EVERY SPOKEN WORD
150 min read · 30,015 words- 0:00 – 3:26
Meeting your heroes: fame, fandom, and Daniel Day-Lewis stories
- RCRussell Crowe
(drumming) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience.
- JRJoe Rogan
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music) What's happening, man? Pleasure to meet you.
- RCRussell Crowe
Nice to meet you, too, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's always so odd when you've seen someone in so many movies, then you meet them in real life. You're like, "Huh, real person."
- RCRussell Crowe
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
You know? It's strange, isn't it?
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah. Well, you know, I, I, you know, I do have that same thing myself, you know, when I meet somebody that, uh, I, I, y- whose work I dig or whatever, you know? I'm, I'm still just the same fan that I was, you know, before I even got into the business, you know? I met Daniel Day-Lewis in a Motel 8 in Conestoga, New York State. And we ... A guy (laughs) , a guy saw us and he said, you know, "Do you mind if I take your photograph?" (laughs) So we, we went out into the car park of this Motel 8, and this guy took a photograph. And about, I don't know, seven or eight months later, a copy of it arrived at my house in Australia, and the guy had basically just, you know, written "Russell Crowe, Australia" (laughs) and sent it to me.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
So I have a copy of it, and, uh, it's a funny thing, you know? It was like, uh, I was there. It was the Boxing Hall of Fame. I was there with Angelo Dundee, and he was there with Barry McGuigan. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, wow.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's awesome.
- RCRussell Crowe
It was. It was just unexpected and, you know, it was, uh, it was a cool thing. He was such a nice fellow, too. Had a real good vibe about him.
- JRJoe Rogan
Daniel Day-Lewis is a real legend 'cause he's one of those guys who just, like, disappears for a couple years and makes shoes.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Just (laughs) just a real artist.
- RCRussell Crowe
This quirky stuff and then-
- JRJoe Rogan
Just gone.
- RCRussell Crowe
... and suddenly comes back with a f- you know, a vengeance and a fury.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- RCRussell Crowe
And you go, "Oh my God, look at that." Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, he's-
- RCRussell Crowe
'Cause, you know, some of us have to work for a living, mate, you know that.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
He's probably got independent wealth.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, he's just a different kind of human, you know? Any guy who can just walk away like that and just decide to make shoes, like, that's a ...
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's the real deal.
- RCRussell Crowe
It's al- it's, it's pretty special.
- JRJoe Rogan
Some, like, some people try to pretend to be quirky, you know? They try to pretend to be eccentric, and then-
- 3:26 – 8:33
Escaping boring jobs: early work, DJ nerves, and life-direction wake-up calls
- RCRussell Crowe
... you know? My, my first thing when I was leaving school i- is that, just don't have a boring life. Just don't, you know? Find (laughs) some way of, like, being able to express yourself, you know? Um, my first job outta school, my first official job was working for an insurance company, Commercial Union Insurance, inputting the details of policies.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oof.
- RCRussell Crowe
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
So not off to a great start. (laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
Ah, man. It was a funny thing though, 'cause I, I learnt, uh, you know, a lot in my short time there. In, in the summer before, I'd worked as a nightclub DJ, uh, and I got fired 'cause I couldn't talk. I was too nervous to talk on the microphone.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- RCRussell Crowe
So after, like, five or six weeks, they shuffled me off, you know, and the guy really, you know, dug what I was playing and how I got the dance floor moving and everything, but, you know, he says, you know, "I, I need to sell toasted sandwiches, man. You have to tell people that the kitchen's open." (laughs) You know?
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
(laughs) So, you know, I, I left school, um, partway through the last year, you know? Uh, in New Zealand they have a different thing where you have a bursary year after normal high school finishes, and in your bursary year if you achieve to a certain degree, you get money towards your university degree, you know? But it was clear to me in that last year my dad was outta work, and that, uh, I wasn't gonna be able to go to university. We couldn't afford that sort of thing, you know? It woulda, only would've cost, you know, three and a half or four grand or something like that back in the day, but that was beyond, uh, our means as a family. Um, I started working at this insurance company, and I was the only (laughs) person in the building of a big insurance company who had actually passed matriculation into university, you know? The, and the general manager of the company, you know, sat me down to tell me that one day. (laughs) You know? "You're the only person with, you know, the higher school certificate," what they call university entrance in New Zealand, "in the building." You know? And, uh, I just watched this thing unfold. The coolest dude in the building was this salesman, right? And he had a beard and he wore kind of cool sunglasses and everything, and I remember the day he bought a new pair of shoes. And all the girls in the building went, "Oh, have you seen," whatever his name is, "new shoes?" And put it on, and they were all fluttering over him and stuff like that. And this guy was the best salesman they had and blah, blah, blah, you know? And in the time that I was there, I watched those new shoes get age on them and start cracking at the side and stuff like that, you know, 'cause he obviously (laughs) used them a lot, did a lot of walking around, talking to people, you know? And just as I was leaving-... I overheard a discussion where he was planning on getting some new shoes again. (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
And I was like, "Yeah, definitely, definitely don't wanna..." (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Don't wanna be that guy.
- RCRussell Crowe
I don't wanna be here. I don't wanna be that guy, (laughs) you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
I had a similar situation when I was driving limousines. We were driving limos, uh, and it was one of my jobs that I was doing when I was trying to make it as a standup comedian, and you would work long hours. Like, if you tried to leave after eight hours, they'd yell at you.
- RCRussell Crowe
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
Like, they wanted you to work 12, 16 hours a day, and there's this one guy, and he had a Cadillac. And, uh, the boss pulls us aside, and he says, "Look at this guy over here. He's got a Cadillac. He makes $60,000 a year, and he doesn't have to bust his ass. You know, he's sitting down all day in a nice car and driving people around, and this could be you too." I was like, "I gotta get the fuck outta here."
