Russell Crowe Takes on a Legend

Russell's co-star and romantic interest in Robin Hood is Oscar® winner Cate Blanchett. "When we started to reshape the story, we needed a Marian who had to be an individually strong woman," he says. "The thing about Cate, you see the characters that she plays and I think the assumption about Cate is that for some reason she's not a warm person. But I can tell you that that's not true."

Cate may be his onscreen partner, but offscreen, Russell has been married to his wife, Danielle, for seven years. As a parent, Russell says his job is to arm his sons with the tools they need to be independent. "Ultimately, apart from loving them and taking care of them, [a father's job] is to fill them full of the confidence that they need to deal with the world by themselves," he says. "It's whatever makes them happy. That's what it's got to be. You try and provide for them, be there for them, you give your time over to them. In fact, you be the person that they want you to be."

Parenting is also about leading by example, Russell says. "Just the other day, I was doing Lego with my son Charlie, and it was a Lego piece that was actually his little brother's, and I watched him get impatient with his little brother and start putting the thing together himself. So I kept going: 'Hey, Charlie, this is Tenny's thing. We're helping him, but we're not making it,'" he says. "And only a few minutes later when both of them were distracted I found myself putting the thing together and I went: 'Oh! He gets it from me.'"