Trim and clad in a gray suit and white shirt as he holds court at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Marina Del Ray on a sunny fall afternoon, the 39-year-old Crowe admits that that marriage and family have mellowed his notoriously wild ways. "Actually, this is my 63rd day without a drink," he says. "That's not an A.A. announcement -- that's just part of the preparation for "Cinderella
Man."

That would be Ron Howard's upcoming boxing movie, which Crowe will soon begin filming. But he admits that his new lifestyle has to do with more than the movies.

"You just reprioritize," he says, "and things change. I don't know what this whole change is about. Fundamentally, I know, fatherhood won't change who I am.

"It might change what is written about me, which has always been quite separate from who I am, anyway."

In Peter Weir's "Master and Commander," opening nationwide on Nov. 14, Crowe plays Capt. "Lucky" Jack Aubrey, protagonist in 20 novels written by Patrick O'Brian beginning in 1969. Paul Bettany plays Aubrey's friend and conscience, ship's doctor Stephen Maturin. The setting is 1806, at the height of the Napoleonic Wars. Though he's read three of the novels and calls himself a fan; "I certainly like the author's style," he says Crowe has a different take on Aubrey.

"Perhaps O'Brian sees Jack in very simple terms," he says, "and possibly, by the end of the 20 books, he seems to not necessarily be empathetic to Jack anymore. I know from conversations with people who have read all the books that Jack was simply a complicated person. He is a man who has a tremendous responsibility to his men and his ship.

"His ship was really the NASA of its time," Crowe says. "If you wanted to travel from one continent to another, a ship was the only way." It took the actor a while to find his sea legs, he admits. "I have never been much of a sailor," he says, "even though I've grown up in two harbor cities. Maybe this is because my mother has very bad motion sickness. I thought I might have that too."

One thing he did have, Crowe knew, was a fear of heights. That's why an early scene in which Aubrey scales the mast of the ship, climbing 157 feet above a rocking deck, was originally intended to be done via blue-screen special effects. But Crowe, famously eager for a challenge, changed his mind.

"I told Peter that it was a waste of an opportunity to do it for real," he says. "The only bad thing is that I'm not very good with heights, but I thought that my character would really be up on that mast. I kept thinking, "Jack would do it."

"It's a beautiful shot," the actor says, "but, most important, it was a fabulous thing to do. Believe me when I tell you that there was a great view from the top. I just bit the bullet to get up there. "The studio didn't find out about that until later, when they saw the dailies," Crowe adds, chuckling.

He was worried about being up high, Crowe says, not about getting hurt as such. "Danger is always relative," he says. "I remember that, in "Proof of Life" (2000), I ran up to a helicopter, grabbed the struts and we flew off. That was similar to standing on the mast of the ship for this movie."

At one point Crowe was set to star in "The Alamo," the historical epic now set for release in December and starring Dennis Quaid and Billy Bob Thornton. Crowe left the project, however, when the studio was unable to agree on a budget or a script with Howard, who had directed Crowe to an Academy Award as Best Actor for "A Beautiful Mind" (2001).

"I was there because Ron Howard was going to direct it," the actor says simply. "I wasn't going to stay if Ron was gone. Also, I left the film because I couldn't understand why they wouldn't just let us make the film we wanted. "I do hope the movie they've done is great," he adds. "I wish everyone connected with it the best. But it was a little perturbing. The movie was something that Ron had spent a lot of time working on, but he didn't want to do a softened version."

Contrary to the rumors, Crowe says, he is not signed for a slew of "Master and Commander" movies -- which isn't to say that he won't be making at least one more.

"I didn't allow any kind of deal that included multiple movies," he says. "My attitude toward this is, if this one works, then I'm interested in doing the character again.

"I do think there are a lot of places to take the captain," Crowe concedes. "We haven't really seen him on land, and one of the wonderful things about the books is that, any time Jack goes on land, all hell breaks loose. He's actually only in control when he's at sea. "A second movie could be quite interesting."

It's not as if Crowe needs more to do. He continues to record and tour with his band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, and he and Howard have recovered from their "Alamo" disappointment to reteam for "Cinderella Man," the story of folk hero Jim Braddock, the unknown fighter who in 1935 defeated the heavyweight champion of the world. cm-bd

Crowe denies reports that he is planning to scale back his career and spend more time at home in Sydney and on his Australian ranch with his wife, actress Danielle Spencer, and their baby boy. "No, I said the opposite to that," he says. "I said that the next five years are very important. When my boy is in school, I want to be there at the school games. So I'm going to work as hard as I can in the next five years, and when I do I'll have him with me as much as possible."

Will having a baby on hand cramp the style of an actor famous for on- and offscreen displays of, well, attitude? Crowe winces. "All that stuff, this public persona of me-- let's call him "the wild man" -- that is not helpful," he says. "It doesn't make me more of a box-office draw. It's the quality of my work that makes people want to go to my films."

(Cindy Pearlman is a Chicago-based freelance writer.)

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