Russell Crowe: From Oscar to Meg
Jan. 17 -- Russell Crowe may have a reputation as a wild man in Hollywood, but he says he's not the bad boy that tabloids make him out to be.
"If I was my parent, I would be a little concerned," he tells ABCNEWS' Diane Sawyer. But, the 37-year-old adds, "I'm actually much more conservative than you give me credit for."
While the maverick actor does have "a sense of personal freedom," he says he's not the type of man who'd love and leave a woman.
"I'm not a misogynist. I don't have disrespect for females," he says. "I love women, you know? And I find some of the greatest wisdom that's passed on to me is from my female friends."
Meg and Russell 'Still Mates'
Among the women he considers his friends is actress Meg Ryan. "We were always friends, you know?" he says. "We started off being mates, and we're still mates."
The two dated for several months, a romance that made headlines because Ryan was still married to Dennis Quaid when she met Crowe on the set of Proof of Life.
"I didn't plan to fall in love with her. You know? It just happened," says Crowe. "I chose to walk toward love instead of walk away from it. And I am, you know, sorry if that offends somebody."
Asked if Ryan was the love of his life, he says: "She's a very important person to me … I think she's very special but I don't necessarily think we're there, a hundred percent ready for what being with each other would mean, you know?"
Crowe said he felt hounded by the press, which affected his relationship with Ryan.
"It's very easily intellectually to stand back and say, 'Well it doesn't matter what such and such says.'… But unless you've been in the environment, then you really don't know what the hell you're talking about," Crowe says. "If you feel you're under siege … that takes away from your ability to see each other simply and clearly, you know? Because every moment has so much baggage attached to it, and that's when it becomes destructive."
Ryan, he adds, is "a wonderful girl" who "has to be respected for the strength of character that she's shown."
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