Russell knows the state of play
Russell Crowe plays journalist Cal McAffrey in the film version of hit BBC TV drama State of Play. The famously irascible actor talks to Lisa Williams about being honourable – on and off screen
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IF ANYONE in showbusiness has a reputation that precedes them, it’s Russell Crowe. Rumours of his temper and stubbornness have been rife during his decade or so in the spotlight. While some celebrities bask in the media attention, Russell has made it clear that he dislikes being photographed or written about.
This perhaps explains why he was so eager to take up director Kevin Macdonald’s offer to play journalist Cal McAffrey in the film version of hit BBC drama State of Play.
But 45-year-old Russell, who is calmer and funnier in the flesh than his reputation allows, says this is not so.
“My personal experience doesn’t negate my opinion that journalism can be a noble profession; it doesn’t dissipate my love of a well-constructed sentence, so I liked the idea of going through this experience,” he says thoughtfully.
It was lucky that he did like the idea, as Macdonald did not have long to convince him to play the role.
Brad Pitt had been involved with the project and had signed up to play Cal, but the film fell into disarray just before shooting when he pulled out over a script disagreement.
Macdonald, who later said he thought Brad was perhaps too charming and good-looking to pull off the role, stepped straight on to a plane to Australia and bagged Russell.
So did the Oscar-winning actor mind playing a bit of a loser?
“Cal doesn’t have a shred of vanity for how he looks, how he lives, what he eats and what his lifestyle is, his vanity is in the perception of his words, and ultimately he wants people to see him through the prism of his words,” he says.
The original drama has been updated to suit the modern political and journalistic environment. The setting has been changed from London to Washington D.C., and the internal newspaper politics have been replaced by a face-off between an old-fashioned pen-and-paper journalist (Cal) and a publish-it-before-you’ve-checked-the-facts blogger (Della, played by Rachel McAdams).
Russell himself is concerned about the state of modern journalism and how stories can be twisted.
“If you trivialise the news decade after decade, and if you turn news into entertainment, if you corrupt how people get information, if you have a cynical view where you can take a bit of fluff that’s not true and you know it’s not true, but you can bang it out to make something that fits nicely on Page Five next to the ad for women’s lingerie, if you start thinking like that, then sooner or later people are going to distrust what those sources all are, and we’ve built a generation that don’t know how to discern bull from truth,” he says.
State of Play also looks at the intricate power relations between politicians, business and journalism – and comes to some unsavoury conclusions.
“Many of the things I think need to be put on the breakfast table for discussion are within this movie,” Russell says.
“The blurred line between news and entertainment, the blurred line and the secret handshakes between politics and journalism, the privatisation of war. There are myriad subjects that this movie covered that I thought were relevant and important.”
Now, Russell’s looking forward to working with Ridley Scott on the Robin Hood revisionist tale Nottingham.
The project has been dogged with problems: from the leaves on the “Sherwood Forest” location not being green enough for Scott’s liking, to the swapping of Sienna Miller with Cate Blanchett as Maid Marion (although Russell describes fellow-Aussie Cate as his “first choice”).
Russell and Scott have worked together on four other projects, including A Good Year and the Oscar-winning Gladiator.
“He’s irascible,” laughs Russell.
“I’m staying away from him at the moment because the first few days before (shooting) a feature people just get shot left, right and centre.”
Getting serious, he says they have a great working relationship.
“When we’re on a set together, he and I begin to see the world the same way,” he says.
“I have a lot of responsibility when I work with him, but I have a lot of creative space when I work with him, too, and there’s nobody I have experienced who creates a complete world better than Ridley Scott, and that’s what I enjoy.”
While he claims the two have not recently discussed a sequel to Gladiator, Russell says they still talk about it.
“We haven’t discussed (Gladiator 2) for a long time – years – although we do make jokes about the film continuously.
“Whatever it means to other people, we totally have an honest viewpoint that we probably achieved something that we shouldn’t have achieved on that film – taking a long dead genre and, as has been proven by many other people since that film came out, one that’s not easy to make with any truth to it.”
Like his character in Gladiator, State of Play’s Cal strives for honour, despite his weaknesses.
“Quite frankly, if you want to be an honourable man in this day and age you’ve got to have a little anger to you,” says Russell.
Is he a man of honour?
“That perception is for somebody else to make. I’m just a regular chap and I believe in what I believe in and I try to do my best every day.”
State of Play was released in cinemas yesterday.
Russell Ira Crowe was born in New Zealand and moved to Australia when he was just four with his film-set caterer parents.
His showbiz career began in musicals like Blood Brothers and with TV appearances in shows like Neighbours, before he landed his first film role in 1990’s The Crossing.
Russell has been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar three times in a row, for The Insider, Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind. He won the Oscar in 2001 for his role in Gladiator.
He met his Australian actress and singer wife, Danielle Spencer, on the set of The Crossing. The pair married in 2003 and have two sons, Charlie and Tennyson.
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