GLADIATOR: RUSSELL CROWE INTERVIEW

* By Prairie Miller *

Russell Crowe isn't just acting in Gladiator. He's a tough, determined guy in person too, personality traits that matched up perfectly with his rugged Roman General Maximus in the film. Crowe talked about both the small and larger than life aspects that aroused his passions in Gladiator, and the real beating he took in the battle scenes.

RUSSELL CROWE: Hi, how are you doing? Are you all plugged in? Ready to rock and roll?

PRAIRIE MILLER: Sure thing. So how are you feeling after all this madness with Gladiator is over?

RC: Cool. But it isn't over with, is it mate? It continues, on another movie. I just spent nine days hanging out at a helicopter in Poland. But it was a great relief to finish Gladiator, and with some level of confidence. You know, that we had achieved a narrative that people would care about. Because that was the big problem that we had. You know, you can have five thousand blokes charging through the bloody forest on horseback. You can have lions and tigers, and a spectacle as big as you want. But if you don't have a story that means anything to people, then there is really very little point to making the movie. So it was a very hard experience. It was the most physically demanding thing I've ever done. When I made Mystery, Alaska, I didn't think I could find a movie where I could punish myself any more than that. But I was wrong. I have managed to!

PM: What happened to you?

RC: I fell and cracked a bone in my foot. I fractured my hip. Both bicep tendons popped out. I still don't have any feelings in the top of one of my fingers, because it got slashed in the very first battle sequence. You know, different films have different requirements. And if you're ready and prepared for the gig, you just get involved in it. And you do it as good as you can. But I wish the madness would just calm down for a little while. However, having said that, it is my choice to make films. It's the thing that I like to do, and it's the thing that I can do, to what I believe is a quality level.

PM: What magnetic force is at work that draws you to a particular movie?

RC: I'm like a big slut, If I read something I like, I just go off and do it, you know? By rights I should be sleeping, but at the moment I'm making a movie.

PM: Joaquin Phoenix said you were almost immediately like a big brother to him on the set. Does that come naturally to you?

RC: Joaquin needs a lot of help! He's got a completely different viewpoint on the world. And that made for some very, very funny conversations. He's a crack up, and I love him. But he's probably right about me. Human beings need a balance mate, you know? Joaquin needs to have someone spend a little time with him, so he can relax a little bit about the things he's doing. For such a talented actor, he amazes me. He has no recognition whatsoever of just how good he is. He's hilarious, you know?

PM: How so?

RC: You can do a scene with him, and he can bust you apart. And you're thinking, whoa, this kid is cool. But he'll go, I gotta do that again, it was terrible. And I'm like, whatever, let's do it again mate. Then he does it again, and it's even better! But The Gladiator is a big movie, a one hundred and three million dollar movie. There's lots of stuff going on. And taking a little bit of extra responsibility to make it a smoother journey for other people benefits me in the long term. And I don't change my life, I don't tell people to call me Maximus. I don't, you know, do any of that pretentious sort of stuff. You know, because I work between action and cut. However, you do adjust your life. And you adjust parts of your personality within that character. So I think that's possibly what Joaquin is feeling.

But we had some very straight conversations. He's a young fellow who I think has gone down a couple of strange roads in terms of his technique. And we talked about how he requires an external force to get him into the moment. And through a number of hours - and a number of cans of Guinness - I got the point across to him that it's actually an internal journey. And everything that he needs to do with the character lives within him. He just got to be able to get in touch with it. But Joaquin was very nervous on the set. And one night I went to Richard Harris and said mate, what are we going to do with this kid? Like he's asking me to abuse him before takes, because he needs an external force!

So Richard said, let's get him p.... Which means drunk in Commonwealth countries. I'm like, oh great. So we invited him to the trailer at the end of the day of shooting, and we just sat down and had a drink. He got relaxed, told us where he was coming from, and we gave him our opinions from a couple of generations beyond. And he realized that we were dead serious about liking him, you know, whether he liked it or not. And he relaxed, and in my opinion, gave a magnificent performance.

