Russell Crowe has gotten his wing clipped again.
The Oscar-winning Gladiator dislocated his shoulder in Sydney while training for his pugilistic part in the upcoming Universal Pictures boxing drama Cinderella Man, the studio confirmed.
Crowe will immediately undergo arthroscopic surgery to repair his shoulder, followed by an intense regimen of physical therapy. He won't be able to resume training for the role of real-life boxer Jim Braddock for four to six weeks.
As a result of the injury, filming on the flick will be delayed a month, pushed back from March until early April.
Cinderella Man reunites Crowe with the Oscar-winning A Beautiful Mind triumvirate of director-producer Ron Howard, producer Brian Grazer and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman. It tells the story of how Braddock became a folk hero after winning a vicious 15-round match against heavyweight champion Max Baer in 1935 during the throes of the Great Depression. Renée Zellweger will play Crowe's wife.
"I've never known any actor who dedicates himself to a part with more intensity than Russell," said Grazer Friday. "He approaches every role with a rigorous discipline, using his mind, his body and his spirit. To prepare for his role as Jim Braddock, Russell has been training with some of the foremost boxing instructors in the world, and that commitment is what led to the injury to his shoulder."
Crowe has long had a reputation for throwing himself into his parts, packing on 40 pounds for 1999's The Insider, then shedding it all and sculpting himself to play General Maximus in 2000's Gladiator, for which he won the Best Actor Academy Award.
But this isn't the first time Crowe's intense Method acting has sent him to the emergency room. He banged up his other shoulder while training for a role as a circus freak in another Depression-era film, Jodie Foster's Flora Plum.
The injury forced him to drop out of that project, which was eventually scuttled when a pregnant Foster went on to replace Nicole Kidman in 2002's Panic Room, after Kidman had to withdraw because of a bum knee suffered on the set of Moulin Rouge. (Who said acting was easy?)
Crowe, who with wife Danielle Spencer recently celebrated the birth of their first child, whom they named Charles, can currently be seen on the big screen as Captain Jack Aubrey in Peter Weir's 18th-century high-seas adventure Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, which just scored a nod for Best Picture.