A Current Affairs 7/20/03 - Session One

The ACA Interview transcript 1-- Thanks to Jayem. Snaps from a fan, used with permission.

(Ray Martin voiceover)

The announcement the world's been waiting on from our exclusive with Russell Crowe.

It’s his first interview in a long time.

We begin tonight with Russell Crowe.  Now established as one of our greatest actors three nominations and one Oscar leave no doubt about that he is larger than life but he loves nothing better than being normal. Back home with the farm, the footy and the family.  And speaking of family, he hasn’t given a single interview since he got engaged and married to Danielle Spencer.

But of course there have been lots of rumours, so let’s sort them out, once and for all.

He’s come down the mountain from the privacy of his family farm.  Down to the big smoke, to Coffs Harbour where’s there even traffic lights.  Down to the ex servicemen’s club which is tonight’s big venue for Russell and his band to launch a quick Australian tour.

Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts they call themselves for some reason.  Amongst the pokies, it’s an unusual spot to talk honestly and openly about love and marriage.  But Russell Crowe is an unusual superstar.

RM to RC - Thanks for cutting your hair just for the program tonight.

RC– Yeah thanks mate. No not a problem.  I did it especially for you because I know that too much hair worries you (both laugh)

RM - Let’s pretend we’re on a date at the Coffs Harbour RSL.

RC– Oh really?  Should we? (laughing)

RM – You and me. You and me.  We get rid of the embarrassing stuff first……..

Are you pregnant?

RC– I think Ray, it’s probably time that you told everybody.  Um, I think you’re my choice when it comes to this sort of thing. Um….Dani’s 14 weeks and 3 days.

RM – Congratulations.  That’s fantastic.

RC – Yeah.  So it’s not a lot of fun, you know, and she’s feeling all the effects of it.

RM – And how are you feeling?

RC – Um.. ecstatic.  I’m really pleased, you know.

RM – So it’s too early to say it’s the first of 10, it depends on how she survives this one? (laughs)

RC – Yeah.  I didn’t think we were ever really thinking in terms of, you know, a gigantic amount of kids, you know, she’s sort of thinking one or two, maybe three.  We’ll see.

RM – You said 14 weeks.  When’s she due?

RC – January.  I thought, I just said to myself if I don’t take this time now I’ll never be a newlywed again.  You know…I’ll never have that opportunity to simply be around for Dani and stuff like that, you know, and I think the fact that she’s pregnant is because of that.  It’s because I haven’t really been running around doing the schedule at, you know, other people’s…sort of… beck and call…you know.

RM – Well how does she feel?  Is she well?

RC – Um…well she’s always glowing in my eyes (big grin) but I think she feels she’s doing it a bit tough at the moment, um, but, you know, that’ll probably change.  I think in a funny way, pretty much the average of everything that we’ve been told, she’s been hitting that, you know, so hopefully she gets a period of reprieve in the middle.

RM – All right, how’s married life treating you?

RC – It’s very good, you know, um, we still don’t spend every hour of every day together.  Um, we’ve still both got schedules and stuff.

RM  – What made you take the plunge?

RC – Oh I don’t know. I think you could probably, I could probably list hundreds of reasons, you know, starting with all of the.. her positive qualities.

RM -Like love?

RC– yeah well, see that’s a very simple thing, you know, and it’s been a very long relationship with Dani and I.  It didn’t just sort of come up yesterday, you know, um… and over a long period of time we’ve, you know, as she says every now and then, it’s like we may not be normal but we have our own way of working things out in terms of, you know, the realism of when we can be together and when we can’t be together and how we deal with being apart and stuff, you know.  Certain things have been achieved and stuff, and there are still other things to be achieved um… but it’s felt like a good time to just take a little time off, you know.  Three Academy campaigns in a row; that’s a lot of attention, you know, um…. and a lot of other people’s desires and aspirations and all that sort of stuff that you’re sort of carrying – sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

RM – Russell, did you propose?

RC – Oh yeah.

RM  – Because you’ve talked in the past to me about old fashioned values and so on.  Did you get down on one knee?

RC – I rang Don Spencer first and had a conversation with him.

RM  – Her dad?

RC – Yep.  And…um…he said it would be ok, you know, he gave me his blessing.  And then I went to a restaurant with Dani that we’d been going to….shhhhooo…probably the first we went there would be about 1990.  And…um…you know, not all the time or anything so that still remains a really special place for us ‘cause we only get to go there maybe once or twice a year or  maybe even 14 months, you know, and..um…yeah I just kind of opened the conversation very casually and… I’d actually been with her most of the day and been carrying it around in my pocket all day.

