The movie Russell Crowe was offended at being offered: “I didn’t want to go anywhere near it”
No offence intended to an actor with a notoriously short fuse, but Russell Crowe was never cut out to be a movie star. That’s not suggesting he’s a bad actor because he’s got the accolades to prove otherwise, but above-the-title A-list status never seemed to fit in the way Hollywood wanted it to.
He was a sensation at the turn of the millennium, though, earning three consecutive ‘Best Actor’ nominations at the Academy Awards for Michael Mann’s The Insider, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, and Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind, winning the prize for his performance in the transformative historical epic.
It also gave him the distinction of taking top billing in two ‘Best Picture’ winners in a row, so it’s easy to see why he was anointed as one of the biggest names in the business. However, over the next decade, it became clear that he wasn’t exactly bankable as an entity, regardless of how often studio executives tried to convince audiences otherwise.
Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Scott’s Body of Lies and Robin Hood, Kevin Macdonald’s State of Play, James Mangold’s 3:10 to Yuma, and Howard’s Cinderella Man featured performances that ranged from shaky to solid, but none of them took flight at the box office.
Crowe eventually found his niche, and he’s having more fun than ever. His current status is that of the recognisable journeyman who pops up in formulaic genre flicks to have a bit of a lark, and it’s something he’s become incredibly adept at. He knows his role, and he’s obviously enjoying it immensely, even if he almost turned down one of the finest examples of this new era.
2020’s action thriller Unhinged is not a good movie, but it’s a hugely enjoyable one, thanks largely to Crowe pitching his performance as maniacally as possible as a fat suit-wearing villain who suffers from such a bad case of road rage that he won’t rest until he’s inhaled as much scenery as humanly possible.
“My first response was, ‘No fucking way,'” he admitted to iNews of his initial reaction to the script. “I was affronted by how sure I was about that that.” However, when he discussed it with his inner circle, it eventually became apparent that the excessively hammy part was one he might regret turning down.
“I started thinking, ‘What am I not seeing?’ I realised I was simply afraid of the truth of this film,” he mused. “That’s why I didn’t want to go anywhere near it.” Nobody’s going to call it one of his best-ever films, but it’s easily one of his most ludicrously over-the-top turns, which, in this instance, is intended to be a compliment of the highest order.
