Translated by Ivani:

Cover: Russell Crowe, the star of Master & Commander departs again to the fight!

Untamable bull -- With strong personality and dogged dedication, Russell Crowe has firmed himself as one of the most important actors of his generation. By Carlos Heli de Almeida, special for Monet Magazine, pictures from Eli Reed. 

New Zealander actor Russell Crowe spent part of his professional life using the fists. Inside and outside the screen, portraying truculent policemen (LAC – LA Confidential), or reinforcing barriers between paparazzis and his private life. But it was one of the most sensible and delicate aspects of Captain Jack Aubrey’s personality, the central character of Patrick O´Brian´s book, which it gave origin to the adventure movie “Master and Commander – The Far Side Of The World” (2004), that attracted the star to the project directed by Australian Peter Weir. The naval epic premieres this month for Telecine´s subscribers (NET and Sky systems). 

Described as man of callous hands, who spent most part of his adult life inside of a British Navy ship in century XIX, among nodes and sails, Aubrey was also able of drawing beautiful songs from his violin/fiddle. A sort of sensitive counter point. For Crowe has reached the point of taking classes of the musical instrument to transform the short musical performances in the movie more reliable. The Oscar winner for Best Actor (Gladiator by Ridley Scott, 2000) was farther; he faced a severe diet to reach the 100 kilos naval man created by O´Brian´s imagination. Almost at the end of the final process of fattening, Crowe had to revert it, because Weir gave up of following exactly the original text. 

“Peter called me and said: “You know, I didn’t want that there would be the need of showing a sailor pushing his captain at the ladder up. Maybe we should rethink this idea”. I confess it was a little harder, once I was almost reaching the ideal weigh. I think it was a correct decision, once the captain had to be an active and dynamic soldier. I changed my diet, did gym and got fit again”, told Crowe, at the time of the M&C´s release. 

The short, but intense, actor’s career of 41 years old is pointed by stories of devotion and commitment to the work as it was described above. Son of a couple who supplied with food movie sets, Crowe learnt since the beginning that only dedication would take him to some place in life. Actor since he was a child of children TV shows in Australia, to where the family moved during his childhood, young Russell has already acted on local stages before staring the polemic independent movie “Romper Stomper” (1992), which transformed him in a regional celebrity. 

The repercussion of his performance in “The Sum Of Us” (1994) crossed the ocean, came in USA and it served as a personal card for the next role, in “The Quick and The Dead” (1995), western produced and played by Sharon Stone, who was impressed by the beginner’s qualities. But he only got the attention of the rest of the planet as Bud White, the outrageous with a cop’s badge of LA Confidential (1997). With a role of a cop who fell in love by the luxury prostitute with diva Veronica Lake’s face (Kim Basinger), for the first time it was mentioned the possibility of a nomination to an Oscar for Best Actor for Crowe. But it was not that time. 

It is from that time too we have the first register of a sacrifice done by the star in the name of the art: the book’s author which inspired the movie directed by Curtis Hanson, James Ellroy, insisted that the character didn’t drink. According to the actor himself, during 5 months and 5 days the actor didn’t drink. 

Other sacrifices would come. From the rebel young (Romper Stomper) of Australian phase to the hero of biblical times (Gladiator), going through pursued scientists by big corporations (The Insider) or by the schizophrenia (A Beautiful Mind), Crowe’s transformations always demanded much of his physical or mental strength. The last ones, the biographical drama “Cinderella Man” by Ron Howard, in which he plays the boxer James Braddock (1905-1974), a legend of American Boxing, took him to the surgery table. The movie has its release previewed for this month in the Brazilian circuit. 

“Russell has a tremendous will of making this movie. He wanted because he wanted to play Braddock. For years he pursued this idea and nothing stopped him. Even though the accidentsuffered during the preparation for the movie, in which Russell dislocated the arm and splintered one of the hands bones during the training. He faced a small surgery but, 36 hours later, he was rehearsing again with the instructor. I am so proud of him”, said Howard, who got the Oscar for Best Direction by A Beautiful Mind. 

Braddock earned the nickname of Cinderella Man for knock outing the misery in the middle of Great Depression. During the American’s economic crisis, in the 30's, the boxer lost the license to fight and, to support the wife and the kids, worked in short period jobs at the ports and in coalmines, until he could have a second chance, come back to the rings and dispute the bell of heavy weight champion. This is another story of perseverance and overcoming the adversity which so much fascinates Hollywood. 

Probably, Cinderella Man will take Russell Crowe again to the Academy’s acclamation. However, Crowe refuses himself to track the easy path of recognition. “I don’t do movies for earning praises or awards. I do them because it’s a media that fascinates me”, re affirm the actor during Berlin Festival in 2003, where A Beautiful Mind was exhibited. 

Besides his solid career in the movies, Crowe has not abandoned the folk-rock banc 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, of which he is the leader, composer and guitar man. The band was formed in the end of the 80´s, it was in second plan during the 90´s, when Russell’s calendar begun to be more restricted. But always when time permits Crowe excursions with the band. The actor says that the musician Russell beats a big ball with the actor Crowe. “In a certain way, the band helps my acting. Playing and singing are different ways of performance, and I think the energy that comes from a live presentation very liberating. It is as I played a free character, which is not limited by the needs of a script”, he described, explaining the synergy. 

For sometimes Crowe dreams to diversify his cinematographic activities, directing himself a movie. He had already chosen a project, the adaptation of “The Long Green Shore”, a books series by Australian author John Heptworth. But the commitments with the movies, the band and the increase of the family – the actor and his wife, the singer and actor Danielle Spencer, live with son Charles of more than 1 year old and a half, in Sydney – have postponed his premiere as a director. 

“It’s a story that has place in World War II and talks about a group of Australian soldiers sent to New Guinea to surrender a Japanese platoon. Before, the great difficulty was to find an appropriated screenwriter. This problem has already solved. Now, it needs time. My priorities have changed. First place, I put my family”, justifies the old gladiator, tamed by the paternity. 

Filmology:

Romper Stomper: It’s not the first movie of his career, but the role of the perverse leader of a neonazi group put Russell on the map. The scenes in which he enters in conflict with the other leader of the organization, besides the aggressions against the other minorities, are shocking. 

LA Confidential: He is the physical and the moral strength of the noir policial movie by Curtis Hanson. Feared because of his punches and explosive temperament, Bud White reveals himself as a sensitive guy when fell in love with a prostitute, Veronica Lake’s clone, Kim Basinger´s role. 

The Insider: An effort difficult of being equaling. as to rebuild the executive of a factory who put in checkmate explaining the harms of smoking on TV, the star eclipsed nothing less than Al Pacino, the idealist journalist of the journalistic TV show 60 Minutes. 

Gladiator: With the role of the commandant of the Roman army, who is banned by a new emperor, the New Zealander reached the edge of popularity. His characterization as Maximus divided opinions, but it gave him an Oscar, award for what he was nominated a year before by The Insider. 

Proof of Life: The star begins to feel the weight of the fame, embarking in projects of questionable artistic validity to maintain his name in the media. Here he generates polemic not because of the movie, about the international traffic of drugs, but because of his involvement out of the set with Meg Ryan. The tabloids made the party. 

A Beautiful Mind: One more acclamation for portraying the schizophrenic mathematician John Nash, winner of a Nobel Prize. The movie won all that interested at the Oscars (movie, director and screenplay), but Crowe was missed out He was chastened of being snob towards the award in interviews. 

M&C will premiere on Telecine Premium Channel on August 13^th, 9:00 pm.