But he usually plays men who are the opposite of jerks: men of honor, pride, love, and devotion to duty. His great screen successes have come from portraying real heroes. You'd think they would inspire a person to better behavior, as seeing them briefly on the screen inspires and instructs us. But no.
We are all in love with the characters Crowe portrays, not Crowe himself, who seems to be a bumbling fool.
Meanwhile I'm going to ask Mr. Fairview if he will get his hair cut like Maximus's and grow a little beard like that. Oh, and buy some armor.
I am in agreement with you here, although I do feel like I should say something in Mr. Crowe's defense, simply because I dont see him playing the same games in his publicity that other Hollywood jerks perform ie running off to Iraq to pretend to be a peacemaker and then deliberately inciting the insurgents against our men and women in uniform. The most political thing I have seen/heard Mr. Crowe do is say "God bless America, God bless Australia, and God save the Queen" (because he is a British subject.)
I am also of the opinion that the media we so love to call on the carpet for political manipulation has managed to take words of someone who does not kiss their *ss and use them against him so that he appears to be a "collassal jerk." Every interview I have ever read of those who have worked with him have said he is one of the most generous "team players" in acting that they have seen...IN FACT, word had it when M&C came out that RC himself went OUT OF HIS WAY to make sure that those who got less billing got lots of face time in the movie. I daresay that if he and Bettany had not pulled off their roles so extremely well, other actors like Billy Boyd and Max Pirkis could have darn near stolen the show.
As (an obvious) fan, I tend to think that the "jerk" we see is partly because of a media that uses his personality against him. I have heard nothing but good personal experiences about him.