Russell Crowe Breaks Down His Career, from 'Gladiator' to 'The Pope's Exorcist' | Vanity Fair

you know I wish that every uh young actor could have a something like a gladiator in in their career when I first saw it I was blown away by it when I first saw it with a crowd that's when it really freaked me out emperor you know puts that knife under maximus's arm towards the end you know people were angry they were standing in their seats and going and I was like whoa this is big yeah hello I'm Russell Crowe and this is the timeline of my career you say that pain was I thought you said it was over here oh yeah this I think I was 12 when I did the Young doctors it was a school tour the end of the the Year we're allowed to pick things that we wanted to do from a list and one of the the things was to go and visit a TV studio so I go to the TV studio and there was an actor there that I knew from when I was even younger his name was Roy Harris Jones and he he said to me are you here for a casting and I said no I'm just with the school group and he said well let them do that come on I'll introduce you to the to the casting agent and I ended up sitting with the casting agent I missed the whole tour but I had a really nice conversation and that ended up with me getting the job Russell is your mother here with you okay where is she is my dad and where's your dad where he is every night in the pub as so often happens on those soap operas they sort of shape it around your real life and at that time my dad was managing pubs you know that that Ben Caterers for a while but then they went into into hotels and so we would live in the hotel that my dad was running so they made up this you know story about the child you know um not having a lot of Parental sort of guidance around because his his family were always working and stuff like that which was pretty much my story you know it's funny to look back on it now as I grew up and and started moving into the industry I didn't have the same fear that that some other actors have about working on camera and stuff because I'd pop that bubble when I was a little boy a couple of years later I did another little thing in TV and a couple of years after that another little thing and touring and bands and I was a nightclub DJ for a while I started floating back into the acting thing through musical theater and so I didn't get my first audition for a lead role in a feature film until I was 25. you want some advice Miss Bracken it's Lynn it's Bracken don't ever try to bribe me or threaten me or I'll have you unpatch it and up to your ears by the time we get to LA Confidential that's probably my 15th or 16th film I received the script from Curtis Hanson and I described Bud white as the the biggest man in the Los Angeles Police Department you know and I'm I was like ah Curtis why did you send this to me but I met with him and you know he told me that he'd seen all the stuff and and that he really believed in what I did and did a lot of Australian Independent films things like Romper stomper and proof and a few American Independent films as well where I always insisted as part of the negotiation that my name was above the title everybody used to scratch their head about that but it paid off later when you know serious producers started looking at my work there wasn't just you know one role above the title there was many they kind of got more confident about being able to hire me suppose in American films because that looked legit you know what I mean when I flew to La I moved into this hotel and we began rehearsals a few days into the rehearsal the studio stopped paying the bill at the hotel and they stopped paying for my rental car the studio didn't want me to be in that role they wanted I think Sean Penn and Robert De Niro in the film or something things that they could quantify and and understand so there was a probably for a five day period there where I was leaving the hotel of a morning by going down the back stairs because I knew the manager of the hotel was waiting for me in the foyer to ask when the bill was going to be paid if I'd paused and said I'm not turning up to work they just would have taken that opening to get me out of the movie one of the producers of the film who really really believed in the film against the wishes of let's call them the studio for the film he took a print by himself and he flew to the Cannes Film Festival it was selected to be in main competition suddenly this film that everybody had already written off now people started going how how is that possible this film that we thought was one thing is regarded by the greatest film market and Festival in the world as something else it really changed the trajectory for the film and if it had not been screened it can and the way it was I don't think it would have got the attention that it did my name is Maximus Desmos Meridius commander of the armies of the North general of the Felix Legions father to a murdered son husband to a murdered wife and I will have my Vineyards in this life or the next Gladiators my 20-something movie I was confident about my abilities as a leading man what I wasn't confident about with gladiator was the world that was surrounding me at the core of what we were doing was a great concept but the script it was rubbish absolute rubbish and I had all these sort of strange sequences you know one of them was about chariots you know and how famous Gladiators and this is all true right to use certain types of Chariots and some famous Gladiators had endorsement deals with products for olive oil and things like that and that's all true but it's just not gonna ring right to a modern audience they're going to go what the is all this the energy around what we were doing was very fractured you know I I did think a couple of times maybe my best option is just to get on a plane and get get out of here you know it was my continued conversations with Ridley that sort of gave me Faith he said to me at one point in time mate we're not committing anything to camera that you don't believe in 100 you know so when we actually started that film we had 21 pages of script that we agreed on you know a