Russell Crowe puts acting first

No sure things
An actor, even one of Crowe’s stature, only has so much control over the results of his work. “Proof of Life” had a sterling pedigree. The director was Taylor Hackford. The writer was Tony Gilroy, who recently did a brilliant job scripting the two “Bourne” thrillers. His co-star was Ryan. But tabloids picked up on Ryan leaving Dennis Quaid for Crowe, albeit briefly, and the movie was cooked.

In fairness, Jolie probably thought she had a winner when she agreed to do “Alexander” with a veteran like Oliver Stone. Ditto for Cage with movies like John Woo’s “Windtalkers” and John Madden’s “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin,” two that appeared to be prestige projects but bombed with both audiences and critics.

Still, it’s the desire to continually seek out projects of merit that separates Crowe from most others. It’s difficult to find an actor in Hollywood today who is on such a steady run of quality projects. Most actors would give their yoga-toned right arms to get a role like Dr. Jeffrey Wigand in “The Insider,” arguably Crowe’s finest performance yet. They would also grovel for an opportunity to work for directors like Michael Mann (“The Insider”), Ridley Scott (“Gladiator”), Peter Weir (“Master and Commander”) and Howard.

“Cinderella Man” opens Friday, so the buzz from audiences isn’t yet available. But the pre-buzz is palpable and positive, simply because Russell Crowe is in it.

MORE FROM MOVIE OPINIONS

Can word-of-mouth sell ‘The Road’?

Can word-of-mouth sell ‘The Road’? ‘Princess’ avoids the elephant in the room Oscar season nears, but where’s the buzz? Hollywood’s vampire obsession may bleed out Does ‘Precious’ stereotype big black women? Newsweek: The problem with ‘Precious’ When it comes to stardom, Clooney has smarts ‘Saw’ franchise creates buzz, but is it any good? Remembering concert documentaries that rock theGrio: ‘This Is It’ a final act fit for a king   Add Movie opinions headlines to your news reader: