Russell Crowe flips out during interview

I prefer Costner's accent.

More importantly: were any phones harmed?

Russell Crowe is awesome.

I still eagerly wait the day he gets that TV show:



I could watch Crowe beating the shit out of people/animals/things all day.

Thank you, if you hadn't have posted this shot, I was about to.

I was promised a flipping out. I was scammed!

I don't care how actors behave. Crowe does his job, and usually does it well. That's all I expect out of any of 'em.

Until the day arrives when Crowe punches me in the face, I'll have nothing but love for the scrappy bastard.

This would be more of a thing if the interviewer was less of a twat.

It's true: Mark Lawson *is* a twat.

Crowe's interview with fellow BBCer Mark Kermode last week was brimming with barely contained hostility as well.

I'm somewhat amazed more celebrities don't walk out on/tell off interviewers. I mean, yeah they have to play the game and all, but life is too short to waste having a phoney conversation with someone who hasn't done their research or is an idiot.

I wish more actors would pull this kind of behaviour. Who knows, maybe major outlets would be forced to hire competent interviewers.

Sounds like "Clash of the Twats" to me.

But I can see where Crowe is coming from: he takes his job seriously, works hard to do an Italian accent, and some asshole asks him if he's doing an Irish accent!

If you really need something to legitimately hate about Crowe, then one needn't look any further than his horrendous voice/music.

My apologies...

ETA - But of course, his speech is superb.

You know what? Fuck this guy. There's a big difference between not suffering fools gladly (and God knows there are plenty of foolish entertainment reporters) and taking offence at any questions about possible flaws in his process, reasoning or abilities, something Rusty seems to do with increasing frequency.

I've interviewed my share of big-name actors and I pride myself on doing my research prior to sitting down and speaking with them. And while what I do isn't brain surgery by any stretch of the imagination (I fully realise I'm part of the PR machine more than anything else), I'm not there to give their ego a massage. If I'm curious about an aspect of a performance, I'll query them on it as intelligently as possible.

Now, I'm not familiar with Mark Lawson (he may well be a twat!), but for Crowe to take issue with what appeared to be a legit question or impression of their work by getting surly and bailing on the interview early strikes me as straight-up bullshit. Rusty takes his work seriously? That's great. You know what? So do a lot of entertainment journos.

McWeeny's recent interview with Crowe shows you can get good stuff out of the actor when you walk the line of preparing intelligent questions and keeping on his good side.

But this very interesting piece is a vivid illustration of the capriciousness of Crowe and the fragility of his ego. (I'm not really a fan of Jack Marx but this piece backs up a lot of anecdotal evidence from reporters I know who state that Rusty was a bit of a knob as far back as ROMPER STOMPER.)

This guy is way too sensitive to work in an industry where criticism is par for the course.

Maybe he should just be like Nickolson and stop doing interviews alltogether.

You think he'll quit before he makes it to the big league?

I think he saw Avatar and realized he wasn't the only major Australian male actor in Hollywood.

Hmm, there was Ledger, and look what happened.

Oh shit, Worthington better watch his back.

Tell that to Hugh Jackman.

His behavior here is rather cunty, but this is hardly a flipping out, we've seen what Crowe truly flipping out looks like.

I think Crowe is a sexy mofo and a good actor, but the guy clearly has some issues.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...in;contentBody

There's a difference between not holding in your anger and having issues controlling your anger. I don't think he realizes that.

Bana's definitely gunning for Crowe, of that there can no longer be any doubt. But you have one detail wrong. It's not because Crowe's a rival Aussie. It's a far, far more grave state of affairs than that.

See, to Bana Crowe is worse than just a rival Aussie. Crowe's a damn imposter, and not only that, he's the worst kind of imposter. Crowe's a sheep in dingo's clothing. He's a fucking Kiwi. That is why Bana's sharpening his boomerang.

The funny thing is, there's a handful of lines where he completely does sound Irish. Or at least very much not English. Particularly his first scene where Richard The Lionheart is attacking that fortress.

Am I reading that article wrong or did Crowe basically threaten to have the author murdered if he wrote a book about him?

Crowe's argument against that is kind of hilariously retarded. He argues that because the part of New Zealand he was raised in is closer to Sydney than most of Australia, he's more of an Aussie than most Aussies. That's sort of like a Cuban, Canadian, or Mexican claiming to be more of an American than a Hawaiian or Californian.

Sounds more like he "walked off" but anyway, that interviewer sounds like he was being an ass.

No no, you're correct, at least in the very loose inference.

It's weird, I read that article when it first came out and ever since I've found myself almost feeling sorry for Crowe. The guy seems to have so little self awareness married to such acute paranoias and anger issues. He's like the worst possible personality type to become a celebrity.

Still, I recommend that article to everyone here, it's a truly fascinating read.

Why would he want to deny being a Kiwi? Is it that big of a deal?

Besides, New Zealand fucking rocks.

I don’t think he’s denying his Kiwi heritage, rather he’s saying he is also Australian. He definitely supported the All Blacks – the Kiwi rugby team – in the 2003 world cup. He gave David Campese grief about the Aussies losing to England in the final.

And yes, New Zealand rocks. Slightly inbred on the south island but hey you get that in most remote rural locales.

Many interviewers have said he is funny and personable behind the scenes. Drew McWeeny's got a good write up on his site.

This looks like a juicy book:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/...rowe-gladiator

Nicole LaPorte's The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies and a Company called DreamWorks, which is published next month. It chronicles the history of the film studio, founded by Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen in 1994, which bankrolled Gladiator.

Crowe's exact words, according to the book, were "You motherfucker. I will kill you with my bare hands". He was apparently angry at Lustig's refusal to pay his assistants what the actor considered to be a fair daily wage.

Crowe replied on twitter:

On Gawker/Defamer, book re dreamworks If mentions of me are eg's of distance from the truth waste of paper written by a lying horse's ass," he wrote.

But probably the absolute best to become a great actor. Think about it. Most of the top actors (not box office, quality ie. Marlon Brando) all had/have serious social/personal issues unless your name is Tom Hanks.

Tom Hanks farts in phone booths and runs away. He's no angel.

You know what, if this is true, at least he was up in arms about something actually worth being upset about rather than his latte being too cold or being shot from the wrong angle - we're not talking Johnny Drama and his cereal raisins here.

Just bought this book over the weekend, looking forward to cracking it open.

I saw ROBIN HOOD over the weekend (eh, could have lost a good 20 minutes and been less aggrivating) and I didn't detect any Irish accent.

Does anyone else find the majority of his Twitter response completely fucking incomprehensible?

You have to admit though, that author sounds like a real twat himself.

The majority of ALL twitter responses are incomprehensible.

He does at that.

I'm beginning to think decent likeable people in the entertainment industry are actually the exception rather than the rule.

Yeah, and he didn't even walk off. Contrary to mischievious edits and an ill-informed media he actually stayed put until the end of the interview. On Simon Mayo's show Mark "Ass" Lawson even gave Crowe props for not storming out as some of Lawson's other interviewees have in reaction to his assy questions in the past.

I mean, there's no question Crowe's some kind of abnormal personality type and isn't any kind of angel, but this particular incident was blown out of proportion.

Hey that was nice Russell you wanker!