GQ Reveals the Softer Side of Russell Crowe

GQ Reveals the Softer Side of Russell Crowe

NEW YORK, Feb. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- In the March issue of GQ magazine, correspondent Chris Heath travels Down Under to meet Russell Crowe on his own turf for a revealing conversation about Crowe's fellow actors, family, product placement, his troubled relationship with the media, and the kidnapping subplot that followed him through the 2001 Oscar season. Heath discovers that a surprisingly softer side of Russell Crowe -- a man pegged around the world as boorish, cocky, and self-righteous -- lies not far beneath the tabloid tough-guy exterior.

On celebrity product endorsement: "I don't use my 'celebrity' to make a living. I don't do ads for suits in Spain like George Clooney, or cigarettes in Japan like Harrison Ford. And on one level, people go, 'Well, more fault (to) you, mate, because there's free money to be handed out.' But to me it's kind of sacrilegious -- it's a complete contradiction of the f-----g social contract you have with your audience. I mean, Robert De Niro's advertising American Express." Crowe continues, "Gee whiz, it's not the first time (De Niro)'s disappointed me. It's been happening for a while now."

On marriage and family: "I've got a really strong relationship with Dani (Danielle Spencer) that has a scaffolding of years underneath it, and I've started to recognize that the things that were important were the ways that we shared particular attitudes toward certain things, and the way that we could laugh about certain things. You know, I'm really young at this marriage thing, but there's some quite wonderful things that come into your life with marriage, you know, and we discuss it quite regularly, because we feel ourselves growing closer together. We can actually feel that happening. And centering what we have as a marriage around the birth of Charlie, who came along probably faster than we were expecting, but we had both been celibate for the three months prior to the wedding... "

On his relationship with the press: "Probably the biggest difference -- the thing that really took my life and changed it, and made my relationship with the press a defensive one instead of one of tolerant amusement or whatever -- was Meg Ryan. And, gee whiz, I'm not going to apologize for that situation in my life. It's just there. Well, actually, that's wrong -- I would apologize if there are people that were directly hurt from that situation. There was never any intention like that. Quite frankly, it was in the papers before it was a reality, you know? So we were already having to deal with the b------t, and that possibly brought us close together, because we were both dealing with what it meant to be put in that situation."

Heath's interview with Russell Crowe appears in the March 2005 issue of GQ, on newsstands now. GQ is the leading men's general-interest magazine and part of Conde Nast Publications, Inc.

Source: GQ

CONTACT: Nora Haynes, GQ, +1-212-286-6956, nora_haynes@gq.com

Web site: http://www.gq.com/

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