Читать книгу Russell Crowe - The Biography - Martin Howden - Страница 13

‘I really like him because he’s ballsy, he’s got guts and he’s macho.’

– Sir Anthony Hopkins

Rave reviews and an award nomination were a good start for Russell as a leading man. It was a vindication he desperately needed. You can only go on swaggering self-confidence for so long before you need confirmation from elsewhere. He got that from The Crossing. The Daily Mirror singled out him as one to watch, adding, ‘He’s the actor I predict will become not just a screen heart-throb but a first class performer.’

Russell took home a poster of the film and stuck it on his wall. There was a touch of the ‘Hey, look at me’ factor about it, but it would be a motivational tool, proving that if you work hard enough, big things can happen. The next role for Russell was of extreme importance. He needed something of stature before he would accept it.

It wasn’t necessarily leading roles that he was looking for. As long as the script was good, he’d consider the part. ‘The bottom line is I just love my job,’ he said in 2009. ‘I love to create a character, I love to go to work, I like to be on a film set. All the other stuff that goes with acting, that’s all stuff that I’ve had to learn to deal with, but learning my dialogue, deciding what the character is going look like, walk like: I love doing that stuff. I can do that everyday of my life for the rest of my life and I am as happy as Larry.’

The script that intrigued him the most was for Proof – a touching drama about Martin, a blind man, who strikes up a relationship with a dishwasher named Andy. When Martin’s housekeeper, Cecilia, has her romantic advances rejected, she sets upon romancing Andy in a bid to drive a wedge between the two men.

‘It was a fantastic script,’ Russell said. ‘It was the best script I’ve ever read as far as its completeness is concerned, because it’s quite a complicated concept. [Director] Jocelyn [Moorhouse] takes it through and explains everything to the audience just when they need to know exactly what the hell is going on. The simple fact is, as soon as I read it, I knew I wanted to do it.’

It was to be Moorhouse’s directorial debut, so strangely enough it would be Russell taking a risk on her, rather than the other way round. He had a chance to make a name for himself and he didn’t want to upset the momentum started by The Crossing, nor did he want to just turn up agreeing to every script that went his way.

It was something that set him apart from other budding actors. He had the movie star looks – albeit less ‘pretty boy’ and more imposing and masculine – but he was determined to have a body of work that reflected that of a character actor. And his resumé – his Russ le Roq singing career aside – has a better hit rate than others. He has managed to pick scripts that are interesting to him, but more admirably – or through good fortune – he generally managed to do that before he became successful. Proof, in which he shows warmth as the amiable Andy, is the perfect example.

‘It’s all about a search for truth and honesty,’ Russell said of the movie. ‘Love is also a theme, although it’s a very strange sort of love. Jocelyn Moorhouse is not your average director. She’s got a very intense imagination and an extremely oblique level of observation. She seems to be able to find something new in old themes. She sees another dimension.

‘My character, Andy, has rebelled from his middle-class background. He’s a bit rootless and directionless. But he has made himself that way. But Andy gets stuck in a lot of things, you know? I hate people like that. He gets caught and can’t work his way out, the son of a bitch. I enjoyed playing Andy.

‘When you read a lot of scripts, you know the difference between a good one and a bad one. When you’re talking about the situation where the writer is actually going to direct you, one can be very confident that the subtleties contained in that script will come out, because they come out of her head. Jocelyn and I are pretty similar in some ways. She’s really committed and passionate with a unique creativity. All of those things tend to add up to possibly fiery moments, but we had one of those relationships where every single small point we discussed we went through. Of course we were bound to disagree on a number of things, but all that happened is that, through those conversations we hit upon the best idea, not just one idea or an option and that’s the way I like to work.’

Proof was originally intended to be a short film, but the director was told that the 50-minute story – which transpired from a conversation with a friend about a blind relative who took pictures and had someone describe what he took – was too long. She would struggle to get funding and should think about making it a feature-length film.

Talking on the DVD commentary, Hugo Weaving (who played Martin) told about his experiences working with Russell. ‘I’d been warned about working with Russell because I’d talked to an actor that worked with him on stage and had a bit of a run-in with him. He said, “Oh, you have to watch out for him, mate.” But we got on very well. He was immensely charming and it’s an immensely charming performance too.

‘He was very positive, energetic, he’s intelligent, he’s good fun. We had a good time working together and also off-set. And he was determined to read to me everyday because he thought that was something Andy would do for Martin. So Russell used to read me – I don’t know why – from this book on the French Revolution. So I used to sit and listen to Russell telling me all about the French Revolution every day, during rehearsals and sometimes on set as well. Pretty bizarre, really.’

Russell was again nominated by the AFI in 1991 – this time receiving the Best Supporting Actor award. The film would go on to win six more honours at the awards, including best film, director, script and actor for Weaving. The film’s success at the ceremony transferred to the box office, expanding from four screens in Australian cinemas to nearly 30.

Talking about his award win to Juice Magazine in 1993, Russell said, ‘I really like that stuff. I loved watching the Academy Awards when I was a kid. And that three seconds when they read my name for Proof, I really enjoyed it. There’s always this thing with being an actor. Are you actually an actor, or one of the multitude of pretenders? You gotta ask yourself.’

Russell was given another boost when he heard that the film was to be shown at that year’s Cannes Film Festival. It han’t originally impressed the festival advisors but after seeing the final cut they decided to show it – and it was well received by the press. Film Link wrote, ‘Razor sharp, blackly comic and keenly intelligent, Proof is one of the best Australian film of the 1990s.’ They would also praise Russell’s performance as ‘excellent’, while the New York Times said he was ‘eager and lithe’.

