Russell on other side of the story

Apr 24 2009 by Lisa Williams, The Journal

IF anyone in show business has a reputation that precedes them, it’s Russell Crowe. Rumours of his temper and stubbornness have been rife during his decade or so in the spotlight – while some celebrities bask in the media attention, Russell has made it clear he dislikes being photographed or written about.

This perhaps explains why he was so eager to take up director Kevin Macdonald’s offer to play journalist Cal McAffrey in the film version of hit BBC television drama State Of Play.

But 45-year-old Russell, who is calmer and funnier in the flesh than his reputation allows, says this is not so.

“My personal experience doesn’t negate my opinion that journalism can be a noble profession; it doesn’t dissipate my love of a well-constructed sentence so I liked the idea of going through this experience,” he says thoughtfully.

It was lucky that he did like the idea, as Macdonald did not have long to convince him to play the role.

Brad Pitt had originally signed up to play Cal, but the film fell into disarray just before shooting when he pulled out over a script disagreement.

Macdonald, who later said he thought Brad was perhaps too charming and good-looking to pull off the role, stepped straight on a plane to Australia and bagged Russell.

So did the Oscar-winning actor mind playing a bit of a loser?

“Cal doesn’t have a shred of vanity for how he looks, how he lives, what he eats and what his lifestyle is; his vanity is in the perception of his words, and at the end of the day he wants people to see him through the prism of his words,” he says.

The original drama has been updated to suit the modern political and journalistic environment – the setting has been changed from London to Washington DC, and the internal newspaper politics have been replaced by a face-off between an old-fashioned pen-and-paper journalist (Cal) and a publish-it-before-you’ve-checked-facts blogger (Della, played by Rachel McAdams).

Russell himself is concerned about the state of modern journalism and how stories can be twisted.

He says if you trivialise the news and turn it into entertainment, or turn something untrue into a story, then people are going to distrust sources and won’t be able to discern fact from fiction.

State Of Play also looks at the intricate power relations between politicians, business and journalism – and comes to some unsavoury conclusions.

Russell says: “The blurred line between news and entertainment, the blurred line and the secret handshakes between politics and journalism, the privatisation of war. There’s a myriad of subjects that this movie covered that I thought were relevant and important.”

The actor is now looking forward to working with Ridley Scott on the Robin Hood revisionist tale Nottingham. Russell and Scott have worked together on four other projects, including A Good Year and Gladiator for which he won an Oscar.

While he claims the two have not recently discussed a sequel to Gladiator, Russell says they still talk about it.

“We haven’t discussed (Gladiator 2) for a long time – years – although we do make jokes about the film continuously.”

Like his character in Gladiator, State Of Play’s Cal strives for honour, despite his weaknesses.

Is he a man of honour?

“That perception is for somebody else to make, I’m just a regular chap and I believe in what I believe in and I try to do my best every day.”