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Russell Crowe Quotes

Russell Ira Crowe is an actor, film producer and musician. Although a New Zealand citizen, he has lived most of his life in Australia. He came to international attention for his role as the Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which Crowe won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor, an Empire Award for Best Actor and a London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and 10 further nominations for best actor.

Crowe appeared as the tobacco firm whistle blower Jeffrey Wigand in the 1999 film The Insider, for which he received five awards as best actor and seven nominations in the same category. In 2001, Crowe's portrayal of mathematician and Nobel Prize winner John F. Nash in the biopic A Beautiful Mind brought him numerous awards, including a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.

Crowe's other films include Romper Stomper , L.A. Confidential , Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World , Cinderella Man , American Gangster , State of Play , Robin Hood , Les Misérables , Man of Steel and Noah . In 2015, Crowe made his directorial debut with The Water Diviner, in which he also starred. Crowe's work has earned him several accolades during his career and including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, three consecutive Academy Award nominations , one Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, one BAFTA, and an Academy Award. Crowe has also been the co-owner of the National Rugby League team South Sydney Rabbitohs since 2006.

✵ 7. April 1964
Russell Crowe photo
Russell Crowe: 22 quotes3 likes

Famous Russell Crowe Quotes

“I've always had a thing about being accused of something when I'm not guilty of it, you know? That goes right back to a primary school thing. It's the thing that scares me the most— being blamed for something that I didn't do… And there's that "If you get accused of something and you get angry, then you must be guilty."”

Russell Crowe

GQ Interview (2005)

“I think my reputation is something that I'll probably try to spend the rest of my life living it down and it probably won't work.”

Russell Crowe

60 Minutes interview (2006)

“I used to have these very strange situations where I'd be walking down the street and I would imagine people calling out my name. I was as optimistic and as full of hope as anybody could be. And lots of things didn't turn out the way I wanted them to when I was a younger fella, but I didn't lose that thirst to understand what it is that I could do well.”

Russell Crowe

GQ Interview (2005)

“Until I was 25, 1 had one tooth missing. When George Ogilvie cast me, he asked me about it, and I told him the story and that I thought it was very false of me to go and get a tooth cap. He was very nice about it, listened to it all, and said, "All right, well, let me put it this way, Russell. You're playing the lead character in my film, right? The character of Johnny has two front teeth….'”

Russell Crowe

GQ Interview (2005)

“I wanted to see that grizzly fucker. I wanted to see him flower. I wanted to see him blossom under the fact of love. I wanted to see where the sonnets came from. They came from the same pen of despair that wrote Timon of Athens— I wanted to see that guy. I wanted to see that guy with the sensibilities of a man that could create a body of work that would last century after century. I wanted to see that… I wanted to play that character. I loved the script. I mean, it was an incredibly well observed script about actors. That's why I thought it was so cool.”

Russell Crowe

On Shakespeare In Love
GQ Interview (2005)

“I'm not Machiavellian. I don't play chess with my life, you know. I respond in the moment, which is what makes me a good actor. It makes me, sometimes, a good interview subject but it also makes me a very easy target.”

Russell Crowe

60 Minutes interview (2006)

Russell Crowe Quotes about life

“Probably the biggest difference— the thing that really took my life and changed it, and made my relationship with the press a defensive one instead of one of tolerant amusement or whatever— was Meg Ryan. And, gee whiz, I'm not going to apologize for that situation in my life. It's just there. Well, actually, that's wrong— I would apologize if there are people that were directly hurt from that situation. There was never any intention like that. Quite frankly, it was in the papers before it was a reality, you know? So we were already having to deal with the bullshit, and that possibly brought us close together, because we were both dealing with what it meant to be put in that situation.”

Russell Crowe

GQ Interview (2005)

“To be honest, when you're younger and cooler, you say those sort of things don't mean anything, but then on the day when they pat you on the back and they say, "Look, mate, we're noticing what you're doing-thanks very much;' you think of the people who spent a life in the cinema and didn't receive that kind of accolade, and it's sort of a humbling experience. And it's very nice and all that. But it doesn't change the way I do things.”

Russell Crowe

On winning an Oscar for Gladiator.
GQ Interview (2005)

“A guy like Hando is abhorrent to me— the philosophy that governs his life is something that disgusts me completely— so that was an interesting learning experience.”

Russell Crowe

On playing a neo-Nazi skinhead in one of his earliest roles.
GQ Interview (2005)

Russell Crowe Quotes about thinking

“I'm not sure if we'll ever be able to regain that ground…. I quite often feel like I'm the youngest of the old guys, where I've got some really old-fashioned philosophies about what's credible and what's not…. Suddenly, someone like me seems like a dinosaur from a different age, but I hope it's the opposite of that. I hope I'm at the forefront of thinking and it'll all come back to that at some point.”

