Russell Crowe is tackling the odd latter half of his acting career which has been filled with the strangest of projects, including, most recently, back-to-back cheapie exorcism movies.
I recently tackled this strange new phase of Crowe’s career. However, in an in-depth new interview with GQ, the 60-year-old actor says that, even though he’s very well aware of the semi-backlash, he doesn’t really care about the criticisms.
“I’ve been unreasonably happy for most of my life. I know that bothers some people, but that’s just not my problem. I pursue creatively and artistically what I want to do, and I have done that for probably about 35 years, you know? I do it unapologetically,” Crowe told GQ. “And my choices are always freaking people out.”
He used the 2011 film “The Man With the Iron Fists” as an example of what would appear to be an odd choice. RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan directed the feature, filmed in China, which was widely panned by critics.
“People were like, ‘What the hell are you doing that for?’ And I was like, ‘Well, I really believe in Bobby Diggs, RZA, I definitely know that he’s got a director’s brain and that he understands film, and when else am I ever going to get to play a character like this?'” Crowe said. “‘[A character] who’s, like, blowing bubbles in a bath because he’s pulling anal beads out of [someone] in Shanghai, in whatever the year was supposed to be? Peter Weir didn’t ask me to do that.'”
Looking back at Crowe’s career, he had a very impressive 12-year-run of films, between 1997 to 2009, with memorable turns in “L.A. Confidential,” “The Insider”, “Gladiator,” “A Beautiful Mind”, “Master & Commander”, “Cinderella Man,” “3:10 to Yuma” and “American Gangster”.
The last 10 years or so have been rather strange for the actor. It’s as if he’s not even trying anymore. He’d rather star in cheaply made and unambitious films (“Fathers and Daughters,” “Unhinged,” “Sleeping Dogs,” “Winter’s Tale,” “The Water Diviner,” “Prizefighter, “Poker Face”). It’s kind of depressing to watch all of this unfold. We want the old Russell back.
It does sound like Crowe is very content with what he’s doing now, and one genre he seems really keen in acting in are movies about exorcisms. Last year, we saw the release of the ill-reviewed “The Pope’s Exorcist.” Next Friday, the Crowe-starring “The Exorcism,” originally meant for streaming, is being released in theaters.
Criterion's December lineup has some great additions to the library, but the title that jumped out at me is Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," which officially joins the Collection on December 8.