Crowe was born in New Zealand, moving to Australia at the age of four and residing there permanently by the age of 21.[4][5] He began acting in Australia and had his break-out role inRomper Stomper (1992). He gained international recognition in the late 1990s for his starring roles inL.A. Confidential (1997) andThe Insider (1999). Crowe gained wider stardom for playing the title role ofGladiator (2000), which earned him theAcademy Award for Best Actor, having been previously nominated forThe Insider. Further acclaim came for portraying real-life mathematicianJohn Forbes Nash Jr. inA Beautiful Mind (2001), for which he was nominated for a third Academy Award.
Crowe was born inStrathmore Park, a suburb ofWellington, New Zealand, on 7 April 1964,[6] the son of film setcaterers Jocelyn Yvonne (née Wemyss) and John Alexander Crowe. John also managed a hotel. Jocelyn's father, Stan Wemyss, was acinematographer who was awarded anMBE for filming footage ofWorld War II as a member of the New Zealand Film Unit. Crowe isMāori and identifies withNgāti Porou through a maternal great-great-grandmother.[7][8] John's father, John Doubleday Crowe, was a Welshman fromWrexham, while another of Crowe's grandparents was Scottish.[9][10] Crowe's other ancestry includes English, German, Irish, Italian, Norwegian and Swedish.[11][12][13][14][15] He is a cousin of former New Zealand national cricket captainsMartin andJeff Crowe[16] and the nephew of cricketerDave Crowe.[17]
At the age of four, Crowe moved to Australia with his family, settling inSydney, where John and Jocelyn pursued their career in film set catering. Jocelyn's godfather was the producer of the Australian television seriesSpyforce, and Crowe was hired for a line of dialogue in one episode of the series at the age of five or six, opposite series starJack Thompson.[18] Later, in 1994, Thompson would play the supportive father of Crowe'sgay character in the filmThe Sum of Us.[19][20] Crowe also appeared briefly in the seriesThe Young Doctors. In Australia, he was educated atVaucluse Public School andSydney Boys High School[7] before moving back to New Zealand with his family in 1978. He continued hissecondary education at a privateAuckland school before leaving school at the age of 16 to pursue his acting ambitions.[21]
In 2015, it was reported that Crowe had applied for Australian citizenship in 2006 and again in 2013 but was rejected because he failed to fulfill the residency requirements.[5] However, Australia's Immigration Department said it had no record of any such application by Crowe.[22][23][24]
Acting career
New Zealand
A promotional photo of Crowe as Russ Le Roq in 1981
Under guidance from his good friend Tom Sharplin, Crowe began his performing career as a musician in the early 1980s performing under the stage name "Russ Le Roq". He released several New Zealand singles, including "I Just Wanna Be LikeMarlon Brando",[25] "Pier 13", and "Shattered Glass", none of which charted.[26] He managed an Auckland music venue called "The Venue" in 1984.[27] When he was 18, he was featured inA Very Special Person..., a promotional video for thetheology/ministry course atAvondale University, aSeventh-day Adventist tertiary education provider in New South Wales, Australia.[28]
Australia
In 1985, Crowe left New Zealand and returned to Australia when he was 21, intending to apply to theNational Institute of Dramatic Art. He said, "I was working in a theatre show, and talked to a guy who was then the head of technical support at NIDA. I asked him what he thought about me spending three years at NIDA. He told me it'd be a waste of time. He said, 'You already do the things you go there to learn, and you've been doing it for most of your life, so there's nothing to teach you but bad habits.'"[29] From 1986 to 1988, he was given his first professional role by directorDaniel Abineri, in a New Zealand production ofThe Rocky Horror Show.[7] He played the role of Eddie/Dr Scott.[7] He repeated this performance in a further Australian production of the show, which also toured New Zealand.[30] In 1987, Crowe spent six months busking when he could not find other work.[31] In the 1988 Australian production ofBlood Brothers, Crowe played the role of Mickey.[32] He was also cast again by Daniel Abineri in the role of Johnny, in the stage musicalBad Boy Johnny and the Prophets of Doom in 1989.[33]
