“If he goes down again there is no coming back”: Russell Crowe Ignored Doctor’s Stern Warning After a Serious Injury During ‘Cinderella Man’
Russell Crowe is one of the finest actors in Hollywood. His career is filled with accomplishments, as he has been in the Hollywood entertainment industry for more than two decades. It’s hard to imagine an award that hasn’t graced his living room. The 59-year-old has acted in numerous memorable films, including American Gangster, The Insider, A Beautiful Mind, The Quick and the Dead, and The Gladiator. With a remarkable movie record, his vitae sets a benchmark of versatility.
Crowe is well-known for his devotion and attention to detail when it comes to role preparation. The Gladiator star’s acting career has not been all premieres and parties. He has suffered many injuries while making some of his best films. However, Russell Crowe suffered a serious injury during Cinderella Man, and despite doctors’ advice, the actor went back to shoot the film.
Russell Crowe’s dedication to Cinderella Man was beyond his life
Russell Crowe is accustomed to the rigors of film production. After all, you don’t forge a career like Crowe, appearing in some of the most successful films. The actor has suffered injuries while making some of his best films. He has put his body through a lot, from a disintegrating hip, which he acquired while filming Gladiator, to four tears in both of his Achilles tendons due to a severe fall on the Mystery, Alaska set.
However, nothing can top his injury while shooting Cinderella Man. The film is one of the best drama movies of its time, but it nearly took the Poker Face actor out of action. In pre-production of the sports drama, Crowe dislocated his shoulder and required surgery to fix the issue. The only problem was that he would have not been able to film the movie if he wanted to heal. According to the director Ron Howard, the actor went against the doctor’s advice.
Howard told Entertainment Weekly,
“The doctors kept saying, ‘If he goes down again, there’s no coming back. It was nerve-racking as hell. But what were the options? Not do the movie?”
Thankfully, the Robin Hood actor resumed shooting for the sports drama and revealed that the injury was somewhat pre-existing and that he had previously undergone surgery on the shoulder.
The actor revealed how he got injured during Cinderella Man. He told Vulture,
“When I was in the middle of an actual boxing fight, and this Canadian former Olympic-level boxer took my elbow out, which subluxated my shoulder, which exacerbated a problem that was already there.”
In the 2005 film, Russell Crowe played James J. Braddock. It followed the story of Braddock, a former boxer leading a typical life in the US. But he decides to return to the ring after the Great Depression hurts his family.
The Rise of Russell Crowe in Hollywood
The rise to fame of Russell Crowe was a success story for ages. Success for Crowe didn’t happen overnight. A skilled Australian actor whose name cinephiles knew, but it took him years to enter Hollywood. He was in his 30s when his first American film appeared, and it followed a decade and a half of striving.
The 59-year-old’s career took a turn with Romper Stomper (1992), in which he played a menacing neo-Nazi. He received an AFI Best Actor nomination for his work, and Hollywood took an interest in the actor. The actor appeared in his first American film, the western The Quick and the Dead (1995). He acted in several films in the late 1990s, earning an Academy Award nomination for his role as tobacco-industry whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand in The Insider (1999).
By 2000, the Cinderella Man actor was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, all thanks to Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. The actor won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Maximus, a Roman general-turned-gladiator.
Cinderella Man is available to rent on Apple TV.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
