Russell on playing Braddock

Re The Ottawa Sun article on Geroge Chuvalo here's the thing, my build in the movie,my balance in the movie is to mimic james j braddock.specifically as he was,as he became and as he regained his strength through focused training on his build up to max baer. by saying that i'm not saying that george isn't acute in his observations. i put my chin and my slender neck on the line to play jimmy,the former often hit,the latter often questioned,just like the man i was playing. chin first. but hey,shoulder surgery included we finished the movie. i suppose by what he is describing,we may have been doing shots of gloves moving or something,it's a frame by frame deal to get all the detail a director like ron may want.i'm sorry he didn't get to see a more exciting shooting day,if there is such a thing. angelo often talked of his journeys to maple leaf gardens to take on the fearsome chuvalo. i think angelo was always amazed he seemed to be coming to the same place to fight the same guy,year after year.george was hard to stop. i don't care if he feels the need to be critical,hey boxing is his life,this is just a movie. but ,it does seem clear that somehow we took george and his knowledge on a journey, as cynical as he has a right to be,he leaned into the story and it hit home. that is as cool as it gets. my job is making the boys cry and the girls cry. thankyou and goodnight.

Russell answers questions on CM