The “heavy” movie Russell Crowe found “super intense”
Russell Crowe‘s journey to Hollywood was an adventure full of risks and low-budget Australian films which were never destined for international audiences. During this time, the actor honed his craft by taking on challenging roles which explored severe societal issues and thrust Crowe into the deep end.
After a challenging decade in the 1980s, which consisted of constant rejection and dealing with his musical career going up in smoke, Crowe finally began to gain regular film work with 1992’s Romper Stomper acting as his breakthrough. The cult hit centred on a group of neo-Nazi thugs who are wrongly attempting to fight against the multiculturalism in their local Melbourne neighbourhood.
In the film, Crowe stars alongside Daniel Pollock, and in the evenings, their characters spend their time attacking the Asian community in their neighbourhood. Thankfully, they receive their long-awaited comeuppance, and things unravel as they taste the poison they’ve sown into the world with their evil exploits.
When Crowe took on the role, he was still learning the tricks of the trade, and the opportunity to play such a troubled character was daunting. Additionally, as it was a low-budget movie, they had limited time on set, increasing the pressure on his shoulders and leaving the actor to find it an “intense” shoot.
During a conversation with GQ, Crowe explained why he found the script irresistible despite the dark subject matter: “I read the script and found it a very difficult subject matter to deal with,” he said. “Having grown up through the punk era, I’d seen guys who’d become punks because of their music preference or making a stand against corporate rock, and I’d seen some of those guys morph into neo-Nazis”.
He continued: “I think I probably did about five or six physical auditions for that before I was cast in the role. A very short shoot, maybe 28 days, so it was super intense. You had to get into character very quickly, working with a group of young guys, and everybody is a bit afraid of it.”
Crowe elaborated: “Jackie McKenzie was the principal female lead. She didn’t know what she was getting into either and had just come out of film school, but it was the quality of the idea that you could attack such a heavy subject matter that was so compelling and attractive. It ended up being quite an incredible calling card for me. It definitely went ahead of me and did its own work.”
While he knew it was a “compelling and attractive” story, which people could relate to, Crowe knew the film business well enough to know that wouldn’t necessarily correlate to success. However, much to his delight, Romper Stomper was a big hit in Australia and helped create a platform which allowed Crowe to spread his wings in America.
