Source: The Sun-Herald
March 21, 2004
Crowe bound for Canada
Russell Crowe will leave Sydney for Toronto within the next fortnight to begin filming his role as American boxer Jim Braddock.
Crowe has fully recovered from a shoulder injury that stalled filming by about a month, and looks set to arrive on The Cinderella Man set early next month.
The 39-year-old star (who turns 40 on April 7 ) is expected to travel to Canada with his wife, Danielle Spencer, and baby son, Charles , who has been kept firmly away from the media spotlight since his birth in late December. Crowe's publicist, Wendy Day, confirmed it was likely Spencer and Charles would also spend an extended period of time in Canada, but they might not stay there for the entire film shoot.
"I think they will be [there], but I'm not sure if they're going for the whole time. They will probably be there for a good part of it," said Day.
Day confirmed Crowe would be heading to Canada in "the next couple of weeks".
It will be the first time the Oscar-winning star has left Australia for an extended period of time since marrying Spencer and becoming a father. After an intense period of film work, which culminated in Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World in Mexico in late 2002, Crowe has spent one of his longest non-working periods in Australia. Apart from his national tour with 30 Odd Foot of Grunts and a couple of music gigs in Canada and the US Crowe has spent much of the past 12 months strengthening his personal relationships. It is nearly a year since he married Spencer at his Nana Glen farm, and, of course, the couple have since celebrated the birth of Charles in Sydney.
The Cinderella Man also stars Renee Zellweger and is expected to be released in 2005.
Source: The Daily Telegraph
March 21, 2008
Russ still a bunny love in the US
He's busy with his day job - on the set of State of Play - but being on the other side of the world doesn't mean Russell Crowe is missing out on watching his Bunnies go round this Easter.
The leading man is filming around Washington, DC while his beloved South Sydney had a slow start to the NRL season.
But Crowe's still in his team's corner, organising a special download of the game, with the help of club officials and one of the game's broadcasters Channel 9.
Still, his star pull is still effective from the northern hemisphere, with US rapper LL Cool J expected to be on the sidelines tonight in support of the red and green.
The music megastar was obviously introduced to the game - and the Rabbitohs - by Crowe.
Source: Times Online (UK)
March 21, 2010
Russell Crowe coached to talk like real Robin 'ood
Richard Brooks, Arts Editor
Ay up, me duck, Marian. Russell Crowe has been trained by Hollywood's top voice coach to play the first Robin Hood with an authentic East Midlands accent.
After more than 120 depictions of the outlaw of Sherwood Forest on screen, Ridley Scott, the director, has insisted that his version of the tale features realistic language.
Crowe, a New Zealand-born Australian, and his band of Merry Men have been taught to pronounce Nottingham as "Noddinham", cup as "corp" and taking as "tekking" for the film, which opens in cinemas in May.
It is hoped the end result will be a significant improvement on the all-American tones of Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and the plummy English accent used by Errol Flynn when he starred as the hero in 1938.
Scott's film is an earthier and bloodier recreation of 12th-century Britain than previous swashbuckling versions.
If it were completely faithful to the period, its characters would need to speak in indecipherable old English or Norman French, the language of noblemen at the time.
The East Midlands accent used by Crowe is a contemporary one similar to that of locally-born celebrities such as Su Pollard, the actress, Robert Harris, the bestselling author, who still keeps some of the burr, and that of Steve Coogan's BBC creation, Tommy Saxondale.
Scott hired two voice coaches for his latest venture: Judy Dickerson, an American who has helped Crowe on previous films, including Gladiator, for which he won an Oscar, and Andrew Jack, an Englishman who worked with other cast members, such as Cate Blanchett, who plays Maid Marian.
Instead of picking a Nottingham accent, they chose to focus on nearby Rutland. "It's more rural and softer and so more suited to the countryside of Sherwood," said Jack.
Although it tends to drop its aitches and features greetings such as "Ay up, me duck", the East Midlands accent is not as distinct as cockney, Geordie, Brummie or the country burr of southwest England.
"I'll be honest," said Leon Unczur, the current sheriff of Nottingham, an honorary position held by a city councillor, "it is not very well known or identifiable."
Unczur's father came from Lithuania, but he himself was born and bred in Nottingham.
He is slightly disappointed that Scott's movie was not shot in the region. The filming was mainly in Kent, Hertfordshire and west Wales, partly because Sherwood Forest these days does not have enough trees.
