Source: Daily Telegraph | Sydney Confidential
January 31, 2001
Bush fun soothes Russ
Within the space of a week Oscar nominee Rusty Crowe went from mixing on Tinseltown's glitzy Golden Globe red carpet to drinking with the locals at the Coramba Hotel.
With his choice of Australia Day celebration, Crowe proved he is just as comfortable with rugby league and the country life than any Hollywood soiree.
Wearing an Akubra hat and trademark flanno, Crowe mingled with revellers at the Orara Valley Axemen's Australia Day celebration -- where The Coffs Harbour Advocate reported he hardly stood out with his bush beard.
Crowe, whose love of league goes back to his childhood, threw a bash to benefit the local team and signed posters to be auctioned off for the club.
At the knees-up he hung out with Wests Tigers' coach Terry Lamb -- as the Tigers trained at the Coramba Sports Ground in the afternoon before their trial match against Newcastle on Saturday night.
Crowe flew country singer Felicity, the one-time girlfriend of footballer Tim Brasher, in from Tamworth in his helicopter for the gig.
"It was great to see Russell come out to support the club as well as the Orara Valley, seeing as he had just flown back from America and hadn't rested for more than 30 hours," Axeman president Kevin Elks told The Advocate.
Crowe is a special guest along with Viv Richards at the upcoming Allan Border Medal where he will perform with his band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts from their album Bastard Life or Clarity.
Meanwhile, the insatiable appetite the US has for all things Crowe continued with more details filtering from Russell's post-Globe performance, which, if you believe all the stories, made him one busy boy that night.
According the New York Daily News, while Crowe was making the party rounds, he saw one woman he particularly liked and motioned for her to come over to where he was seated.
"Unbeknownst to him, this woman was a film executive who was working the very party Crowe had just dropped into," the newspaper says.
"He offered her a cigarette, and she accepted. Then, after a moment or two of small talk, a beefy security guard watching over Crowe tapped the woman -- who he thought was an overly keen fan -- on the shoulder and told her to move along.
"As the woman was pushed backwards, Crowe said: 'At least you got a free cigarette'."
Source: The Sunday Telegraph
January 31, 2010
Danielle Spencer on life with a Hollywood hero
By Angela Pulvirenti
After marrying her Hollywood hero, Danielle Spencer put her music on hold as she feathered the Crowe family's nest. Now the songstress is spreading her wings.
When I first met Danielle Spencer, she'd just been signed to a major record label and was on the verge of releasing her debut album, White Monkey. I'd been warned she was a shy and reluctant interviewee.
Her music - evocative vocals about themes such as suicide and infidelity, encased in Tori Amos-like soundscapes - did hint at a measure of inner turmoil.
In person, the singer was inconceivably petite. In an awkward attempt at an ice-breaker, I asked how there was room in her body for all her internal organs.
Her response was deadpan: "There isn't. I've had some of the less important ones removed."
The wicked smile that broke across her face shut the door on preconceptions about her being introverted and reluctant. Instead, she was easygoing, self-deprecating and up for a few drinks at the bar afterwards.
Back then (almost a decade ago), Spencer had nothing but her own creative priorities stretched out in front of her.
She didn't know that in a few months, she'd accompany an old friend to the 2001 Academy Awards.
And she certainly didn't know that, in April 2003, she'd accompany him down the aisle of a church near Coffs Harbour, while the world looked on.
I've watched as she's made the transition from actor and emerging singer/songwriter to wife-of-Russell-Crowe, gracefully supporting her husband's extraordinary career trajectory (and sometimes turbulent relationship with the media), while remaining elusive public property herself.
I've also observed her lovingly but firmly steer their sons, Charlie, 6, and Tennyson, 3, through a centred, unaffected childhood.
Other than the fact she now lives in a much bigger house (and sometimes 'the Gladiator' is making a cup of tea in the kitchen), it's easy to forget the exceptional circumstances of her life.
