Russell Crowe on the most difficult performance of his career: “The hardest I’ve ever done”
No one arrives on a movie set knowing they’re going to create magic the first time the camera starts rolling. As we have seen from the Steve Seagals of the world, the minute someone wants to show their prowess as one of the greatest thespians of their time, the audience will either be in for something wretched or unintentionally hilarious when they see it onscreen. Most actors have to be put through their paces before they start filming, but after coming out of Noah, Russell Crowe was convinced that he had just made one of the hardest projects of his career.
Then again, anything overseen by Darren Aronofsky was not going to be known for being a walk in the park. Every one of his films has been a clinically precise art piece, and while other visionaries of his ilk, like Stanley Kubrick, were able to fine-tune their material into something striking, Aronofsky’s films are the kind that sit with you for days as you unpack everything.
Coming after Black Swan, though, hearing about him adapting the biblical story of God sending the great flood would never be that straightforward. And for Crowe, this would be the equivalent of carrying an entire set’s worth of people on his shoulders for the entire film. He had already proven his chops years before on Requiem for a Dream and Gladiator, but taking something like this on would mean playing to both separate strengths at once.
When adapting biblical passages, there is very little room for error or creative license. As everyone from Martin Scorsese to Monty Python will attest, the religious community is very sniffy if someone moves an inch in the wrong direction. But looking back on Noah, this is one of the better examples of how to frame the age-old story slightly differently.
Outside of a few parts that still make zero sense to this day, seeing Noah as a conflicted figure who isn’t quite sure what to make of his higher power’s requests is far more interesting than just telling the story as is. A lot of these prophets were still human, after all, and seeing him conflicted about the possibility of having to kill his adopted daughter’s child and eventually sheltering himself away from society shows the great sense of doubt that comes with any vocation like this.
Beyond just the raw drama unfolding onscreen, Crowe knew that if he were to play this kind of character with the changes needed, he would need to follow everything to the letter, saying, “It was the hardest job I’ve ever done because of the subject matter and the responsibility to it – there’s no room for just making shit up and most of the time you are allowed to do that, you are allowed to work within certain parameters, you become expert on your character and you can expand what he does.”
For all of the liberties that were taken with Aronofsky’s first biblical attempt, he would spend his next few films seeing how far else he could go. When looking at a film like Mother!, it doesn’t necessarily have many direct religious connotations, but looking at the way it’s framed, Aronofsky is more than capable of getting his point across, even if what’s on his mind is a little bit dark or cynical.
Even if it doesn’t hit the mark every single time, Crowe’s performance in Noah is 100% perfect for the story it’s trying to tell. Not all prophets are perfect people, and seeing the real-life events that may have unfolded during that time is enough to open some audience’s eyes to how they perceive a story they supposedly know, like the back of their hand.
