(Photo: Cosmopolitan (Spain) Thanks to Liza!

Exclusive: Why Russell Crowe's female fans needn't panic yet
By John Hiscock
The Mirror (December 6, 2000)
Copyright 2000 MGN Ltd.

(Note: The Mirror presents this as an exclusive interview, and it sure sounds like Russell in parts, but we'd take it with a grain of salt.)

LOS ANGELES -- GLADIATOR star Russell Crowe is Hollywood's testosterone-fuelled man of the moment.

His passionate romance with Meg Ryan, one of the world's most beautiful women, has reinforced his reputation as the great seducer.

But in an exclusive interview with The Mirror, Russell confessed that the stunning blonde actress is not necessarily the girl of his dreams.

This revelation will come as something of a shock to Meg, whose nine-year marriage to Dennis Quaid collapsed after she began an affair with the Kiwi -born superstar.

"I'm still looking for the right woman," he said firmly. "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 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 marriage 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 or anything like that."

Speaking calmly in his suite at a fashionable Los Angeles hotel, Crowe, 36, refused to talk directly about Meg.

He explained: "It's absolutely inappropriate for me to comment on this situation because regardless of what I say it's going to hurt some people and I'm really not walking on this planet to do that.

"That's got nothing to do with who I am as a person, so any questions pertaining to the relationship at this point in time are inappropriate."

Then, with a shrug, he added: "Let me just say that I'm not getting married this year and I'm not having babies this year either, although sooner or later in life I will want to get married and have children.

"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."

America's sweetheart Meg, 39, fell for Crowe eight months ago on the set of their new thriller, Proof Of Life.

Their relationship came out in the open in June when they attended a David Bowie concert together in London, but Crowe attended last night's Proof Of Life premier in LA alone.

Ryan and Quaid are now in the process of divorcing and plan to share custody of their eight-year-old son, Jack.

CROWE admits his no-nonsense attitude and ironic sense of humour are often misunderstood, particularly in America, where he has a reputation for being "difficult."

He said: "I'm going to be misquoted, misrepresented and misconstrued no matter what I do. I'm going to be the way I am and if people don't like it, well, that's just bad luck.

"It might not go on for too much longer, so who cares really? There's always the chance of getting hit by a bus, so I don't worry about that sort of stuff too much."

Bearded and chain-smoking, Crowe was talking for the first time since his affair with Meg hit the headlines.

Veering from serious to light-hearted, his conversation was liberally sprinkled with four letter words and everyone, from publicists to parking attendants, was called "mate".

Born in New Zealand and brought up in Australia, Russell Crowe is so proud of his background that he persuaded director Taylor Hackford to change the character he plays in his new film Proof of Life from an Englishman to an Australian. Crowe plays a former SAS man now working as a 'K & R' - kidnap and ransom - expert for a London-based insurance company.

He is called in to negotiate the release of an American businessman captured by terrorists in South America. While doing so he falls for the businessman's wife, played by Meg Ryan. "I didn't see any reason why he should be an Englishman," he recalled. "I told Taylor to have a look at the SAS in England, knowing full well that a lot of Australians, New Zealanders and people from Zimbabwe make up the ranks.

In the English-speaking world if you can make it through selection to the SAS it is the highest level of soldiering you can get to. Taylor was surprised, particularly by the number of New Zealanders in the SAS."

It was while they were filming in the steamy heat of Ecuador that Crowe and Meg began their affair, although the director claims he knew nothing of it until he read about it after filming was finished.

Although Crowe and the director locked horns several times during the long and arduous shoot - "I think I got the job because I was the only person who didn't know how difficult it would be to work with Taylor Hackford," he laughed.

He impressed Meg and the rest of the crew with his unfashionable macho attitude and willingness to do his own stunts.

In one scene he risked his life by hanging from a helicopter as it rose into the air surrounded by explosions. Before he did it he talked at length with his friend Tom Cruise, another star who likes to do his own stunts.

