Crowe's feat

RUSSELL Crowe remembers the last time we met. Or nearly met, to be strictly accurate.

He was sitting in a London hotel room, I was sitting with other regional journalists in a cinema somewhere in the Midlands. We were watching him on a satellite link, but he couldn't hear us.

The technological mishap obviously made an impression on the New Zealand born actor. On this occasion, he bounds into the room occupied by a small group of journalists several hours late, although it's difficult to tell how late as the starting time keeps moving.

He's surprised by what he finds. "We're up on a platform, how about that. I thought it was going to be one of those TV adventures when they gathered 40 or 50 of you blokes out in the bush somewhere and you could hear me but I couldn't hear you."

In his fleece jacket, he looks like he'd be more at home on his ranch in Australia than in a posh hotel doing publicity for American Gangster, which reunites him with North-East film-maker Ridley Scott after Gladiator and A Good Year. He plays a police officer in 1970s New York City who takes on a drugs lord, played by Denzel Washington.

The Oscar-winner's relationship with the media has been difficult, especially following an angry incident in a New York hotel involving a worker and a phone.

He may be playing the game by promoting his movie but you get the feeling he's tolerating rather than liking the situation. One person he does like a lot is Ridley Scott. "It just gets easier really. We knew when we worked together on Gladiator that we communicated really well," he says.

"It probably took longer for us to realise that in any given roomful of film people we were the ones we could rely on. That's the thing that gets stronger every time we work together.

"He had no problem throwing responsibility my way and I really enjoy that. My bottom line is that I think Ridley is one of our greatest visual artists of our time, and I feel very privileged that he wants to work with me, so I go with that flow."

He's never met a director who doesn't need some help and he's there as their lieutenant. "Ridley's the governor, mate. He's a very organised filmmaker, he's got everything sorted out. He creates time for the actors and some other directors forget that's what they should be doing.

"I just love the way Ridley works. You don't finish a day on a Ridley Scott film thinking oh gosh, I wish I'd had one more opportunity to run up those 12 flights of stairs'. You get done what you want to get done, and you get the time to focus on all of the details."

They don't clash any more, he continues, although they do have differences of opinion. "We're perfecting the art of the wordless argument. I know that some of you will assassinate me for saying this, but what Ridley and I know about each other is that we're both very kind and generous people, that's why we get on."

The pair are likely to be collaborating on at least two more projects, including a new look at the Robin Hood story with Crowe playing the Sheriff of Nottingham. The script is by Brian Helgeland, who won an Academy Award for LA Confidential, the film with which Crowe broke through in the US.

The actor has been a big Robin Hood fan since he was young, although the film's take promises something different. "If you go back in the history of the mythology, you get back to the ballads of Robin the Beheader, who would chop off your head and your hands, take all your money and not give any of it to anybody," he says.

"We'll have a look at how the mythology morphed over time, who was in power and what was the current church we should all attend, and in this country that changed quite regularly. And we'll look at the Hollywood mythology and how much of that is embedded in the psyche of people when they think of Robin Hood."

Whether the movie will be suitable for his sons, three-year-old Charles and oneyear- old Tennyson, remains to be seen. At the moment all his oldest knows is that "my daddy makes DVDs but they're not good enough for Charlie to watch".

Crowe realises this is a big, ongoing question. "It's not something I can solve today. That's something I'm dealing with and have to adjust to for the rest of my life. That's the gig, being a dad," he says.

"I didn't grow up in the situation I'm in now, so I don't know what to tell him about this and how people will be affected by how they treat him because of what they think of me. They're both in for a good deal of stick when they're at school, one way or another.

"We'll just deal with it as it comes along, like every other parent. Both my wife and I are very aware that we need to work against privilege. My son is nearly four and thinks a box of sultanas is the greatest gift god ever sent to earth.

"If I can keep him in that place where simple things bring great pleasure, where going for an ATV ride around the farm and spending an afternoon talking to the cows is something he'll discuss with his friends for a week, then that will be a great advantage to both of us.

"There'll be a point where the world impacts on him, and the only thing I can guarantee is that I'll be as close to him as I possibly can and be around to answer his questions and guide him along as required."

Crowe gets spikier when asked about the pressure of choosing roles since winning his Oscar for Gladiator. "I don't think about it in the least. I do the things that interest me and I go to work every day. All the other stuff is other people. It's got nothing to do with me. You can't engage in that conversation without being a complete f***ing w***er,"

he says.

But, he says, if anyone deserves an Oscar it's Scott, who merits any honour that comes his way.

"But I don't want to engage in conversations like that because it just puts the film into a situation that all the other people who've got films coming out want you to be in - discussing it so that it burns out.

"The thing is that Ridley's work, whether he's awarded or not, is work that will stand the test of time. He's one of the hugely influential film directors."

Crowe's not in it for the money or the awards.

"The reality is you're not in this business for the bucks anyway," he says. "And that's going to come across archly pretentious, and some of you will assassinate me for it. But this gig is a calling, especially for people who do it in a public way for more than four or five years.

"You put up with all the s*** that comes with this job. You gotta love it at its core - and I dig it, man.

It's a privilege making films and I give it my best.

"I don't have any problems whatsoever in standing up in front of a group of people and saying I take making movies seriously. And if you don't, then you obviously won't like my movies."

* American Gangster (18) is now showing in cinemas.