American Gangster is a film about one of the biggest drug lords in history. The man who caught him had brains as well as balls. That part just had to be played by Russell Crowe.

Rock Hard Kiwi

Russell Crowe is not an easy guy. We all know the phone throwing and tantrum stories, but even when the rugged New Zealander is his normal self, you need to watch it, especially when you’re a journalist.Crowe has extremely little tolerance for stupid questions, bad jokes and condescending remarks. And if he thinks yo haven’t prepared well enough for the interview, he’ll let you know. Lucky for us, we did our homework. Nevertheless, tension was mounting even higher than usual at the journalists’ table at the American Gangster press meeting in Los Angeles – and that was even before Crowe had entered. But when the notorious actor finally did appear and take his seat, it turned out we all worried for nothing: the bearded Kiwi is in a good mood today. Makes the interviewing a lot easier, that.

American Gangster has a mottled past. How did this project end up with you?
“Producer Brian Grazer phoned me when the project had just collapsed. He wanted to get it back on track more than anything, but he had already sent me the script three times before, and I didn’t think it was any good. At that stage, the only part that was fleshed out properly was that of Frank Lucas (played by Denzel Washington, ed.). The part of Richie Roberts, the man chasing him, was underdeveloped, in my opinion. So I said to Brian: if the script can undergo more development, I’m interested. He wanted to know who I would like to direct on this, and I said: Ridley Scott. ‘So give me your top 3,’ he said. OK, I said, on 1 it’s Ridley Scott. 2: Ridley Scott. And 3: Ridley Scott. So Brian knew what to do. Ridley had the same opinion about the script as did I. My suggestion was to do more research into Roberts. Scott looked him up and discovered that he was a lot more complex than how he was written, and these elements were used to enrich the script.”

This is your third film with Ridley Scott and there are two more coming up…
“That’s coincidence; we didn’t plan it. Gladiator turned out to be a great working experience for the both of us, and we only had that confirmed when we both went in different directions after that film. For our second film, we deliberately sat down to pick a project we could work on together. That was A Good Year. And, like I said, for American Gangster I more or less got him on board. Body of Lies and Nottingham will in all probability be our next projects. We feel comfortable with each other, creatively. We see things the same way. As far as I’m concerned, he is one of the greatest visual artists in film history.”

[streamer:]
‘If I trip over a million dollars I’m not going to wait around until someone else walks away with it.’

In the film, your character comes across a colossal bag of drug money. He hands it in. What would you do in such a case? Not that it would happen to you in a hurry…
“Oh, doesn’t it? I get paid to make films, mate, I’m a highwayman! But no, if I were in Richie Roberts’shoes I’d probably do the same. But if I were a poor actor, like I was at the beginning of my career, and I’d trip over a million dollars, I wouldn’t wait around until someone else walked away with it. The money would be mine.”

Did you ever do a film just for the money?
“No. I have to be able to get up in the morning and go to work. You need to be extremely motivated to get up at four in the morning for months on end and money in itself doesn’t motivate me.”

Well that’s easy for you to say now that you have a lot of it…
“No, I’ve always been like that. I didn’t busk in the streets because I thought it would make me rich. That experience is one of many that made me into who I am today and that is what made me some money, in the end. But money isn’t what drives me. Ofcourse you could say that it’s a luxury not having to accept parts for the money, but that’s a position I earned by not choosing the easy way out, you see? I could have been a soap star, but because I respected the craft, at the end of the day the craft respected me. I’m sure of that. That experience made me a better actor.”

Translation thanks to Jacqueline