10 Movie Stars Who Should Never Promote Anything (Ever)
8. Russell Crowe
Crowe's always been a bit of an uncomfortable interviewee, easily riled, lacking that self-deprecating instinct thats vital to maintain a good relationship with the press. His working class artist schtick is an image he works very hard to maintain: he clearly sees himself as an heir to the mantle of hell-raising gentleman bruisers of the old school, like Richard Harris and Oliver Reed.
However, Crowe also has a hair-trigger temper and a tendency to blurt rubbish when asked questions that stray beyond what he's prepared. That's what happened when he recently crapped on all Hollywood actors who've complained about the paucity of roles for women over a certain age. He was actually talking about himself at fifty, and how he was too old now to return to the role that made him a star (Maximus Decimus Meridius in 2000s Gladiator), but ended up on a tangent, his foot firmly in his mouth:
"To be honest, I think you'll find that the woman who is saying that (the roles have dried up) is the woman who at 40, 45, 48, still wants to play the ingénue, and can't understand why she's not being cast as the 21 year old.
The above clip is from the Front Row interview on Radio 4 where he walked out after being asked about where Robin Hood was from, the interviewer saying that he could hear hints of Irish in the accent. The hilarious thing is that Crowe even attempts to carry on with the interview after throwing a mild strop over it... but cant stop himself returning to the tantrum and eventually just leaves, still lightly frothing at the mouth. That's Crowe in a nutshell. If he wasn't a movie star, hed be one of those blokes in the pub who stays an hour too long every Friday night.