Premiere Magazine 5/2005

LORD OF THE RING: Crowe and Zellweger

"It's very much a survival story", says Howard of this biopic of prizefighter James Braddock. [Crowe], who struggled to support his wife, Mae [Zellweger],and family during the Depression. "He didn't lust for the violence; he discovered at a pretty early age that he could do this thing and make money at it, at a time when money was scarce. Before Howard reunited with his A Beautiful Min star, both Crowe and Zellweger had separately been interested in the material for years. "[The boxing] was torture for her", says Zellweger of Mae. "But she couldn't deny him that, and there's this beautiful balance in the support system they shared. It was sort of a progressive relationship." Crowe had surgery after dislocating his shoulder during training and "the threat was there every day", says Howard, "not only of Russell getting his nose broken or a bad cut, but also reinjuring the shoulder. [At the end], I breathed the same sigh of relief that I had when we put out the last fore on Backdraft."

Pulling No Punches: Technical adviser Angelo Dundee, Muhammad Ali's cornerman, occasionally forgot that "it was only a movie", says Howard. "I wanted [the Art Lasky fight] to start with Braddock being jabbed a couple of times. I saw Angelo talking to Russell, and afterward Russell said, 'Angelo kept chewing my ass out because I was letting that guy jab me. He said, "He's leaving his right side open, What are you, stupid?"

Bottom Line: $105 million.

Thanks to Nancy M