script is usually between 103 or 4 or 110 Pages something like that so we had a long way to go and you know we basically used up those pages in the first section of the movie so by the time we got to our second location which was Morocco we were sort of catching up blessed father watch over my wife and son with a ready sword whisper to them I live only to hold them again you know I really wanted to shoot me doing this after battle prayer and amongst the trinkets on the shelf that the art Department had left there that had these little figurines so I picked up these figurines and and like directed A Prayer towards them as if they were my wife and child that ends up becoming this huge story point but it was like that was created on the night and there was an actor in the in the room there playing the character of Cicero a guy called Tommy Flanagan he was booked as a day player for one day's work and we shot that scene and then Ridley was like there there's something about those figurines we have to figure out that you know there's something about that so we need to hang on to that actor that led to Tommy Flanagan being flown to Malta for months he was there for months we still didn't know what we were going to do but we knew we were going to come back to his character you know and then as it as it turned out we came up with the idea of him not only coming to see Maximus but bringing the figurines you would fight me why not do you think I'm afraid I think you've been afraid all your life Joaquin was going through the same thing as I was when you walk onto a set that big it's very easy for imposter syndrome to sort of come over you it's like what am I going to do with this you know and he would go to his costume appointments and they'd put him in this armor and all this finery you know I remember one day he said to Ridley Ridley I don't understand you know I'm a kid from Florida what am I supposed to do with this go out and wave to people and then Ridley's like yeah that's what you're supposed to do we all know this now we know how fine an actor he is now but back then it was only Ridley Scott that knew how fine an actor he was he was the one convincing Joaquin to do this and to do it the way he did it you know the subtleties and the Menace and all of these things that he brought to that role when I first saw it I was blown away by it when I first saw it with a crown that's when it really freaked me out because it was like gone to a movie when I was a kid people were so connected to the film and they were voicing that connection the um emperor you know puts that knife under maximus's arm towards the end you know people were angry they were standing in their seats and going calling him a and I was like whoa this is big you know last time I saw Gladiator I actually watched it in the Coliseum in Rome and I actually got a little bit embarrassed that I'd received so much attention for that film it's an incredible ensemble cast with beautiful performances from end to end not only Joaquin But Connie Nielsen Richard Harris Derek Jacoby tomasarana Diamond honsu I mean come on man it's just beautiful stuff you know I wish that every uh young actor could have a something like a gladiator in their career we made that film in 1999 and I'll bet you money somewhere in the world tonight that film was playing on Prime Time television it has the longest legs and people you know not just connect to it but they they love it with a passion thank you I need a map when the script arrived I was actually on tour with my band I was in Texas I was in Austin Texas but you know I find it hard when my brain is doing something else if I'm like on another film set or if I'm touring with a band like that or whatever if I'm focused on another project it's kind of like letting some of the details of another project into my head while I'm working is something I try and avoid doing you know so I read between gigs this particular copy of the script had come to me directly from Jeffrey katzenberg but he was very insistent and so you know I took it outside on that back porch and as the sun was going down in Austin and I started to read and it blew me away I don't I think probably at that point it elevated to the most perfect script I'd ever read and I had this built-in trick and it was such a good trick that it fooled the reader at the same time as it would fool the viewer because I read the script I really got the book The Sylvia NASA book on the same subject and just took that in and so when I sat in Los Angeles to meet with Ron Howard I knew way more about the subject matter than he did I was pretty rude to him in those conversations because I realized that you know I would say what about such and such in this year or whatever because I don't know about that and I get dude what are you doing you're supposed to be directing this and and he said to me something like oh Russell I will assure you I will know everything by the time you start shooting something like that and I was like that was a good line bro it was a very interesting um process but a very difficult process you know when you bring in on top of the other practical details about what you look like at a certain point then there's also a thing of actually beginning to understand the Tells of the diseases that we were dealing with you know that's I think there's 20 21 22 physical tells and they come on at different times and so there was a map for that as well you know which point in time there would be like physical tells or tells you know that certain muscle spasmic things or something that would that would happen it was just it was very complicated the best way to ensure everybody's safety is for you to continue your work but I'll just quit you won't why would I not because I keep the Russians from knowing you work for us I was on the set and I was sitting there and I looked across and there was John Nash and I had been asked by Ron Howard if I wanted to meet him but on this film I thought oh it's just so far back in time and everything and he'll be a very different man now that maybe I shouldn't meet him but there he was it was just standing there on the set and so I just went