- RCRussell Crowe
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
It was my first thought 'cause I knew that guy was working 16-hour days.
- RCRussell Crowe
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's all he did.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
All he did was work, and yeah, he had a nice car. I'm sure he had a nice house.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
And I was like, "I gotta get the fuck outta here."
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
"I gotta get the fuck outta here." Sometimes people like that are good for you. They're like, uh, the universe puts them in front of you just so you can say-
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... "This is a trap."
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah. "Well, here's your example."
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes.
- 8:33 – 1:15:44
First steps into acting: film-set family, childhood roles, and a studio tour that changed everything
- RCRussell Crowe
Um, well, all through my life, for sure, because, um, my parents, at a certain point in time, were caterers, uh, on film sets.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
- RCRussell Crowe
So that's how I got my first job.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, wow.
- RCRussell Crowe
So my, my mum's godfather was a, a TV producer who's famous (laughs) in the Australian industry. Not so much anymore because the generation's passed. Um, but he was the tightest producer (laughs) to, to work for, the cheapest bastard on the block, you know what I mean? And he was famous for that, and, uh, I mean, I still know Jack Thompson today. You know, I, I did a scene with Jack Thompson when I was six years old, did my first line of dialogue on camera with him-
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- RCRussell Crowe
Uh, made a movie with him playing his son when I was 25 or 26, something like that. Um, I bought a property near where his property is in the bush because he was kinda like a, you know, um, a mentor, you know? Not, you know, I mean, you're, we're still talking about an hour's driveway, but in the bush, that's nothing, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- RCRussell Crowe
Um, and you know, I still know him today, and he's in his 80s now, you know? Um, so I had people like that, and I, like, (laughs) when I was 12, I went to a, um ... So I did an acting job when I was six and another one when I was eight, right? And then I kind of forgot about it for a while, you know. Um, and then I went on a school tour of a TV studio, and, uh, it was a TV show called The Young Doctors was being made in that studio. And there was a, uh, a bit part actor, a guy called Roy Harris Jones, who had been on, uh, a couple of the shows that my parents had done, and, uh, I liked him a lot, and blah, blah, blah. I hadn't seen him for years, and there he was on that show. And, you know, while the other kids are there going on their tour, he goes, "Are you here for an audition?" I said, "No, I haven't, I haven't done anything like that for ages." And he goes, "Well, come on, let's go down the corridor and meet the casting director." So I split away from the tour-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
... all the other kids go off (laughs) and, you know, "This is a camera. This is a control room." They're doing all that stuff.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- RCRussell Crowe
And I go down, and, uh, the casting director had a minute, so she sat me down and talked to me and all that sort of stuff. And two weeks later, I was back in that building, shooting a character on the TV show.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- RCRussell Crowe
So, um, and then that kinda reignited that part of, you know, uh, my imagination. But, you know, coming out of school and everything, I really thought that I was simply going to, you know, I was gonna go into music. That was my thing. You know, if I was gonna pursue anything, it was gonna be music. But basically, I would accept any job that allowed me to be, uh, in a position of entertaining people. So that's why I went into the, uh, you know, the nightclub thing with the, uh, with the, being a DJ. And my first night, the second time, 'cause you know, obviously, I'd failed the first time around and, and been fired because I couldn't talk. The second time around, I'd auditioned for this place, but they hadn't given me the job. They gave it to somebody else, but they ended up firing him after two nights 'cause him and the guy that ran the club didn't get on, you know? So they called me up on a Sunday afternoon, and they said, "Are you free tonight? Can you come and DJ at the club? We've got a bunch of, uh, 1950s records," 'cause it was a 1950s music only club, you know? Uh, "Have you got a turntable, you know?" And I said, (laughs) "I've got one." (laughs) So I went in that night with a, like an orange plastic Sharp turntable, right? Plugged it in through the headphone socket-... and played these records, but I had one turntable so I couldn't switch. So, I have to talk 'cause every time a song finishes, I have to pick up the (laughs) needl- the, the arm, pick up the record, you know, get the next one, put it down, then put things ... So, it was, uh, it was just a crazy circumstance. It was like it was created to make sure that I absolutely broke through whatever that fear was immediately now that I had another chance, you know? I ended up staying, you know, working m- pretty much full time for about four years in, in that job, but it, it expanded a whole bunch of other stuff because, um, the guy started getting me to perform on stage when, you know, the guy that I was working with, once he started hearing my songs and everything, he said, "All right, I'll get in the third set. At the end of the night, you come on. Just do your songs, though. You're not allowed to do songs people know." (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, wow.
- RCRussell Crowe
So, I'd, like, have to go out. People had been listening to these old classic 1950s songs all night, and now, there's some (laughs) young, pimply bloke in front of them-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
... singing bullshit. You know? They're like-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
... "What are you doing?" But it was a real, you know, baptism of fire, you know? He also had me tour with him, you know? So, we would be on, you know, Thursday, Friday, Saturday in Auckland, in the big city, and then Sunday through, uh, Wednesday, we're, you know, in a truck and a car and everything, and we're touring. We're going and playing in these other pubs and stuff. And he, uh, he fancied himself, you see, 'cause an, anachronistic thing, you know? His whole life, this guy that I was working for was about the 1950s he wore blue suede shoes or winklepicker's, stovepipe trousers, drape coats. You know, he, he had a Cadillac, probably the only Cadillac in New Zealand at the time. You know? And he had this thing about, like, you know, um, Elvis used to have a comedian opening for him, so somebody should go out and tell jokes before I come on, right? And so part of my job was to walk out and tell a joke that he had told me to tell, right? I couldn't make up my own material, right? Right? And these jokes were fucking terrible.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
Right? (laughs) They were just, you know, trash. And, and trying to make that thing work... And I, like one night, I said to him, "Why, you know, why don't you let me just go out and do, say something actually funny or whatever?" He goes, "Because I want people to be happy to see me." Right?
