The strange feud between George Clooney and Russell Crowe: “Who the fuck does this guy think he is?”
Existing almost on opposite ends of the Hollywood industry, George Clooney and Russell Crowe have both won Oscars for their modern contributions to cinema, winning for Ridley Scott’s Gladiator and Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana, respectively. Yet, despite having never starred in a movie together, Clooney and Crowe share a strange feud that all started when the former read a poem out on stage during the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards.
But this wasn’t any old poem; the short piece of work that Clooney read out had been written by Crowe, who wasn’t too happy about the uproarious response from the crowd. “He picked a fight with me. He started it for no reason at all,” Clooney recalled in an interview with Esquire in which he recounts the event in detail, explaining exactly why the Australian actor had such a problem with him.
“He put out this thing saying, ‘George Clooney, Harrison Ford, and Robert De Niro are sellouts’,” Clooney added, “And I put out a statement saying, ‘He’s probably right. And I’m glad he told us, ’cause Bob and Harrison and I were also thinking about starting a band, which would also fall under the heading of bad use of celebrity.’ And that’s when he really went off on me”.
Going off on Clooney in a fit of anger, Crowe raged: “’Who the fuck does this guy think he is? He’s a Frank Sinatra wannabe.’ He really went after me. And so I sent him a note going, ‘Dude, the only people who succeed when two famous people are fighting is People magazine. What the fuck is wrong with you?’”.
Eventually, after about 12 months, Crowe calmed down, with Clooney explaining: “But then I had a year. Then I had Syriana and Good Night, and Good Luck, and he was gonna see me at the Golden Globes ’cause he was nominated for Cinderella Man. So he sends me a disc of his music and a thing of his poetry. I think he said, ‘I was all misquoted,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah. Whatever’”.
Indeed, the feud was merely a flash in the pan, with the two actors being civil with one another now despite the sudden burst of anger. Yet, it seems a little rich for Crowe to call Clooney a sellout when the former is the one who has jumped on the superhero bandwagon on more than one occasion.
Check out a clip of Crow as Zeus from the Taika Waititi Marvel movie Thor: Love and Thunder below.
