January 4

Entertainment Weekly ~ 2002

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Source: Entertainment Weekly

January 04, 2002

Russell Crowe Says His Peace (And Then Some)
Brooding bad boy and brilliant actor. Hell-raiser and heartthrob. Player and poet. The many-sided star of A Beautiful Mind gives us a piece of his own.
By Benjamin Svetkey

In A Beautiful Mind, Russell Crowe plays a mathematical genius who finds covert messages hidden int he text of otherwise innocuous magazine and newspaper clippings. If he were looking at this article, for instance, he'd be convinced it was riddled with secret codes, that its words were encrypted with a cache of classified information.

Actually, in this case, he wouldn't be entirely wrong. Classified information of a sort is divulged in this story, although none of it is hidden, much less encrypted. The following pages contain, for instance, secret documentation on how Crowe prepared for his performance as John Forbes Nash Jr.-a role based on the stranger-than-fiction tale of the real-life Princeton mathematician who, despite a decades-long battle with delusional schizophrenia, ultimately won a Nobel prize in economics.

It's a role, apparently, that Crowe was born to play. "He's not entirely unlike Nash," suggests director Ron Howard, who spent three months shooting the film with the famously meticulous actor. "He's highly intelligent and he has this self-confidence that you could define as arrogance - all qualities which Nash was supposed to embody." Little wonder, then, that Crowe's latest turn is already generating the sort of Oscar buzz not heard since, well, since he won for Gladiator last year and was nominated for The Insider the year before.

But other secrets are also revealed in the interview below (conducted in early December at Crowe's Bel-Air hotel suite), with the scruffily handsome 37-year-old star allowing a rare glimpse into a mind that's sometimes beautiful, often boisterous, but never in the least bit boring.


ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY Ron Howard says that you could be "mercurial" on the set but otherwise your behavior was "exemplary." He says you ask a lot of "good, hard questions." High praise considering what other directors have said about you. You have a reputation for being a little difficult ....

RUSSELL CROWE A reputation built mainly by people who are not confident, who find my questions threatening.

EW Howard didn't?

CROWE There wasn't anything we couldn't discuss. The lines of communication were totally open. That doesn't happen on every movie. In fact, this was a first.

EW You must be pretty happy with your performance, then.

CROWE I always say I've given 24 insufficient performances and I'm looking forward to the time in my life when I'll do something that I think is good.

EW You're unhappy with your performances in all of your films? Even your last three or four?

CROWE There's always stuff you can do better, stuff that maybe you didn't uncover enough. But if you do something that you truly believe is perfect, then that's got to be the last movie you do. If it's not a search, if you don't think of yourself as a student of the art form, then you should stop doing it.

EW So, as a student of the art form, how did you approach the role of John Nash? Did you visit mental hospitals for research?

CROWE No. I don't like the idea of prodding people. There are lots of other ways to get that sort of information without invading people's privacy. Especially for somebody like me, who spends so much time telling people to fuck off and get out of my life. Research is about observation, not about, you know, sticking your fingers in people's navels.

EW But you did meet with the real Nash?

CROWE Not at first. I had him answer specific questions on videotape. I didn't want to pressure Nash by sitting directly in front of him-not because of any reputation I have, but just because I'm the guy playing him. But eventually he came on the set and we met. I asked him one simple question, which he took 15 minutes to answer.

EW What was the question?

CROWE Whether he wanted a cup of coffee or a cup of tea. We ended up using part of his answer in the film. There's a scene where someone asks me if I want a cup of tea and I start muttering about how I don't know what kind of tea they serve, whether or not it would be suitable for my palate, if it had the density of flavor that appeals to me.

EW I heard you wore false fingernails to make your hands look longer.

CROWE They were fake only for the first three or four days. I ended up growing my nails throughout the rehearsal process. Ron Howard had this video of Nash giving a lecture and I saw the way he used the chalk on a blackboard. His fingers were long and tapered and mine are not, so I grew my nails. It's not a visual thing-you can't see it in the film. It was to make me feel more like Nash in the performance. Because the thing about long nails is you have to be more careful how you pick things up, how you touch things. It forces you to be a little more graceful with your hands.

EW A Beautiful Mind is based on Sylvia Nasar's biography of Nash, but there's a lot of material in the book that didn't make it into the film. Anything you regret losing?

