Crowe: it's an apposite surname given the rise of the antipodes' latest gift to the cinematic world, a man who would be forgiven for a bit of boastful excess. His career kicked off when he was a nipper of six ("my parents were set caterers. I'd already made the decision that I wanted to be an actor from hanging around sets") starring in a long forgotten Aussie telly series Spyforce, but he burst onto the international stage with a coruscating performance as Hando, the racist skinhead in Romper Stomper, 1992's winner of the Film Most Likely To Wind Up On The Front Page Of The Tabloids Award. In 1995 he was Sharon Stone's love interest in The Quick And The Dead, Sam Raimi's off-kilter take on the Western. Now Crowe finds himself perched on the cusp of serious leading man status with his performance as Bud White, noble, but deeply screwed-up, cop in Curtis Hanson's LA Confidential. But as far as ripping bushels from lamps goes, the thirtysomething actor appears to be having none of it.

"I wish these people that keep predicting this stardom for me would just send some money," he announces to Empire from his Los Angeles home. "I mean, I've got about 15 bucks in the bank at the moment ... "

What attracted him to James Ellroy and the character of White, a bruiser of a copy who will quite happily douse the interview room walls with claret while "extracting" confessions from subjects while abhorring the slightest suggestion of violence towards women?

"It had a lot to do with the journey of the character," he muses. "I'd read Ellroy's The Black Dalia but I hadn't read LA Confidential. What struck me when I read it was that this guy was on a self-righteous moral crusade. I mean, if you're stopped by him he's kind of a nightmare policeman, but then you have to try and find a heart in this guy which makes it a very interesting journey for an actor."

A journey apparently made all the smoother because of the distinguished director and co-stars. "Curtis Hanson is a guy who respects actors' questions and in his last few films he's shown this growing awareness of how to maintain tension. I think The Hand That Rocked The Cradle particularly is a kind of template for how to do that."

And then there was one Kevin Spacey, whose performance as celeb cop Jack Vincennes is already provoking predictions of a second golden statue come Oscar time.

"Oh, Kevin's a gem, mate." Crowe remembers with obvious pleasure. "He's very definitely one of a kind. He has this innate understanding of comedy and as a man he's a very deep thinker, and I think that's reflected in the character."

Hanson is also responsible for planting a couple of antipodeans (Guy Pearce being the other ... ) in the most American of roles: LA cops in the 1950s. The two actors rose to the challenge, leaving even LA audiences shocked to find that the actors weren't Angelinos born and bred. Crowe dismissed this as any special talent.

"I spent years working in theatre," he says. "If you can't cope with accents there, then you're dead. I've done New Yorkers, Yorkshiremen, cockneys -- the lot. You just have to be very flexible to survive.

Which is apart from the fact that Crowe is not strictly Australian at all, since he was born in New Zealand -- but the mistakes about his nationality he's often landed with don't bother him.

"I grew up in Australia," he says, "so I've got aspects of both cultures. New Zealanders tend to be very persistent, you know? And Australians are quite happy-go-lucky, so I've got kind of a combination of the two things."

Currently Crowe is trawling through a mountain of scripts looking for his next project.

"You just read something sometimes and it just happens," he muses. "You find yourself playing the character in your mind. There are three categories of movies: a director you really want to work with on a piece you really care about; movies you make for political reasons -- the gig has a great pedigree and a great team; and there are those that are just out-and-out bribes, where they offer you so much money you only think about it for a second. The thing is I'm not interested in category two or three ... "

Which presumably explains the $15 in his current account ...