CONTENTS
Title Page
Prologue
Chapter 1: The Beginning
Chapter 2: Crowe the Singer
Chapter 3: Crowe Flying Solo
Chapter 4: Everybody Needs Good Neighbours
Chapter 5: Leading from the Front
Chapter 6: Russell Gets Spotted
Chapter 7: Russell Creates a Buzz
Chapter 8: Russell Saddles Up
Chapter 9: Crowe Flies to Hollywood
Chapter 10: Russell and the Wild West
Chapter 11: L.A. Confidential
Chapter 12: Crowe Makes his Mark
Chapter 13: Russell Comes of Age
Chapter 14: Mad Maximus
Chapter 15: In the Public Eye
Chapter 16: Russell’s Career Adds Up
Chapter 17: Russell’s Reputation Takes a Battering
Chapter 18: Crowe Takes Command
Chapter 19: A Good Year for Russell
Chapter 20: Crowe Saddles Up Again
Chapter 21: Body of Lies
Chapter 22: Read All About It
Chapter 23: Russell and the Media
Chapter 24: Other Sides to Crowe
Chapter 25: Family Man
Chapter 26: Russell Crowe and his Merry Men
Copyright
It was 1994 and a young actor was auditioning for a role in a film that has since been acclaimed as one of the best movies of all time. Most actors aiming to make their mark in Hollywood would have sat nervously and waited patiently for their chance to impress. A nod in agreement here, a smile there and a polite shake of the hands at the end thanking them for their chance.
The intense young man sitting in front of the casting director was no such actor. Having explained in no uncertain terms that he should be given the part in The Shawshank Redemption above everyone else, despite his lack of Hollywood experience, he left the room confident that he had stated his case.
‘The producer chased after me,’ the actor recalled in a 2000 interview, ‘and said: “You’ve got to get smart, kid. You can’t just come into meetings and be that honest, because no one is going to care.”’
He was then given the advice that he should put on an American accent and do everything he could to convince them that he was from there.
‘I told her that if I could con a director into giving me a role, I wouldn’t want to work with him, because I’d believe he was fucking stupid. When I meet a director who understands what the job of acting is, then I’ll work with him.’
Whether things actually happened the way he said it did is beside the point – it was an encounter that sums up Russell Crowe perfectly.
Straight talking, self-confident and possessing of an immediate dislike for anyone who doesn’t take what he does seriously are qualities that have always been present in the actor. Of course, that also seems to go hand in hand with insecurity issues and a striving for acceptance and to be loved. But in a town where studio bosses like their films made with minimum of fuss, that sort of behaviour is flagged as one thing and one thing only – trouble.
Russell approaches his roles with an intensity that other actors can’t – and won’t – reach. And woe betide anyone who can’t see that for themselves.
It’s something that has always been with him – and it still rages inside now. Russell wants his roles to mean something, and even now he is dismissive of actors who have hit the big time and rested on their laurels.
‘I don’t use my “celebrity” to make a living. I don’t do ads for suits in Spain like George Clooney, or cigarettes in Japan like Harrison Ford. And on one level, people go, “Well, more fool you, mate, because there’s free money to be handed out.” But to me it’s kind of sacrilegious – it’s a complete contradiction of the fucking social contract you have with your audience. I mean, Robert De Niro’s advertising American Express.
‘That kind of credibility thing doesn’t get me any Brownie points at all. There doesn’t seem to be that understanding of why you bother to not prostitute yourself.’
A quick look at his background and you would be excused for thinking that Russell was always destined for a life in films. His parents, Alex and Jocelyn Crowe, his grandfather and his mother’s godfather were all involved in the movie world.
But his parent’s involvement in the industry was limited to on-set catering, while his grandfather, Stan Wemyss, was a film documenter during World War II – a job that he did so well that he won an MBE for his bravery and was lauded by his peers for his stark, graphic black-and-white images of troops under fire.
That said, his family’s involvement with the industry meant that it was a world that Russell could flit in and out of whenever he chose. ‘From a very young age I spent the hours after school, weekends and holidays on film sets. I ran around knocking on all the doors and annoying the adults, you know? It took away that mystery. I knew when something came on television that there was nothing behind that façade.’
Growing up in this environment was no doubt thrilling for a young mind but, through observing what worked, what didn’t and what different directors wanted, he was almost learning a new language. And it was a language that agreed with him, fitting in perfectly with a working environment that is far more intense than most.
Being an actor is not for everyone. It can be tedious, with hours upon hours spent waiting around and it can mean fits of rage because the pressures and long hours become common. But, it is all done to serve the script, and when you step up to utter your dialogue, everything that has gone before is forgotten in an instant. That magical moment when it’s just you and your co-stars – nothing else matters. The arguments, the endless discussions about the script and the occasional stroppy moment that could get you fired in any other industry mean nothing if you can bring it together when it matters.
You could say that Russell fell into the job because of his childhood surroundings, but then you could just as easily say that Russell was always destined to flourish in these surroundings.
His blistering screen performances have made him one of the greatest actors of his generation. But his headline-grabbing antics off-camera have also ensured that he’s become one of the most read about as well.
In short, he’s a movie star in every sense of the word. A mongrel of Hollywood history – the glamour and stoicism from the early days of the film industry blended with the intense method acting of the 1960s and 1970s.
This is his story.
‘He was always the leader.’
– Jocelyn Crowe, his mother
Russell Ira Crowe was born on 7 April, 1964, much to the joy of his parents and the bemusement of his older brother Terry. He was born in Wellington, New Zealand – a city that would become