CROWE A certain adventurousness in his sexuality.

EW You mean the speculation in the book that he may have had homosexual tendencies?

CROWE Exactly. And that was a big question for us, how far to go into that. It was relevant to his character, but we didn't want to imply that there was any possibility that schizophrenia and homosexuality are related. That would be ridiculous.

EW So you decided not to put it in the movie?

CROWE Oh, it's in there. It depends on how you watch it. There's a scene where Nash is walking down a corridor at Princeton and he fixes a young man walking towards him with a gaze. The extra turns around and goes, Wow, what was that about? You don't need a whole scene for everything-there are grace notes that you can do.

EW Jennifer Connelly, who plays Nash's wife, Alicia, says she "crashed for a month" after the movie. She says it took a lot more out of her than she realized when she was filming. Did you have the same experience?

CROWE There was a certain intensity, the long hours, the subject matter. But you don't labor every day to the same extreme. The romantic idea that you take [the role] home with you-to me that's bollocks.

EW But Ron Howard says you had nightmares while making the film.

CROWE It kind of annoys me that Ron made that a public thing, but he did it from a very innocent point of view. During shooting I couldn't sleep very well. But it wasn't a big deal. It didn't freak me out.

EW Okay, maybe this will. I have some quotes here about you from some of the other, perhaps less confident directors you've worked with.

CROWE Okay.

EW Sam Raimi, who directed you in The Quick and the Dead, has been quoted as saying "The problem with working with Russell is that he always has a good idea. And he has no tact."

CROWE Well, we're talking about Raimi five or six years before he understood the importance of narrative. Raimi is going to be one of the great directors of this century, I truly believe that. But he's only just got to the point where the blood and gore and exploding heads are less important than the story he's telling.

EW Here's another one: "Russell is the rudest actor I've ever met. He's also the most committed. So if he wants to abuse me and then give me the most sensational take of all time, I don't care." That's from Geoffrey Wright...

CROWE He's an idiot...

EW But he made a terrific film-the one where you play a neo-Nazi skinhead in Australia. Wasn't that a big breakout performance for you?

CROWE Yeah, but he's been giving quotes based on that movie for 10 years. I mean, I made a movie with him called Romper Stomper, the shoot of which was 28 days long. I've known Wright for eight weeks of my life, in 1991, okay? So he's got no right to be giving quotes based on that experience.

EW Okay, last one: Taylor Hackford publicly complained that Proof of Life never had a chance at the box office because it couldn't compete with your real-life romance with your costar, Meg Ryan.

CROWE He can say that, but I think he's being fundamentally weak as a man. I mean, it's just morally insipid for him to say that, because every single day I did as much as I possibly could for him. If he doesn't have the capacity to hear what I'm saying or hear what other people are saying, if he wants to take the position that he's above all suggestions, then I don't know what to say. You know, my preference would be that I never have to make another comment about Mr. Hackford again in my career.

EW Deal. How do you feel about talking about Meg Ryan?

CROWE On the relationship?

EW Yeah. It's the classic movie-star dilemma, isn't it? How do you live your private lives when you're two of the most watched people on the planet?

CROWE Carefully. But the thing is, how can you deny yourself something that was absolute and passionate and gigantic? We fell in love. It happens-thank God. It was an incredibly intense period of my life and obviously of her life. She's a magnificent person. If anything, I owe her an apology for not being as flexible as I might have been. I don't think I'll ever make that mistake again.

EW You mean about not leaving your farm in Australia to be with her in Los Angeles?

CROWE You know, I'm putting myself in a bad spot here. What I've just told you is more than I've ever said publicly, but it isn't enough. In black and white on the page, it won't be big enough to convey how huge and important that relationship was to me. How important she still is to me. But I don't want to say any more because it's really nobody's business.

EW All this prying into your personal life - isn't that part of the Faustian deal you make when you become a movie star? You give up your privacy?

CROWE The deal is in constant renegotiation. I think there is a point where I can still work at the highest level without having all this other stuff. The only movie that made me tabloid fodder is Gladiator. The other films got a high level of critical response, but it wouldn't have happened without Gladiator. And I'd be surprised if I have a second movie that becomes as much a part of the zeitgeist. So sooner or later the attention will die down.

EW But there have been some obvious personal issues that have made you tabloid fodder as well.

