Behind the scenes with Russell Crowe
No doubt you’ve all seen our From The Red Carpet episode 6 which features interviews with Jennifer Lopez and Russell Crowe – see below – but that’s only an excerpt of the time we spent chatting with the two stars.
We’ll have a more extensive transcript of our chat with J-Lo and her co-star later, but first we thought we’d share the rest of our interview with Russell Crowe.
Even though we’ve been interviewing people for a decade now (Woah! That’s a scary thought!), we were trepidatious.
Arriving at the ever-so-posh Mayfair Hotel where the meeting was scheduled to take place, we proceeded to spend the next three hours waiting in a room full of fellow members of the press. The lengthy waiting time made us more nervous still.
When we got there it smelled like onions and tuna, when we left, the triangle sandwiches were curled at the corners, too dry to emit any more odours.
After the jump read our full interview with Mr. Crowe where he talks about thieving as a kid, the wonder of Ridley Scott and why the idea of him playing Maid Marion is rather ridiculous…
This is the fifth time you’ve worked with Ridley Scott. What’s the best thing about him.
“I just know he’s a great filmmaker and I can rely on him whatever might come up for me while the cameras are rolling and if I see an opportunity I know he sees the opportunity too, so he’s very fluid.
“One of his core things is he’s not afraid of actors. So many directors you work with are petrified of their performers. Not only is he not afraid of actors, he loves actors. He loves the fertility of their imaginations and recognizes a core kindness that you have to have as an actor growing up and he responds to that.
“I’ve seen him over time bring some magnificent performances out of people. He’s probably one of the better directors out there in terms of working with actresses and getting great performances out of them, which he’s not necessarily recognized for – but if you think Sigourney Weaver in ‘Alien’, if you think Susan Sarandon and Gina Davis in ‘Thelma and Louise’, Connie Neilsen in ‘Gladiator’.
Cate Blanchett in this movie – I don’t think she’s been sexier in a film than she has been as Maid Marion.
“I mean this is all based on the fact that I also understand he’s a grouchy old p***k, but I don’t listen to the tone of what he says to me, I listen to what he’s saying to me and that’s a unspoken little pact that we have between us.”
Why do you think the story of Robin Hood has had such enduring appeal?
“In everybody’s heart if your world goes completely pear-shaped, thinking that there might be someone who will stand up and redress the balance is something that we all hope for.
“In our movie we haven’t taken that literally it’s not like Robin goes out and collects 2.7 million bags of gold coins so that he can radically redistribute the wealth we talk about it in a different way, in metaphor, we leap off into the rights and privileges of the ruling class and how they might be redistributed.”
And speaking of stealing did you ever nick stuff when you were younger?
“I was a bit of a light-fingered Larry.”
What did you pinch?
[Said in mock east end gangster accent] “Straight for the cash love, don’t f**k around with anything you have to sell on, or look for a buyer for, look for the dosh.
“I remember when I was really young – maybe five – my dad had just been paid and it was an innocent thing. I took some money out of his wallet. My mum and dad were like hand to mouth so he knew immediately that there was money missing and it was a bit of a problem because I’d spent it.”
What did you spend it on? Sweets?
“Lollies – 100% I was straight down the shop and bought so many lollies it was f***king ridiculous really.
“My dad went to the shopkeeper and I’ll always remember this, he went to him and said I can get angry with my son mate, but he’s only little but you’ve had a five year old walk into your store with a $50 note in his hand and you’ve not enquired where he might have got that from.
“So quite frankly you’re more f***king irresponsible than my son. And I remember thinking, good call dad, it’s his fault!”
Early on there were rumour that your were going to pay Nottingham as well as Robin. We wondered if you weren’t going to don a wig and play Maid Marion too.
“Yeah and Friar Tuck – play everybody. What you’re dealing with there is both Ridley and I are active filmmakers and between the concept and actually making the movie we have made and sold other films so you’re dealing with a situation like now where a journalist is asking you a question and you have to try and answer that without necessarily giving away what you’re doing.
“So we’ve taken the attitude that whatever you’ve known about Robin Hood before is a previously understandable mistake and we’re in the middle of restructuring the story.
“So when Ridley was responding… you’ve seen the film right? So you know that the character I play takes on someone else’s identity so when Ridley was talking about multiple characters that’s what he was talking about.
“But if he’d said the full idea to you three years ago then it wouldn’t have been as interesting to you as when you’re sitting in the theatre now.
“So it’s just one of those things where you try and answer a question without bullshitting, you try and answer without giving away too much detail and the person listening to that answer is not satisfied with what you’ve said in actual words so they extrapolate it and make a whole bunch of assumptions but that’s just the world we live in.”
You play a lot of heroes are you itching to play a baddy?
“You obviously haven’t read my filmography. Go and watch a film called ‘Romper Stomper’. There’s many other baddies in there as well.
I’ve seen ‘Romper Stomper’. I meant have you got any baddies coming up?
“I’m not signed to do anything at the moment I’m just talking to people about various projects.”
Sell me ‘Robin Hood’ in four words.
“Why would I want to do that? This is a very expensive movie, a lot of great actors in it, directed by one of the great visual artists of our time.
“Why would I want to reduce all of that, just to satisfy you?
“You sell it to me in four words. ‘Take your shirt off again’.”
Pardon?
“So you haven’t seen the film?”
I have seen the film.
“When Marion undresses Robin? Didn’t get to you, huh?”
Moving on, there are some pretty impressive fight scenes in the film. Did you suffer any injuries?
“A couple of bruised heels at one point in time, but pretty much got through it only with the injuries I brought into it.”
No Comments
No comments yet.
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