"Tom and I talk on a semi-regular basis about how much of your own stunts you should do," said Crowe.

"I was talking to him about the helicopter and he was talking about hanging off a rock in Mission: Impossible 2. I call it a hundred per center, which means it keeps people involved in the movie. If you force a director to shoot a situation falsely, it affects the film so I want to do as much of that sort of thing as I can.

BUT I'm not insane about it. If I can get two strong hands on the skids of a helicopter, I'm not going to fall off.

"It's much better for me to do it rather than sit in my trailer and twiddle my thumbs while somebody else does the fun stuff."

The blood on his face in one scene is real, the result of what he calls "a hairy moment".

"The helicopter was over the centre of an explosion and I copped the full force of it. I had about 20 cuts on my face. That was pretty close."

Thanks to the extraordinary success of Gladiator, Russell is now one of the most in-demand and highly-paid movie stars in the world (currently pounds 10million a picture) although he chooses his projects carefully and insists he never has much money.

"I don't hang on to money for long," he said. "I've got a 10-lane freeway that goes out of my bank account into my friends' and family's hands.

"I've never made any choices based on money and I'm not going to start now.

"I've been choosy since I was six years old when I did my first TV show. And when I was in my twenties it was difficult finding an agent because I was that choosy. People didn't want to represent someone who had an opinion."

Crowe's parents and older brother, Terry, have moved from New Zealand to live with him on his 550-acre farm in the Australian outback, where he took Meg Ryan on a visit in September.

"My family are looked after financially and my mum and dad have a nice place to hang out, although I think my family are really pleased when I'm not around," he said.

"Whenever I'm at home, we've got uninvited guests hanging out at the gate taking photographs and people trying to sneak through the bush and getting bitten by the dogs and then complaining about it. I'm expecting to come across a few bodies when I go home for Christmas."

Crowe is already preparing for his next film, A Beautiful Mind, in which he will play the schizophrenic mathematics genius, John Forbes Nash Jr, who in 1994 was awarded the Nobel Prize for economics.

The role calls for him to age from 25 to 72, and although shooting does not begin until March, he is already attending lectures on mathematics in an attempt to understand the character.

"It's way beyond me at the moment, but I've been focusing on it for a month already and it will come slowly, I hope," he said.

"It's a non-physical role so I don't have to run around or swing a sword or crawl under buildings with a shotgun or any of that stuff."

He sounded almost disappointed.

Landslides, political unrest: All in a day's film work
By Sherri Sylvester
CNN Showbiz Today Correspondent
December 5, 2000

HOLLYWOOD (CNN) -- "Proof of life" refers to the first demand negotiators make of kidnappers: Prove the hostage is still alive.

The phrase also is the title of a film starring Russell Crowe as an expert in "K & R" (kidnap and ransom). "Proof of Life," also starring Meg Ryan, opens Friday.

In the film, Crowe's character is enlisted by Ryan, whose husband (David Morse), an American engineer, is held hostage by guerrilla rebels. The two work closely to gain his release, only to find themselves falling for each other.

In real life, the two developed a romantic relationship as well, and their affair has been the source of endless tabloid speculation and countless paparazzi photos.

The story was inspired by "Adventures In The Ransom Trade," written by William Prochnau for Vanity Fair. The story detailed in the magazine deserves serious discussion, Crowe says.

"This is a multibillion-dollar business based on stealing people's freedom in exchange for money," he says. "We're talking about 30,000 abductions a year -- 5,000 alone in Colombia every 12 months."

The two stars got a first-hand look at the economics of kidnapping. They were protected by a K & R company while making the film, shot on location in Ecuador. Just before filming began, there was a coup d' etat in Quito, one of director Taylor Hackford's planned locations. The coup was short-lived, but the cast and crew faced other potential dangers -- heavy rains created mudslides that threatened to wipe out the set, and high-altitude sickness waylaid several staffers.

Crowe recently talked with CNN about "Proof of Life" and the pressures of life.

CNN: Did you feel you were in a danger zone on the set?

