RUSSELL Crowe purely responds to the material offered to him. PHOTO BY RUBEN V. NEPALES
LOS ANGELES—“He’s a very serious little insect,” Russell Crowe quipped about Ryan Gosling, his costar in “The Nice Guys.” The two anchor Shane Black’s comedy about a mismatched pair of private eyes on the trail of a missing girl in 1970s Los Angeles.
Smiling, Russell cracked about how much fun he had with Ryan preparing for their physical comedy bits, including “having a serious conversation about how one (Ryan’s character) would keep the (toilet stall) door open, cover one’s penis, while one is sitting on a public toilet in a bowling alley (laughs).”
The pair’s webisodes promoting the movie, in which they attend couples therapy sessions, are particularly hilarious and have, in fact, gone viral.
Russell, wearing a black Polo shirt and jeans, also talked about being a dad, clarifying once and for all the status of his relationship with ex-wife Danielle Spencer (the mom of his two sons), “The Mummy” (his movie with Tom Cruise) and Ryan, of course.
The Aussie star also opened up about how he has learned to cope with the pressures of fame and making sure that when he is “in a public place with my kids, they see me regard people always with kindness and patience.”
At interviews, Russell, who used to have a reputation for having anger management issues, is a lot more fun now. He’s more relaxed and in a joking mood.
Excerpts from our chat:
This is the first time that you and Ryan worked together. How did you get along?
We actually had a little ice breaker meeting about two years before. I had seen him in three particular movies, “Drive,” “Crazy, Stupid, Love” and “The Ides of March,” one after the other. I thought he was pretty special. So I wanted to talk to him about a project.
I called him and I went (laughs), “Hi Ryan, Russell Crowe.” He goes, “Oh, OK. Mr. Crowe, well, I suppose I should have been expecting this call. I am so sorry for stealing all your sh*t for the last 10 years!”
When a bloke is that charming, you are going to get along easily. We share an absurd sense of humor. He made me laugh every single day of working. But he is serious about his job; he comes to work to work, which is something I really appreciate.
He’s a very serious little insect. He asks lots of questions. He’s a cineaste, so if he is making a reference to something he’s doing that feels like it’s Harold Lloyd, (Bud) Abbott and (Lou) Costello or Gene Wilder, it is. Because he’s a student of the cinema.
He is so prepared to be brave with his decisions and jump off the cliff every time somebody says, “Action!” That makes him so much fun to work with.
And you are having the same type of conversation, on the set, of maybe every bloody scene. You are about to decapitate somebody (laughs). It’s all about the physical movement, action, choreography and how to be most effective with the scene. It was a very enjoyable experience working with Ryan.
You also share a passion for music, but don’t have the same taste.
I was talking about one particular morning when he discovered Les Paul and Mary Ford. I’m a big fan of Les Paul, know all the old music, but I think it was about 4:30, 5 in the morning. I was like, “Let’s put something else on, man (laughs).”
Did you and Ryan talk specifically about your musical tastes?
We shared a makeup trailer everyday. So that’s where, in the morning, we would listen to music. One day, it would be his music, Les Paul and Mary Ford. The next day, it wouldn’t be something like that.
We just did that without really discussing music, man. We just both have a natural, innate desire to listen to music (he plays music on his iPod).
What I am trying to do when I write a song, my focus is always on the lyric.
As an actor, how much do you appreciate comedy? You are known more for drama.
Yeah, but if you look at my movies, slightly comedic stuff comes up. But I don’t really covet to do a specific genre or type of character. I purely respond to the material that’s sent to me.
I thought it (“The Nice Guys”) was a cool narrative and an unusual storyline to make a comedy out of.
Reports of you and Danielle Spencer reconciling surface every now and then. What’s the truth?
We have been separated and it’s been four years now. Our focus is on keeping an energy around our children where they feel safe and secure. So we communicate quite regularly. But we’re definitely living completely separate lives.
Do you and Danielle do things together with the kids?
We have a thing that we have been doing where once a year, we have a family holiday. But that is really about it.
Do you feel that you have changed over the years?
I am exactly the same type of person. But perhaps your priorities shift in life. But I think there is a natural change that happens. It’s just that a few years ago, I only worked with directors who were older than me.
All of a sudden, from “Man of Steel” on, I was working with directors who were significantly younger than me.
That transition and playing roles that are age-suitable—that is the joy of being in this particular business.
How has your attitude toward fame changed over the years?
It’s hard. Every individual is going to go through that onrush of attention in his/her own way. And no matter what you say, you can’t really prep people for it, because it’s going to hit them in an individual way. So, the thing that I try to do (laughs) is be really succinct about it.
My little one (Tennyson) once said to me, “Dad, I understand when we go for a walk, you say to people that when you don’t want to do photographs and everything, you are doing that for Charlie and me.”
He said, “But you make an awful lot of people sad.” He was 7 when he asked that. He is 9 now. I said, “Well, do you want us to change the policy? I do it because it does impact our time together. I do it so I spend the time that I have with you, which is already limited by circumstances, focusing on you.
He said he understood. I said, “But we are going to change the policy. From now on, everybody who asks, we stop and do a photograph with.” He went, “Yes.”
So, the next day… we stopped maybe 10 or 12 times [in the morning]. We went out that afternoon and it was like 20 or more times. The day after, we were in a more public place… [we stopped] about 30 to 40 times, and it was like 60 or 70 by the end of the day.
The following morning, we went out early for a walk and ran into a bunch of tourists… probably 25 to 30 people. My little 7-year-old went, “Dad, we are changing the policy!”
But now, I actually have to be hyper-aware when I am in a public place with my kids that they see me regard people always with kindness and patience.
I always try to remain as simple and as grounded with it as possible.
Can you talk about your next projects? Have you started filming “The Mummy”?
I haven’t started yet. With “The Mummy,” I was flattered to get that particular offer because it’s an extremely creative idea that Universal is mounting.
Just the simple thing of getting to work with Tom [Cruise] and getting to plant the seeds for the expansion of the character I’m playing—Henry Jekyll—to other stories, that is an interesting thing. As a producer, I am developing a number of projects.
E-mail rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com. Follow him at https://twitter.com/nepalesruben.