CROWE But it wouldn't have mattered without Gladiator. Nobody would have cared. Gladiator was in a whole different category. And nobody predicted it. The day before the release, people were still patting me on the back and patronizing me: "It's okay. You might get another job."

EW And you ended up winning an Oscar for it. Incidentally, you seemed a little tense up on the podium that night. Were you nervous?

CROWE Probably the most adrenalized I've ever been in my life.

EW The next one will be easier.

CROWE If. If there is a next one.

EW Basically what you're saying, though, is that you're not entirely comfortable being a movie star, or at least being famous.

CROWE All that stuff, this public persona of me - let's call him the wild man - that is not helpful. It doesn't make me more of a box office draw. It's the quality of my work that makes people want to go to my films. All the other stuff is superfluous. All the National Enquirer stuff, the jabs in the gossip columns, trying to belittle me by associating me with people sexually or whatever - all of that is bullshit. It's all a negative and it's actually really bad for what I do. Because when I walk into a room now, all this other stuff comes with me. All this baggage that has nothing to do with reality. I mean, look at the newspapers the last couple of weeks. Apparently there was a stampede on my farm.

EW There was?

CROWE No, it's not true, mate, but it's in the newspapers. There was a whole bunch of shit about me buying a villa in Tuscany, too. I've never been to Tuscany, as much as I'd like to go. And my Italian real estate portfolio is nonexistent.

EW So all the stories in the gossip columns are untrue?

CROWE Even when they know the truth about a story, they make it up - if the truth doesn't suit them. This whole Courtney Love thing, for instance. There was no sexual relationship.

EW She was quoted recently as saying that all you two did that night after the Golden Globes was come back to your suite ...

CROWE This very room, actually ...

EW ... and write poetry and cry.

CROWE She's a fucking - well, okay. That's not necessarily 100 percent on the ball, either. She was going through kind of a hard time. I'm a gentle soul, so we sat down and found a way for her to express what she was feeling, which was writing it down. And she got to the point where what she was writing was really upsetting. But it was brilliant. She's a poetess. She has a lot of great stuff inside her, if she would just concentrate on the work. I always had a lot of time for her until earlier this year when she kind of verbally attacked a really good friend of mine, so now I see her in a different light.

EW You're referring to the Oscars, when you took your ex-girlfriend Danielle Spencer and Love made a scene banging on your limo window?

CROWE Yeah. And also the fact that she didn't come out and say, "No, it wasn't a sexual relationship" until 10 or 11 months later. That bothered me. She got pregnant and had a miscarriage or something, so it was printed that it must be my child, right? She didn't come out and say it wasn't possible since there was no sexual relationship. And the thing is, I don't believe it's the gentleman's prerogative to ring up the media to deny a sexual liaison. It's ungallant, for a start. Anyway, every single one of those publications that ran the story [about my being the father] knew it wasn't true. And they ran it anyway.

EW There was a lot in the papers back then about a kidnapping plot. You had FBI agents following you around the Golden Globes. Did they ever catch the guys?

CROWE I can't really talk about it. All I can say is that it's been partially put to rest. There were two streams of threat, one of which has been tied up and the other is still floating out in the ether. The weirdest thing about that was having to attend the awards with 12 identically dressed guys with earpieces and not being able to talk about why. People were like, "Who does he think he is - Elvis?"

EW Not to get too personal, but I wanted to ask you a few questions about growing up ....

CROWE I'm planning on it soon.

EW You were born in New Zealand, moved to Australia when you were 4, and then got your first acting gig at 5?

CROWE I was 6, in 1970. It was an Australian TV show called Spy Force . My parents were caterers on the set and my mother basically volunteered me. I was one of about 20 or 30 orphans who were about to be slaughtered during World War II and covert Australian agents come in and save the day. Funnily enough, I wasn't in the last scene because I got so bored I took one of the fake guns and ran into the bushes by myself for three hours.

EW Giving directors a hard time even then.

CROWE Yeah, but that's when I knew I wanted to be a performer.

EW But you wanted to be a musician, no? You still do. You still perform with your band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts.

CROWE That's kind of a difficult thing, because I don't need it. I'd be fine committing my songs to paper or tape by myself, without it being a public thing. But I have a group of people who've been involved in this band for 17 years. And the only thing that gives them a platform for their work is also the only thing that prevents them from being taken seriously: me.