up to him I went hi John I'm Russell and he did this really funny double-taking because I just saw you on the television the other day you didn't look anything like this and I said can I get you a coffee or a tea and then he went into this dissertation about tea and the qualities between like Southern Indian tea or Northern Indian tea and how they suited his palate and he was just jamming along about a tea and I was listening and I just said to myself this is fantastic there are some Northern Indian teas which are dancing up on uh enjoy the flavor that they have and I have not been in this room for quite so many years I wonder what there's a scene that they they call the pens scene right where he's offered a cup of tea and all of the things that I do in that when I'm talking about tea I stolen from that first conversation even the thing of bending forward to sniff the tea before sipping it you know and and waiting until it had cooled down before drinking it is like all of those things I got from a real life conversation with John I didn't quit on you I didn't quit tonight I didn't always lose I won't always lose again I can still fight go home I can still fight go home to me and the kids gym go home go home with what go home with what a broken hand from Mount Vernon I actually read that script the year that LA Confidential came out I just thought it was such an incredible story I didn't know anything about this guy and then I realized there was a you know a true story and I fell in love with it I fell in love with the Simplicity of it but I fell in love with that Journey too this man had had success and he'd done everything right but then there was the Wall Street Crash in 29 the way he came back from that situation he was fighting on behalf of his kids and putting a roof over their heads and feeding them so he was so Noble I just loved the guy nobody wanted to do it nobody wanted to do a boxing movie you know I mean Ron's Vibe was look man I can see why you want to do it but I don't see where there's any joy for me as a director so many wonderful boxing films have been made over time it's a pretty crowded ground so I understood what what Ron was talking about I asked you know look I know you don't like the script the way it is but if we were brought in Akiva who had written A Beautiful Mind you will understand what it's missing and he'll emphasize those nuances so we did that and that was when after that it was when Ron agreed to direct it he's only so it's just contamination opening of that film I was 40 years old but I weighed the same as when I did my first lead role in a feature film when I was 25 years old so I'd managed to somehow reverse non-specific male weight gain and get back down to to 81 kilos or some like that that preparation for Cinderella Man was long and it was arduous we started in November 2003 for a shoot that I believe started around about April 2004. a typical day of preparation on that would be getting up prior to the Sun and going for a walk you know just three or four kilometers and then we would do a session in the gym and some yoga towards the end of the morning you then get into the ring and you do all the sort of related um boxing stuff then we'd have a break have lunch we'd do another boxing session another weight session and then we would eat dinner and then after dinner would go for a walk and then go to bed and that would start again the next day in the middle of that preparation I actually subluxated my left shoulder and had to have an operation they normally uh insist you do seven weeks of rehab a rehabbed in 21 days on the 21st day got into the ring and did ten three minute rounds that shoulder still gives me problems I've had to have another operation and it's like just full of arthritis and everything now because I didn't want everybody to lose their job I didn't want to film to collapse it was like you know 80 million dollar sort of Damocles hanging over my head and I just had to I had to make it work you know I had to get back into it this is the newly formed Essex County narcotic Squad our mandate is to make major arrests no Street guys heroin cocaine amphetamines no grass under a thousand pounds no Powder under 40 kilograms any less than that then somebody else can waste their time American Gangster that was a it was a problematic project it set it up and gone to make it with a different director and contracted Denzel but the film for whatever reason had collapsed and didn't get made so now it's this big black mark but it was a black mark against Ron Howard and Brian Grazer who are friends of mine because who had made a beautiful mind again we've had that success together we made Cinderella demand together we've had that success together and it was Brian actually that came to me and he said do you see anything in this do you see any way we can get out of this hole that we're in you know and because it was like when I say hole there are in a massive money Hall you know they'd spent 30 or 40 million or something with nothing to show for it and I said to him well listen man I didn't even read the last draft I get sent because the title's stupid I had a different name at one point I think it was called true blue or something like that right I know what it refers to and I know that it actually refers to it was the name of a particular heroine that Denzel Washington's character Frank was selling you know and that's all well and good but who knows that who knows you know Brian said well we've done a little bit of a rewrite where we think we've divided the characters a bit more but we've also changed the title and he said American Gangster and I said I am very close to being in that's a cool title you know so then you know I said to to Brian because he said he wanted to attract a filmmaker like Ridley to a piece like that and I just worked with Ridley on a good year so we were sort of in touch really regularly you know and I said I don't know Brian we can send that to him but he's just he's not even probably going to read it you know I'll let Ridley know it was it was coming and he had a read of it and he just loved the time period and he loved the fact that it