Russell Crowe: From a tourist point-of-view you get a completely different experience when you travel than when you're traveling for work, particularly when you're traveling with 200 other people making a feature film in a country that's not used to supplying the infrastructure that a feature film requires. ... Every day, shooting in Ecuador there were new things to deal with -- the drive to the jungle set was an hour-and-a-half out of Quito ... and with the landslides, you would come around a corner that you had been around 10 times, but now you can't get around that corner (because of a landslide). ... safer for me staying out in the jungle with the wildcats than it was doing that drive every day.

CNN: Does the hardship of shooting on location actually seep into the film and make for a better movie?

Crowe: In some aspects I see that it's beneficial for the film, but I think you are putting a lot of people in danger. This is a very unpredictable place, and it's politically unstable, and there are things that are done in that area of the world on such a regular basis that you are putting 200 people in a very negative situation.

I would argue that you could find that kind of altitude and those kinds of locations somewhere slightly safer -- Northern Queensland comes to mind, in Australia: lovely country, everybody speaks English, and the beer is better.

CNN: In past year you have been the subject of speculative reporting. What is your take on that? Is that part of the business?

Crowe: I think it is completely unnecessary, and I think it fuels areas of people's psyche (that) are kind of unhealthy. And the thing is, if it wasn't shoved under your nose, you wouldn't care about it -- that's the bottom line. There is supposedly a (news) market that is being supplied, but that market has been created by the supplier -- it becomes a chicken-and-egg sort of thing, doesn't it?

In this country ... there's a certain group of parasites that have a constitutionally protected right to make a living out of sniffing through people's garbage and basically stalking people, and I think it really should be examined. Because I don't believe that, just because you are a public figure, that all aspects of your life should be on display.

... Just take, for example: Somebody announces in the press that I'm getting married. Now, I only have one life on earth, one time I'm gonna be here. I'm 36 years old -- I've never been engaged, and I've never gotten married -- but that person who printed that has just stolen some joy out of my life, some possible joy. ... See, mate, I don't think that should happen, and I don't think that should be protected legally. And I don't think that people who sniff through other people's garbage should be serviced in that manner.

Russell Crowe: The Gladiator Speaks
By Davod A. Keeps
Photo by Michael Birt
Rolling Stone (December 14 - 21, 2000)

For Russell Crowe, "The last twelve months seemed like five years." He escorted Jodie Foster to the Golden Globes; was nominated for an Oscar for The Insider; watched his brilliant hockey film, Mystery Alaska, get pucked over at the box office; and became an international star wearing sandals and a leather man-skirt in Gladiator.

In between filming Proof of Life with his on-and off-screen love interest, Meg Ryan, in England, Poland and Ecuador, the thirty-six-year-old New Zealand native, who now lives in Australia, recorded and performed in Austin with his rock group, 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, and dodged the tabloids.

"I do resent being hunted and invaded," Crowe growls. "It's another rank stupidity that we have to put up with because some people have a constitutional right to make money out of being parasites. And there's nothing that we can to about that, except say, 'Yeah, well, kiss my ass, and get the fuck off my property.'"

A natural storyteller, Crowe is the kind of well-read man who will tell you he knows the birth date of St. Genesius, the patron saint of actors. In New York, where, Crowe says, "I'm sittin' in a hotel room fielding business calls; I'm a boring bastard," he reveals how he gains perspective these days. "I've seen these cities, like New York and London, so many times, so I got in the habit a little while ago of getting in a helicopter and having a look from the air. I've done the Manhattan thing, the World Trade Center, the big high winds-flying over the world and scaring the bejesus out of myself, you know?"

What was the event of the year for you?
Watching Kathy Freeman win the 400 meters at the Olympics. A number of years ago, Kathy made a really big statement for Aboriginal Australians by carrying the Aboriginal flag when she won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games. It was a huge controversy, but this one female 400-meter runner has done a massive amount in Australia for reconciliation, simply because of the grace with which she holds herself. And after she crossed the finish line at the Olympics, before she tool the victory lap, she just sat down and took her shoes off.