So off he went to France to mingle with the very biggest names of the Hollywood industry. Cannes is a byword for everything that is glamorous and luxurious about the film industry. For nearly two weeks, the city is awash with large yachts, the glitziest parties, the biggest names and light bulbs flashing everywhere from the world’s media.

For Russell, it was something of a culture shock, but while he soaked up the going-ons it only made him even more sure that he wanted to amass an impressive body of work rather than jump at the first chance of Hollywood. Ironically it also fuelled his belief that Hollywood was where he would end up. And it was a genuine Hollywood star that he would work with next in Spotswood.

He would star alongside Sir Anthony Hopkins, something that was a joyous experience for Russell. ‘I already knew that he was a great actor, so that wasn’t a surprise. The fact that he’s a great person was an added bonus. He’s an extremely nice guy and exceedingly professional, and I think what I learnt from him the most was that great actors remain generous.

‘He showed me the power of detail. Hopkins could map out a 20-point journey with a coffee cup. I’ve seen him pick up a coffee cup, and every time he picks it up, he is doing something different. But nothing that he is doing with the coffee cup is distracting from his eyes, from the internal process.’

Hopkins was quick to return the compliment. ‘One of the people I got to know years ago, which was a great privilege, was Laurence Olivier. He seemed to be like a racing driver as an actor. He was like a laser – that was his power. And the only actor I’ve met since who had that quality of laser-like determination is Russell Crowe.

‘The first day I started working with him. I thought, “That guy’s got it!” The best way to describe Russell is like a shark: he’s a shark circling round. You could see it in the way he was figuring things out. Just before he became the big hit in L.A. Confidential, I was asked if I would do a film interview about him.

‘They asked me about him, and I said, “Oh yeah, I could see it in him.” He was different from the other guys. He was argumentative. He argued with the director all the time. And I said to the director, “Listen to him, he’s got a point.”’

It’s no surprise the pair got on so well. Like Russell, Hopkins has always been something of a cinematic drifter and one who had trouble early on in his career with where to channel his obvious talents.

In 2006 Total Film asked Hopkins if he saw a lot of his younger self in Russell and he said, ‘Yeah I did. There’s a photograph of me here from 1970. This young lady gave it to me and I looked at it and I thought, “I was a bad boy then.” I thought, “God, this is an unhappy camper” but boy! I’d take on anyone back then!’

He added, ‘I don’t know Russell that well, but I admire and I really like him, because he’s ballsy, he’s got guts, he’s macho and all the rest of it.’

Asked about Hopkins’ perceived dismissing of the profession at the time, Russell said, ‘You can take that as cynicism if you want, but I think it’s more a protectionist thing. It happens to me a lot when people ask me about my preparation, which ultimately has nothing to do with anything, apart from what I give the performance. It’s the performance that counts, which is what you judge. So whether I do five minutes preparation or five years, it doesn’t mean anything, because what comes out of the screen later is what finally counts.

‘Therefore I think Hopkins is possibly a little sick of going over and over that sort of thing, so he says: “This is my job.” And it is a job, and it’s damn hard work, because if you don’t concentrate or put some effort in, nothing comes out. There isn’t a secret of being a great actor that somebody can read in a magazine. You’re born with it from the first time you open your mouth. You can get better or worse, but you either can or can’t do it.’

Talking about Spotswood during shooting, Russell recalled, ‘I play a small part as a slimy businessman. He’s a bit of a bastard, a parody of ambition. I don’t know if I’ve gone too far. I always think I go over the top with whatever I do. Mark Joffe doesn’t give a lot of direction. He let me go. He said, “The camera is gonna be here and you are gonna be there. Now do something.”

‘The film as a whole is lovely and it made me smile. It’s a very entertaining film.’

Russell was getting more and more offers, but again he decided he’d go for a supporting part in Love in Limbo, or Great Pretender as it was first known. ‘I’m very choosy in what I do. I knocked back the lead role in one film which paid a lot more money in order to play a good support role in Great Pretender, because I didn’t want the responsibility of a lead in that other film.’

The sweet coming-of-age film set in the 1950s tells the story of a young man named Ken trying to lose his virginity. Talking about his character, Russell said, ‘I play Arthur, a Baptist Welshman, who’s the warehouse supervisor where Ken works. His small amount of authority has really gone to his head, but through the course of the film, he spreads his wings a little bit, possibly to become a little bit more Australian, after having spent so many years in a closed Welsh environment.’

Russell had Hopkins to thank for the accent. On learning of the role, Russell asked the veteran actor for advice on how to master the accent, to which he simply replied, ‘Do an Indian accent badly and you’ll be close.’ Russell would also take a trip to the country, dictaphone in hand, but later admitted, ‘I really travelled to Wales to have a beer outside Cardiff Arms Park. That was my priority.’

Looking back at the character now, it is clear that it was one of his more interesting roles. ‘It was the first time I got to go haywire on screen. People are constantly telling me I should not be playing these little characters and say I’m wasting my face. But I laugh and say, “Hey, I’m an actor – this is what I physically look like.”’

The character was far removed from the more intense ones that Russell would become known for – and he was remembered for being a fun presence on set.

Angela Roberts played Russell’s mother in the film, and she remembers him as being cheeky and mischievous. ‘He was a great guy and made us laugh by acting silly and ad-libbing. In the middle of a scene he would spot someone and say “Oh! You’re in it too!”

‘During a party scene when I was playing his mother, I had to look very stern and keep my eye on him, but he kept running over between dances and kissing me. He wasn’t supposed to. His antics were totally out of the blue.

‘He was like that with everyone. It was all good fun, and he made the cast feel at ease. He was just a normal person,’ she added. ‘You wouldn’t have thought he was a star in the making.’

That may have been the case then, but his next film would remove any doubts.