The tough beau!

In the fiction, his characters used to be macho men and full of willpower. In his next movie he plays a boxer. With a quarrelsome fame, his role in the real life was not too different.

By Marcelo Bernardes, from New York, and Marcia Pereira, from São Paulo

Photos by Eli Reed, George Kraychyk/Universal and Keystone

Russell Crowe, 41 years old, was already a monosyllabic detective, but convincing in LA Confidential (1997), a furious Roman general in Gladiator (2000) and a vigorous commander of a British ship in Master & Commander – The Far Side Of The World (2003). Out of the screens, he played rugby when was a child and lost a tooth because of the sport. After grew up, this New Zealander raised in Australia, where he lives until today in a farm, fought with some people from movies industry in awards parties, restaurants and was naughty with Hollywood Academy, Oscar’s owner. And his quarrelsome résumé he won a new item in June, when assaulted, with a telephone, Nestor Estrada’s face, Mercer Hotel’s concierge, in New York, when he was hosted. He alleged having lost his mind for not getting a call to his wife, singer and actress Danielle Spencer, 35, with who is married since 2003 and has a son, Charles, one year old. Estrada law suited asking for damage. Russell made a deal two weeks ago with the concierge, who will receive US4 100,000.

Besides of the proved tough fame and troublemaker, Russell Ira Crowe in his next movie, Cinderella Man, which premieres this Friday, portraits with the always mastery (it’s not at random he was nominated to the Oscars for Best Actor 3 times, winning in 2001 for Gladiator), the legendary boxer James J. Braddock (who really existed), a sweet and an educated man. Following, the main quotes of the interview he gave to Contigo Magazine.

When James Braddock starts to lose the fights, many people called them a bum. Did you receive anytime an opinion of the like?

People call me an asshole. Could it be (laughs)? The good of interviewing me is that I always give a headline to the journalist. “Crowe admits being an asshole!” (laughs).

Did you arrive late to the interview because decided to walk from his hotel (Mercer), in Soho, until this one (Essex House) in front of Central Park, a walk of 90 blocks. Do you have fear to take a cab?

Taking a cab in New York seemed to me a dangerous proposal. There is no guarantee that the driver is not a “barber”. And I don’t want to sit here, in front of you, feeling bad because of a hotel breakfast at a basis of an American processed food. So, I decided walk all this distance, believing that sweating a little the toxins that me let super aggressive. Also walked 90 blocks because I wanted to reflect more on the movie and on the answers I could give.

One of Braddock’s characteristics was the thirst for the fight. In anyway do you recognize this in you?

My thirst is the passion I feel for my job. I live an extremely privileged situation, because I work with a form of art very complex and near people who know what they do. Go to the movies and being touched by the story that was being told is an important part of our culture. But I also know the most part of the movies are not than a short-lived entertainment and that we cannot be taken too seriously. Sometimes, I enter in confusions because of my sense of humor. Some people understand it as arrogance.

In Cinderella Man’s set, you completed 40 years. How did you celebrate it?

It was my first marriage’s anniversary. I spent good part of the day in front of a TV that I used to communicate with my wife and my son via satellite.

Being a dad changed your life?

Will it be I seem different (laughs)? Being a dad is simply the best thing I have experienced in life. It only understands this feeling that goes through for this experience of having a son. My priorities changed. My family comes in first place. When I am far out of my wife and son, alone in a hotel, I don’t feel complete, there is a piece missed.

Do you think of having another child?