Were you upset that you weren't asked to duet with Olivia Newton-John at the opening ceremonies?
Um, no, I wasn't upset. I didn't want to have any part of the Olympics in a formal way. That's why I bought my own tickets and sat in the public stands. I think she did a magnificent job - Livvy. That's what we call her Down Under.

Who was your year 2000 gold-medal winner in the course of human events?
It's not really my place to make any political comments about this country. But I think that Bill Clinton is the person of the year. Considering the personal overhaul he's been given in the last few years, you could expect that he would go out quietly. But he's made a stand in areas where there's great disagreement -- like guns and abortion. And the way that he's supported his wife, and tried to morally support this country and point it in a more positive direction in the waning months of his term is a great thing. I applaud him for guarding the largest free economy and democracy in the world right up until he has to hand over the keys.

What makes you say to yourself, "Good on you, mate"?
The thing I'm most proud of doing this year is replanting forty acres on my farm with rosewood, red cedars and a lot of the trees that were once native to the area -- in Australia, the logging was pretty extreme. As soon as the white man landed there, they were basically, "Righto, let's chop them down!"

What's the most humiliating thing that befell you this year?
I was training to do a movie [Flora Plum] about a circus performer and learning this thing called the Spanish Web. It consists of two pieces of material hanging from the ceiling, and you climb up them like a rope and knot them around your ankles and fall backward. And I tore the laborum tissue off the bone inside my shoulder, five meters above the ground with no safety ropes. So I then had to very slowly get myself back down to the ground and tell the trainers, "Excuse me, I'm going to the hospital." There's no words to describe how embarrassed, humiliated, bereft I feel. They've shut the production down. How do you apologize for that?

You don't. You just suffer stoically, don't you?
I was in a massive amount of pain. I've never had any surgery before, and if you go to russellcrowe.com, you can see pictures of my innards. I was sitting in a Melbourne hotel room, not allowed to move very much. So I put it up on the Internet. What else am I gonna do? The great irony, I thought, was putting in on with the headline THE INSIDE STORY. In the first week, it has 130,000 hits! *

Because they thought they were getting the scoop on your love life?
Whoever came up with the concept that "because you're famous, you're public property" is a fucking idiot.

What event tickled your funny bone?
I got made an honorary Texan -- with a certificate and a flag -- by the lieutenant governor of Texas, Rick Perry, which strikes me, who comes from New Zealand, as funny. But it's an honor I take seriously, too. The band and I were down in Austin doing some recording. We played a few shows and donated the money to the People's Community Clinic, so the mayor proclaimed August 11th as 30 Odd Foot of Grunts Day. The lieutenant governor came to the show and Jeffery Katzenberg (a co-founder of DreamWorks SKG) was giving him a little lip about having to leave early. So he put Katzenberg in a headlock for his trouble. In Texas, you gotta be careful who you're talking to.

Did you enjoy the local delicacy known as Frito pie?
I had a lot of barbecue and a lot of Shiner Bock beer, and I've had the black-bean enchiladas, but Frito pie sounds fuckin' disgusting.

What was the oddest thing that you purchased?
This beautiful object made out of oak and brass that I got for a friend's birthday present. Later I found out it was an 1870 Chinese baby bath.

Fill in the blank -- the coolest place I, Russell Crowe, visited this year was . . .
Quito, in Ecuador, where I was filming Proof of Life. On the top of this hill in the old town, there's a statue called the Virgin of Quito. It's a seventy-meter-high aluminum-sheet statue of the Virgin, standing on top of a dragon. My friends who I took on the walk there said, "This is the most effort we've ever seen put into getting up a virgin."