The 40-year-old says her greatest challenge these days - particularly with the release of her second album, Calling All Magicians, only weeks away - is no different from any other working mother: finding time for herself.
This second album has been a long time coming. The plan was to release it in the year following the wedding, but then the couple's first child was conceived on their honeymoon.
"It was a bit of a shock," admits Spencer, dressed today in her usual ethereal rock-chick get-up. "Russell was always lobbying to start a family as soon as possible, but I didn't have the same sense of urgency."
Shortly after Charlie's birth, the family called a hotel in Toronto their home, while Crowe took on the punishing role of world champion boxer Jim Braddock in Ron Howard's Cinderella Man.
"I couldn't go for a walk without being chased down the street by multitudes of photographers desperate for a shot of Charlie. I was stuck in the hotel, feeling pretty isolated," she recalls, taking a sip of peppermint tea.
"I realised it was going to be a challenge to keep my own priorities alive."
She also acknowledges that motherhood threw her into a more vulnerable state than she'd anticipated.
"On one hand, I was amazed at how wonderful it felt to be a mother and what it opened up in me emotionally but, at the same time, I felt so much fear that something bad might happen to Charlie.
"I remember Russell and I lying awake one night, looking at each other, and he said, 'This fear is never going to go away.'"
Eighteen months later, Spencer had relaxed into parenthood and felt ready to reignite her musical aspirations.
Living in a "sort of castle" in Provence, France, while Crowe filmed Ridley Scott's A Good Year, she rented a cottage and converted it into a makeshift recording studio.
Her long-time friend and producer Vince Pizzinga flew over from LA and the pair went to work on some basic demos. "It felt so good to be creative again," she says. "I thought I'd go home and really get the project going."
Then she discovered she was pregnant with her second child. "I admire women who have the focus and energy to raise babies and work simultaneously," she says.
"I just don't have it. I knew I didn't want to split myself down the middle that way while Tennyson was a baby." So, Project Second Album was shelved again.
A couple of years later, Crowe shot 3:10 to Yuma with Christian Bale, and the family found themselves living in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Spencer tried writing songs again, but artistic cohesion continued to elude her as she settled the children into another new environment.
Knowing a six-month stretch at home was on the horizon, Spencer waited and then scheduled some serious songwriting time. "I put a lock on the door so I knew I couldn't be disturbed.
Russell can struggle with my need for privacy," she admits. "It's probably the hardest thing about being married to me, the fact that I crave time by myself. I try to explain I'm not shutting him out - I'm shutting myself in."
The couple first met in a Sydney cafe in 1989 and a brief liaison developed into a loyal friendship.
"We've supported one another through tough times," she explains, recalling the dejected phone calls during his trailblazing move to LA.
"I admire his drive and perseverance. I always knew that drive, combined with his talent, would take him a long way."
All the way to becoming an Oscar-winning superstar, who, she says, "is still just a dad who walks around the house in a Rabbitohs tracksuit".
Not that Spencer is immune to his onscreen appeal. During a recent solo trip to New York, she turned on the TV in her hotel room just as Gladiator started.
"I'd forgotten how sexy Russell was in it," she says. When he called halfway through the film, she told him, "I'll call you back - I'm enjoying watching you run around the Colosseum in your little dress."
The parents are committed to keeping their sons' feet planted on the ground. "We want to raise decent, accountable people. But I'm definitely the bad cop," she laughs.
"The kids adore Russell, but they know he can be a bit of softie."
As evidence, she recounts a recent attempt by Crowe to lay down the law to Charlie, who replied: "Daddy, you're not the boss; Mummy's the boss. You're just her assistant."
It's no wonder Spencer has created such a close-knit family, being the product of one herself.
While her parents, Julie and Don (the musician and long-time Play School host), separated when she was in her 20s, she says they did it without disprupting the family's unity.