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, my God.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
So he set it up on purpose.
- RCRussell Crowe
S- absolutely. He actually-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
- RCRussell Crowe
... said to me at one point in time, "Never ever, as a performer, never ever bring somebody on stage who's better than you." And as I was a guest (laughs) for him on stage every night of the week, I was like, "Oh, right. So you're telling me I'm shit?"
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- 10:57 – 16:17
Baptism by fire on stage: one-turntable DJing, bad jokes, and learning to perform under pressure
- RCRussell Crowe
So, um, and then that kinda reignited that part of, you know, uh, my imagination. But, you know, coming out of school and everything, I really thought that I was simply going to, you know, I was gonna go into music. That was my thing. You know, if I was gonna pursue anything, it was gonna be music. But basically, I would accept any job that allowed me to be, uh, in a position of entertaining people. So that's why I went into the, uh, you know, the nightclub thing with the, uh, with the, being a DJ. And my first night, the second time, 'cause you know, obviously, I'd failed the first time around and, and been fired because I couldn't talk. The second time around, I'd auditioned for this place, but they hadn't given me the job. They gave it to somebody else, but they ended up firing him after two nights 'cause him and the guy that ran the club didn't get on, you know? So they called me up on a Sunday afternoon, and they said, "Are you free tonight? Can you come and DJ at the club? We've got a bunch of, uh, 1950s records," 'cause it was a 1950s music only club, you know? Uh, "Have you got a turntable, you know?" And I said, (laughs) "I've got one." (laughs) So I went in that night with a, like an orange plastic Sharp turntable, right? Plugged it in through the headphone socket-... and played these records, but I had one turntable so I couldn't switch. So, I have to talk 'cause every time a song finishes, I have to pick up the (laughs) needl- the, the arm, pick up the record, you know, get the next one, put it down, then put things ... So, it was, uh, it was just a crazy circumstance. It was like it was created to make sure that I absolutely broke through whatever that fear was immediately now that I had another chance, you know? I ended up staying, you know, working m- pretty much full time for about four years in, in that job, but it, it expanded a whole bunch of other stuff because, um, the guy started getting me to perform on stage when, you know, the guy that I was working with, once he started hearing my songs and everything, he said, "All right, I'll get in the third set. At the end of the night, you come on. Just do your songs, though. You're not allowed to do songs people know." (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, wow.
- RCRussell Crowe
So, I'd, like, have to go out. People had been listening to these old classic 1950s songs all night, and now, there's some (laughs) young, pimply bloke in front of them-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
... singing bullshit. You know? They're like-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
... "What are you doing?" But it was a real, you know, baptism of fire, you know? He also had me tour with him, you know? So, we would be on, you know, Thursday, Friday, Saturday in Auckland, in the big city, and then Sunday through, uh, Wednesday, we're, you know, in a truck and a car and everything, and we're touring. We're going and playing in these other pubs and stuff. And he, uh, he fancied himself, you see, 'cause an, anachronistic thing, you know? His whole life, this guy that I was working for was about the 1950s he wore blue suede shoes or winklepicker's, stovepipe trousers, drape coats. You know, he, he had a Cadillac, probably the only Cadillac in New Zealand at the time. You know? And he had this thing about, like, you know, um, Elvis used to have a comedian opening for him, so somebody should go out and tell jokes before I come on, right? And so part of my job was to walk out and tell a joke that he had told me to tell, right? I couldn't make up my own material, right? Right? And these jokes were fucking terrible.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
Right? (laughs) They were just, you know, trash. And, and trying to make that thing work... And I, like one night, I said to him, "Why, you know, why don't you let me just go out and do, say something actually funny or whatever?" He goes, "Because I want people to be happy to see me." Right?
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, my God.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
So he set it up on purpose.
- RCRussell Crowe
S- absolutely. He actually-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
- RCRussell Crowe
... said to me at one point in time, "Never ever, as a performer, never ever bring somebody on stage who's better than you." And as I was a guest (laughs) for him on stage every night of the week, I was like, "Oh, right. So you're telling me I'm shit?"
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
"The only reason I've got the job is because I'm shit 'cause I make you look better." Um, but I, you know, in my own sort of performing life, uh, uh, over time, I changed that rule completely. I only ever bring somebody on stage who's gonna absolutely shred the room. You know? And over time, you know, with the live performances, you know, we've had guests like, uh, Elvis Costello-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, wow.
- RCRussell Crowe
Uh, Sting.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- RCRussell Crowe
Last year, Michael Buble got up with us. Uh, he did an Elvis song at the end of a, a show-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
- RCRussell Crowe
... just at the o- Sydney Opera House, actually. Killed the room. Uh, Rita Ora got up last year. RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan.
- JRJoe Rogan
Whoa.
- RCRussell Crowe
He got up. Uh, he's a mate of mine, Bobby Diggs. He, we got up in a, like a 350, 400, um, standing room only little pub in uh, uh, Balmain, an area of Sydney. And then suddenly, bah, the RZA's on the stage. It was good.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah. So, uh, I learned a lot from him, but I didn't learn the things he was trying to teach me.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs) Well, that's a great philosophy to have the best people going in front of you. Um, there's, we have a similar problem with that in comedy. Like, a lot of, like, big name headliners that like to bring terrible opening acts-
- RCRussell Crowe
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
... so they're like a hero and they rescue the show.
- 16:17 – 21:31
Acting vs music: why film sets are hard, and why live shows “fill you back up”
- JRJoe Rogan
What do you enjoy, do you enjoy one thing more or do you enjoy both things?
- RCRussell Crowe
See, that's a very difficult question to answer without pages of nuance, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- RCRussell Crowe
Because-
- JRJoe Rogan
Define joy nuance.