One night we took a different way home from work and passed a sign that basically translates as "the Artists' Cafe." And it looked happy. So we stop and have a beer on the balcony overlooking this huge gorge. And these blokes walked in with bongo drums and guitars, and they turned out to be Manu Chao, this Catalan band I'd been listening to in England, and they basically did a whole concert. They spoke French, everyone else spoke Spanish, and I could barely speak English. It was a great night. The fact that the building kept moving from side to side was a little problematic for me. I'd wonder, "Is that the last shift before it tumbles off the side of the mountain?"

You once said, "Insanity is good for clarity." What's the most insane thing you did this year to achieve clarity?
Ten days after the surgery on my left shoulder, I drove from Melbourne to my farm, which is, like, 1,200 miles, in a right-hand-drive manual car. That means my left hand was changing gears. The doctor was a bit freaked out by the whole idea. But I said to him, "As long as the movements are even, then it's got to have a physiotherapeutic effect." And he went, "Well, I can't disagree with you." "Well, bugger you, then, I'm driving home." 'Cause I just needed the space, man, you know? And the one way that I can do that is in the car.

What was the best music you heard in 2000?
"Into the Labyrinth" by Dead Can Dance. The album is seven years old, but I just got it this year as a present. It's extremely complicated in its sounds and rhythms. It changes from sort of Moroccan-Papua New Guinean to Celtic to Brecht poems put to music. So it's a great album to listen to: It's very atmospheric; it fills the room. You can talk over it or zero in in it, if you want. I've also been listening to David Gray, Travis, and the new album from Sinéad O'Connor. There's an Australian artist, Danielle Spencer, whose album I heard the other day. It's poppy and dancy but also a bit strange.

The gig of the year?
[Laughing] I went to see Kiss in Austin. I got fucking forced into it because we were recording there. Gene Simmons organized it, and he was really cool. Sweet bloke, you know? And the shit with the blood coming out of his mouth -- I've always said, what a silly idea. But seeing it on a big video screen, it's kinda scary. Even though I have no idea what it's supposed to mean.

What fear did you overcome, or what fear came over you in the last year?
I think it's simultaneous: understanding that for this period of time I have to deal with other people filling imaginary blanks about my life.

A f'rinstance, please?
It gets printed that Russell Crowe travels with his own Egyptian cotton sheets, and, of course, by fucking telling you, I'm just making the whole thing go around again. What the fuck is Egyptian cotton, and why would I travel with my own sheets? A sheet is a motherfucking sheet, dude.

So what does Russell Crowe never leave home without?
People hand me good-luck charms or leave them outside my house every now and then -- a silver dollar, a medal for services in the Second World War, Stars of David, Maltese and Greek Orthodox crosses. They usually come with sincere letters about my ongoing safety, so I feel obligated to carry them with me. Maybe I'm a bit of a dickhead, but I don't like the idea that if someone writes to me, they don't get a reply. It takes a lot of time, but I take responsibility for the job and what it means to people.

(Thanks to Emily D. for transcribing the article!)

British Airways, October 2000

(Thanks to the chedge!)

Q & A Russell Crowe
By Shari Roman
The Face (UK, 9/00)

You know him as Gladiator's tiger-wrestling general. But his other interests include musicals, interior design and dressing up as a bear. "Repetition is dangerous," he tells Shari Roman.

Last time we saw you, you were a paunchy corporate whistleblower in The Insider. Now you're a Roman general, decimating Germanic tribes, racing chariots and decapitating rival gladiators with big swords. How did your body cope with the change in 'pace'?
Doing all that movement -- sword-fighting, falling over, jumping up -- quite frankly, it's really fucking heavy when you have to be in that Roman battle gear 12 hours a day. I ended up wearing the stunt armour most of the time. It was a pretty difficult shoot, actually I have to say everyone really gave their all, spilt blood for it, and that's part of the reason why it's turned out to be such a cool film. The scenes with the tigers were not what [director] Ridley Scott, ah... anticipated. He blocked that out as a six-day shoot, and when he started shooting he realised that the tigers didn't really care that much what his storyboards said. They were going to do what they wanted to do.

