Russell Crowe: "Angry? Me? Never"

Russell Crowe swaggers into our interview looking like he wants to pick a fight. Plonking himself into a chair, the 44-year-old actor alternatively sports a deeply sarcastic smile or an irritated scowl.

"Okey, dokey. Goody, goody," he says, smiling affably. The effect is alarming, akin to a barracuda smiling at you.

Having put on 50lb of flab for his role as a CIA agent in Ridley Scott's political thriller Body of Lies, he's barely recognisable on screen, speaking in a Southern accent he says he based on Bill Clinton's. Today, he's solid muscle, with shoulder-length oily hair slicked back into a ponytail.

So how did he prepare for this role? "Preparation? I picked up a bag, I put a pair of underwear in it and I got on a plane. There you go – preparation done," he says, slapping his hands together. "How many times have you seen me do it in the last 20 years? A lot. Whatever the character needs, I'll get to that point. It's no big deal. I was at 88 kilos when Ridley called and asked if I'd mind putting on a load of weight. I was at 117 kilos when the movie started, and I've been coming down slowly. I'm at about 95 kilos at the moment, maybe a little less.

"After Body of Lies, I actually went and did another movie quite large. It came up out of the blue and, oddly enough, it really suited the character, who was this shambolic journalist." He's referring to Kevin Macdonald's crime drama State of Play, based on the BBC mini-series. Crowe salvaged the film (to be released early next year) when he stepped in to replace the abruptly departed Brad Pitt in the role of Cal McCaffrey. Ben Affleck plays Stephen Collins after Edward Norton quit.

"I'll go up to the desired weight and size, and the day we start shooting I start exercising again. So I'm not losing weight, but I'm gaining strength. I'll ride my bike to the set instead of being driven, so I know that when I finish the movie, I'll still be roughly the same weight, but I'll be stronger, and if my muscles are strong and I'm aerobically strong, then it's a simple process. But I didn't want to come down in a rush, so I discussed that with the wife."

Having dallied with Meg Ryan while filming Proof of Life in 2000, resulting in the end of her marriage to Dennis Quaid, Crowe wed long-time love Danielle Spencer in 2003. Today, with their young sons Charles and Tennyson, the couple live between a Sydney penthouse and a ranch in New South Wales.

Having won an Oscar for Gladiator and nominations for A Beautiful Mind and The Insider, Crowe has become one of Hollywood's favourite leading men. But he has no desire to settle in the USA: "No way. And when I got married, the young wife didn't want to be married to be someone who was going to be away on a movie set all the time. I'm only away from home when I need to be. I want to give my kids a happy, carefree childhood at home." Crowe was delighted when his friend Nicole Kidman gave birth to her daughter, Sunday Rose, on 7 July this year; it's his son's birthday too. "Nicole and Keith brought Sunday Rose around. Nicole took one look at my younger son Tennyson and said, 'I'm a great believer in arranged marriages.' So Tennyson is already engaged."

While the high-school dropout may have left behind the brawls and tantrums, the spark of temper still lies close to the surface. Ask Crowe to describe his acting process, and he says: "The process is learning a lot of dialogue and jumping up and down on the furniture." Not a Method actor, then? "Not at all. I can see it objectively. There's an old British theatrical tradition to fall in love with your characters, but I've always told young actors, 'If you fall in love with your characters, you'll lose your objectivity.' You've still got to be the puppet-master. I immerse myself in the knowledge of the character or the life of a character from books, but I don't disappear inside him. It's a matter of personal pride that I know what I'm doing with the character."

The New Zealand-born actor, who grew up in Australia, arrived in Hollywood on a wave of brilliant reviews for his role as a racist skinhead in 1992's Romper Stomper. "When I first came to America to make movies, there'd been other actors over here before but as each one stepped on to the shore at Santa Monica, they'd poured petrol on the bridge and torched it. They assumed, or allowed themselves to be subsumed into, America. I didn't want to do that; I was coming because I felt I'd had enough experience and had something to offer. So I refused to do meetings in an American accent and all that stuff. And, folklorically, in my business, it's become famous that I was an arrogant SOB," He laughs.

In Body of Lies, Crowe plays the manipulative CIA agent Ed Hoffman who handles Middle East undercover operations from the safety of the USA. He met real CIA agents in preparation for the role, "but I can't discuss any of that". In 2005, he revealed to GQ magazine how the FBI approached him before the March 2001 Oscars and told him of an al-Qa'ida plot to kidnap him. At the time, the actor had never heard of al-Qa'ida. He was guarded by secret service agents for months. Scotland Yard protected him while he was in London promoting Proof of Life. Now, that's a closed chapter. "I don't want to talk about that any more."

The new film is his fourth outing with the British director Scott, after Gladiator, American Gangster and – to rather less acclaim – A Good Year. "The thing I love about working with Ridley is that you always finish the day feeling like you've done a day's work. That doesn't always happen on a film. Sometimes you knock around for days, thinking, 'This is getting nowhere.' But the reason I now just say 'yes' when Ridley calls, and then work out why I'm doing it later, is because I know my experience on the set will be efficient and complex, and achieve everything it's supposed to achieve emotionally. It's a working man's dream. The way to make films is the way Ridley makes films: no mucking around; we're all gonna work really hard and if you can't stand the heat – whoosh! – get outta the kitchen."

Next year, he'll shoot his fifth film with Scott. Starring in dual roles as both Sir Robert Tornham, aka the Sheriff of Nottingham, and Robin Hood opposite Sienna Miller's Maid Marion, Nottingham will be a different take on the legend. "The world doesn't need a mundane version of Robin Hood. If we're gonna do it, we've got to kick some serious butt. I've loved Robin Hood since I was a kid, but when the idea came up and they gave me this script, I said, 'Look, I don't like this. This doesn't work. It's not good enough.' But the idea of Robin Hood? For sure. I spent 10 months just reading Robin Hood books – the history, the mythology, the original ballads, the legend – and then you've got 100 years of cinematic history as well. So this has got to be the best one ever done, otherwise I should be doing something else."

And, for the record: "I will not wear tights because according to our research they weren't invented for another 300 years. I apologise to you all – and to Sienna Miller."

Crowe has played many noble screen characters, in contrast to his sometimes messy private life, and he considers himself a man of honour. "The question of whether or not I am an honourable man is something I'll let the most important people in my life judge," he says. And he takes issue with the media's portrayal of him as an angry man, prone to brawling. "It's just so convenient to take my sense of humour and pretend that it's anger, because my kind of dry humour doesn't go across very well. Sarcasm doesn't work on the page. But I can assure you that I'm not an angry man. I think I'm beyond caring about misconceptions."

Crowe runs a football team, manages a cattle farm and plays in a band. The rest of his spare time is for his sons. "I will just get on with my day, get on with my life, and prioritise my life as I see fit, and that's basically wife, kids and then everything else."

'Body of Lies' opens on 21 November