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"I CAN'T BE DISPASSIONATELY removed from the things I do. I really feel
sorry for people who are, who divide their whole life up into 'things that I
like' and 'things that I must do.' You're only here for a short time, mate --
learn to like it."
Depending on who you talk to, Russell Crowe is either a jerk or a genius. And more than a few people think he's both. What he isn't, is hesitant. About anything. Crowe is someone who lives life to its absolute fullest. He doesn't have time for bull. He's fiercely passionate, protective, energetic and confrontational. Some people don't like that. He doesn't care. As a writer for Details commented, Crowe is the quintessential alpha male, and woe to anyone who gets in his way. Born in New Zealand, Crowe and brother, Terry, were raised in Sydney, Australia. To this day, the whole family lives on a farm in the outback of Australia. To re-state the obvious, Crowe is a guy's guy. The original Marlboro man. Which is an apt reference, as he took up smoking at the age of ten. Not even his role as tobacco-industry whistleblower Jeff Wigand in The Insider convinced him to quit. Before Crowe could smoke, he could act. He made his debut at age six, on a show for which his mother was the caterer. Learning quickly that there's a difference between a bit part and a lead, Crowe didn't land his first starring role until he was 25, when he landed The Crossing. Between acting jobs, Crowe had a wide variety of day jobs: street busker, waiter (of course), car detailer, DJ, insurance salesman, telephone solicitor, fruit picker, horse wrangler and bingo caller on a resort island. In the superficial world of entertainment, one of the things that kept Crowe from fulfilling 'leading man' status was a missing front tooth, which he knocked out while playing rugby as a child. The stubborn guy refused to get the tooth capped, until he was cast in The Crossing. The director, George Ogilvie, was so frustrated that he offered to pay for the dental work out of his own pocket. Though having a full set of teeth probably didn't hurt, it was Crowe's sheer talent that set his career off on a meteoric rise. Not "meteoric" in the Brad Pitt sense, because Crowe – though three years younger than Pitt, believe it or not – is no Brad Pitt. But "meteoric" in the "working consistently and well, making enough money to support his parents" kind of way. Which, one gathers, is the kind of success that matters to a man like him. LA Confidential was the film that brought Russell Crowe into the public eye, though some remember him from the completely chilling Romper Stomper. He's played a virtual serial killer in Virtuosity and learned to skate to play the captain of a small-town hockey team in Mystery, Alaska. To play a man 20 years his senior in The Insider, Crowe ate cheeseburgers and drank bourbon for six weeks, gaining 35 pounds. For his next film, The Gladiator, he shed the weight and then some, getting into genuinely buff shape. The man is a chameleon. Crowe has the distinguishing characteristic of being the only non-American actor I've ever seen pull off a convincing American accent without slipping once. Even the best of them – Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Jeremy Northam, Nicole Kidman – all give away their heritage with a vowel here or a dipthong there. Not Crowe. In his spare time – which is becoming less and less frequent – Crowe plays in a rock band called "30 Odd Foot of Grunts." As he explained in one interview, "As a guitarist, I suck. As a singer, I suck." Good thing he never quit his day job, because as an actor, he definitely doesn't suck.
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