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Russell Crowe: Glad to be a gladiator

By Andy Culpepper
CNN Newsource Entertainment Senior Correspondent

May 4, 2000
Web posted at: 6:09 p.m. EDT (2209 GMT)

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Call it a throwback to "Ben Hur" or "Spartacus."

"Gladiator," the new Roman Empire-era film from director Ridley Scott ("Alien," "Blade Runner") has a bigger budget, to be sure, and special effects have allowed Scott to add plenty of razzle-dazzle to the mix of tigers, chariots and sword play. There's also a new hero -- as countless billboard advertisements have told motorists from lofty perches above roadways.

Charlton Heston and Kirk Douglas have been replaced by Oscar-nominated actor Russell Crowe, most recently seen in last year's "The Insider."

And Crowe, 36, says that despite the many high-tech advances made since the earlier cinematic days of the wide-screen Roman Empire, at least one fact remains the same: Heroes still get the stuffing beaten out of them.

"Just a little bit, yeah," he laughs. "Just around the edges."

Whistle-blower to tiger slayer

The observation causes a wry smile to cross the actor's face as he recalls the varying demands of his last three films. For "The Insider," Crowe packed on the pounds -- some 40 of them -- for the paunchy role of a middle-aged tobacco-industry whistle-blower. No stress there.

"Mystery, Alaska," which also bowed last year, took Crowe to the frozen North and put him on skates in a comedy about hockey players. Nothing violent there.

Was there a pattern developing?

"Yeah," Crowe says. "I thought after 'Mystery, Alaska' I couldn't possibly find a movie that I could get that beaten up, you know? But I did. I managed it."

And managed it in a big way, as Crowe discovered when he and Scott reviewed pending battle scenes. "You know, when we were doing the schedule, we said, 'These fight sequences are pretty big, so we should block like seven days between each one where I'm just doing walking/talking scenes.'"

If the scene's good, do it

But he has only himself to blame for the punishing schedule, and the New Zealand-born actor doesn't deny it. He can like a scene so much that he fails to think about its potential physical discomforts.

"Funny thing is, I get so taken with the stories," he explains. "I don't consider that this scene may be very good, but (that) it's played in your underwear -- in the North Sea.

"I don't think about things like that until I'm doing it, and then I go, 'What the hell were you thinking, boy?'"

That's OK. Scott noticed Crowe's predilection for picking perverse material when he began assembling "Gladiator"'s cast.

"Russell was really always my first choice," insists Scott, despite rumors that Mel Gibson turned down the part after deciding he was too old to play a gladiator. "I noticed (Crowe) maybe five years ago in 'Romper Stomper' and I thought he was somebody worth watching."

Different characters, movies

Crowe has played varied ends of the spectrum.

In "Romper Stomper," (1992) he was an insensitive skinhead punk. In "The Sum of Us," (1994) he played a gay son to a dad who suffers a debilitating stroke.

"Once in a while," Scott says, "somebody comes along, and he's got all those little elements that accumulate together into making him."

Still, Scott, who's a friend of Michael Mann, Crowe's director in "The Insider," decided to ask a second opinion. "So I called him (Mann) up and I said, 'How is he?'"

Scott went looking for references? "Of course."

Will 'Gladiator' slay 'em?

Stories from the set portray Crowe as a sometimes difficult perfectionist. Perhaps so, but the hard-driving attitude is paying off, for critics have lauded his performance in this latest movie. One weekly magazine has called the film a certain summer box-office blockbuster.

If so, it means a really good year for Crowe could become a really great year. "The Insider" brought him industry acclaim with an Academy Award nomination. "Gladiator" could make him, finally, a household word.

"Well, it's a great privilege, mate," Crowe says of the Oscar nod. "It sort of puts me in a category for the rest of my career that I'm very thankful for."

Next, Crowe will shoot a film directed by actress/filmmaker Jodie Foster (the two were hand in hand at January's Golden Globe Awards). As for his next role, he'll actually play someone with an Australian accent -- in other words, his own. It's the first time in a long time he hasn't had to master a dialect for a role, and the irony amuses him.

"I was talking to somebody yesterday," he recalls, "and they say, 'You know, people are going to think you're putting another accent on.'"

Summer comes early to the cineplex
May 2, 2000
'Beauty' is a wonderful thing to Oscar
February 15, 2000
Critic's Choice Awards echo Golden Globes
January 25, 2000
Review: A director's Mann-ly 'Insider'
November 5, 1999
'The Insider' goes public
November 4, 1999

Official 'Gladiator' site
DreamWorks SKG

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