Actor Russell Crowe has admitted that he started a fight with his bodyguard on the set of his latest film.

Crowe was apparently talking to a female extra, and took offence when he thought that bodyguard Mark "Spud" Carroll was making an accusation about the discussion that they were having.

"Spud and I had a push around after work on a Friday night," Crowe admits in a letter to Australian newspaper The Sunday Herald Sun.

"The misunderstanding arose when Spud came over to tell me what he thought other people in the room might have been thinking of my conversation."

He added, "It doesn't surprise me that I'm overly sensitive to gossip and speculation and heartily sick of other people's 'perceptions'.

"Spud was passing on other people's 'perceptions' and I shot the messenger."

The fight happened about a month ago, during a party on the set of The Cinderella Man. Crowe plays a boxer in the film.