Thanks to Cindy for this transcript:

A&E Biography June 30, 2006

Intro: various pictures/vid clips of Russell.

Harvey Weinstein: "I thought he was the cockiest, most self-assured actor I'd ever met in my life."

Benjamin Svetsky (EW magazine): "Gladiator was the movie that sort of supersized him"

Ron Howard: "He's a big, strong, powerful person with an intense personality."

Peter Travers: (critic, Rolling Stone): "Russell Crowe hates being called a Hollywood bad boy."

Benjamin Svetsky: "He's got a temper, and you know, is not always great at controlling it."

At the beginning a couple of minutes were spent discussing the arrest last June in NYC.

Several minutes about Cinderella Man, much of it similar to what we’ve seen before, except that after discussion of Russell's injury, I loved Ron’s comment that he wouldn't make the film with anybody else on the planet.

Peter Travers: “That to me is the challenge to a guy like Russell Crowe. He’s going to say ‘Yes, I’m going to make the movie. I don’t really care what you say about my shoulder, I’m going to fight my way through this’, and I think that fires him up. Everything I’ve seen him do, he’s driven by this desire to get it right, to get it true. Not get it perfect, to keep it raw. He’s not a fantacist, I think he’s somebody who says the human condition that we’re all faced with deserves a performance that plays it authentically, keeps it genuine and he does it.”

After CM they go back to the early music, a voiceover bit of Russ LeRoq and playing a snippet of “I Just Wanna Be Like Marlon Brando.” He didn’t get much airplay but he had a good time playing rock musician.

Peter Travers: “Crowe has always been interested in his persona as a rock musician. Rock music to me is always about danger, and always about surprise and always about outrage, and always about bad boy stuff.”

Voicever bit about Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts and that by that time he was good enough, or maybe just famous enough to sing his heart out to mostly screaming female fans.

Jay Roach (director, Mystery, Alaska): “When you listen to his music you can hear what matters to Russell Crowe. The stories that he tells through his music are in some ways more personal to him than he gets to tell with his films.”

Voiceover about early Russell, son of movie caterers and sometimes cast in bit parts.

Benjamin Svetsky: “I think his first performance was 6 or 7 years old, he was sort of a refugee kid, and proved basically that he could give directors a hard time even then by walking off with one of the prop guns into the bushes, disappearing for awhile, apparently he was bored with the scene, didn’t like the direction it was going in.”

Voiceover about school being a drag, after school bummed around NZ with his music with little success, but struck gold with Rocky Horror.

Peter Travers: “All of us wish we could have seen him in Rocky Horror Show. The question as to whether I could picture Russell Crowe in fishnet stockings is a hard one, I’m kind of closing my eyes and I can’t do it, but I want to do it, I want proof of this, and, uh, Bring it On!”

Voiceover about first role in Prisoners of the Sun in 1990, his performance catching the attention of George Ogilvie, who thought Crowe had the charisma of James Dean.

Benjamin Svetsky: “When people referred to him as a James Dean type character as a younger actor, I think what they’re saying is a piece of Crowe as a brooding young actor, an element that is not entirely slick, that stutters a little, that sort of is emotionally a little rough, the stuff that made James Dean a star.”

Voiceover about The Crossing and meeting Dani. First love scene for both of them and it was electrifying.

Peter Travers: “He has a tremendous ability to find something in that woman, to look at her as if she was the only subject of his focus. And he has a kind of laser-eyed intensity in that focus, where you just want to go 'Whooo, this is private, I can’t really be here.’ He can do it, and it’s right there in The Crossing."

Then voiceover about their becoming a couple and how Dani wasn’t the only one smitten with Crowe, critics were taking notice and predicting stardom.

Peter Travers: “It’s weird, because you see the first movies of a lot of actors and you say ‘what was going on there', you know, but, yeah, you could see the beginnings of who Russell Crowe is, and his talent is right up there on the screen, you cannot miss it.”

Voiceover about Spotswood and that Sir Anthony Hopkins was impressed with Russell. Hopkins, from 1992, says “There is a razor sharp intensity, that’s what I particularly remember, this absorption in detail, this need to get everything absolutely right.”

Then onto Romper Stomper. Svetsky describes the role of Hando, voiceover mentions friends urged Russell not to do it, but Russell fought to get the part. Further discussion about RS for a couple of minutes with one vidclip of young Russ and one clip of the film.

Peter Travers: “I think in terms of the career of Russell Crowe, RS made critics actually sit up and take notice, and say ‘we thought he was good before, he had quality, now I think he can do anything’”

Jim Gianopulous, (Chairman, Fox Entertainment) “You watch this film and you say ‘Who is that? Who’s playing...who’s that guy?”

Voiceover says it even brought him the attention of Hollywood. He hired a top agent, but the producers weren’t exactly knocking on doors to cast this ‘wonder from Down Under’.