RM – What, the engagement ring?

RC – Yeah (laughs)

RM – Did you choose it?

RC – Yeah.  It’s a cracker mate (both laugh).  And then yeah, did the old one knee thing.

RM  – Did you really?

RC – Yeah.

RM  – Russell Crowe gets down on one knee.  What if she’d have said no?

RC – Oh…well then I probably would have had to stand up again (both laugh).  Just as well she didn’t so we’ll probably never know the answer to that. (laughs)

RM – Did she cry?

RC – Oh yeah there were some tears and stuff, you know.  Not immediately….um…but a little later in the night.

RM– Did you cry?

RC – No I don’t think I cried at that moment because I was very serious about what I was asking, you know.  So…ah, a little later on when everybody, you know, was sort of ..ah.. happy and recounting the tales and stuff, you know, um, and of course we’ve gone through all this stuff and had a great wedding and, you know, it was a magnificent occasion….um….some of the things that I’d planned seemed very strange to her but then when we were actually doing them, like that cricket game, she couldn’t understand that one and I saw it as a sort of thing where, you know, you’ve got…what better way really than to get two disparate groups of people that don’t know each other to spend the time, you know, sitting around discussing things, getting to know each other, eating food together, whatever, than a cricket game ‘cause it also gives a sort of pretend focus.  Ok, so we’re pretending to play this game of cricket or, we’re going through the motions of it but we’re actually getting to know each other.

RM  – Did you really think though, with all, with one Oscar and the nominations; Hey maybe it’s time to settle down?

RC – Oh there’s probably that too, you know.  I’ve considered marriage, particularly with Danielle since probably the first time I met her.  So…ah…this time round there just didn’t seem to be, like, anything in the way.  You know, and also it’s largely to do with her as well.  I mean, you know, this is something that we’d discussed for probably…er…I don’t…over 5 years, something like that, on and off, we’d just have a casual conversation.  And I think the last time I began talking to her about it, I just noted that there was a, sort of, a different tone in the voice, you know, so I thought oh well, yep, you know, it must be time then.

RM  – Lot of focus though Russ, isn’t it?  A lot of focus.

RC – Yep, there’s a lot of tension, you know.  And you start getting negative things thrown at you…um…..just because you’re in people’s, you know, focus all the time.  Whether it’s got anything to do with you or not, you know.  I don’t know, you can go through hundreds of them and they always change, but at the moment I’m supposedly to be buying a house in Yorkshire or something like that. (laughs)  That stuff just kind of revolves…and of course that’s the positive stuff, I mean you also have the people trying to blackmail you on a pretty regular basis and stuff like that.  Um…

RM  – Are there threats?

RC – Oh

RM– Been and gone?

RC – Been and gone.  Yeah we went through that, you know, I don’t know, you know, we never really understood what that was all about, you know.  It was pretty strange at the time.

RM  – So how do you step out of that?  I mean, 3 Oscar nominations with one won, all the focus is on you isn’t it?

RC – I don’t know.  What I’ve tried to do, and my current sort of thing is to be as …um…as routine and normal as possible.  (laughs) Wear the same clothes every day and ah…you know, hopefully people will just get used to, particularly in Sydney, me being around so it’s not such a big deal.

RM  – But is there a danger you’ll get used to the lifestyle of the family, the football and the farm?

RC – Oh could I stay in Australia like this all the time? (laughs) Yeah probably.

RM – So how important is the music?

RC – Oh it’s very important but, you know, um…music is it’s own reward.

RM – But you told me a long time ago that when you were a kid, all you wanted to be was a rock ’n roll star.

RC – Ah well everybody wanted to be Elvis at a certain point mate. (both laugh)  And I think I’ve been, you know, very blessed.  I am Elvis but kind of in reverse, you know, my movies are good and my music apparently sucks (laughs). 

RM – But do you love it out there?  You seem to.

RC – Yeah. Yeah we have a lot of fun.  I mean you’ll see it tonight.  This place will explode mate.(laughs)

Yes indeed.  Standing room only for that concert up in Coffs Harbour.  Let me tell you it was also great fun.  The next 3 weeks he and the band are touring regional Australia so you’ll get to rock to Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts and Russell Crowe.

Tomorrow night we’ll bring you part 2 of that interview.  We’ll hear from Russell about his music, about his new movies and a few other things.