[IMG:L]Russell Crowe may have a reputation for his aggressive personality, but give him a live audience and he’s just a big old clown. At the press conference for his latest film, Body of Lies, Crowe goofed off and made jokes, not only uncharacteristic of his intense persona, but funnier than any comedian who gets interviewed.
Between battles with the sound technician who kept cutting his microphone, commenting on his collaborators’ answers and answering his own questions, Crowe‘s improv might not completely translate into print so we’ll do our best to set up each scene. Incidentally, the Ridley Scott film casts him as a CIA agent orchestrating a middle eastern operation from the comfort and safety of his suburban home, while his field agent (Leonardo DiCaprio) is in harm’s way on the ground.
Crowe was first to arrive at the press conference, where he quickly rearranged the seats so Scott would be in the center. Then he made jokes at the expense of DiCaprio‘s tardiness.
KEEP READING: Crowe calls for a DiCaprio stand in
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“Who wants to play the role of Leonardo DiCaprio?” Crowe offered, suggesting that a decidedly middle aged journalist would be an adequate substitute. “Young man, there you go, Leo would wear that color. Leo, where’s Leo? Hello, Leo. Could Leo come to the press conference please? Actually, if we’re quick, just ask us a couple of questions, we’ll piss off and then you can have the rest of the time with Leo and Bill. Bargain?”
Still, the opportunity to ask Crowe about DiCaprio before his costar got there did not elicit any juicy gossip. “Oh yeah, have I got some stories for you,” Crowe teased. “It was the same as it was working with Leo in 1993: easy. Easy and fun.
DiCaprio arrived, apparently looking different than he did for his earlier interviews. “You did a costume change too,” Crowe observed. “You went more formal, I went less formal. It’s the afternoon, man, let’s chill out, they’ve all been drinking now.”
KEEP READING: Gaining weight “appeals” to Crowe?
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The first question to both actors was about what attracted them to their characters. For DiCaprio it was the moral dilemma, political relevance and exciting espionage thriller. Crowe complimented his costar. “Fantastic answer Leo,” Crowe said. “I always believe it’s nice to be polite at a press conference.”
Crowe‘s answer to the same question, what attracted him to the project, was a tad less profound. “The first thing that I got was a phone call from Ridley saying, ‘How would you like to put on a large amount of weight?’ That always appeals to me, so that was kind of like a sell right there.”
Body of Lies is the fourth Ridley Scott film starring Crowe, after Gladiator, A Good Year, and American Gangster. It took Crowe a few years to acknowledge there was some magic in their collaboration.
“I went through a period of time where even after the great relationship we had on Gladiator, I didn’t fully realize that that was probably a unique situation that will come along in your performance life. He asked me to do Black Hawk Down, but I’d just done a movie where there was a helicopter in the background and I wasn’t interested. Then he wanted me to do Kingdom of Heaven, but I was in the middle of doing something else, and I said, ‘Oh, you’ll have to wait a year,’ and he said, ‘F*** off, who are you?’ With the last three things we’ve done together it’s basically, ‘Right, this is what we’re doing,’ and I’m like, ‘Okay, cool,’ and I’ll say yes first with him and then work out why I want to do it afterwards.”
KEEP READING: Crowe and DiCaprio take a trip down memory lane
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After Crowe had clearly established himself as the star of the press conference, it was time for DiCaprio to describe the stunt work he did in the film’s action sequences. Before he could, Crowe got in a few sarcastic jabs, mimicking DiCaprio‘s work dialing blackberry buttons.
Perhaps Crowe‘s greatest banter was with DiCaprio himself. When recalling their first film together, the western The Quick and the Dead, Crowe acted shocked that his costar was 18 at the time.
“You were that old? I’ve been telling everybody you were 12. The two things that have changed about Leo since that time: he can drink legally and he’s no longer a virgin.”
KEEP READING: Crowe wants the sound guy to stop “f*cking” with his microphone
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While Ridley Scott answered a few questions about the filmmaking process, the sound guy cut the actors’ microphones. Finally, after Scott explained the importance of shooting on location and creating real worlds, Crowe tried to jump in to offer his perspective.
“Man on the mixing board? Have you noticed how boring the press conference has gotten since you started f*cking with my microphone? Just leave it on, Okay? [His sound comes back on] Hi. I’m back. Great you could join the show.”
It turns out Crowe agrees with Scott‘s policy of creating lavish locations rather than fake it with CGI. “It’s fantastic when you can walk onto a stage of that size. Even half of the Coliseum that we built in Malta [for Gladiator] was better than not having a Coliseum there at all. So it goes both ways. It’s fabulous when it works and when you can be in that place and time that the character is supposed to be in. But on the other side of that, being an actor, you can equally shoot Botswana for Texas. The game is a bit more ambiguous.”
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Crowe even had a sense of humor about his box office bombs. A single journalist’s fanfare for A Good Year won’t be enough to get the Scott/Crowe team back together for another romantic-drama.
“We always wondered who you were, the person that enjoyed it. We’re doing another one. It’s called A Gooder Year.”
Matters of Crowe‘s personal life proved amusing too. It turns out Crowe‘s celebrity friend Nicole Kidman has already made some claims to Crowe‘s family.
“Nicole and Keith [Urban] brought Sunday Rose around on a Sunday, which I thought was appropriate. Nicole had one look at my younger son Tennyson, and looked up at me and said, ‘I’m a great believer in arranged marriages.’ I believe she made the connection between Sunday and Tennyson now, so Tennyson is already engaged.”
KEEP READING: Ridley Scott to reporters: “Who watched a beheading?”
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Even the most serious subject of the film, an extended torture scene, prompted a Russell Crowe one-liner. First, Ridley Scott explained how he handled the subject matter.
“The scene was always tricky because we’re going down a dreadful cliché, but the cliché is real and horrible,” Scott said. “I would not do any research so much as I would consider it immoral of me to watch a beheading. However accessible it was I couldn’t do it and I wouldn’t do it. Believe me, I’m not queasy, it just would feel wrong even entertaining watching it. Therefore, what has to happen, who’s watched a beheading here? Anybody admit it? You’ve got to imagine what that would be.”
Only one part of that explanation registered with Crowe. “Can I just clarify something,” Crowe asked. “Did you just ask this room full of people, ‘Who here has been to a beheading?’ Sorry, just struck me as funny. Well, I’m glad none of you have been to a beheading.”
KEEP READING: Will Crowe don tights for his upcoming Robin Hood film?
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Finally, talk of Crowe‘s proposed next project, a Robin Hood film, brought out the tough guy. If he does it, it’ll have to be the most hardcore, badass Robin Hood ever. “It’s one of those things where we’re taking our time with because you don’t want to be doing Robin Hood unless you’re going to be doing it really f*cking well. It’s got to be the best one ever done otherwise you should do something else.”
No tights, that’s for sure. “I will not wear tights because according to our research they weren’t invented for another 300 years. I apologize to you all.”
Body of Lies opens in theaters October 10, 2008.