- RCRussell Crowe
(laughs) Well, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll give it a go. The bottom line is I love my job. I love working on films. Every single day that I'm walking towards the camera, you know, I will have a plan. I know what I'm about to do, you know? And I chose to be here. Right? I work with lots and lots of actors who just took the role because of blah blah. Right? They're not really there because of the work. But when you know the job and you know that you're talking about 4:00 AM starts, you're talking about, you know, minimum 12 hours a day, you know, y- you're talking about working in extreme conditions and stuff like that, temperature wise or, you know, somewhere kind of whack to get an amazing shot, you know? Um, when you know the job and you know how hard it is, you really gotta have your reasons for being there. You know what I mean?
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- RCRussell Crowe
So, I'll read scripts and I will generally do the one that g- got under my skin, you know? Um, it can have a great pedigree, it can be a w- wonderful director, it can then be, have ano- a m- great cast, I mean. But if I read it and I don't get personally attached to it, I just don't do it. And then I'll read something else that everybody else is like, "Ah, it's kind of dodgy or whatever." But this, like, "Oh, that scene."
- JRJoe Rogan
Mmm.
- RCRussell Crowe
"It gets me. It ag- That one, I wanna do that. I wanna be the guy doing that dialogue." You know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- RCRussell Crowe
And so, you know, I know exactly why I'm at work. So, when it gets hard and it gets difficult, it doesn't worry me because I chose to be here, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- RCRussell Crowe
So I don't have that thing that, that some actors have of, of like getting disgruntled with it, you know? Uh...Sure, you know, it's, it's my employment, it's how I pay for everything, it's, you know, uh, uh, and all of those things, but it's also my, uh, like a deep, deep passion, you know? And stepping into the shoes of other people and experiencing, you know, to a degree, things of somebody else's life, or learning a new skill, or whatever it happens to be. This is exciting for me, and I'm 60 years old and I still dig it. You know what I mean? I don't have any, you know, um... Because that one simple thing, I know why I'm there.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- RCRussell Crowe
At 4:00 AM when they've, um, uh, when it's like a ball busting wake up time because you had a big day the day before, I, I know why I'm there. So, it's, it's sort of like my motivations and stuff are, you know, very clear in that respect, you know? Now, with music, it in itself is its own reward, you know? To play a song, to sing a song, to be with a group of musicians and to sort of gel on something together, it's just like thank you very much. That's the reward. To then put it in front of a crowd and then have that immediate response. You know, o- obviously I've worked with a lot of actors over the years that they've come from a theater background, and even though I've done a lot of theater, I come from a rock and roll background. I come from out of clubs, I come from, you know, standing on that stage (laughs) singing my dweeby 16-year-old songs, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
16, you know, authored by a 16, 17-year-old. And, um, to me, that's my reset place, you know? People who will talk to you, like Anthony Hopkins, I was working with him and he'd done a, a series of films, this is way back in the '90s, you know, and I think he was off to do a season of King Lear and he was really happy about it, because for him that's a reset. You go back into that place where you came out of and you get all the benefits of doing the same performance over and over again, so you get to, you know, squeeze all the, the different character sort of parts, y- that you can, you know, and, and enjoy, and that, that's his reset. But for me, walking out onto a rock and roll stage, guitar in hand, where I do not know exactly what's gonna happen that night, because every audience takes things in a different direction, you know? Um, that's my reset, you know? It's sort of like jumping, that's me jumping out of a plane, and I, I love doing it, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, they, they have different, different buttons they push.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah, I mean, it's, it's performance, but, you know, there's a visceral thing that happens, um, with, in front of a live audience-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- RCRussell Crowe
... you know, that just doesn't happen in the sterile environment of a film set, you know? Um, and you can have wonderful creative relationships on a film set and great collaborations and all that sort of stuff, the same that you can have in music, you know? But there's that other part of it, there's that thing that sort of, I don't know, it, it gives you something back, man. It fills you back up again, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. Well, you're creating an experience for people, and they're enjoying it in the moment and you're all sharing that moment. I always feel bad for people that have never done something like that.
- RCRussell Crowe
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
Never performed in front of a live audience and gave everybody a great time, 'cause it-
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah, it's... (laughs) It's like... Yeah, I, I actually understand what you mean because it is, um, it is something to, um, to have in, in your DNA.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's a rare gift-
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah. It really is.
- JRJoe Rogan
... that a person gets to live-
- RCRussell Crowe
It's a privilege.
- 21:31 – 33:02
The tarantula scene fiasco: chaos shoots, ‘tarantula man,’ and the rash aftermath
- RCRussell Crowe
I was, I was thinking about what we might talk about, and, um, there's a story I like to tell, uh, if you're into it. It's quite a long story though.
- JRJoe Rogan
Please.
