Rocking The Boat;
Master and Commander's Russell Crowe fires away on the high seas, marriage, and being misunderstood.
By: Benjamin Svetkey; Russell Crowe
August 22, 2003 / August 29, 2003
FALL MOVIE PREVIEW

You can find all sorts of exotic birds in Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens. Parrots are as plentiful here as pigeons. Cockatoos squawk from every treetop. But recently, an odder sort of fowl has been flocking to these parts. In fact, there's one flapping out of the bushes now: the
Paparazzi australis, its 400mm beak focused directly on Russell Crowe.

"We're being photographed, mate," the actor coolly announces a few hundred yards away, standing on the terrace of his still-being-renovated apartment overlooking the gardens from just across Woolloomooloo Bay. "See him on that cliff? In the red T-shirt?"

When Crowe and his wife of nearly five months, Danielle Spencer, purchased this sprawling pied-a-terre (for a reported $ 9 million) on one of Sydney's most fashionable wharfs, its panoramic park views must have been a major selling point. Lately, though, the only bird getting watched has been Crowe. "He'll try to sell the pictures to some magazine," he grumbles. "But all he's got is two guys talking. Not much of a story."

Unless this paparazzo can read lips through his telephoto lens. Because for the next two hours, Crowe will talk about everything from his reputation for barroom brawling (exaggerated, he insists) to how marriage and impending fatherhood have made him a mellower man (maybe). Of course, the three-time Oscar nominee (he won for Gladiator) will mostly talk about playing Captain Jack Aubrey in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, the swashbuckling high-seas adventure based on the late Patrick O'Brian's popular historical novels about the 19th-century British navy. It's a role that could conceivably put Crowe on the Oscar ballot for a fourth time.

The history of the film itself is an epic, spanning 10 years and five studios (it began at Samuel Goldwyn, then moved to Disney, and moved again to Twentieth Century Fox, which brought in Universal and Miramax as coproducers) and costing boatloads of cash ($ 135 million, spent mostly in Mexico, where Master shot in the same giant tank in which James Cameron sank his Titanic). And now, with a Nov. 14 release date looming, it's sailing into the most treacherous waters yet, with fans of O'Brian's 20-novel series already circling cineplexes like sharks. A fiercely loyal lot--they exhaust nearly as much bandwidth with their Web pages as Trekkies--they've been grousing about the film's patchwork plot (combining elements of the 1st and 10th novels), complaining about the casting of the too tall Paul Bettany (Crowe's A Beautiful Mind costar) as Aubrey's diminutive shipmate Dr. Stephen Maturin, and even raising questions about Crowe--or at least his waistline (in the books, Aubrey is a bit of a fatty).

"I'm hoping they've all seen Adaptation," half-jokes director Peter Weir (The Truman Show), who cowrote the film with John Collee (Mind screenwriter Akiva Goldsman did some uncredited doctoring). "I've tried to give the audience the experience of being at sea, of inhabiting this other world, which is what I enjoyed most about the novels. But it's rare for people who love a book to love the movie made from it." Still, Weir has no doubts about one thing: His hero couldn't have been more perfectly cast. "The minute Russell walked into the room I thought, 'There he is,'" he says. "He's got this natural authority. He likes to command. He's the captain of actors."

Right now, scowling across the bay from his balcony, Crowe certainly looks like he's ready to yell "Battle stations!" But after his wife leaves for a stroll (he gives her a bear-hug goodbye), he anchors himself in a chair and does his dignified best to ignore the photographer.

For a time, he almost succeeds.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY You didn't jump at this part at first, did you?

CROWE I walked away from it a number of times. When I first heard about it, I thought it sounded like something Harrison Ford should do. Then I read the books, and I thought it would be impossible to do. The expense would be too enormous. And then I saw the script, and it didn't read that well to me.

EW So why'd you end up doing it?

CROWE It comes back to Peter Weir. I remember as a kid seeing The Last Wave [Weir's 1977 fantasy thriller about an Australian apocalypse] and there were
scenes of [Sydney] getting flooded. I'm sitting in the cinema and I see my school bus being flooded. Not a yellow American bus or a red double-decker bus, but the same bus I caught every day to school. That affected me. From that point on he was my childhood filmmaking hero.

EW What did you have to do to make the script work for you?

CROWE It wasn't a matter of pulling apart what Peter had done but of putting things back. Making it a truer reflection of the books and the spirit of the
characters. Making people understand what it was like to be on these ships. I mean, this was the NASA of the time. Being on these ships was the interplanetary travel of the 19th century.

EW The seafaring jargon in the books can be impenetrable. Stuff like "hands to the jears" and "tops'l clewlines." It's like a different language.

CROWE But that jargon is important to the genre and to accuracy. And there's no point in translating it. People have to come along for the ride. And, you know, you could say the same thing about Star Wars. George Lucas made up a whole bunch of stuff to make that world fully exist for people.

EW But you have taken some other liberties with the books. The bad guys are French, not American. And some fans have been upset with the casting of Paul Bettany.

CROWE There are fans out there who are disgruntled because I didn't do the role at 17 stone [238 pounds]. In the books, Aubrey ranges from 14 to 17 stone, sometimes on the same voyage.

EW Did you gain that much weight for the role?

CROWE We were going in that direction. But about six weeks out Peter said, "You know what, I think we should cut down the weight." He wanted Aubrey to be active, to be able to go up the rigging and be a sailor.

EW How big were you thinking of going? Brando big?

CROWE No, but that's what 17 stone would have looked like on my frame. And that would have been untenable, just in terms of getting up and down the f---ing stairways. So we didn't go that far. I'm not Adonis, but I'm not Rumpole of the Bailey either.

EW What else did you do to get into character?

