What Is Joes Rationale for Wanting Braddock to Fight Again

Director Ron Howard discusses his latest film, Cinderella Man, a rags-to-riches true story of boxer James Braddock, whose improbable rise during the Great Depression embodied the hopes of the suffering. Howard says that what makes the movie intriguing is the combination of the protagonist's actions both in life and sport.

Ron Howard on the set of the moving picture. Universal Pictures hide caption

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Universal Pictures

STEVE INSKEEP, host:

This is Morning time EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep with Renee Montagne.

For all of its brutality, the blood sport of boxing once offered a fairy-tale ending. It was 1935. A jerry-built boxer by the proper name of James Braddock walked into the ring and took on the brutal champion, Max Baer. Sportswriters said this fight was a mismatch and even predicted that Max Baer would kill his opponent. Instead, in a 15-round thriller, the fighter dubbed `Cinderella Human' became the heavyweight champion of the world. And for many Americans suffering through the Slap-up Depression, Jim Braddock'due south improbable rising embodied all their hopes. The movie "Cinderella Man" opens today starring Russell Crowe. And Renee spoke with the director, Ron Howard.

Mr. RON HOWARD (Director, "Cinderella Human"): I got the feeliing in all of our research that Braddock never actually loved boxing as a sport. I don't recollect it really divers him every bit a person. I think information technology was a thing that he discovered he could do better than other people when he was about 15 or xvi years former. He had never been interested in school. He was already out of school past so and working really as a laborer and an errand boy and things like that. But he constitute he could trounce people in the ring and make money at it. He actually had no alternative, he felt.

(Soundbite of "Cinderella Man")

Mr. RUSSELL CROWE: (As Jim Braddock) I didn't e'er lose. I won't always lose again. I tin nevertheless fight.

Unidentified Man: Go domicile.

Mr. CROWE: (As Jim Braddock) I tin can still fight.

Unidentified Man: Go abode to Mae and the kids, Jim.

Mr. HOWARD: He had too been battered and bruised and actually severely injured and he kept fighting hurt and, at a sure point, they took abroad his boxing license. I think in a style they did him a favor in hindsight because he healed during that time. And when he did brand this unlikely comeback, people were shocked, simply they hadn't actually seen a healthy Braddock in years. And he just--he went on an incredible winning streak. He himself, when asked, `Why do you recollect you lot're winning once more, Jim? It seems to kind of come out of nowhere.' And we used this line in the movie, but he said, `I know what I'1000 fighting for at present.' And they said, `What's that?' `Milk.' And he said he was simply tired of seeing the empty milk bottles on the stoop.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

Had he fallen that low? Was he living in a slum flat with--yous know, at any given moment they wouldn't have enough to consume and children might be taken abroad because they couldn't, you know, afford to feed them?

Mr. HOWARD: Yeah. And in that location are no photographs of that menstruum of their lives that we could find, but there were some letters that--actually the extra who plays a neighbour woman, Sara, is Rosemarie DeWitt. and She is Mae and Jim Braddock'southward granddaughter. She gave us some letters which were incredibly poignant and moving which described some of that, generally gave us a real sense of the disappointment that Braddock felt at not being able to accept care of his family unit.

(Soundbite of "Cinderella Man")

Mr. CROWE: (As Jim Braddock) Things ain't easy at the moment, Joe, yous're correct. There's a lot of people worse off than what we are. I guess good things ain't easy. That don't give you the excuse to take what's not yours, does it? That's stealing, right? We don't steal. No affair what happens, nosotros don't steal. Non ever. You got me?

Mr. HOWARD: You know, they were on the soup lines and he was working as a laborer and there was a moment when he thought he wasn't going to exist able to proceed the family together and he despaired and he was humiliated by information technology, but he was able to fight his way out.

MONTAGNE: Well, y'all know, i matter that was noticeable was that Russell Crowe, who plays Jim Braddock, is actually quite small and slender in this movie even for him. I mean, he'due south not as bulked upwardly every bit he was in "Gladiator."

Mr. HOWARD: Oh, no. He slimmed downwards considering Braddock ever was a natural lite heavyweight who was fighting up when he moved to the heavyweight division.

(Soundbite of "Cinderella Man")

Unidentified Journalist: Braddock sinks with a left, another left. (Unintelligible) it'southward a close match, folks.

(Soundbite of bell ringing)

Unidentified Announcer: And there's the bell. James J. Braddock has exhibited a lot of pluck here; over 11 grueling rounds with the champion.

Mr. HOWARD: Russell had brought the projection to me not then long afterward nosotros had finished "A Cute Mind." And I knew about Braddock. I knew about his story a little bit, because my father, yous know, raised in Oklahoma during the Low, had been a lifelong fight fan and the first fight that had been accounted of import plenty for his male parent to load, you know, his and then v- or 6-year-old son into the truck and drive to the puddle hall, 'cause they didn't have a radio themselves to mind to the fight, was "Cinderella Man" Jim Braddock fighting Max Baer for the heavyweight championship of the world. And then my dad had vivid memories of the fight and he always held Braddock upwards equally a kind of a shining instance of, you know, strong grapheme conveying the day.

MONTAGNE: Now your dad was an actor every bit...

Mr. HOWARD: Oh, he's in the picture show. He'south the band announcer, giving the last determination.

MONTAGNE: Your father, of grade, Rance Howard.

Mr. HOWARD: Rance Howard, yes. And he withal acts a not bad deal. But, yes, my dad left the farm and decided he wanted to be a singing cowboy, even though he couldn't carry a melody, just I guess he didn't know that or it didn't carp him. So he never became Roy Rogers but he made a good career and continues to all his life working in films, showtime in New York and so Los Angeles.

MONTAGNE: And that, though, is, in a sense, the way yous got into acting, which I gather you got into when you were practically a babe in your mother's arm.

Mr. HOWARD: Well, I actually was carried on by my mother into a scene, kind of a grade B or C Western that my dad was doing, and when I was, I call up, xviii months old and they needed a baby to cry in a scene and then they gave me a little toy tomahawk or something and left it in my paw long enough for me to become attached to it then they rolled cameras and took it away. And they got the crying that they wanted that way.

MONTAGNE: (Laughs) Is that like against the law now?

Mr. HOWARD: No. I don't recall it'due south against the law. (Laughs)

MONTAGNE: Ron Howard, thank you very much for joining usa.

Mr. HOWARD: Nice talking to you.

INSKEEP: Director Ron Howard's movie, "Cinderella Man," opens today.

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Source: https://www.npr.org/2005/06/03/4678668/ron-howard-on-cinderella-man

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