Russell Crowe–who has long played heroic figures on the big screen while being portrayed off screen as nothing more than an angry brute–has told Men’s Journal magazine that he hopes to be baptized in the near future. The actor, who had his oldest son Charlie baptized, is considering joining his youngest son Tennyson in the process when Tennyson is baptized in the near future. “If I believe it is important to baptize my kids, why not me?” Crowe commented.

Such a declaration of religious inclination–if perhaps not an outright statement of faith–shouldn’t be that surprising. Crowe built a Byzantine chapel on his farm in Australia for his wedding and spoke at great length about his thoughts on religion in 2005 with Interview magazine. In the article he describes visiting various churches on his own when he was young, and comments that he has a “thing” for the Ten Commandments and believes that it “seems like it was written by somebody other than a human being.”
So maybe Crowe’s baptism reflects a deepening of his spiritual journey, or maybe this is simply a “communal act,” as he described baptism in the Interview magazine story, and not about faith at all. Either way, if it helps him with his anger management issues, I am sure hotel clerks and body guards everywhere feel a little safer now.