You and Ridley Scott are both known as, well, strong-minded men -- did you get on OK?
Funnily enough, outside of Gladiator, our main connection came through our mutual love of architecture. I became obsessed by Moroccan interior design, and he was building a house with Moroccan details, so I'd go around photographing tiles, then bringing back the photos to show to him. The cool thing about Ridley is, although he is an amazing visual artist, he was open to other ideas. I honestly felt it was a great collaboration. We all knew we didn't have the complete narrative when we began, and through a long process, and a lot of sleepless nights, we got a more detailed story in the film.

Before Gladiator and The Insider, you were a vicious, racist skinhead in Romper Stomper, and a violent-but-decent cop in L.A. Confidential. There's no danger of Russell Crowe being typecast...
When you're preparing, your aim is to take on a character as completely as you can. In this film I'm doing now in Ecuador, Proof Of Life, I've learnt about multinational corporations' expansion into the Third World, specifically South America. I'm playing a hostage negotiator, who works for an insurance company, handling K&R -- kidnapping and ransom -- of corporate executives. If you're going to take somebody through a narrative, through some individual, tortuous journey, you've got to know instinctively when you've got it right.

So you do a lot of research?
Well, there is an absolute craft -- marks to hit, dialogue to learn. But then there's the other stuff that you have to perfect beyond being able to see it. (Long pause) Because, you know, repetition is a dangerous thing. In life. Repetition, it's a dangerous thing. In life, repetition is a dangerous thing...

Did you use those Method-type skills when it came to playing the part of a 'Slightly Aggressive Bear'?
You heard about that? I was taking the piss out of my part in Romper Stomper. It was on this kids' comedy show in Australia called Humphrey The Bear. There was this character, a bear that has three fingers, doesn't make any noise, and walks around with no underwear on. At the very last show of the series they wanted to expose who the bear was -- and it was Hando from Romper Stomper.

You also did some fine hip-swivelling on stage in Blood Brothers and Grease. And the word is that you know quite a few show tunes, too...
I played Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show in Australia. I loved it! Sexually and politically, a completely cutting-edge piece. It's high camp, absolutely, but if it's played without [some sense of] reality it's completely meaningless -- it's just people grinding away in stockings.

Enduring image, tough guy... So how else do you relax?
My farm in Australia. What I'm trying to do is to bring it back into being a productive area of land through natural means. I'm bringing in 80 acres of hardwood trees. But preparing and clearing the land takes money and time. I was really looking forward to being there for it. But when I get home, I'll have the rest of my life to watch it grow.

Do you have any cute pet names for your cows?
Well, I'm building a commercial herd, and every year there'll be a couple of beautiful new calves -- and you do kind of get little nicknames in your head. (Grins bashfully) It can get a little painful sometimes, when you have to cull from the herd. Especially if you've had a cow for nine, ten seasons. It's not like you're living with them thinking of them as hamburgers.

What's happening with your band, “30 Odd Foot Of Grunts"?
I'm going to Austin, Texas in July to record an album with them. We have 18 new songs that we haven't tried. I've waited a long time to be able do music outside of an environment where they're drinking alcohol and desperate to have fun, which is the environment you play in Australia. But in reality we like to work on playing a completely different kind of song. At a higher level, for an audience that's actually listening. Do you want to hear some of it?

Yes please.
(Puts on music)
This one is called 'All the White Circles'. There's a line in there I like: (sings) 'A hip prince of innocence/Full of excuses/Wrestling desire won't light the fuses...'. That's what it's all about: engaging in life, rather than just observing it.

Sounds nice. At least when the rock'n'roll touring lifestyle takes over, you'll be used to the traveling and the endless hotels...
Yep! I've woken up in hotel rooms at four or five in morning and looked up and gone, 'What's this place? Where am I? One time I woke up in a hotel room in Los Angeles, and for some reason I thought I was in another hotel room in New York. And there, the bathroom was on the right side of the bed, so I got up and walked straight into the television set. Knocked myself out. Woke up the next morning, flat on the floor. Still didn't get to go to the toilet.