was going to be set all in Manhattan and and uh you know the boroughs of New York and the storyline you know and the thing is the great benefit was Denzel was attached Denzel and I were already friends we did virtuosity together you know um way back when we were you know a lot a lot younger so I knew that that would work but you know they'd paid him because of the foul production you know Denzel had done the honorable thing and he hadn't scuppered he represented progress the kind of progress is going to see them lose a lot of money with you out of the way everything can return to normal normally seeing the police ride up to my house dragging my little 12 year old cousin out and tying them to a pole shoving a shotgun in his mouth so hard they bust his teeth then they bust two shotgun shells in his head knock his head off that's what normal is to me well about no police then I'm gonna about no police now in that movie by the time you get to this coffee cup scene with interrogation and you know Frank is still trying to intimidate even though he's not in a very good position you know smacking The Coffee Cup off the table and stuff which is about a power shift between the two characters and Denzel is such a fine actor that he recognized the opportunity and went with the power shift I love working with Denzel I love his his company and I love working with Ridley so it was magnificent but also around that you know that was when I met the Rizza and he's still Bobby Diggs remains one of my closest friends everybody that I worked with Joel Vasquez and Johnny that the group of guys that were Richie Roberts detectives were very tight and all super professional and just fun to be around I hear my open this holy Council over the god where we have many many Furious matter to be talked about such as where are we going to hold this year's origin it's trying to find some sort of Truth to a very extreme character you've got to be able to deadpan those moments in order for them to be funny taika and I our families um the Maori part of my family we came we come from what they call the same canoe it's like naughty Perot right so he's in fact my cousin in the broader Maori sense you know he arrived you know for an official meeting within the first couple of minutes I knew that this official meeting required a gin and tonic or a tequila or something like that because it was that kind of vibe I fell in love with him as a bloke you know so then he sort of said listen I've come up with this thing and I don't know if you'll respond but you know what I'm thinking all the different roles you've done you know what about a Greek god they are asking me to play the role with the same voice as Maximus his voice I I used to call Royal Shakespeare company two pints after lunch this faux upper class kind of voice you know so I said to Tiger you cannot make me do this in an English accent I want to do this as a Greek guy and everybody just was like what are you talking about you know Zeus is a Greek god he's no other God from any other civilization he is a Greek god they came back to me and they said we'll only let you do that if you also agree to simultaneously shoot every scene in the accent that we think is going to work it was fun and fun but I doubled the length of every working day I had because I had to shoot every scene as a Greek guy and then turn around and shoot every scene as a with an English accent as well but the studio said at the time that they would cut both things together and they would screen both the characterization that got the biggest response in the audience was the one they were going to go with the Greek characterization absolutely smashed the English one so smashed it you know by 10 or 15 points you know and treated their word they they went with what they said you need your lightning bolt my lightning bolt is called Thunderbolt so I think to use somebody's secret weapon like this that you should at least get the name right when you ask can I borrow a thunderbolt finding out that not only Chris is a wonderful guy but he's a really good actor man he's got some comedy chops like crazy you know his sense of timing and everything so I really enjoyed it father Gabriella I'm worth on the night of June 4th you performed an exorcism that was not an exorcism what fascinated me was this guy in the middle of it you know when I read the job description Chief Exorcist of the Vatican I absolutely hand on my heart thought somebody just made that up saying oh he's a Snappy job title Chief Exorcist for the Vatican you know it's like but then I looked it up and realized that's a real job what's more that the guy had been in the job for 36 years so it was my fascination with him as a person that got me connected and then the more I found out about him the more fascinated I became and having broken the ice with the the Zeus thing and using the Greek accent you know here they are asking me to play an Italian priest you know okay so what do you think he sounds like and the response initially was you know we're thinking like just sort of a Mid-Atlantic non-specific American accent and I'm like you cannot get anyone more Italian than this guy that doesn't interest me I'm not going to do it that way is I'll do the role but you gotta let me be Italian and you gotta actually let me give me a few scenes where I speak in an Italian language and then we'll come up with an idea of how he transitions from Italian language into to English and they were brave enough to allow me to do it and so far the response from people has been pretty good so we'll see what happens I never actually know the number of films that I've made but it always surprises me that other people have made more than I have because I feel like I've been working constantly but I'm 58 now all my wrinkles are out my gray hairs are all learned and now I play characters with wrinkles and gray hair the most amazing thing is for me that I still love my job I can genuinely say that you know and I know when I'm forced to get up at four o'clock in the morning it doesn't bother me because I know why I'm there

2023-04-24 04:25

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