CROWE The first day of rehearsals, I got every man in the cast three shirts. Different colors, depending on what rank they were on the ship. And I gave
them name tags, a length of thread, and a needle. They had 12 hours to report back in uniform with a name tag sewn on. It wasn't for my ego. I just felt that the experience would be bigger and better if we all allowed ourselves to play the game. To get into character and remain that way, because those small details of belief will translate on the screen.

EW Did any of the actors mutiny over the shirts?

CROWE There were a couple who did a sloppy job. They were talked to.

EW Filming in that huge tank must have been rough.

CROWE The first thing we shot was a 12-day sequence during which you couldn't hear a word of dialogue. We were on the ship with eight giant fans and two jet engines blowing around us. We were just talking into the noise. You couldn't hear a grunt. We could have been filming in Italian.

EW Did you get seasick at all?

CROWE I didn't throw up once during the entire production. I'm very proud of that.

EW The word franchise keeps popping up with this movie. After all, there are 20 of these books. Any interest in a return trip?

CROWE Well, we'll see how this one does. There are some characters I wouldn't mind playing again. I had a conversation with Curtis Hanson about playing Bud White again [in a sequel to L.A. Confidential]. But the great thing about that idea is that we've got all the time in the world. Imagine if we did it 11 years from now. Bud is gray and wrinkled, with a bit of a limp. It would be fantastic.

EW There's a rumor going around that Ridley Scott is planning a Gladiator sequel. Any part in it for you?

CROWE Maybe they can keep me in an ashtray in one of the scenes.

EW Well, you'll be busy making that boxing movie with Ron Howard anyway. Doesn't that start shooting sometime soon?

CROWE Yeah, Cinderella Man. We pushed the starting time back a bit because of Dani's pregnancy [she's due in January]. We had one plan where she'd be set up in New York while I filmed in Toronto, but that was unsatisfactory. I want to be around. There's no higher priority for me.

EW There's another rumor going around--that marriage has mellowed you.

CROWE I have regained a certain stillness in the last year. I'm not sure it's related to marriage. To me it's more that I took myself off the dart board. I did a lot of movies in a short period of time and got a lot of attention. That makes you sport for a while. You get tossed around like a football. You get labeled in a certain way. Not by everybody in the press, but by those f---ing rags at the supermarket. Apparently I spent some time in a Mexican prison.

EW What did you supposedly get arrested for?

CROWE It's always the same thing.

EW Ah, well, you do have a reputation for fisticuffs.

CROWE Blah, blah, blah.

EW It's not true?

CROWE I don't deny that there are certain things that have happened in my life that planted the seeds for those sorts of stories. As a bloke, if you give me any sort of s--- or attitude, I'm going to react like any other person. But just because I'm an actor doesn't give you the right to treat me like I'm a f---ing cardboard cutout.

EW So it isn't any easier for you here than in Hollywood?

CROWE There are things that I do that get completely misunderstood or misrepresented in America. You smoke a cigarette in America and it's taken as some sort of statement.

EW Being a movie star...

CROWE I don't want to be one of your f---ing movie stars. I'm just an actor. All I do is tell a story from a position of truth and depth. It's a f---ing simple job. Very simple. I don't buy into any of the other stuff--and you can't resent me for not buying into it. Thank you very much for the pats on the back. If you want me to do the job, I'll turn up on time and give you my best work. I owe you that, but I don't owe you a good attitude. I don't owe you the f---ing time of day.

Hopefully you won't write that out as some maniacal rave. See, the tone of my voice just then was about specificity, not aggression. Sometimes that gets misunderstood. Obviously, just from a human point of view, I do owe people the time of day. I gave you a legitimate answer, but it just sounds like I'm complaining. I'm not. I have a great life. I'm pursuing the things I want, I'm going to have a family of my own. I'm very comfortable here--even though I'm being photographed as we speak.

EW Actually, it looks like he's gone now.

CROWE We're going to have to put up some shutters out here.

Copyright 2003 Time Inc. Entertainment Weekly

Oscar Watch
By: Dave Karger

It's a good thing the Academy Awards aren't next week, because the Kodak Theatre would be nearly empty. With only Finding Nemo and Seabiscuit attracting any Oscar talk, fall movies will have to fill the ballots (and quickly, since next year's ceremony takes place a month earlier, on Feb. 29). Here's the early line on who could be contenders:

SEPTEMBER The Human Stain features Oscar winners Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman, and is directed by three-time winner Robert Benton, while past critics-award winners Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson try for their first nominations with Lost in Translation. (Johansson also has the December drama Girl With a Pearl Earring.)

OCTOBER The Clint Eastwood-directed Mystic River began earning momentum at Cannes as a potential Best Picture and for Sean Penn's lead performance. Quentin Tarantino is back in action with Kill Bill. And Gwyneth Paltrow could find herself in the race for the first time since her Shakespeare in Love win thanks to her Sylvia Plath biopic Sylvia.

NOVEMBER A puppet show starring Russell Crowe would make anyone's Oscar shortlist, so imagine what Academy voters might think about his period epic
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Other nominees could emerge from the smaller-scale pool, namely Tim Burton's Big Fish (starring Albert Finney and Ewan McGregor), Jim Sheridan's In America, the grim drama 21 Grams (Sean Penn again), the ensemble romantic comedy Love Actually (Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, and Laura Linney), and House of Sand and Fog, featuring Academy faves Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley.

DECEMBER What a shocker--Christmastime will be stuffed with Oscar bait. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King will hope the third time is the
charm, but it will have stiff competition from three other lavish productions--Cold Mountain, The Alamo, and The Last Samurai. The Missing and Veronica Guerin star Cate Blanchett will have to compete against herself. And never count out the Mona Lisa Smile of Julia Roberts.