- RCRussell Crowe
Um, so back in the '90s, e- and the thing about this story is it sort of like just casually shows you how much of a circus the film industry can be, you know what I mean? And part of the, uh, attraction of it when I was a young actor and, you know, um, and, you know, later in my 20s moving to Australia and doing theater and, and stuff like that, and then looking at film people as sort of like a rare breed, you know? Um, and then you get into it, and you realize you gotta be pretty much crazy to do this, you know? (laughs) It's sort of like this... You know? Over time, it's gotten definitely safer, more insurance conscious and all of these things, you know, but back in the day, not so much, you know? Everything was about just getting the shot, you know? So '92 was the first time I go to Los Angeles, um, but I'd already made a bunch of, of films in Australia, and, uh, I'd been to the Cannes Film Festival, so th- my first time traveling outside of Australia and New Zealand was 1991. Um, so I was like 27 or something like that, you know? Um, and then the, the year after I, I went to LA and, uh, got an agent. But I'd won a bunch of awards in Australia, and, and my films had been around to different film festivals and stuff, so there was awareness of, uh, of what I was doing in the, in the industries sort of thing, so to speak. And I got this phone call to go and meet Bernardo Bertolucci, the Italian director who won the Oscar for The Last Emperor. Fantastic director, you know? Uh, he also did Last Tango in Paris and a bunch of other films. Um, and I was really excited, I was like, "Wow, fantastic." So I get to Bernardo's house and, uh, he's watching a football game. It's Italy versus Brazil, right? He's got a bunch of people over to watch the football, so I'm sort of just, "Oh," you know, 'cause I thought we were having a meeting. I didn't realize there was a football game on. And Italy didn't do very well, they got beaten by Brazil, so I never had a conversation with Bernardo because after the game (laughs) he just went off to his room or something to have a cry, I'm not sure.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
(laughs) But, uh, I met his wife and, uh, her name was Claire Peplow, and she was a film director, and, you know, she said, "Look, you know, I encouraged Bernardo to, you know, invite you to the house 'cause, you know, uh, I know he wants to talk to you about something, but I wanna talk to you as well. I have this script." And she gave me the script and it was called Miss Shumway Waves a Wand.... uh, and I was, you know, very much in the independent film world at the time. So, uh, that sounded like a good title (laughs) for an independent film, you know? Um, and I read it, and it was pretty good. It was based on this book, and, uh, I liked the character, so I sort of, you know, responded to it and, um, eventually ended up doing it. And Bridget Fonda was signed on as the female lead, so that was cool. You know, she was, um, pretty happening at the time. Uh, I have a funny thing that goes on with my brain if I'm, like, faced with ... Um, I'm reading something and there's a, like a, a difficult moment in something that I'm liking, right? Where my brain just goes, "Hm. To be dealt with later." All right? "I'll worry about that when I have to." You know what I mean? Pshh. And there was this scene where, um, a spider would crawl into the mouth of the character I was playing. I was thinking, "Hm. I w- I wonder how they're gonna do that, CGI or something like that," you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
All right.
- RCRussell Crowe
Um, anyway, so off we go on this adventure and we're shooting in, uh, Guatemala and, uh, Mexico and it's an extremely disorganized shoot, you know? (laughs) We don't have ... Nothing's right, you know? At one point in time for seven days, we lived on refried beans and rice in Guatemala because they hadn't made any arrangement with any kind of catering company or anything, you know? So that, and that was the only thing that they could get easily. So it was breakfast, lunch, and dinner, refried (laughs) beans and rice.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- RCRussell Crowe
You know? And the end of that week, one of the guys on the film crew found this, like, cafe, um, that sold some form of grilled meat and we all just, like, went there (laughs) in the middle of this rainforest and ate this meat and realized later on it was more than likely we were eating the monkeys that were j- running around the trees around us, 'cause everybody got really sick.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, wow.
- RCRussell Crowe
(laughs) Really sick. Anyway, so we're going through this, this, um, uh, experience and we eventually get back to Los Angeles and, um, we've got, you know, like a couple of weeks shooting in LA. And, uh, we go out to a place called Lancaster, I think it was. It was an old film studio out there. And I see on the call sheet, "Oh, it's the spider scene." You know? "Cool." So as I arrive at the, the studio, this guy, this producer comes out to meet me, and, um, you know, "Russell, everything good?" And I said, "Yeah, yeah. Cool. So we're shooting the spider scene today." And he goes, "Yes, yes. Gonna be, um, gonna be great. Um. Uh, so everything ... You're fine?" I said, "Yeah, cool. But, how're we gonna do this? Is this gonna be like a CGI thing or whatever?" He goes, "Oh, no. No. The tarantula man is here." "The fucking what?"
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
"The tarantula man's here and, uh, he has shown, um, uh, a variety of, uh, of creatures to the director and she has chosen the largest. It's gonna be a great day. Anyway, good luck with it." And off he tots, you know? So I go inside and they show me, "Look, here's a piece of carpet. You're gonna be lying down here." The carpet matches a place where, you know, a hotel room we'd shot in. "And, um, so what's gonna happen is you're gonna lie down here. They're gonna place the tarantula on your chest. The tarantula wrangler will give it a little tickle and as long as you keep your mouth open, it will head directly for your mouth. They always look for places to hide, so you've just gotta keep your mouth open. It'll tickle, tickle, tickle. The tarantula will run u- up here into your mouth and then" (smack lips) "the guy will pluck it outta your mouth." You know? (mouth pop) (laughs) I'm like-
- JRJoe Rogan
(exhales)
- RCRussell Crowe
... "Okay. Cool." So (popping noises) they turn on all these hot lights, right? I lie down on the ground. The tarantula gets put on my chest. Now, tarantula, bigger than my hand.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
- RCRussell Crowe
Right? (laughs) It's a serious spider. Now, obviously I've lived in Australia most of my life or whatever, I'm used to spiders, you know? That was a large one, right? So, on my chest. Tickle, tickle. Up it comes, up it comes. Into my mouth, right? And boop, the guy plucks it out. Done. And I'm thinking to myself, "Good little spider. One take wonder. (laughs) Fantastic. Did everything we need." And I'm like, "Cool. So that was good." They go, "Oh, no, no. We're just gonna shoot it again, we just have to adjust the lights." Second take. Third take. Now, one of the things that the producer had said to me in the car park, right, looked me in the eye (laughs) and said to me, "It's not dangerous to use the tarantula because before doing something like this, they milk it of its venom. So it's perfectly safe." You know? So I've taken that on board, right? So we ... Take two, take three, take four. Right about after the fifth take ... Now these lights in that room are very, very hot and my body is starting to really warm up, you know, and we're taking a long time between takes, resetting lights and all that, you know. But, you know, after about the fifth take, I get a moment to talk to tarantula man. You know? "How're you doing?" All that sort of stuff. "Pretty cool that you can milk the venom from the tarantula so they can do things like this." And he just looks at me really confused.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
He says, "You, you can milk the what?"