Peter Travers: “I don’t think they knew what to do with him. I think they saw RS and said ‘Is that what he plays? Is he just this tough guy, or is he tender and can be emotional?’ and they didn’t know. And he spent a lot of time floundering.”

Voiceover about how Russell hating everything about Hollywood, going back to Oz and taking role in TSOU.

Peter Travers: “Russell Crowe’s Brokeback Mountain role, before there is a Brokeback Mountain, where you can see a million people saying ‘You’re going to do what? You’re going to play a gay character? What are you doing to your career?'”

Voiceover saying as with RS, friends again tried to discourage him from taking the part. Crowe’s agent was trying to sell him as a young Hollywood hunk and they thought this would be professional suicide, but Crowe trusted his instincts.

Benjamin Svetsky: "TSOU indicated a reserve in inner confidence that is pretty impressive. Aside from the acting challenge, it takes a little bit of guts to play that role, to play a gay rugby star and he’s kissing a guy on screen.”

Jim Gianopulous: “It started to show the extent of his range, and his capability as an actor to play such diverse and unique characters.”

Voiceover about Sharon Stone and making TQATD. Svetsky and Travers both mention Stone’s power at the time and that she wanted Russell for her film. Of course mention is made about rumors of an affair, but only briefly. TQATD got him some more recognition but he stil hadn’t conqured Hollywood and went back home and bought a farm. (some brief footage we’ve seen before of Russell riding). Svetsky talking about the non-Hollywood Crowe.

Then we get to Curtis Hanson, one director who saw what Crowe could do and was determined to cast him in LAC. Discussion of LAC, and how Russell ‘shone’ amongst a cast of stars, Spacey, Basinger, DeVito, but no mention of Guy P.

Further discussion of LAC, mostly things we’ve heard and read about previously and Russell’s ability to play both the tough and tender sides of Bud White.

Peter Travers: “That’s when everybody in Hollywood turned into Sharon Stone and said “I want Russell Crowe in my movie, and Get me Russell Crowe and get me him right now!”

Voiceover about Russell being bombarded with scripts after LAC but waiting a year to take on Mystery, Alaska. Comments on the role of John Biebe by Travers and Jay Roach. Voiceover about Russell’s passion to make his characters come to life not lost on co-stars, and the famous Burt Reynolds quote about Russell having 'a fire in him that burns all night long, all day long, all the time, and that may hurt him because people don’t understand that kind of flame'. But one person who got it was director Michael Mann. Discussion of The Insider and Jeffrey Wigand. Mann makes comments we’ve pretty much heard before. Comments of the weight and age factors by Svetsky. Brief clip from the film, Russell and Al at the Japanese restaurant.

Peter Travers: “Russell Crowe again rises to the challenge of this tough part by showing us both the cerebral nature of the man and also what I would call the ‘gathering storm’ in the man, as we’re watching him get madder and madder, and he’s seething. We know he’s going to explode in something.”

Michael Mann: “Russell has that ability to have those feelings and emotion, to achieve that universality, where we experience him on the screen and we say ‘I know where he’s at, I’ve been there’, you know, that resonance, that’s really hard.”

Voiceover about his first Oscar nom for TI, considered critic’s favorite, losing to Kevin Spacey. Svetsky says he’s often surprised by who wins and who doesn’t win the Oscar but you got the feeling that Russell Crowe is a guy who will have at least a couple of shots down the road.

On to Gladiator. Svetsky says Russell’s first period piece, a true epic, and the first film where Russell was expected to carry the film. Clip of ‘My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius,’ etc. Clip of Ridley discussing the ‘no script’ issue and that Russell took some persuading,

Ridley Scott: “Russell has this character, a visual persona, which is a combination of elements of his own intelligence and his physical presence, and those two things put together make for a very powerful screen presence.”

Benjamin Svetsky: “He manages to make that character relatable and that’s what makes him a great actor, that he can put on a skimpy gladiator outfit and stab a couple of lions and you’re there, you’re going for the ride.”

Voiceover on his demanding physical training, doing his stunts, his injuries, a clip of Russell describing the injuries. Then discussion of the film's popularity and turning Russell into an international superstar. On to second Oscar nomination, and brief comments about the ‘womanizer’ image, Courtney Love, but mentioned that the woman who ended up with him at the Oscars was perhaps the woman he loved the most, his ex-girlfriend, Danielle Spencer. Brief discussion of the kidnapping threat.

On to POL and the Meg affair. Svetsky saying it was a marriage-wrecking affair, and the voiceover says it pretty much ended Meg’s career but Russell seemed to escape the scandal relatively unscathed. After 6 months of paparazzi Hell, Meg and Russell called it quits.

On to ABM.

Ron Howard: “I went after Russell Crowe, the actor, not the movie star. I realized he’s a very powerful, charismatic actor who is very comfortable on a high wire, and I felt that as well written as the script was for ABM, it was it’s own kind of high wire act.”