After appearing in the TV seriesNeighbours andLiving with the Law, Crowe was cast by Faith Martin in his first film,The Crossing (1990), a small-town love triangle directed by George Ogilvie. Before production started, a film-student protégé of Ogilvie, Steve Wallace, hired Crowe for the 1990 filmBlood Oath (akaPrisoners of the Sun), which was released a month earlier thanThe Crossing, although actually filmed later. In 1992, Crowe starred in the first episode of the second series ofPolice Rescue. Also in 1992, Crowe starred inRomper Stomper, an Australian film which followed the exploits and downfall of a racist skinhead group in blue-collar suburban Melbourne, directed byGeoffrey Wright and co-starringJacqueline McKenzie. For the role, Crowe won anAustralian Film Institute (AFI) award for Best Actor, following up from his Best Supporting Actor award forProof in 1991.[7]
After initial success in Australia, Crowe first starred in a Canadian production in 1993,For the Moment, before concentrating on American films. In 1993, he was favoured for the role ofJoshua Chamberlain in the epic filmGettysburg but was passed over forJeff Daniels.[34] In 1995, he appeared in four Hollywood films, this included the science fiction filmVirtuosity where he co-starred withDenzel Washington, unfortunately it received poor reviews and failed commercially. His other roles that year saw him work withSharon Stone in the westernThe Quick and the Dead, comedyRough Magic withBridget Fonda, and his first starring role in the industry as an FBI agent inNo Way Back.[7]
He had his breakthrough playing a short tempered LAPD officer having an affair with a call girl working in the stable of a shady millionaire who used prostitutes to blackmail powerful politicians and businessmen in 1997's neo-noir hitL.A. Confidential.[35] His co-stars includedKevin Spacey,Guy Pearce,Kim Bassinger, among others. He starred inBreaking Up, a romantic drama withSalma Hayek. After headlining the ice hockey centeredMystery, Alaska, he portrayedJeffrey Wigand inMichael Mann'sThe Insider (1999), based on his life. This film opened to highly positive reviews and earned Crowe his first nomination for an Academy Award. He was cast asWolverine for the firstX-Men film, but he instead offered the part toHugh Jackman which launched his career.[36]
2000–2005: Stardom
In 2000, Crowe starred in his career defining filmGladiator. Directed byRidley Scott, the epic historical film was met with major commercial success and acclaim, catapulting Crowe to worldwide stardom and winning him the Best Actor award at73rd Academy Awards,BAFTA Awards,Golden Globe Awards,Critics Choice Awards, and various more.[7][37] Crowe was also awarded theCentenary Medal in 2001 for "service to Australian society and Australian film production."[38] In a later interview, Crowe stated the film forever changed his life. He recounted visiting an Italian store where a large crowd gathered outside, yelling his character's first name, Maximus.[39] Many of his lines from the film are considered iconic.[40][41]Gladiator is widely regarded among the greatest films of all time.[42][43]
The next year, he played the leading role in another notable film in his filmography,A Beautiful Mind (2001), delivering a successive acclaimed performance as theNobel prize winning economist andschizophrenic patientJohn Nash. Crowe, once again, won multiple accolades. By this point in his career, he received three consecutive best actor Oscar nominations, forThe Insider,Gladiator, andA Beautiful Mind.[7] All three films were also nominated forBest Picture, and bothGladiator andA Beautiful Mind won the award. Crowe became the first actor to star as the lead in back-to-back Best Picture winners sinceWalter Pidgeon (who starred inHow Green Was My Valley [1941] andMrs. Miniver [1942]).[44] Crowe declined the role ofAragorn inPeter Jackson'sThe Lord of the Rings trilogy since he felt studios were pressuring filmmakers to cast him due to his recent successes.[45]
