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 He's
unapologetic. He rarely minces words. He's the kind of guy you could
easily find yourself loving and hating at the exact same time. Just
mention the name Russell Crowe to any female ages 16 to 70 and chances
are— they will swoon. The accent, the rugged good looks, the body...
it’s enough to make any woman desire him and every man wish he could be
him. And why not? The New Zealand native has literally taken Hollywood
by storm since co-starring in 1997’s 'L.A. Confidential'. And ever since
his Oscar winning performance in last year’s 'Gladiator' Crowe has
become one of the film industry's most sought after (and highly paid)
actors. With millions of women at his feet (and millions of scripts on
his doorstep), one would think that all of Crowe’s dreams are coming
true. After all, not only he is one of the most successful actors of the
decade, but he also made the jump from television to film and now... to
music with his band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts. In fact, his band’s
documentary was recently sold to Miramax and premiered at Sundance this
past January. However, when asked if the life he lives today was
everything he dreamt of as a child, Crowe is quick to retort that in
reality, it’s been nothing short of “a f%$king nightmare.” Granted,
Crowe says it with a laugh, but it isn’t one of those laughs that just
comes naturally— it is, to some extent, forced. If one took a closer
look at the Academy Award winning actor’s persona, chances are that they
could easily understand why his life may not be so "heaven sent"... And
if you spend a moment with Russell Crowe, the person, you'll quickly
conclude, that he's much more of a "work in progress" than most.
Ever since his "forbidden romance" with former American
Sweetheart Meg Ryan, the press has been quick to tear Crowe apart. He’s
been called a home-wrecker, a jerk, a complacent bad-boy with more
attitude than depth— and basically every other negative description in
the book... Of course, accusing fingers are always quick to point in his
direction whenever the dreaded topic— what led to Ryan and Dennis
Quaid’s dissolved marriage, comes up. The mainstream press also has a
tendency to play up Crowe’s straight-forwardness, making the actor seem
like a relatively short-tempered man. Rumors constantly float around
about his personal life, ranging from fist fights he’s "supposedly"
started to the co-stars he’s allegedly "persuaded"— despite an obvious
lack of interest from the female party. Add to all of this the fact that
Crowe remained completely straight-faced at the 2001 Academy Awards
while those around him laughed hysterically at the painful jokes Steve
Martin was making about his life and you can easily understand his
dilemma. Many people question his ability to even take a joke. Despite
all of the negatives, Crowe isn’t bitter towards the press or the
public. In fact, he doesn’t even think he’s misunderstood.
 “I
don’t really think I’m misunderstood, but I’m definitely
misconstrued,” Crowe says quite matter-of-factly. “It’s very easy to
offend people with the truth for some reason.” No matter the rumors say
about Crowe, the truth is, that, above anything else, he is a talented
actor. For those who questioned the Academy’s decision to give him the
Oscar last year, rest assured, if he hadn’t won it for 'Gladiator' he
would have won it this year for his performance in 'A Beautiful Mind.'
In fact, with Oscar buzz already circling both Crowe and the film, one
shouldn’t be surprised if Crowe were to follow in Tom Hanks footsteps to
become the next back-to-back Best Actor Oscar winner. Based the
biography by Sylvia Nasar, 'A Beautiful Mind' stars Russell Crowe as
real life Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash, Jr., a mathematician who
to this very day lives his life as a paranoid-schizophrenic. The
performance Crowe gives in the film literally takes viewers on a journey
so life-like that one would insist he would have had to have copied the
real life John Nash Jr. in order to possibly achieve a performance so
outstanding and realistic. Surprisingly though, this is not the case.
“In the course of the rehearsal I had plans to meet him,” Crowe
admits, “but we are dealing with a man in his seventies. One has to
wonder if he going to be a true witness to his own life or is he going
to be a false witness. Ron (Howard) actually asked very simple questions
on video tape for me to see which he was going to be. We asked him, ‘did
you ever smoke cigarettes?’ and he said no. We have evidence that he
did. During the period of the intensity of his disease, he very
regularly self-medicated himself with cigarettes and whatever else was
around. Ron asked ‘Did you ever wear a beard?,’ and he replied ‘Not that
I can remember.’ We’ve got photographs of him with a beard in Europe.”
