WEST CHESTER, Penna. – Russell Crowe’s co-stars in the boxing movie “Cinderella Man” say the stench emitted by the actor was a major distraction during filming. Crowe, who plays heavyweight boxer Jim Braddock, went days without showering in order to recreate the essence of the man he was portraying.
“Russell smelled like the inside of a dead Apache’s loin cloth most of the time,” laughed Paul Giamatti, who plays Braddock’s manager in “Cinderella Man,” which hits theaters this Friday.
Renee Zellweger, who plays Braddock’s wife in the film, said, “The crying scenes in this movie were the easiest I’ve ever done. I’d just think of kissing Russell, and that was enough to bring tears to my eyes. As we used to say in Texas, kissing Russell is like kissing the south end of a north-bound skunk.”
According to Crowe, however, there’s a method to his badness. The Oscar-winning actor believes that body odor is the key to unlocking “the authenticity” of any character.
“A lot of actors like to get inside a character’s mind,” said Crowe. “I like to get inside his armpits. A man’s scent tells you everything you need to know about him. I’ve been using that approach since ‘Romper Stomper’ (the 1992 film in which Crowe’s portrayal of a skinhead brought him within smelling distance of Sharon Stone and major stardom).
“Jim Braddock was a poverty-stricken bloke who took any job he could in order to feed his family,” Crowe continued. “Stinking to high heaven was pretty much routine for people like him. Besides, he fought from 1926 to 1938, which wasn’t exactly the golden age of deodorants.”
Crowe, who is noted for his attention to detail in preparing for a role, then launched into a lengthy disquisition on the history of deodorants in the United States.
“The first product marketed exclusively as a deodorant in the U.S. was called Mum,” Crowe began. “That was in 1888. Mum was a cream that came in a little jar. You put it on with your fingers. There used to be a saying in the United States, ‘Mum’s the word. Keep it under your arm.’
“What we know as a solid or ‘stick’ deodorant wasn’t developed until the late 1940s. Those puppies were effective, but they often took off a layer of skin, so a researcher at Bristol-Myers created a deodorant applicator based on the same principle as the ballpoint pen. That’s how the roll-on was born.
“Aerosol deodorants were invented in the 1960s and were very popular for a time; but eventually consumers realized that aerosol sprays, which pump CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) into the atmosphere, were doing a number on the ozone layer. Therefore, by the 1980s, aerosols were out and roll-ons and the stick were back in. Ultimately this led to the development of powder and non-CFC aerosols.”
Apart from being a pioneer of the aroma-method in acting, Crowe is also known to be temperamental on the set. Crew members and extras who worked with him on “Cinderella Man” in Toronto described Crowe as a diva.
“He had his own private gym, which no one was allowed to touch,” sniffed one extra,”and he put drapes around his trailer to fence it off.”
Zellweger claims, however, that Crowe didn’t want anyone using his gym because it smelled so bad.
“He declared the gym and his trailer off limits after several bit players who had visited them experienced difficulties breathing,” said Zellweger. “With Russell once you get past the smell, you’ve got it licked, as we used to say in Texas. He’s really a very sweet guy if you’ve got a cold.”
Other actors who have appeared with Crowe corroborate this opinion. Paul Bettany, who has played downwind of Crowe in deodorant and pre-deodorant roles, says the difference in those experiences is like day and night.
“When I did my brilliantly eccentric turn as John Nash’s invisible roommate in ‘A Beautiful Mind,'” said Bettany, “there was nothing offensive about the way Russell smelled. In fact, I thought he nailed the scent of a hyper-smart Ivy League student.
“On the other hand, when I turned in my vastly overlooked performance as the ship’s doctor in ‘Master and Commander,’ it was all I could do to sit in the same room with Russell for those silly musical duets, which I thought looked a bit gay, if you must know. He smelled like a side of rotting beef because, like it or not, that’s the way most captains smelled in the early nineteenth century.”
In other news, fellow Indianapolis 500 drivers said that rookie Danica Patrick might have bettered her fourth-place finish if she hadn’t spent so much time talking on her cell phone during the race.
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