Crowe: 'I had to play Braddock'

Russell Crowe felt compelled to play Depression Era boxing hero Jim Braddock in new movie Cinderella Man after thoroughly researching the heavyweight champion's life and becoming engrossed in his story.

The Oscar-winner originally fought for the role in the film in 1997, but feared he'd never be the actor to play Braddock.

But he could never give up on the project because he had too much respect for the boxer after spending all his downtime between films reading up on his hero.

Crowe explains: "The greatest achievement of his life is in fact re-achieving his normalcy. He just went back to work. He did lots of different things, found out the place that he was most comfortable at was back on the same docks where he was earning 26 cents an hour during the Depression.

"He stayed engaged with his society, he stayed engaged with his culture, which is a thing to me which is so special - he didn't become a restaurant greeter in Vegas, he didn't become a drug addict.

"In 1974, he died in the house that he bought with the prize money from his win in 1935, still desperately in love with his wife, having seen his three children grow and his grandchildren born.

"That, to me, was a beautiful, successful American life and that's why it was so important. The great thing about Jim is he didn't feel he needed to live up to being heavyweight champion every day."