"They've continued to love each other as friends and regularly socialise. It's a rare situation."
With her father's encouragement, Spencer started playing the piano at the age of four, and wrote her first song at 13. Later, at Sydney's Davidson High School, she concentrated on studying dance and caught the acting bug.
Her mother vividly recalls being pulled aside by the drama teacher and told, "Danielle is one of the most talented pupils we've ever had. I really think she should go to NIDA."
But, at 18, Spencer landed a role in the musical Rasputin, starring Jon English and Angry Anderson.
Over the next 10 years, she worked steadily in film (What the Moon Saw and The Crossing, alongside Crowe) and TV (Home and Away, All Saints and the UK series Minder).
Through it all, she never stopped writing music. "It's how I exorcise my inner turmoil. I'd do it even if I thought my songs would never be heard."
Recorded with Grammy-winning producer Tony Visconti (known for his work with David Bowie in the '70s), Calling All Magicians is a collection of atmospheric folk-pop, with haunting vocals that are both intimate and self-assured.
Her hope is that it "connects with an audience and transports them somewhere a little bit magical".
The title track is her appeal to form an army of people who can lead the world to a better place, "an army of those who have something extraordinary to offer; real wisdom or empathy. It's a call to people with some 'magic' in their soul."
I tell Spencer that, to me, she's one of those people. She smiles self-consciously, squeezes my hand and says what I've been waiting to hear for the past two hours: "Shall we just have one drink?"
Source: nine-to-five.whereilive.com.au
January 31, 2011
Interview: Russell Crowe
By Michele Manelis
In 'The Next Three Days', a married couple's life is turned upside down when the wife is accused of a murder. As her mental health deteriorates in jail, her husband, John Brennan, played by Russell Crow decides to break her out. But when circumstances change he suddenly has 72 hours to save everything he lives for.
MM: This is a different type of role for you, in that you weren't so much of a bad ass.
RC: You mean like my other bad ass roles like John Nash ... yeah, yeah. (laughs)
MM: How did you approach the new type of role?
RC: Well first I'd wake up in the morning, having learnt my lines, I'd get in the car, or on my bicycle, I'd go to the set, and when Paul (Director Paul Haggis) said "action" ... Sometimes you get on the bike in the morning, and you get a couple of kilometres down the road, and you go "whoa", "breezy", or "hey, this is great this morning!". (laughs) I really like to bike around the place, particularly if it's new, because then I get the North, South, East and West sorted. I know that's sort of an old school, Aussie farm boy thing, but that's just the way it is. It came in really handy in this movie, because Paul wanted to shoot sitting in the back of the car, saying "go left, go right, go left, don't worry about the rehearsal, we're just shooting, keep going, keep going" and after an hour he goes "where are we? Can you get me back to the set?" And I'd go "yeah, no problem". I'd be driving along and he'd be (laughs) still driving from the back seat, still directing. "I don't think we're going to find it, no I really don't think ... . oh, there it is, great!"
MM: Did you ever get lost on your bike trips?
RC: You always get lost, that's the fun of it. You get lost and you go "ooh, where am I now?". You go down the hill and you go "oh, I see, that relates to this".
MM: How did it go acting with the young boy in the movie, Luke?
RC: His name is Ty Simpkins, and he's a very fine little actor, and as the days and weeks sort of rolled by, we just got closer and closer. I was away from my family for 87 days making this film, and I remember that number, because I was counting them down, and when I got home, I said to the wife (Danielle Spencer - see picture, below) "look, if you can't be energised to at least take part of the strain of this, being away, then I'm not doing it anymore." And I haven't since. It became a very centralising, settling kind of thing for me, spending time with Ty everyday and just talking to him and stuff. A lot of rock stars say it's good to go on the road and it's great to get home, but when I'm home, I'm suddenly antsy to get back out on the road again, which I can't stand.
MM: Are you that way about movies?