Within the six-year stretch from 1997 to 2003, Crowe also starred in two other best picture nominees,L.A. Confidential andMaster and Commander: The Far Side of the World. InMaster and Commander (2003), Crowe delivered another acclaimed performance asJack Aubrey, a character from theAubrey–Maturin series of nautical historical novels, upon which the film was based. The movie garnered ten Oscar nominations and various other awards, including a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination for Crowe. It continues to receive positive retrospective reviews despite moderate box office returns at the time of release.[46][47][48] In 2005, he re-teamed withA Beautiful Mind directorRon Howard for the biographical boxing dramaCinderella Man (2005), which went down in history as one of the best in its genre.[49] The film chroniclesJames J. Braddock's pursuit of the world heavyweight championship amidst theGreat Depression. Consistent with Crowe's previous projects, it received many nominations and accolades, while earning CroweAustralia's highest film award for the third time.[50]
2006–2014: Established career
In 2006, he re-teamed withGladiator directorRidley Scott forA Good Year, the first of two consecutive collaborations (the second beingAmerican Gangster co-starring again with Denzel Washington, released in late 2007). Although the light romantic comedy ofA Good Year was not greatly received, Crowe seemed pleased with the film, tellingSTV in an interview that he thought it would be enjoyed by fans of his other films.[51] By the latter half of 2000s, Crowe's box office standing declined, as he switched to playing mostly supporting characters, with occasional leading roles.[52] In 2007, he appeared alongside Christian Bale in the Western film3:10 to Yuma, a remake of the1957 film of the same name.[53] He followed this up withLeonardo DiCaprio starrer action thrillerBody of Lies (2008). For his portrayal of Ed Hoffman, he underwent a physical transformation, gaining 62 pounds.[54]
He starred in the 2009 political thrillerState of Play, based on theBBC drama television series of the same name.[55] Crowe appeared inRobin Hood, a film based on theRobin Hood legend, directed by Ridley Scott and released on 14 May 2010.[56] During theRobin Hood shoot, Crowe fractured both of his legs doing a scene in which he "jumped off a castle portcullis onto rock-hard uneven ground" and said he "never discussed the injury with production, never took a day off because of it, I just kept going to work".[57] Crowe starred in the 2010Paul Haggis filmThe Next Three Days, an adaptation of the 2008 French filmPour elle (Anything for Her).[58]
Also in June 2013, Crowe signed to make his directorial debut with an historical drama filmThe Water Diviner, in which he also starred alongsideJacqueline McKenzie,Olga Kurylenko,Jai Courtney.[61] Set in the year 1919, the film was produced by Troy Lum, Andrew Mason and Keith Rodger.[62]
2015–present: Change in pace
Crowe stated he is content with his career and does not care about people's reactions anymore. He has since chosen to pursue roles that excite him artistically or otherwise.[63]
In the 1980s, Crowe, under the name of "Russ le Roq", recorded a song titled "I Just Wanna Be Like Marlon Brando".[69]
In the 1980s, Crowe and friend Billy Dean Cochran formed a band, Roman Antix, which later evolved into the Australian rock band30 Odd Foot of Grunts (abbreviated to TOFOG). Crowe performed lead vocals and guitar for the band, which formed in 1992. The band releasedThe Photograph Kills EP in 1995, as well as three full-length records,Gaslight (1998),Bastard Life or Clarity (2001) andOther Ways of Speaking (2003). In 2000, TOFOG performed shows in London, Los Angeles and inAustin, Texas. In 2001, the band toured in the U.S. with dates in Austin,Boulder, Chicago,Portland, San Francisco, Hollywood, Philadelphia, New York City and the last show atThe Stone Pony inAsbury Park, New Jersey.