Russell Crowe

GQ Interview (2005)
Context: I get a very deep sense that the generation after Generation X is a very conservative generation, and I'm not sure they understand the commitment part of what I do. I'm not sure if we'll ever be able to regain that ground.... I quite often feel like I'm the youngest of the old guys, where I've got some really old-fashioned philosophies about what's credible and what's not.... Suddenly, someone like me seems like a dinosaur from a different age, but I hope it's the opposite of that. I hope I'm at the forefront of thinking and it'll all come back to that at some point.

“I don’t think that I was the only person. But it was about—and here’s another little touch of irony— it was about taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as a sort of cultural-destabilization plan.”

Russell Crowe

The irony being that he is a New Zealand born Australian, who has often made clear his dislike of being in Hollywood.
GQ Interview (2005)
Context: That was the first conversation in my life that I’d ever heard the phrase Al Qaeda. And it was something to do with some recording picked up by a French policewoman, I think, in either Libya or Algiers. And it was a destabilization plan. I don’t think that I was the only person. But it was about—and here’s another little touch of irony— it was about taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as a sort of cultural-destabilization plan.

“This is not belittling it, because I do think it's a very emotionally and intellectually complicated physical performance, and it's the combination of those things that made it a little unusual, I suppose. But I definitely rate The Insider and A Beautiful Mind above that. I probably rate Romper Stomper above it. And there's a hell of a lot of nuance going on in L. A. Confidential as well.”

Russell Crowe

On his role in Gladiator.
GQ Interview (2005)

Russell Crowe Quotes

“If it's not going to be that serious, I don't want to do it. It's a personal taste.”

Russell Crowe

GQ Interview (2005)
Context: If it's not going to be that serious, I don't want to do it. It's a personal taste. I don't like watching an actor have the same fucking hairdo from time period to time period, from character to character— I just think it's bullshit. It's a waste of money and a waste of my time as an audience member.

“Some things just come without any real understanding. I don't bother to question it or myself anymore.”

Russell Crowe

Interview with Paula Nechak (1997)
Context: Some things just come without any real understanding. I don't bother to question it or myself anymore. If you get into a situation like L. A. Confidential, where you can just totally get inside the character, that's a privileged position. Now that I'm more aware of the process I realize it's the position you always want to aim for.

“People accuse me of being arrogant all the time. I'm not arrogant, I'm focused.”

Russell Crowe

Los Angeles Times (October 31,1999)
Context: People accuse me of being arrogant all the time. I'm not arrogant, I'm focused. I don't make demands. I don't tell you how it should be. I'll give you fucking options, and it's up to you to select or throw 'em away. That should be the headline: If you're insecure, don't fucking call.

“I'm fundamentally quite shy, so that thing of taking on another character is quite a liberating thing to do if you're a shy person, because within that character framework you can now go to all these other places.”

Russell Crowe

GQ Interview (2005)
Context: I'm fundamentally quite shy, so that thing of taking on another character is quite a liberating thing to do if you're a shy person, because within that character framework you can now go to all these other places. [pauses] And I never found another job that I was actually that good at.

“I went shopping with Danielle yesterday, and we were in a bookstore. And this woman actually said, "Look, Russell Crowe reads— who'd have known?"”

Russell Crowe

GQ Interview (2005)

“I have a temper. My mum's got a temper. My brother's got a temper. You've got to have one. You know what happens if you don't have one? One day you're walking down the street and you just pop. You're lying there dead on the pavement because you've been holding and suppressing all this bullshit, you know.”

Russell Crowe

60 Minutes interview (2006)

“I'd move to Los Angeles if New Zealand and Australia were swallowed up by a tidal wave, if there was a bubonic plague in England and if the continent of Africa disappeared from some Martian attack.”

Russell Crowe

New York Daily News (2000)

“I suppose I'm still too young to say everything I want to say, though nobody'd ever give me credit for holding anything back. But I do … I just have no desire or need to slag Joe Fiennes. But I would look at that particular thing differently. I see the opportunity differently.”

Russell Crowe

GQ Interview (2005)

“There's nothing like sitting back and talking to your cows.”

Russell Crowe

On missing his Australian ranch, US Weekly, (Issue 304)

“Oh yeah, there was a point where they said they thought the threat had probably or had possibly been overstated, and then they started to question their sources, and blah, blah, blah. But I don't know how it was resolved, you know? But they were serious about it. And what can you say? I mean, gee, there were a lot of man-hours spent doing that gig, so the least I can say is, "Thank you very much."”

Russell Crowe

GQ Interview (2005)

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