Aussie hunk beefs up as stool-pigeon tobacco exec in The Insider

By NATASHA STOYNOFF -- Toronto Sun
Sunday, October 31, 1999

HOLLYWOOD -- En route to being interviewed about his role in The Insider and on the evils of the tobacco industry, Russell Crowe pauses in the non-smoking hallway of a Beverly Hills hotel for a quick puff.

"I'm a fan of irony, mate," smiles the Australian actor, waving away a waft of second-hand smoke as he enters the room.

"And," he adds, of his 25-year-old cigarette habit, "I've never accused myself of being smart."

But taking on the role of Jeffrey Wigand, a former tobacco corporation executive and central witness in lawsuits against the tobacco industry (the suits were settled for US$246 billion in 1995) was a smart, if not controversial, move.

Opening Friday, the film is based on the May 1996 Vanity Fair article, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and details Wigand's internal struggle within the non-ethical business, and the betrayal of 60 Minutes execs for backing down from airing his whistle-blowing interview.

In lieu of the film's forthcoming release, those at 60 Minutes -- including Mike Wallace (played by Christopher Plummer) -- are none too happy.

"They haven't even see it yet, so how can they complain about it?" Insider director Michael Mann says.

For Crowe, who shot to fame in North America after starring in L.A. Confidential, the role is just another challenge.

He bleached and shaved his head, and overdosed "on bourbon and cheeseburgers" to gain 50 pounds to play the balding, heavy-set, 52-year-old exec.

"I was fat and bald and looking like Marlon Brando on a really bad day," laughs Crowe, 35, who has now regained his lean, 180-pound athletic build and shaggy, puppy-dog hair.

"It took me about six weeks to start seeing the effects of a sedentary lifestyle. It took me five months to remove it."

But the cheeseburgers paid off, says co-star Al Pacino, who plays 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman in the film.

"To see him transform himself was just remarkable," Pacino says. "I was stunned by it."

Before fame, Crowe had done his share of transforming in front of the camera in films such as The Quick And The Dead, The Crossing and Proof (for which he won a Best Actor award from The Australian Film Institute).

"I didn't get a leading role in a film until I was 25," says the actor, who ironically has been dubbed by the New York Times as the next Marlon Brando.

"Ten years ago (they) said that," he says with a smirk. "It didn't change my life."

Crowe has embraced the Hollywood life, he says, but not the lifestyle.

When he's not working, he spends his time on his 560-acre ranch Down Under, where -- "If you want to check on the cow that's going to give birth, it's a half-day's walk," he says.

"Having space and the time to think is imperative for me, mate."

And though he has become an expert at playing an American on screen, off screen he's just a beer-drinking Aussie who wants to watch sports.

Ask about his (and Tom Cruise's) favourite rugby team, the South Sydneys, and he'll give a speech about their stats, the nuances of the game, and the threat of big business to the dying team.

"My team has been around for 92 seasons. I've been watching them, rain or shine, since I saw my first game when I was five. I think it's very, very sad that after 92 seasons, and the greatest win-loss record in the history of the game, apparently they're not required anymore."

Always up for a good battle, Crowe has just finished shooting Ridley Scott's film, The Gladiator, in which he mounts horses and tosses weaponry.

"I got beaten up on that film, big time," he says of his war wounds.

"Ridley Scott had five camera crews operating, two-and-a-half thousand extras, 500 horses and 10,000 flaming arrows flying through the air."

His kind of director, he insists.

THE CROWE FILE

ON DIRECTOR MICHAEL MANN: "He is insane, he's a megalomaniac, he drove me crazy ... and I love him."

ON CO-STAR AL PACINO: "Al's a flower child. He's so relaxed."