PM: Getting back to the madness of making a film, how do you make it all go away afterwards?

RC: I'm doing the things in my life that I want to do. It affects other people more than it affects me, because it's still the same job that I did when I was six years old. But I'm just getting to a position where I'm being given more responsibility, and I can get more deeply involved. And the deeper the better, baby!

PM: How did you bring out the force of your character in the midst of all the spectacle in the movie?

RC: I think it's a question of just being brave enough to let our relationships become apparent to the camera. Then all of the stuff that appears to be stupid is going to make sense. But I think we just allowed the true connections of where we understood each other, to become apparent. Which is basically the metaphysical and the spiritual. You can never explain why you have an immediate affinity with somebody, you know. You can't, it just happens. Some people you dig, some people you don't. Some people don't like you, some people like you for whatever.

And we just had a connection immediately, and just wanted to make that relationship apparent. And I think with very few words, those characters are with each other, and for each other. Also, because of the seriousness of that connection, it allowed me a great moment. But that's the kind of thing that if you have that openness of a relationship and a belief in each other, you can achieve those sorts of things.

PM: Is that the moment for you as an actor where it all comes together and makes it so real, where you're just so present in the moment?

RC: It's the entire process. Because there are a lot of things about making movies that excite me. Like when you walk into the Coliseum and there's five thousand extras going, Maximus, Maximus, five thousand people screaming. This is theater on a grand scale. And that absolutely helps you get into the moment. In the script, we had this assumed relationship development between Maximus and the crowd. However, over a given period of time, it's the crowd and his popularity that saves his life, okay? And that was just one of those really weird things that was just a natural thing. It just happened. And it was all inextricably attached to the story we were telling.

PM: What first motivated you to be an actor?

RC: Elvis Presley movies. But my mum and dad were location caterers. And my grandfather was a cinematographer, and then later in his career a producer. So I was on film sets from the time I was a little kid. I did my first job when I was six. So I don't think there was ever a series of decisions at that age. It just looked like fun. Somebody asked me if I wanted to do it, so I did it. Coming out of school I knew that's what I was going to be, and that's what I would do. But I just always knew this was going to be my job. And now I can jam with any actor who walks the planet, and know with absolute confidence that I will fulfill the needs of my character, and keep that thing real. I like to do things well, you know. So when I found the thing that I could do well, that's what I was gonna do.

PM: What's coming along for you next?

RC: At the moment I'm doing Proof Of Life, with Meg Ryan, Taylor Hackford and David Caruso. And after I finish that, I'm going to do a film called Flora Plum, being directed by Jodie Foster. I play a beast in a freak show.

PM: What was there about your Gladiator experience that helped you grow as an actor?

RC: I don't know. If I were to answer that simply, I'd be giving you kind of a phony soundbite sort of thing. The whole experience helped me grow, you know? It was an extreme amount of pressure, very long hours, and the difficulty of not having a fully realized narrative before we began. You know, there was a lot of danger involved in this too. I had some hairy things happen there. I got hurt, and we didn't have the budget to slow down. But you see, I took a leap of faith in this film. And if it had turned out bad, that would have probably affected ever making a decision from the same point again. But it's turned out okay, so here we go.

But what I've learned is, as long as you're involving yourself with the right people, then a leap of faith is possible in a feature film. You don't necessarily have to have all the T's crossed and the I's dotted, if you're part of a collaborative team.

PM: What about your music?

RC: www.Gruntland.com is the band's website. We've been playing together since 1984. We record a new album in Austin, Texas this summer, and we'll also be doing some shows in Austin. The new album is called Bastard Life Or Clarity. Because I think it's a choice we all have.

PM: Why Austin?

RC: Because it's the live music capital of the world, baby!

Copyright By Prairie Miller 2000

 (Thanks to Darcy for providing this article)