Voiceover talks about the role of John Nash and after Gladiator, a real stretch, which appeared to be exactly what Crowe found so attractive.

Akiva Goldsman (screenplay writer): “Russell is deeply fascinated by how the human mind works. He’s fascinated by what we want, why we want it and how we’re going to express that. ABM is about our ability to know the world around us and to keep in touch or lose touch with it.”

Peter Travers: “When we watch Russell Crowe as John Nash, we not only see a man mentally unraveling in front of us, Russell Crowe makes us see him physically unraveling.” Clip of Nash trying to dig the implant out of his arm.

Brian Grazer: “He communicates so much from behavior, he doesn’t even need the advantage of words. The words are important, certainly in the art form, but he can communicate so much just with his face, and his body, his eyes.”

Ron Howard: “What Russell was going through was really a series of transformations, because Nash’s personality and degree of sanity and insanity was shifting literally every 3 or 4 scenes that we were shooting, and Russell was riding that wave as an artist.”

Ron again makes his little ‘island’ analogy but a bit differently. “When you’re working with Russell, it’s a little bit like being on a small island, the weather systems may chance during the course of the day, but you never forget that it’s a beautiful place.”

Brian Grazer: “He’ll argue over things, he doesn’t use other people to fight his battles, he’ll do it directly with you and I actually appreciate that. It hurts a little more, but I appreciate the direct contact.”

Ron Howard: “If Russell is angry, the best thing to do is go and talk to him, and before I made ABM other directors told me the same thing.”

Akiva Goldsman: “Russell asks only one thing, which is that you let him finish what he’s saying and that you listen to him. We have a tendency, in Hollywood, at times, to jump the sentence of the sentence across from us because we’re scared of him, and very early on I learned with Russell is that all he wants is to be heard.”

Voiceover about third Oscar nom in a row for ABM. Russell Crowe proved he could handle the most challenging parts in Hollywood. Now he was reading to take on a tougher, unscripted role.

Ron Howard: “When we were making ABM, I know he was interested in my family, he was curious, and you could feel a kind of gnawing desire on his part to live out that aspect of life in his life that he always imagined that he wouldn’t have.”

Voiceover: “By the time he was 38 everybody wanted a piece of Russell Crowe, movie executives, directors, fans, and the tabloids.”

Brian Grazer: “I think fame has been more of a headache to him than something he’s ever wanted.”

Jim Gianopulous: “He’s very different from people’s perception and I think perception is driven by tabloids and even the mainstream media can sometimes distort who he really is.”

Harvey Weinstein: “What Russell does is hide his soft side, and we all tell him let people see that, Russell, show that every now and then. He has friends because he’s a true pal and buddy, but I wish the general public could see the more generous Russell, because he is indeed a good man.”

Svetsky mentions his home is Australia, he comes and does his work then goes home. Voiceover says home was starting to get lonely. And was again seeing his on again, off again girlfriend, Danielle Spencer. Svetsky talks about how difficult it is for actors to keep relationships going. The temptations, the being apart, etc.

Voiceover about the wedding, low key ceremony on his farm. Wasted no time starting a family, nice pics of Charlie and Russell.

Jim Gianopulous; “I know from emails and from hearing him on the phone, him describing what Charlie did that day, or his plans for later and how much joy you can hear in his voice, talking about his family life.”

Ron Howard: “I have noticed a change in Russell since he got married and became a father. First of all, he talks about his family all the time.”

Voiceover about 4th Golden Globe award nomination for Jack Aubrey.

Jim Gianopulous: “He was just perfect for Jack Aubrey, he had all that strength of character and gravitas, and yet was able to convey the conflict of leadership and the doubts and fears that someone in that role might have and which needed to be overcome in order for the journey to be successful.”

Peter Travers: “Russell Crowe is not playing Maximus in this movie, he’s playing Captain Jack Aubrey, somebody who will play the violin with the ship’s surgeon, who is playing the cello, doing duets, talking about science and naturalism. This doesn’t exactly pull in the 15 y.o. crowd that wants to see action, action, action.“

Voiceover about M&C’s respectable B.O. but not being a blockbuster like Gladiator. Yet it proved once again that Crowe could play just about anything and audiences would buy it.

Jim Gianopulous: “I think Russell Crowe could play just about anything from Superman to a caveman and anything in between.”

Voiceover – "A brilliant mathematician, a bruised boxer, a ship’s master, a gladiator. The only thing Russell Crowe hasn’t done is play the same character twice."

(Not sure who is saying this): “Russell is a storyteller, he really is. He wants to tell a story. He wants to tell it well, and be listened to, and then he’s free to move on.”

Ron Howard: “It’s not about a persona, it’s not about a rapport with the audience, it’s just an agreement with the audience, that he’s going to create something compelling and fascinating and that is worthy of your time. I think that’s his promise to the audience.”