 |
| Crowe on set of recent film.
|
|
|
Maximus has a minimal opinion of American justice.
"Gladiator" star
Russell Crowe says the U.S. legal system is prone to abuse,
suggesting his celebrity influenced his punishment after he
hurled a telephone at a hotel clerk last year.
"Your legal system is
very open to be misused," said the Oscar-winning actor, who
pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and paid a six-figure
settlement to bruised Mercer Hotel clerk Nestor (Josh) Estrada.
Crowe, 42, said he
"absolutely" regrets the incident, but said beaning Estrada with
a phone was "minor."
"Where I come from, a
confrontation like that, as basic and simple as that, would have
been satisfied with a handshake and an apology," Crowe told CBS
News' "60 Minutes" in an interview to be aired Sunday.
Crowe, who threw the
phone in a fit on June 6, 2005, when Estrada couldn't complete a
phone call to Crowe's wife in Australia, also suggested his
temper keeps him sane.
"Oh, hell yeah,
absolutely. ... I have a temper. You got to have [a temper],"
said Crowe, who became a Hollywood A-list star after playing a
hotheaded cop in "L.A. Confidential."
"You know what happens
when you don't have one? One day you're walking down the street
and you just pop," Crowe said. "You're lying there on the
pavement because you've been holding, suppressing all this
bulls--t."
Crowe won an Oscar in
2001 for his leading role in "Gladiator" and was nominated for a
Oscar in 2002 for his portrayal of schizophrenic mathematician
John Nash in "A Beautiful Mind." His latest film, the romantic
comedy "A Good Year," opens next week, and he is currently
filming the true-crime drama "American Gangster."
Estrada's attorney,
Eric Franz, declined to comment yesterday |