In early 2005, 30 Odd Foot of Grunts as a group had "dissolved/evolved" with Crowe feeling his future music would take a new direction. He began a collaboration withAlan Doyle of the Canadian bandGreat Big Sea, and with it a new band emerged, the Ordinary Fear of God, which also involved some members of the previous TOFOG line-up. A new single, "Raewyn", was released in April 2005 and an album entitledMy Hand, My Heart was released. The album includes a tribute song to actorRichard Harris, who became Crowe's friend during the making ofGladiator.
Crowe and his new band the Ordinary Fear of God (keeping the TOFOG acronym) toured Australia in 2005, and then the U.S. In 2006 they returned to the US to promote their new releaseMy Hand, My Heart. In March 2010, the group's version of theJohn Williamson song "Winter Green" was included on a new compilation albumThe Absolute Best of John Williamson: 40 Years True Blue, commemorating the singer-songwriter's milestone of 40 years in the Australian music industry.[70]
On 2 August 2011, the third collaboration between Crowe and Doyle was released on iTunes asThe Crowe/Doyle Songbook Vol III, featuring nine original songs followed by their acoustic demo counterparts (for a total of 18 tracks). Danielle Spencer does guest vocals on most tracks. The release coincided with a pair of live performances at the LSPU Hall inSt. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.[71] The digital album was released as download versions only on Amazon.com, iTunes, Spotify. The album has since charted at No. 72 on theCanadian Albums Chart.[72]
On 26 September 2011, Crowe appeared onstage at Rogers Arena in Vancouver in the middle of Keith Urban's concert. He sang a cover of "Folsom Prison Blues", before joining the rest of the band in a rendition of "The Joker".[73] On 18 August 2012, Crowe appeared along with Doyle at theHarpa Concert Hall in Reykjavík, Iceland as part of the city'sMenningarnótt program.[74]
On 27 June 2023, Crowe sang in concert with his band Indoor Garden Party inBologna at the Teatro Comunale Nouveau. The concert was very successful, completely sold out. The total proceeds from the concert were entirely donated to the flood victims ofEmilia-Romagna.[80]
During location filming ofCinderella Man, Crowe made a donation to aJewish elementary school whose library had been damaged as a result of arson.[81] A note with an anti-Semitic message had been left at the scene.[82] Crowe called school officials to express his concern and wanted his message relayed to the students.[83] The school's building fund received donations from throughout Canada and the amount of Crowe's donation was not disclosed.[84]
On another occasion, Crowe donatedA$200,000 to a struggling primary school near his home in rural Australia. The money went towards anA$800,000 project to construct a swimming pool at the school. Crowe's sympathies were sparked when a pupil drowned at the nearbyCoffs Harbour beach in 2001, and he felt the pool would help students become better swimmers and improve their water safety. At the opening ceremony, he dived into the pool fully clothed as soon as it was declared open. Nana Glen principal Laurie Renshall said, "The many things he does up here, people just don't know about. We've been trying to get a pool for 10 years."[85]
In August 2020, Crowe donatedUS$5,000 to a fundraiser onGoFundMe by filmmaker Amanda Bailly and journalist Richard Hall to help rebuild Le Chef, a restaurant which was destroyed in the2020 Beirut explosion.[86][87] The fundraiser aimed to raiseUS$15,000, but it had raised approximatelyUS$19,000 as of 16 August.[86] In response to Hall noting the donation, Crowe tweeted: "On behalf ofAnthony Bourdain. I thought he probably would have done so if he was still around. I wish you and Le Chef the best and hope things can be put back together soon."[86][87]
In June 2023, Crowe agreed with the organisers of a concert of his band Indoor Garden Party inBologna to donate the full revenue to the victims of theEmilia-Romagna floods.[88][89][90]