EW You had an earlier musical incarnation in Australia as Russ Le Roq.

CROWE Le Roq, right. I played rockabilly in '50s nightclubs. I could write songs quite easily as a young fellow, but I wasn't giving anything of myself to them. It was like writing advertising jingles. It was all crap, but it allowed me to explore myself without being me, if you know what I mean.

EW You released a single back then called "I Just Wanna Be Like Marlon Brando." Do you remember the lyrics?

CROWE Yeah, sure.

EW Let's hear some.

CROWE Fuck off.

EW I'm wondering if you wrote the song because as a kid you really wanted to be like Brando. After all, there's an obvious irony here ....

CROWE I'd never even seen a Marlon Brando movie when I wrote that song. I was 16. I wrote the song as a gag about this guy I knew at the time. But Brando was a gigantic actor. Still is. The first time I saw On the Waterfront I went straight out and got A Streetcar Named Desire. That's when I started to realize what he was all about. He committed to things on a level that was way outside the norm. And then you've got De Niro after him. The mark is always changing. I mean, after what De Niro did with Raging Bull, an absolute commitment to your cinematic performance is the starting point. It's a given.

EW What about Laurence Olivier's famous suggestion to Dustin Hoffman: "Dear boy, why don't you try acting?"

CROWE You know, fuck him. I mean, I know what he's talking about. You can't sit around all day in character. You've got to have objectivity to what you're doing. But Olivier is from a school before Method acting, so he never really put his toe in the water. He kept a distance from his performance, which is why to me his stuff doesn't stand up. It might have been arresting and fantastic at the time-I mean, he's a bloke whose intellect is a mountain and I absolutely respect him-but that line to Hoffman always bothered me. All Hoffman was trying to do was commit, you know? He should have been applauded for that.

EW Some roles must be easier to commit to than others.

CROWE They all require commitment. Somebody the other day was saying to me that they liked my performance in The Insider and in this new movie better than the one I gave in Gladiator. I was like, "Hold on a second, mate. Gladiator was a fully emotionally realized performance. Every now and then we'd fight some tigers, all right, but the emotional journey this guy was on is why people loved it."

EW But when every role requires a De Niro-esque commitment, how do you choose your pictures? Every choice becomes extremely important.

CROWE It's about goose bumps, man. I read the damn script. If I start digging it, I literally get goose bumps on my skin. I get a physical reaction to it and that's the movie I make. That's why it's so unpredictable what I'm going to do next. It's not like I to be in a movie wearing a toga."

EW Perhaps now's the time to mention another of those nasty rumors: that you're going to star in a big-screen version of Hogan's Heroes.

CROWE I had a conversation about that with [A Beautiful Mind producer] Brian Grazer, who was pursuing the rights. I'm not attached to it. I haven't read a script. But we were talking about making it more like Stalag 17 and The Great Escape. A serious movie about prisoners of war.

EW You got Hogan's Heroes on Australian TV?

CROWE Yeah, of course we did. The guy who played Newkirk [Richard Dawson] was amazing. His accents were spot-on.

EW Have you ever had goose bumps over a script and not gotten the part?

CROWE Many times. But fuck them - that's their bad luck.

EW Name one.

CROWE I really loved the script for Shakespeare in Love. It was one of seven scripts [Miramax chief] Harvey Weinstein sent me. At the time, I had a very aggressive relationship with Harvey, mainly coming from him. He wanted me to sign a four-film deal, which wouldn't give me control of the characters I was going to play. For some reason he couldn't understand why I didn't think that was a good idea. So he sent me these scripts to illustrate that he was the man in town with the best material. I gave him my critique of each and he went, "Who the fuck do you think you are?!" He was shaking his head, saying "You'll never get anywhere in this business." I think the thing that pissed him off was that I had actually read all seven. But the Shakespeare screenplay was fantastic, so I met with this English bloke who was involved at the time - a great filmmaker, actually, but fuck him, too - and he said his instincts told him I wasn't right for the character. I told him his instincts were fucking shit ass. Obviously we didn't get on very well.

EW Can't imagine why.

CROWE Yeah ... hey, what just fell out of your pocket, mate?

EW A Tic Tac. Want one?

CROWE I thought it was drugs.

EW Right - like I got hopped up to do this interview.

CROWE Well, you'd have to. You know, the guy you're interviewing is supposed to be one crazy motherfucker.