Thanks to Karen:

RUSSELL CROWE : WITH THE GUARD READY FOR EVERYTHING

For some actors, talent is proportional to controversy. Which is the case of Russell Crowe, maybe the successor of Marlon Brandon. Russell is not interested in celebrity. He say what he thinks and he does what he wants; whoever likes it or not.

By Cesar Albarran Torres

I met Russell Crowe a day before he was arrested for hiting an employeer with a telephone in a hotel in New York City. “Crowe is violent”, were some of the headlines the day after. Before this, his public figure was of someone violent and irrational. The alpha male in all his glory, the australian cowboy that didnt know about the etiquette rules of the civilized world.

But the truth is that Crowe seems to be a normal guy, friendly, someone you can find chatting with friends in a pub; or reading the newspaper, coffee in hand in a park; or speaking about sports with other dads while he see his son playing.

Before taking sit to give a press conference, dress casually in jeans and a sweatshirt, Russell explains that his sense of humour is what gave him his incorrigible fame. "Today I'm going to joke a lot”, he told us. A beautiful duth journalist, the most atractive woman in the conference, smile flirting with him and never taking her eyes off him

After all the success you had, ¿are you still hungry as an actor?

The hunger I have for acting is the passion that keeps moving me. In the literal sense I have'nt been 'hungry' these days, but there were moments in my life where I had to work in almost everything in order to survive, just like Braddock.

My passion is to tell stories; to shake people and make them see what the character feels. But I never forget is just simple entertainment and i try not to take it to seriously. Braddock's case is different: he had to fight cause it was the best work for someone in the hard-working class. But it was not his passion. Jim was a responsable guy, he invest all the money he won fighting: the Great Depression came and he lost about 85% of what he had.

Is the Great Depression one of the main characters in the movie?

Of course it is, poverty is a fundamental character. The movie is not about boxing, is about the fight against misery. Today, is important for Americans to remember that not a long time ago people had to stand in long rows to receive charity.

It was published somewhere that you were looking to raise your child to become a warrior, is it true?

Of course not, that's bullshit, I've never said that – his gesture change: the smile becomes an inquisitive grimace-. What I said was, that there's a maori tradition that tells you to let your son born to be independent and to have his own world. That's what I was talking about: to be a warrior as a person, not in the literal sense.

And Braddock was a warrior .....

You have to be really brave to stand almost naked in a ring to fight with another guy, knowing that one is going to be humilliated. But he wasn`t a soldier who fought for a political purpose, but for his family, from the first to the last fight he had.

You have said that he wasn`t fighting for fame and glory - an Austrian journalist assures- ....

"When someone hears me say he wasn't fighting for fame and glory" - Russell said in a defensive tone. Don't use those words, OK? Let me put words in your mouth and see what you can say about it. That`s how I won this shit reputation, when the only thing I want to do is to have fun – Crowe laughs, the rest laugh with him -.

Has somebody told you that you are a vagabond, like they said to James Braddock?
People say that I am an asshole, 'is the same?' Tomorrow you are going to write, "Crowe admits it, "I am an asshole" -general laughs-

What do you learn about boxing?

Like I said, you need to be really brave to be on the ring, what I believe I don't have. Of course, I can be cynical about certain people that works in this business. But at the same time, we have the example of Kostya Tsyu, who is an honorable man: he say he has his quality as a person thanks to the experience he has as a boxer. Braddock didnt end as an alcoholic or as a drug addict. He died surrounded by his family, in the house he bought with the money he won for the fight of the title.

Do you think that boxing has been corrupted and it's different from Braddock`s time?

Unfortunately - he said after he considered his words -, it seems that boxing is one of those industries where a lot of people want to reach the same, millionary prizes.

There have always been sinister elements: lots of people care for the money and not for the athletes. That`s why Braddock was so special: everyone knew he was not corrupt, that he was not fighting just to fuck someone. He keep intact his honour. Always.