He has been the co-owner of theNational Rugby League (NRL) teamSouth Sydney Rabbitohs since 2006; Crowe has been a supporter of the team since childhood. After his rise to fame as an actor, he has continued appearing at home games and supported the financially troubled club. Following theSuper League war of the 1990s, he made an attempt to use his Hollywood connections to convinceTed Turner, a rival of Super League'sRupert Murdoch, to save the Rabbitohs before they were forced from theNRL competition for two years.[91] In 1999, Crowe paidA$42,000 at auction for the brass bell used to open theinaugural rugby league match in Australia in 1908 at a fundraiser to assist Souths' legal battle for re-inclusion in the league.[92] In 2005, he made the Rabbitohs the first club team in Australia to be sponsored by a film, when he negotiated a deal to advertise his filmCinderella Man on their jerseys.[93]On 19 March 2006, the voting members of the South Sydney club voted (in a 75.8% majority) to allow Crowe and businessmanPeter Holmes à Court to purchase 75% of the organisation, leaving 25% ownership with the members. It cost themA$3 million, and they received four of eight seats on the board of directors. A six-part television miniseries entitledSouth Side Story depicting the takeover aired in Australia in 2007.[94]On 5 November 2006, Crowe appeared onThe Tonight Show with Jay Leno to announce thatFirepower International was sponsoring the South Sydney Rabbitohs forUS$3 million over three years,[95] showing viewers a Rabbitoh playing jersey with Firepower's name emblazoned on it.[96]
Crowe helped to organise a rugby league game that took place at theUniversity of North Florida, inJacksonville, Florida, between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the2007 Super League Grand Final winners the Leeds Rhinos on 26 January 2008 (Australia Day). Crowe toldITV Local Yorkshire the game was not a marketing exercise.[97]Crowe wrote a letter of apology to a Sydney newspaper following the sacking of South Sydney's coachJason Taylor and one of their playersDavid Fa'alogo after a drunken altercation between the two at the end of the2009 NRL season.[98]Also in 2009, Crowe persuaded young England international forwardSam Burgess to sign with the Rabbitohs over other clubs that were competing for his signature, after inviting Burgess and his mother to the set ofRobin Hood, which he was filming in Britain at the time.[99]
Crowe's influence helped to persuade noted playerGreg Inglis to renege on his deal to join theBrisbane Broncos and sign for the Rabbitohs for 2011.[100]In 2010, the NRL was investigating Crowe's business relationships with a number of media and entertainment companies includingChannel Nine,Channel Seven,ANZ Stadium andV8 Supercars in relation to the South Sydney Rabbitohs' salary cap.[101]
In 2011, Souths also announced a corporate partnership with the bookmaking conglomerateLuxbet.[102]Previously, Crowe had been prominent in trying to prevent gambling being associated with the Rabbitohs.[103]In May 2011, Crowe helped arrange to have Fox broadcast the2011 State of Origin series live for the first time in the United States, in addition to the NRL Grand Final.[104]In November 2012 theSouth Sydney Rabbitohs confirmed that Russell Crowe was selling his 37.5 per cent stake in the club.[105]At the Rabbitohs Annual General Meeting on 3 March 2013, ChairmanNick Pappas claimed Crowe "would not be selling his shareholding in the short-to-medium term and at this stage has no intention of selling at all".[106]
Crowe watches and plays cricket, and captained the 'Australian' Team containingSteve Waugh against an English side in the 'Hollywood Ashes' Cricket Match.[111] On 17 July 2009, Crowe took to the commentary box for British sports channelSky Sports as the 'third man' during the secondTest of the2009 Ashes series, between England and Australia.[112]
Crowe is a fan of the New ZealandAll Blacks rugby team.[113]
He is friends withLloyd Carr, the former coach of theUniversity of Michigan Wolverines American football team, and Carr used Crowe's movieCinderella Man to motivate his2006 team following a 7–5 season the previous year. Upon hearing of this, Crowe called Carr and invited him to Australia to address his rugby league team, theSouth Sydney Rabbitohs, which Carr did the following summer. In September 2007, after Carr came under fire following the Wolverines'0–2 start, Crowe travelled toAnn Arbor, Michigan for the Wolverines' 15 September game againstNotre Dame to show his support for Carr. He addressed the team before the game and watched from the sidelines as the Wolverines defeated the Irish 38–0.[citation needed]Crowe is also a fan of theNational Football League. On 22 October 2007, Crowe appeared in the booth of a Monday night game between theIndianapolis Colts and theJacksonville Jaguars.[114]
