RUSSELL CROWE
last year’s Best Actor Oscar winner, offering potential 2002 winners some advice :

 

“Take you time and relax … walking up to the stage to accept an Oscar is like `floating,’ so it’s very important to stay calm. It does feel like you can float up there, but my advice would be just to use the stairs and stay calm, because in that adrenalized situation a second is a lot longer than you think it is. Some people tend to rush through what they were going to say. But these things don’t come around very often, so just take a deep breath and savor it … and make sure you are not backstage later kicking yourself for forgetting somebody you wanted to talk about.”

Is that what they taught you in journalism school? How to rephrase movie titles?

--Russell Crowe, in response to a reporter's question, "What makes a mind beautiful?"

MSNBC.com, March 25, 2002.

Being a celebrity has its perks -- money, fame, free shoes -- but thankfully, there's a great equalizer: Freedom of speech. Sometimes celebs are funny, sometimes they're mean -- and sometimes they're downright embarrassing. Here's this week's proof...

My language was excessive because I was livid [and] I behaved inappropriately. I was overreacting because I felt passionately about it at the time.

He can say that, but I think he's being fundamentally weak as a man. I mean, it's just morally insipid for him to say that, because every single day I did as much as I possibly could for him. You know, my preference would be that I never have to make another comment about Mr. Hackford again in my career.

--Russell Crowe on Proof of Life director Taylor Hackford, who said the movie bombed because the on-screen romance between Crowe and Meg Ryan couldn't compete with their real-life romance.  Entertainment Weekly, January 4, 2002.

If I ever do that, just shoot me, man.  --Russell Crowe on the possibility of his recording a song on the soundtrack of one of his films.

People, February 11, 2002.

This is where you can read quotes from the man himself:

“One of the things that benefits me as an actor and a person is that I question myself all the time. I am never truly confident of anything regardless of what other people ‘s opinions of me are. But that lack of confidence does not mean a lack of self-belief or a lack of willpower. It just means that I question things. I don’t assume that I am right and I don’t expect success. But success doesn’t surprise me, because I know that I have done the work and I have questioned everything that I have thought about as many times as I can.” --- Actor Russell Crowe on self-doubt.

The more I talk, the more time certain people have to throw their underwear onstage.... And that's very unhygienic.  --Russell Crowe, to a 30 Odd Foot of Grunts audience in San Francisco, on why he likes to keep on-stage chit-chat to a minimum.

New York Daily News, August 29, 2001.

"This is a band, it's not Chippendales. Get the f--- out of here."

On his personality:
"I grew up in Australia, so I've got aspects of both cultures. New Zealanders tend to be very persistent, you know? And Australians are quite happy-go-lucky, so I've got kind of a combination of the two things".

On smoking:
"I started smoking when I was 10. My dad was the manager of a pub, and I was dead certain as a kid that one of those packets on the wall had something other than cigarettes in it. So, I had one of each one until I found out I was wrong, but by then it was too late. But the fact that I could go through a project like that [The Insider] and haven't quit is an indication of the power of this addictive drug. It's not necessarily that I'm stupid; although I will admit to that in a variety of areas."

On filming Gladiator:
"When you walk into the Coliseum, and there's 5,000 extras chanting, 'Maximus! Maximus!' it's thater on a grand scale. It absolutely helps you get into the moment."

On working with the tigers:
"Pretty damn cool, man, although they did tend to slacken off".

On acting:"You've got to take an audience by surprise. You've got a lot of work to do to keep people with you. So take the extra mile."

"If you give over absolutely in that moment, we're going to have a ball, man. And it's going to be real, and it's going to be true, and we're going to look at each other, and that fella says, 'Action,' and we're going to have a little connection -- a little extra connection -- that's just between me and you."

On injuries sustained during Gladiator filming: " I got very injured during the course of this film. We never shut down production or any of those sort of things which would have been nice. I cracked the bottom of my foot and fractured the bottom of my hip. I had both of my bicep tendons pop out of their groove in the shoulder. That's from the weight of the shield when you have forty-five pounds and you are throwing it around with the full extension of your arm.

See, your bicep tendon goes in this little groove in your shoulder. One morning in England I woke up and I had a welt on my shoulder, and I was thinking, "Gee, what is that?" I started playing with it and said, "Oh, that is a part of me." Woopsy. And I had to come back with a shot of Jack Daniels and stick it back in the groove."


On life:"I prefer engaging in life rather than observing it. Get involved! Get it all over you! People get so exasperated with life. They won't let things just happen."

"I can't be dispassionately removed from the things I do. I really feel sorry for people who are, who divide their whole life up into 'things that I like' and 'things that I must do.' You're only here for a short time, mate -- learn to like it."

"A little insanity is good for clarity, don't you think? You have to deal with what comes up. You have to think about things deeply . . . to learn to walk to your own heart. I do it all the time. If I can't . . . how the hell is someone else suppose to?"

On kids and relationships: "I want to have kids, absolutely, but I can't do it by myself. If I could, I'd already have ten kids. The big problem that I have with relationships is sustaining them over a long period of time. It's simply my schedule, and some women just can't deal with things changing that dramatically all the time: and what I look like physically changes all the time too. One day they go to bed with the young, fit bloke of Mystery Alaska and the next they wake up with the fat, bald guy of Insider. It's funny, I never seek relationships with actresses because it gets in the way of the work, but really, at the end of the day, who else is going to understand what you do, or have a balanced attitude towards love scenes? I've had a few arguments about those in the past, but if you don't know the concept of playing a character, you can't understand that." (From Lifestyle Magazine...a New Zealand Publication, 2000)


On himself: "I am a specialist in unrequited love" (mentioned to the audience at the Austin concert)


On watching himself on screen: "I hate it possibly because I play very serious, emotional characters and I have to relive that story when I watch them".

On the Oscars: "It's all a bit boring getting dressed up in a tuxedo and losing at the same time. I am not trying to be cool, and realize it is the ultimate peer-based accolade".

On his role in the Rocky Horror Picture Show: "I was pretty good in heels."

On his roles to date: "I've made 18 movies and I think I've given 18 bad performances. I'm still prepared to believe that I'm learning this job, and sooner or later I might give a performance I like."

On taking holidays: "Never in my life have I gotten on a plane to go for a holiday. I get on a plane and I go to work. When I have a holiday, I’m at home playing with the cows".

On fame: "I was in an Egyptian restaurant in Poland and I signed three autographs within the first ten minutes. I thought, “What the hell is going on here?"

On women: "I've been looking and I hope that when I find the right woman and I do get married that I can enjoy the sort of relationship that my parents have. They celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary earlier this year and they are always off in a corner cuddling.  I have a great deal of respect for women and hopefully when I find the right woman and the situation comes up I can enjoy the same sort of thing that they have.  I hope I can find someone. I've never been engaged. I've never been divorced on anything like that.  Romance is one of the most important things in my life. However much of a hard ass you think I am, there is another side to me and without romance my life would not be worth writing about."

On common motto for acting and music:  
"Learn the dialogue and don't bump into the furniture".

On the media:
"Everyone has a job to do. See there are people who are in the arts...and there are parasites who sniff around other people's poo".

On TOFOG's attitude to Australian audiences:"
The public attitude to what we do at home is really important to us".