Russell Brand has given yet another interview to a major magazine – this time it’s Elle. He’s doing advanced promotion for Arthur, which comes out in another two weeks. I enjoy Brand’s interviews – he’s very intelligent, and when someone is speaking to him one-to-one, he comes across as a pretty well-adjusted guy, considering what he’s been through. In this Elle piece, one of the people close to Brand compares him to Robert Downey Jr., and I think that comparison fits very well – two intelligent men with serious addictions issues that they have worked through, and have come out from those experiences better men, more spiritual and more focused. Brand’s spirituality is a little bit of a turn-off for me personally – you can tell that he’s really involved in Eastern philosophies and while that’s great for him, when he talks about it, it gets a bit boring.

Anyway, the full Elle piece is here, but I pulled some of my favorite highlights. Hey, remember how I’m also saying that one day, Russell and Dame Helen Mirren are going to run away together? Yeah. It’s on:

“The greatest thing about Russell is that he loves women,” says Helen Mirren, his costar in The Tempest and this month’s Arthur, inspired by the 1981 film. “I don’t mean that in a nasty, venal, sexy way. Let’s say he likes women, he likes women of all shapes and sizes. It’s very endearing and charming. It makes you feel good.” She laughs. “It sounds silly, but he’s incredibly well behaved. Yes, he has a raunchy sense of humor—when he goes off, your jaw drops—but he’s kind and gracious.” She’d like to get him a message: “When you see Russell, tell him I’m wearing my safety pin. He was so sweet, he said, ‘It’s diamond encrusted.’ I wear it around my neck. Occasionally I wear it to keep my bra together.”

“What a charming thought,” Brand says, pleased. “A gift of mine, being part of Helen Mirren’s boob infrastructure.”

[From Elle]

I mean… they belong together. It would be better and more scandalous than Brangelina. Russell leaves his pop tart wife, Helen leaves her husband Taylor Hackford, and Helen and Russell run off together and live happily ever after. I want that to happen so badly. Anyway, here are the rest of the highlights:

On Dudley Moore’s performance in the original Arthur: “He played drunk as sweet and affable. Really, alcohol in the film facilitates clowning. I was a very different kind of an alcoholic. I was much more an oaf, smashing stuff up and crying and causing problems.”

On being in recovery and playing someone who’s not: “It was very strange…I kept little plastic bottle of booze around the set that I’d smell before each take. That really helped me because I’ve got huge emotional resources to call upon”

On his past promiscuity: “A friend of mine once said, ‘You are devoted to your lover, but she has a thousand faces…If she’s not there, you must call her, for you have to see her…three, four times a day – making love with your lover of a thousand faces.’ That’s how he described my epic promiscuity. I was just as committed then to seduction as I am not committed to monogamy.”

On falling for Katy: “I nearly asked her to marry me on our first date. It was like a hit of acid, a wave of confusion, emerging from under the water, a moment of Oh bloody hell, different perception for a moment, extraordinary…And then I thought, I’ll give it space and see what happens.”

On their relationship: “It’s the most normal relationship I’ve ever had with anybody. She’s very spirited, bighearted, innocent, but very, very smart. Someone told me that enlightenment is contingent upon being able to hold opposing views simultaneously. I’m actually attracted to that magnetism and sort of repulsion. She’s endlessly fascinating…I was at a point in my life where I was ready to behave. I look at it the way I look at most things: One day at a time. I will say it’s very, very rewarding and I love her.” He smiles. “She’s very pretty.”

He believes in God and Love: You eventually know your place—if not in the universe, on the planet—is kind of irrelevant. So you are left with the choices. It’s your smallest interactions that are very important—the way you treat the people that are around you. I was fortunate in that even when some of my behaviors were quite compulsive, they always—most of the time—came from a relatively tranquil and gentle place. I’m naturally quite tender towards people and understanding of people.” He pauses. “I can be quite selfish. But I feel that there are higher things; I feel there is a God, and I feel that there is a great purpose and great value in altruism and most simply, I suppose, in love.”

[From Elle Magazine]

Did everyone notice the dichotomy of these two thoughts regarding his feelings for Katy: “She’s endlessly fascinating…I was at a point in my life where I was ready to behave.” Katy is not endlessly fascinating, it’s just that Russell was at a point in his life where he wanted to be settled down and try monogamy. He just tells himself that Katy is “endlessly fascinating” because that’s what he wants to believe. Now, Helen Mirren is endlessly fascinating. That’s who he should be with.

Photos courtesy of WENN.