RC: I love being on a film set. That's a real simple thing for me. When I'm walking towards the camera, it quite often goes through my head, this is where I should be, this is my thing. We had a really cool DP (cinematographer) on this film, a guy called Stephane Fontaine, but for the first few days, I thought "oh this guy's got no sense of humour at all". But then he was just sly, really sly and dry you know, and after three or four days he was throwing these little zingers back at you, and I thought "oh this is going to be fun". So I would quite often just sort of sit there, just to annoy him, (laughs) to apply a little bit of pressure, you know, when I say "annoy" I mean, just enjoying each other's company.
MM: Your character does go through a lot of research on the internet. What's the wildest thing you've come across on the internet?
RC: (Laughs) How much more loaded can you make your question? Do you do this to the rock 'n' roll people as well, or do you just save this shit for me? (laughs) What's the wildest thing you've come across on the internet?
MM: Well, it's amazing what you can learn to build.
RC: That's more sort of the question for (director) Paul (Haggis) because he's obviously the geek that does that sort of searching around. For me, the computer is really about email and that sort of stuff. I don't really go searching around.
MM: (Your character) is a college professor. Research is what he does, and yet, real life intervenes. Can you tell us a bit more?
RC: Well one of the things I like about the film is that you see him go through the process of the research and you are thinking that maybe some of this stuff isn't going to come in handy or useful or whatever, and then he does certain things and you realise "oh no, he really thought this out". His plan is multi-layered. I think that's one of the things that energises that last act. When you realise that he did a certain thing or stepped over a line or a darker side of life or whatever, and not fully realised that comes with a certain level of commitment.
MM: Would you personally go through this, knowing that there's so much at stake - would you attempt to rescue your wife from jail?
RC: I keep answering "yes" to that, but I can imagine the articles that are going to come out of that piece of silliness. I mean, I answered a simple question the other day. Somebody said: "So, I hear you've been watching The X Factor". And I go: "Yeah, me and my wife like to watch it a couple of times a week, sit down and have a little date night, have dinner and watch The X Factor." And that turned into "Russell Crowe loves reality television" or something like that. So, to simplify it, I think I can quite clearly, cleanly say that I would do anything for my wife.
MM: How are you able to embody these people that are different from some of the action figures you do? Where do you find these characters, because you do them very well?
RC: I question that, because even Gladiator, it's not a big character. Certain circumstances put him in a certain situation. I read a thing the other day. It was supposed to be a positive review of this (The Next Three Days). The guy said he really enjoyed it and everything, and it's so good to see me doing something other than clichéd Ridley Scott epics. I'm like "kiss my patootie". (laughs) That's ridiculous, I've done two out of 36 movies or whatever. How did it suddenly become a cliché that I do epics with Ridley all the time? We've done two.
MM: So you read that? Why do you read reviews?
RC: Well it just comes up. It's not like I go searching for it. it's not like I had to get a pick and shovel and go down to the bottom of the mine. (laughs) Paul is more affected than I am by it, but it's just interesting what people say, the perspectives that they take.
MM: How was it working with Elizabeth Banks?
RC: It was good. It was enjoyable. The thing with Elizabeth, we had an audition process, and she sort of won the day, and then I had to defend Paul's decision to actually have an audition process and let the person who won the day win the day. I said to him on the phone "I don't think you should acquiesce to talking to other actresses and stuff because you said you were going to audition. She was obviously the best on the day, so it's really bad karma to now go out and say "forget that", so I was naturally defending her from the beginning. (Having other actors) made it fun for me, because you are looking at the schedule, and you are realising "Oh, I've been working for most of the week by myself in a garage somewhere, filing a key down or whatever" and "Ooh, I've got Daniel Stern tomorrow. That will be fun". So that was cool.
MM: Are you going to go out on the road with the band anytime soon?
RC: There is a big plan at the moment for May, but one of the guys had a bit of bad family news a while ago, so plans may change. So we'll see.