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
Okay, so what I thought (laughs) was my only safety net, pshh, gone, right? So take six, take seven, and I'm starting to really get hot. These are ... You know, I wouldn't be surprised if they were all klieg lights, you know? (laughs) 'Cause it's like, didn't look like anybody had used this studio for a long, long time, you know? And I'm s- heating up and at one point in time, it was about take seven or eight, and the spider just stops on my neck and starts to sort of like spread its legs out and just sort of like grab at me, you know? And it's sort of pulsing, you know? And then I'm sort of like just lying there going, "Eh." And then, shoo, shoo, the tarantula guy tickles it. Up it goes, you know? And I'm kind of like, "Well, what is that?" You know?
- JRJoe Rogan
How long does it have to sit in your mouth for?
- RCRussell Crowe
Oh, it's only m- just a couple of seconds. As soon as it started going into the mouth, the guy would just grab it out, you know? Because they can cut around that.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- RCRussell Crowe
As long as they see it going in, then they can cut around it to make it look like it's disappeared in there, you know? So, take eight-... that happens, the tarantula stops on the neck, take nine, we're done for the day, right? So, nine takes with a live tarantula crawling into my mouth, right? The next day, I wake up and I've got a rash all over me. On my, my legs and my chest and my arms, you know? So, I call production, they call a doctor who's, you know, knows about these sort of things. He comes over to see me, goes, "Ah, okay. All right. See, um, were you hot yesterday?" I said, "Very hot." You know, under the lights and stuff like that. He goes, "Right, right." And the spider stopped and he goes, "Yeah, you're right." And he goes, "Okay. See, tarantulas on their legs have these very fine hairs. So fine, in fact, that they can easily go through a pore in human skin. So, currently what you have going on is your body is full of, of, uh, tarantula (laughs) venom. Um, but not enough to hurt you or even make you... Just, you're just gonna have this rash. So, here's this ointment. Take this pill. A few days from now you'll be all right." You know? And the reason that I wanted to tell you this story, um, and your listeners (laughs) is because... And you can check this, you can Google away. You can... D- I'm pretty sure in the history of cinema, I'm the only Academy Award-winning actor who's ever been fucked in the neck by a tarantula.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Was that what it was doing?
- RCRussell Crowe
Apparently.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs) It just decided that was a good spot?
- 33:02 – 38:55
Extreme discomfort on set: Iceland water, blown hamstrings, and Noah’s massive practical effects
- RCRussell Crowe
Uh, hell no.
- JRJoe Rogan
Really?
- RCRussell Crowe
Oh, no, man. I had to go into the water on the southwest coast of Iceland, shirtless, for a Darren Aronofsky movie. You know how cold that water is, man?
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, yeah.
- RCRussell Crowe
You know, 15 minutes you're dead.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- RCRussell Crowe
You know? Just walking in there, and I had to drop into it chest first, right? You know, Noah collapses into the water or whatever it was. Um, but it was (laughs) weird. I hit that water and, like, I'm, you know, splayed out like that, but every muscle in my body contracted. It was like (gasps) , I hovered back out (laughs) of the water. You know, it's like I hit the water and then (gasps) . I came straight back out, back onto my feet. I don't know how I did it, but it was so cold. Yeah. Um, but, you know, I mean, temperature's one thing, you know, uh, and you, you tend to, in the film business, you know, if, if you're... If the script says that it's bright and sunny and you're in the Bahamas, you're probably gonna end up (laughs) shooting that somewhere far away from the Bahamas-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
... and it's gonna be freezing, you know? Uh, it's always like that, you know? Um, uh, uh, uh, it's like a given that whatever it says is gonna be the opposite for it, you know? The, whatever the most comfortable way of shooting that scene might be, there'll be something that makes it uncomfortable. But, you know, I mean, in terms of discomfort on f- comfort on film sets, you know, physical discomfort, um, when you're doing fight sequences or things like that, you know? 'Cause they can sometimes take a long, long time. Uh, I sh- I shredded both my hamstrings while I was doing (laughs) Noah. Um, I flew back to Australia to watch a football game, actually. My f- football team that I bought in 2006 had finally made a preliminary final after many years of trying, and I wanted to be there to witness it. We ended up losing the game, so it was a waste of money, but I flew back to Australia and it was also coincided with my youngest's athletic day at school, right? And I was doing Noah. I was fit as a bull, strong as an ox. Absolutely. So I rock up to the little athletics day, you know, and they asked me if I would step in and do this, you know, little running race, you know, thing. So I said, "Yeah, yeah, cool." You know? So, one of my son's friends was in the race and he was coming last, so I ran up behind him and I was talking to him about, you know, (laughs) about going fast or whatever, but I had to really sprint to catch up to him 'cause I was a long way back. And I hadn't really noticed that all the kids, because I was up behind him, had got really excited and they'd jumped up and they were all standing on the finishing line, right? And so I sort of, you know, got up behind and I, and I let him, like, just pass me then, so he could win. They all go crazy and stuff like that. But then I have to put the brakes on. I put the brakes on, and my hamstrings went boom, boom. I go, "Ah."
- JRJoe Rogan
Ow.
- RCRussell Crowe
I'm lying on the ground, like, I'm, like, vibrating (laughs) and m- my little boy's there and he's only, like, seven or something at the time. He's like, "I, dad, that was fun. You know, dad..." And I couldn't talk. It's like, "Oh." It was, like, unbelievable, man. And there was a teacher who'd seen what happened and he went, "Hamstrings?" And I said, "I think so, man." And he had some tape, so I just taped my legs up (laughs) under my shorts and then he helped me stand up. Now, I had to get on a plane that night and go back to the film set on Long Island and run to the arc with 5,000 extras, (laughs) you know, 50 times with, you know... I mean, I think, you know, we, we, we had a, a rain tower set up that's the biggest in the history of cinema for that, you know? So I'm getting rained on with these gigantic drops. I've got 5,000 extras around me. Actually, no, not 5,000. Maybe about 1,000 extras around me. And p-I've got no hamstrings (laughs) and the scene requires me to run, and because I've taken time off the set and everything, I can't tell anybody that I've injured myself. I just have to get on with it, you know what I mean? Um, I didn't want any insurance problems or anything else, you know? So that was, that was crazy. Uh, and that sequence went on for days, so it was like... and I literally meant was just getting like KT tape and just taping them up. (laughs) And then going at it.
