Gladiator's Russell Crowe slays Hollywood's protocol
By BRUCE KIRKLAND - Toronto Sun
Sunday, April 30, 2000
HOLLYWOOD -- No one will ever catch Russell Crowe kissing butt to get a job in Hollywood.
There probably isn't a more straight-shooting, stubborn and wickedly funny guy in the acting business than this eccentric 36-year-old cattle farmer. New Zealand-born and Australian based, Crowe is as manly tough as he is sublimely intelligent.
Now his methods are paying off -- big time. And his life is changing dramatically. His decision to do it his own way becomes a template for how to beat Hollywood at its own game.
"Well, golly gosh," Crowe says, his voice dripping with typical good-time sarcasm that shuts out those who don't understand that his profanity-spiked rants qualify as a Sydney cowboy's wit.
"I'm the king of frequent-flier miles. I don't get to spend enough time with people that I love in a place that I love. However, I'm an actor and I've done it for a long time, and there is a certain level of the gypsy in the job. And it's the change in geography that actually makes my life interesting. Otherwise, it would be the same series of cow-bums and cattle yards."
Carpe diem. The gypsy is seizing the day.
Crowe is fresh from his first Oscar nomination, as best actor in The Insider (he lost last month to Kevin Spacey, in the rush to immortalize American Beauty).
"I'm not going to touch that," Crowe says of losing. He emphasizes that the nomination was enough, an extraordinary honour, and he sounds serious: "I'm an Academy Award-nominated actor for the rest of my career, no matter what s--t I do from here on in."
Yet it's not crap he has on the go.
Crowe is back on screen in Gladiator, a kick-ass epic opening Friday that could not be more different from The Insider. Set in Roman times, the Ridley Scott movie casts Crowe as a Spanish-Roman general who becomes a bitter outcast. Thrown into prison, he is forced to survive as a gladiator, using the superb fighting skills he developed as a soldier. Crowe carries the whole film.
He currently is at work in Taylor Hackford's new thriller, Proof Of Life, as a hostage negotiator. Meg Ryan co-stars.
Next he will appear with Claire Danes in Jodie Foster's directorial effort, Flora Plum. He'll play a circus freak who becomes a young woman's protector. "It's only going to be a set of eyes that you see," he says of his strange character. "So that might be the last movie I ever do." Just kidding.
Crowe embraces success. He anticipated it, and plans to use it to his advantage.
"It's funny," he says. "You get accused of being arrogant by some people because I seem to, in some people's viewpoints, expect success. But it doesn't surprise me when it comes, because I know how much work I put into it."
Although North Americans only really discovered him as a Yankee in L.A. Confidential and The Insider, Crowe's film career dates back a decade in Australia.
In 1991, he was nominated as best actor in Australia for The Crossing. The following year, he won as best supporting actor for Proof. In 1993, he won as best actor for Romper Stomper, a visceral skinhead drama that put him on the map internationally, including in a memorable screening at the Toronto film festival.
Crowe has been following a plan for Hollywood success, albeit one that includes chunks of luck and fate: "It's a combination of both things, isn't it?" Crowe asks rhetorically.
In any case, success is crucial to him for reasons other than the usual cheap fame and insane riches.
"In order to complete the fantasy of my life, which is to work at the highest level in the art form that I've chosen to work in, then that means getting on planes. Look at the people I'm getting to work with! Look at the experiences I'm having.
"I'm pro-active in the choices, you know. In this part especially (in Gladiator), I'm pro-active and responsible for certain parts of the narrative."
When Scott and the producers first offered Crowe a role, the script was still in an unsatisfactory early draft.
"I usually don't like to do that. I usually like to have a script. When you do a Tennessee Williams play, you know where you're going to go. Being able to memorize the lines is pretty much 95% of the job. But, if you don't know what the lines are going to be, or what the marks are, if you don't even know what country it's going to take place in, it's different."
Working for Ridley Scott was the key. "If you're going to take this kind of leap of faith, then you should do it with someone like him. Crowe calls Scott "a straight-talking bloke." Then he adds, somewhat needlessly, "So am I."
If this sounds like the usual "I love my latest director" nonsense from actors, consider the flipside. Crowe gives examples of two directors -- Lawrence Kasdan and Neil Jordan -- whom he turned down because they weren't committed to their own movies. Jordan, for example, wanted Crowe for In Dreams.
"I could tell he wasn't really committed to it. He was making a movie for 'whatever' reasons but they weren't the reasons I needed to hear. He didn't get it."
Crowe has no time for people who don't get things, such as the casting director and producer he auditioned for -- unsuccessfully -- when he first came to Hollywood. Crowe wanted a small role in The Shawshank Redemption. He was turned down when he arrived using his obvious New Zealand-shaded Australian accent, his natural speaking voice.
The producer advised him to fake an American accent if he ever wanted to work. No thanks.
"If I had walked into a room and played the game and conned the director to get that role, then I wouldn't be able to get up in the morning," Crowe says. "I'm just going to do it the way I do it, mate."