In 1989, Crowe met Australian singerDanielle Spencer while working on the filmThe Crossing and the two began an on-again, off-again relationship.[118] In 2000, he became romantically involved with American actressMeg Ryan while working on their filmProof of Life.[119] In 2001, Crowe and Spencer reconciled, and they married two years later in April 2003. The wedding took place at Crowe's cattle property inNana Glen, New South Wales, with the ceremony taking place on Crowe's 39th birthday.[118][120] The couple have two sons.[121][122] In October 2012, it was reported that Crowe and Spencer had separated.[123][124] They divorced in April 2018.[125]
A longtime resident ofNana Glen, Crowe is well known in the community and is a frequent patron of the local rugby games. During theAustralian bushfires in 2019 and 2020, he raised overA$400,000 for theNSW RFS by selling hisSouth Sydney Rabbitohs hat in an online auction.[126]
On 9 March 2005, Crowe revealed toGQ magazine that prior to his attending the73rd Academy Awards,FBI agents had approached him and told him that the terrorist groupal-Qaeda wanted to kidnap him.[127] He recalled, "It was something to do with some recording picked up by a French policewoman, I think, in eitherLibya orAlgiers... it was about taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as a sort of cultural destabilisation plan."[128]
At the beginning of 2009, Crowe appeared in a series of Australian special-edition postage stamps called "Legends of the Screen", featuring Australian actors. Crowe,Geoffrey Rush,Cate Blanchett, andNicole Kidman each appear twice in the series, once as themselves and once as their Academy Award-nominated character. Crowe is the only non-Australian to appear in the stamps.[129]
In June 2010, Crowe, who started smoking when he was 10, announced he hadquit for the sake of his two sons.[130] In November, he toldDavid Letterman that he had smoked more than 60 cigarettes a day for 36 years, and that he had "fallen off the wagon" the night before the interview and smoked heavily.[131]
Like the majority of men in Australia and New Zealand, Crowe is uncircumcised, and is anintactivist.[132] In 2011, Crowe declared his opposition to the practice of non-medicalcircumcision onTwitter, referring to it as "barbaric and stupid", and specifically called forJews to abolish the practice, which led to accusations ofantisemitism. Crowe denied the accusations.[133][134][135]
Ambassador of Rome in the world
On 20 December 2022, Crowe was appointed by the mayor ofRome to be its ambassador of Rome in the world.On the day of the appointment, Crowe declared that it would be important to host the nextFIFA World Cup in Italy.[136][137]
In July 2023, on holiday in Italy visiting the archaeological site ofOstia Antica, to please fans ofGladiator, including those who asked aboutthe sequel, Crowe pretended to have a phone conversation with Cicero, servant of Crowe's character Maximus. 'Max' asks Cicero where the men are, why they have gone away, then says he understands why: "I'm dead... It's perfectly understandable."[138][139][140]
Political views
Crowe has supported theAustralian Labor Party (ALP).[141] He endorsed former Australian prime ministerJulia Gillard in June 2013,[142] and narrated an advertisement for the Labor Party's election campaign in May 2022.[143] Crowe has been an outspoken critic ofAustralia's immigration detention facilities, describing them as "a nation's shame" and "fucking disgraceful". In November 2017, Crowe offered to resettle displaced refugees who were held in Australia's offshore detention facility onManus Island.[144]
Altercations
Crowe escorted fromNYPD in handcuffs to his arraignment for the phone-throwing incident, 6 June 2005
Between 1999 and 2005, Crowe was involved in four altercations, which gave him a reputation for having a bad temper.[145]
In 1999, Crowe was involved in an altercation with a woman at the Plantation Hotel inCoffs Harbour, in which he was caught on a security camera kissing a man trying to placate him.[146] Two men were acquitted of using the video in an attempt to blackmail him.[147]