- JRJoe Rogan
Jesus Christ. Both hamstrings blown.
- RCRussell Crowe
Oh.
- JRJoe Rogan
Having to run, that's insane.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah, but at your skids, your cools-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- RCRussell Crowe
... uh, you know, your, your kids' athletics thing, it was like, that's just such a cliché.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
It's like ridiculous. (laughs) Yeah, but I think it was to do with the fact that, you know, even though I warmed up that morning, and I went to the gym, and I went on a bike ride and everything, and I, I, I got there, you know, uh, in good shape, but it was like must've just been the hour sitting around watching the races and everything just cooled me down too much, and then having to stop so suddenly just to make sure I didn't barrel into those kids. But yeah, that was, that was definitely uncomfortable.
- JRJoe Rogan
What are the rain towers? How do they do that?
- RCRussell Crowe
Well, um, they basically get big cranes, and they hoist up, um, grids that, um, are laid with hosepipe, and the pipe comes down the tower to a water tank, and at a certain point, you know, they, uh, turn on the pump, and it, they operate like sprinklers basically. But if you imagine, um, like a metal grid in the air, where every joining point of pipes is another sprinkler head, and I think we had two and a half football fields worth of-
- JRJoe Rogan
Whoa.
- RCRussell Crowe
... um, you know, where, where we could soak with a, at the push of a button, all the rain starts and, you know, um-
- JRJoe Rogan
Holy shit.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah, 'cause you see the... I don't know if you've ever seen the movie, but there's these big wide shots of all these people running towards the ark, and there's rain falling, so we had th- that whole area had to have rain.
- JRJoe Rogan
So here it is.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah, right.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's incredible that that's all done with towers.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah. Oh, that's after I've already, I think I've already run in at that point.
- 38:55 – 52:51
Noah, flood myths, and environmental politics: why the controversy missed the point
- JRJoe Rogan
It was such an intense movie because the story's so crazy.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's the, it's the, the time-old story of the savior of the human race after God's wrath.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
There's a lot of weight playing a role like that.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah, a little bit. (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah. Um, what I thought was the, the, the funniest thing with that stuff is when that movie came out, all of this sort of pushback press about how, you know, "Oh, look at this. Darren Aronofsky, this New York elite has made Noah into a story about the environment." It's always been a story about the environment. What are you talking about?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- RCRussell Crowe
This is about a flood, mate.
- JRJoe Rogan
Literally. (laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah. (laughs) It's like what? But it was just so weird, and it was like article after article pushing back...
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- RCRussell Crowe
... as if he had done something, you know, against Christianity or whatever by, by, (laughs) by-
- JRJoe Rogan
By connecting it to the environment.
- RCRussell Crowe
... by acknowledging that this is a story about our environment and how we treat our environment and blah, blah, blah, you know? Uh, yeah, I, you know, I, I, I quite enjoy the film, but it's harsh. It's, it's a harsh, you know, telling, you know? But he did promise me, Darren, at the beginning of that experience, he said, "Never at any stage..." which I thought was funny 'cause he was riffing off a thing that Ridley Scott did. Ridley Scott said, "I promise you don't have to wear sandals, and I promise you you'll never have to lie on a couch and have somebody feed you a grape." (laughs) So let's do a movie, a Roman movie. So Darren's version was, um, that never at any stage will I have you at the prow of an ark, uh, flanked by a giraffe and a lion. (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- RCRussell Crowe
Because the funny thing with Noah, man, is most people think they know what's in the Bible, but in reality, what most people know is what they read in The Golden Circle Children's Book of Noah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- RCRussell Crowe
You know? They've never read the very few mentions that there are in, in the Bible or the other, um, religious writings which cover his story 'cause there i- there are other writings, uh, from, you know, pre-biblical that, you know, never made it into the, the Bible, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, the Epic of Gilgamesh is a very similar story.
- RCRussell Crowe
Right. Okay.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, there's, there, there seems to be some sort of a historical tale that is repeated through many cultures-
- RCRussell Crowe
Well-
- JRJoe Rogan
... of a great flood.
- RCRussell Crowe
... it, it, I don't think there is an ancient religion that doesn't have a flood story.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right. Yeah.
- RCRussell Crowe
You know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- RCRussell Crowe
And we can see it. We can see and, and, and date it-
- 52:51 – 1:12:06
Regenerative farming and humane beef: cattle care, organic tradeoffs, and steak craft
- JRJoe Rogan
It, it's not the issue.
- RCRussell Crowe
Well, I, I run 220, uh, Angus on my place in the bush. And, you know, over time, um, I've sort of learnt that all of those, um, factory farming processes are just the absolute wrong thing to do. You know? I mean, when I first had land and cattle, I used to love getting up in the dawn, you know, in the darkness, cowdy hat on, stock whip shh and f- getting out and, you know, um, herding them and all that sort of stuff. And then over time, started to realize that that's not good for them, you know? That sort of stuff's not good for them. So we developed this system at my place where we have a single laneway and all of the other paddocks go on, where the cattle will be, go onto that laneway. So, and the paddock can be, you know, 100 acres or whatever, you know? But, uh, you can muster one man, soft voice, handful of grain. Just open the gate, you call out a couple of times, they come towards you. You can get every cow in that laneway, then you get up behind them, walk behind them, and you walk them straight to the yards. Now, we've taken all the fun out of it, but it's just a lot more, uh, it's, you know, safer, easier, sensible. And we don't use, you know, um, hose pipes, we don't use stock whips anymore. We don't muster on, on ATVs, you know? Uh, it's either on foot or horseback. And, uh, uh, we still use working dogs, but, um, the cows don't get upset by the working dogs. They don't get freaked out by them-
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- RCRussell Crowe
... the same way as they get freaked out by an engine roaring up behind them, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- RCRussell Crowe
So- and the reason for that kind of pastoral care is because at the end of the day, 100% true, the steak tastes better.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mmm.
