Trivia / Cinderella Man

• Actor-Inspired Element: Paul Giamatti would whistle around set and Russell Crowe insisted on finding a way to get it into the movie.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $88 million. Gross, $61,649,911 (domestic), $108,539,911 (worldwide).
• California Doubling: Toronto doubles for New York.
• Cast the Expert: Professional boxers played Jimmy Braddock's opponents. They were told to land their blows as close to Russell Crowe's body as possible. Unfortunately, they sometimes couldn't pull back in time and ended up injuring Crowe.
• Colbert Bump: The film received a lot of renewed attention in 2018 when Russell Crowe put up numerous pieces of his memorabilia for auction, the most notorious being his codpiece from the film. It ended up being bought (along with several other pieces) by the crew of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver who made it a Running Gag, to which Crowe retaliated by funding a center to combat chlamydia in koalas which he named after Oliver.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Russell Crowe lost more than 50 pounds, weighing only 176 pounds for his role.
• Fake American: Of the leads, Russell Crowe (Jimmy Braddock) is Australian and Paddy Considine (Mike Wilson) is English.
• Hostility on the Set: Russell Crowe and Craig Bierko weren't friendly on set. Crowe even excluded Bierko from his 40th birthday party while shooting to heighten their tension.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Ron Howard's late father Rance played ring announcer Al Fazin and his brother Clint portrayed the fight referee for Abe Feldman's match.
  • Rosemarie DeWitt, who plays the neighbor Sara Wilson, is the granddaughter of the real Jimmy Braddock. She is the daughter of his daughter Rosemarie ("Rosie"), who is portrayed by Ariel Waller in the film.
• What Could Have Been: Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Clive Owen, Billy Bob Thornton and Mark Wahlberg were all considered for Jimmy Braddock.

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