In 2002, when part of Crowe's appearance atthat year's BAFTA Awards was cut out to fit into theBBC's tape-delayed broadcast, Crowe used strong language during an argument with producer Malcolm Gerrie. The part cut was a Patrick Kavanagh poem in tribute to actor Richard Harris, which was cut for copyright reasons. Crowe later apologised, saying, "What I said to him may have been a little bit more passionate than now, in the cold light of day, I would have liked it to have been."[148]
Later in 2002, Crowe was alleged to have been involved in a brawl with businessmanEric Watson inside the London branch of Zuma, a Japanese restaurant chain—the fight was broken up by English actorRoss Kemp.[149][150]
In June 2005, Crowe was arrested and charged with second-degree assault by theNYPD after he threw a telephone at the concierge of theMercer Hotel who had refused to help him place a call when the system did not work from Crowe's room. He was also charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon (the telephone).[151] The concierge was treated for a facial laceration.[152] After his arrest, Crowe underwent aperp walk, a procedure customary in New York City, exposing the handcuffed suspect to the news media to take pictures. This procedure was under discussion as potentially violating Article 5 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights.[citation needed] Crowe later described the incident as "possibly the most shameful situation that I've ever gotten myself in".[153] Crowe pleaded guilty and was conditionally discharged. Before the trial, he settled a lawsuit filed by the concierge, Nestor Estrada.[154][155] Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but amounts in the six-figure range have been reported.[156]
The telephone incident had a generally negative impact on Crowe's public image, an example of negative public relations in the mass media, although Crowe had made a point of befriending Australian journalists in an effort to influence his image.[157] TheSouth Park episode "The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer" revolves around a lampooning of his aggressive tendencies. Crowe commented on the ongoing media coverage in November 2010, during an interview with American television talk show host and journalistCharlie Rose: "I think it indelibly changed me. It was a very, very minor situation that was made into something outrageous. More violence was perpetrated on me walking between the car to the courtroom with the waiting media than anything I'd done ... it very definitely affected me ... psychologically."[158]
In October 2016,Azealia Banks filed a police report against Crowe, claiming that he choked and spat at her before proceeding to call her the 'n-word' during a party in his hotel suite. However, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office dropped the case in December. The following year during an interview withThe Breakfast Club,RZA, who was himself at the party, acknowledged only Banks’ claim that Crowe had spat, though "on the floor" rather than at her directly, going on to condemn her alleged "obnoxious and erratic" behaviour.[159][160] Crowe asserted that he removed Banks from the premises because she had threatened to physically assault other attendees.[161] RZA denied hearing Crowe use the 'n-word' and confirmed Crowe's account of threats of violence by Banks, saying "(Banks) threatened to cut a girl in the face with a glass, then actually (grabbed) a glass and physically (attacked) for no logical reason. Russell blocked the attack and removed her from the suite."[162]
^"Russell Crowe's religious film past"Archived 6 October 2013 at theWayback Machine,Christianity Today, 1 March 2001. ("Crowe says he didA Very Special Person only because he needed the acting experience ... 'I did what I could for it, whether it was a training film for the Seventh Day Adventist Church, a television commercial or just stuff to get in front of the camera.'")
^Avery, Julius (7 April 2023),The Pope's Exorcist (Horror), 2.0 Entertainment, Jesus & Mary, Loyola Productions,archived from the original on 23 August 2022, retrieved23 August 2022
^Crowe, Russell (18 November 2010)."Russell Crowe".Charlie Rose (Interview). Interviewed byCharlie Rose.Archived from the original on 21 November 2017. Retrieved19 October 2019.
.jpg)
%2c_1981_(cropped).jpg)
