is the dominant screen actor working today...

• From The Wall Street Journal (by Joe Morgenstern): Russell Crowe makes Braddock a spacious container for all sorts of surprising qualities: quiet tenderness; loosey-goosey grace in the face of impending disaster; affecting candor (when, for instance, he begs money from former associates); ready wit ("Welcome to New York," he tells an opponent after stunning him with a double jab). What a formidable movie star Mr. Crowe has proved to be in a lengthening string of distinctive films: The Insider, Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind and Master and Commander...

• From People magazine (by Leah Rozen, my favorite film critic): This true tale of tenacious boxer Jim J. Braddock is an old-fashioned movie in the best sense of the phrase, and not just because it’s set back in the 1930. It’s smartly-written, silkenly made and superbly actor, just what one would expect from the talented trio (director Ron Howard, co-screenwriter Akiva Goldsman and star Russell Crowe) that put together A Beautiful Mind...

Again, during the presscon/interview, we observed the press junket unwritten rule of not asking Crowe anything personal, not even a question of how his wife Danielle Spencer, the actress he married in 2003, and their two-year-old son Charlie were doing. (Crowe was trying to make a long-distance call to his wife, who was in Australia where the Crowes live, but his room phone was busted, prompting him to see the front-desk man with whom he clashed.)

But I must mention that during our five-minute one-on-one TV interview (during which I was, yes, very careful), Crowe was well-behaved, very polite, cool and collected, and was almost soft-spoken.

Here are excerpts from our Conversation:

Are you a boxing fan? This was also my first question to Renée Zellweger (who said that no, she’s not a boxing fan).

"No, not really. But over the years, there have been certain athletes whom I admired. Muhammad Ali, for example. He was a principal figure in my childhood not so much because he was a boxer but because of the principles that he stood for. There’s also Sugar Ray Leonard whose career I kind of followed."

You have a distinct resemblance to Jim Braddock. What aspect of Braddock’s personality did you find interesting?

"Oh, I guess the most significant moment in his life was when he went back to New Jersey social security office to pay back the money he was getting (as doleout) from the government. I think that speaks a lot about the man and his character."

It took eight years for you to bring this movie to the screen. You must have been so in love with the material.

"I was deeply moved by Braddock’s journey – from a man on the street trying to keep his beloved family from the clutches of poverty to an invincible sports champion and hero of the common person. Braddock is a unique hero in the sense that he wasn’t fighting for a cause or for fame or even for personal victory; he was just doing everything in his power to take care of those he loved. It was his ordinariness that made him a crowd-pleasing hero in the 1930s. I think today’s audiences would be equally impressed and inspired by what Braddock achieved of just being a husband and a father."

You are a Braddock fan, obviously.

"I read about Braddock...how he did after boxing, how his kids all grew up and had their own kids and how he loved his wife until the day he died. The Braddocks’ love story is touching in its simplicity; it’s filled with goodness and humor."

There’s some parallelism between John Nash (his character, also a real person, in A Beautiful Mind) and Jim Braddock...

"John Nash would not give up and Jim Braddock would not give in to hardships and sufferings and that’s where the two characters are similar. I want Braddock to be honored in the same way that I wanted Nash to be honored. I want Braddock’s legacy to be relevant to America today. Americans should be reminded that the luxuries that they’re enjoying today are the byproduct of the struggle of people like Jim and his wife Mae who put their children as top priority, the family above all everything else."

It seems that you prefer stories about the triumph of the human spirit. Is it true with your philosophy as a person?

"With this film – yes, very definitely! Generally, I don’t necessarily look to have a complete message or something in a movie. But this movie has a very important message and it has something to do with the triumph not only of the human spirit but also of a human relationship."

In A Beautiful Mind, your character was very psychological while in Cinderella Man your character is very physical. When you immerse yourself in a role, do you carry it home or do you snap out of it as soon as the director shouts "Cut!"?

"With this role, yes, I should say that I brought the character home. It was hard work, what with the physicality involved. Yes, I felt like I was Jim Braddock even off the set. You can’t help it especially if you’re with the character 10 to 12 hours a day at work."

Jim Braddock hurdled so many challenges in his life, not only with where to get the family’s next meal but also how to revive his career and, at the same time, his self-worth and self-confidence. In your case, what’s the biggest challenge that you have to hurdle in your life?

"There’s always a challenge. Now? I guess bringing up my son the right way. That’s gonna be a big challenge."

In one word, how would you describe Russell Crowe?

(Thinks awhile) "Fluid."

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