“Pure imagination”: the 1997 audition Russell Crowe says never happened
Russell Crowe lashed out at a director who was spreading lies about him.
Russell Crowe is still a well-respected actor today, but it’s hard to overstate what a big deal he was in the late 1990s and early 21st century. He was a believable action star, a respected serious actor, and someone who could headline any sort of film and make it a hit; it’s not often that someone wins the Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’ for a film that also takes home the prize for ‘Best Picture.’
Gladiator alone would have been enough to make Crowe a cinematic legend, but he followed it up the next year with another ‘Best Picture’ winner in A Beautiful Mind, and later made one of the decade’s most underrated films with Master and Commander: Far Side of the World. Although Crowe hasn’t been in as many major films in recent years, he will still show what an amazing actor he can be with incredible performances, including his dramatic transformation in last year’s Nuremberg.
Crowe has also ensured that tall tales about his body of work do not spread, as he has dealt with the paparazzi on more than one occasion. Although My Best Friend’s Wedding director PJ Hogan claimed that Crowe had auditioned for the role that would eventually go to Dermot Mulroney, the actor took to social media to refute his claims.
“Pure imagination on behalf of this director,” Crowe said. “I did not audition for this film. I have never done a table read with the actress mentioned. Would be funny if it wasn’t so pointless.”
The “actress mentioned” by Crowe was the star of My Best Friend’s Wedding, Julia Roberts, who he has surprisingly never worked with, despite the fact that their careers peaked around the same period of time. Hogan’s story claimed that the table read had been disastrous and that Crowe wasn’t right for the part, but it’s clear that his story wasn’t quite lining up. There hadn’t been any other reporting about alternative casting choices for the film, and Roberts has never confirmed anything about Hogan’s story.
Perhaps it is not surprising that Hogan was attempting to hype up his own filmography, given that he hasn’t had a hit in decades. Although My Best Friend’s Wedding was a success that briefly suggested that the Australian filmmaker might be able to make it as a mainstream American director, he helmed a series of flops, including the much-maligned 2003 version of Peter Pan.
Even if Crowe had given a bad table read for My Best Friend’s Wedding, it wouldn’t have impacted his career because 1997 was the same year that he appeared in L.A. Confidential, the brilliant noir crime drama that became his big breakthrough in the United States. It’s a film that is still cited as being one of the best in its genre, whereas My Best Friend’s Wedding has had its reputation somewhat dampened in recent years because of how psychopathic the behaviour of Roberts’ character is.
It’s entirely possible that Crowe wasn’t interested in being in a romantic comedy at the time, but it’s not a genre that he has completely avoided. Crowe had reteamed with his Gladiator director, Ridley Scott, in 2006 for the romantic film The Good Year, which is among the most underrated films that both of them have made.