Knowing that meeting the real John Nash wouldn’t be of much help to him
in accurately re-creating the mathematical genius, Crowe was forced to
rely on old television footage, black and white photographs and his own
assumptions in bringing the character to life on-screen as accurately as
possible. As if the pressure of honestly portraying a man who is still
alive wasn’t difficult enough, Crowe also had to factor in the
progression of paranoid-schizophrenia in playing the role.
“Coming to this particular character was a long process. Yes, the
man is still alive, but we are dealing with situations in his life five
decades prior to where he is now. In the middle of that is 35 years of
hospitalization and medication. When you go into the disease, you
realize by looking at contemporary case studies, the physical change in
people that takes place with the use of that medication and the onset of
the disease. Where as small physical gestures that are in place and
habitual prior to the onset of the disease become physical
manifestations of the disease. Where people talk from, the pitch of
their voice, the use of their voice all changes dramatically. So how he
talked now was not only adjusted by that medication, that
hospitalization, the effect of the disease, but also the fact that he
lived in Boston for eight years and other different places during points
of his life."
Although Crowe came up with majority of Nash’s traits and
characteristics before principle photography began on the film, he was
influenced by a surprise visit from the real Nash shortly after the film
began shooting. “He just popped up unannounced during the first week of
shooting,” Crowe recalls. “When I went to see him and go talk to him, I
asked him a simple question— ‘would you like coffee or tea?’— and
fifteen minutes later I got somewhere near an answer from him. Such is
the level of examination that he’ll place everything that comes his way.
I said, ‘Would you like coffee or tea?’ and he said, ‘If I have a coffee
should I have it with milk? Or should I have it with sugar? But if I
have it with milk or sugar, would it actually still be coffee or would
it be sugar and milk? And if I have a coffee, will that mean more or
less pleasure than if I have a cup of tea? And if I have a cup of tea,
how can I be sure it will be of the density and fullness of flavor that
I actually enjoy with Sri-Lankan tea and Southern Indian tea?’ And he
went on and on. I ended up using it in the film, so every second that I
spent in front of him there was useful information coming my way.”
While the subject matter of the film remained relatively serious
during the shoot, the cast and crew admit that there were some laughs
had on-set. In fact, one of the most memorable days came from a special
surprise by Crowe himself in an attempt to keep a room full of extras
alive while director Ron Howard was filming one of the movie’s final
scenes, the Nobel Prize ceremony. “I’ve done some extra work in my time
and I know how tedious it can be,” Crowe says. “We had 800 or 1,000
people in a room one day and we needed them to be as energetic in their
first round of applause as we did in the 50th or 60th round of applause.
So basically I did stand up in my old make-up between takes to keep
their energy high because obviously we’re not going to shoot this once
from the front, once from the back and that’s okay. So I just kept the
extras engaged in the process and then later on in the day when the
cameras were on them and we needed an enthusiastic round of applause, I
switched the Nobel plaque I was carrying for the little gold statue
(Oscar) and we got what we needed.”
 Despite
these light-hearted moments, Crowe hopes that viewers will realize
the true meaning of the film is quite serious. For not only is the real
story about a Nobel Prize winner’s battle with schizophrenia, it’s about
an equally real mental illness that far too many people are mislead
about. “The social misunderstanding about schizophrenia is that it’s
about spilt personalities, while in reality it’s about thinking in
totally different planes of reason. I made a quip to The New York Times,
just a smart-ass response, when they asked what I was doing for research
and I replied ‘I’m living in Manhattan. I go for a walk every Sunday.’
But saying that and getting sort of a gag out of it also had a very
serious statement behind it. Most of the people that you find on the
streets of New York City are in that situation. This film is not a
medical statement about the disease, but at the same time I wouldn’t
want to think that we were at all stepping away from treating it as
serious as it needs to be treated. To leave this film and say you
understand the process of John Forbes Nash’s mind, that’s an absolute
simplification. Schizophrenia is a really serious disease and there is
no way that you can say that.”
UB
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