- RCRussell Crowe
If you don't adrenalize the cattle-
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- RCRussell Crowe
... if you don't abuse them-
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- RCRussell Crowe
... you know, it's just...... better, you know. It's, like, more tasteful. It doesn't have... You know, really adrenalized meat gets a very gamey quality, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- RCRussell Crowe
And, and, you know, the steak that we serve on, on the farm... 'Cause, uh, you know, I only do all this... I don't, uh, operate it as a business. I started to operate it as a business for a while there, but kinda found out that everybody in the butchery game... It's similar to working with people that, uh, that sell used cars in that they're only looking for the story, they're not really, they don't really care about the animal, and, you know, I do. I'm just like, you know... Uh, and I was, you know, (laughs) laughed at for many years in the valley that I live in because of th- the way I care for their cattle. But I can't do it any other way. It's gotta be, it's gotta be for, you know... They've gotta have a great life.
- JRJoe Rogan
It makes sense. Makes... It's smarter. It's less karma. It's, it's a better situation for them.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's-
- RCRussell Crowe
And they, they just s- feel healthier. So I, I went fully organic at one point, right? Took us, like, five or seven years to get the certification. (sighs) But then I would walk amongst the cattle, and because we couldn't, you know, douse them because they were organic cattle now, you know, things like, you know, buffalo fly and other little things were just all over them. And I thought, "Nah, that's, that can't be good either." You know, it's like having a kid, you know, and never giving the kid Panadol if it gets a fever, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- RCRussell Crowe
By the time that kid's 14, it hasn't, you know, it hasn't overcome it and it's not the biggest, best, strongest. It's this l- weedy little bloke in the corner, you know, who spent most (laughs) of his life sick 'cause he never got the medicine to make it easier for his body to recover, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm.
- RCRussell Crowe
And that kinda was happening to the cows. They, they lost a lot of weight and they just looked in distress. So I keep my, um, pastures organic, but I do topical treatments for the cattle so they don't have to deal with, uh, ticks and buffalo fly and things like that. Where my place is, it's, it's, it's, um, still considered coastal, so we get all of the bitey things that, uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm.
- RCRussell Crowe
... can affect them negatively. So, you know, and now I have that, that balance. I can't, you know, sell the meat as organic meat, but, um, they're hand-raised, organic pasture, and as I say, they don't get adrenalized through their life. So when we do cull 'em, the meat is a profound experience.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Do you sell it online? How does someone get it?
- RCRussell Crowe
No, no. You d- I, I don't sell it. Um-
- JRJoe Rogan
You don't sell it at all? Just give it away?
- RCRussell Crowe
Well, well, occasionally. There's one butcher near me that I trust. He's really into what he does, and, uh, he will ask if he can have a couple of beasts and I'll let him have it. Um, we do sell to some neighbors that, um, we know are, you know, um, uh, needing a little bit of assistance. I don't wanna sort of put it in-
- 1:12:06 – 1:30:08
Fight stories and fight-making: MMA film plans, Cinderella Man realism, and boxing culture
- RCRussell Crowe
What do you think of this One Championship thing?
- JRJoe Rogan
It's great.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, I like, I like all of these organizations, I'm, I'm happy that there's more options for fighters. The One Championship is huge, though.
- RCRussell Crowe
I started watching a docu about that guy the other day, I didn't finish it though.
- JRJoe Rogan
Chatri?
- RCRussell Crowe
I like the idea that he's creating heroes, that-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- RCRussell Crowe
... that's a line he said. That's pretty cool. I got a project that we're gonna do at the end of this year, uh, it's called The Beast In Me, and it's about that sort of mixed martial arts fighting.
- JRJoe Rogan
Really?
- RCRussell Crowe
Um, and he's come forward, uh, as a potential sorta partner and what have you, and-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm.
- RCRussell Crowe
... and he would... Hooking up with him will give the film great production values because we will be able to shoot at one of his fights and stuff, so you'll have a, you know, a crowd of 15,000 or whatever, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm.
- RCRussell Crowe
That you haven't paid for.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right, right, right.
- RCRussell Crowe
Um, which is good (laughs) for a film. Um, and I, I did a-... a rewrite on the, on the script last year and, um, it's really full of heart now, you know. So many times when people approach fighters, particularly in that sort of, you know, mixed martial arts or whatever, that, that everybody's insane. You know what I mean?
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- RCRussell Crowe
And that's just not really the truth. You know what I mean? There are some, yeah, there certainly are insane people, but in their hearts, you know, they have their own, you know, reasons for doing things, and, and their, their own morality, and so they would never think of themselves as insane because they're on a journey. They're on a pursuit, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- RCRussell Crowe
And that's why I think this script now has a, a, you know, a real beating heart, so I think it's gonna be a good project. Daniel MacPherson, young Australian actor, he's gonna be the lead in that.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, there's, this is a good time for a real good MMA film. You know, there's been some real good boxing films.
- RCRussell Crowe
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
Uh, the one that you did.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah, it's one of my favorite experiences, actually, Cinderella Man.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, and th- the story of Braddock, I mean, that's an amazing story.
- RCRussell Crowe
Great story.
- JRJoe Rogan
Incredible story.
- RCRussell Crowe
Yeah. We met, like, funny resistance here with the release that the people couldn't get their heads around the fact that a movie called Cinderella Man was about a boxer.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs) Fucking America. (laughs)
Episode duration: 3:07:40
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