28 FEBRUARY 2002
A Beautiful Mind star Russell Crowe says he has “little remorse” for his strong words to a TV exec who cut his best actor acceptance speech short at Sunday’s BAFTA awards. However, he does acknowlege his passions may have gotten away with him. “I got a little hot under the collar,” admits the famously outspoken actor.

Russell, upset that producers cut his quote from Kavanagh’s poem Sanctity from his acceptance speech, reportedly confronted Initial Productions executive Malcolm Gerrie in an emotional outburst witnesses described as “intimidating”. A spokesman for Initial issued a statement earlier this week, explaining many winners’ speeches were edited and that after the show Russell was “abusive and behaved unreasonably”.

“I have very little remorse for what I said,” he says. “Though possibly it was a little more passionate in the cold hard light of day than I would have liked it to have been.”

Though some say he pushed Gerrie up against a wall during the confrontation, Russell plays down any alleged physical aggression. “He’s not battered he’s not bruised and he’s not bloodied. His ears will be ringing though,” he says.

Chalking the argument up to his sense of justice, the Oscar nominee adds: “If you know anything about me you know I am going to stand up for myself if I believe I’ve been wronged.”