 |  Russell Crowe"The important thing to me is that I'm not driven by people's praise and I'm not slowed down by people's criticism. I'm just trying to work at the highest level I can."
source: www.rottentomatoes.com |
 Breakout Role: Cort (The Quick and the Dead) |  Best Known For: Maximus (Gladiator) |
 Best Role: John Nash (A Beautiful Mind) |  Best Movie: Gladiator (Maximus) |
There's sort of a weird disconnect between Russell Crowe perception and Russell Crowe reality. The consensus is that Russell Crowe has been searching for a comeback role for quite some time, when in reality, it's actually only since 2009 or so. Sure, so far he's peaked with Gladiator, but those types of movies don't come around often. Winning Best Picture and Best Actor every time out isn't something we can ask of our leading men. In actuality, following 2000's Gladiator, he did A Beautiful Mind in 2001, Cinderella Man in 2005, 3:10 to Yuma and American Gangster both in 2007, along with watchable choices Body of Lies (2008) and State of Play (2009) in that timeframe. There are several things that play into this incorrect perception of Crowe. One is his somewhat selective nature when it comes to projects. Another is his off-screen antics. And the last is that he hasn't truly carried a movie since '03.
When it comes to his selection of projects, over the 9 year timeframe I just mentioned, he did a matching 9 movies. Not exactly a slow pace, but hardly one that taxes an A-lister like Crowe (compare that to Samuel L. Jackson's roughly 38 projects in the same span, including some television). We equate exposure with success, and since he tends to pick his spots, we feel he hasn't capitalized on the success of Gladiator. His off-screen altercations have been well-documented with perhaps the most famous being his phone-throwing incident in '05. Behavior typically associated with an actor on the downswing (at least when it's re-occurring), Crowe has had to fight that perception ever since, and is still seen as an actor that comes with "baggage." The only one that should actually enter a discussion about his cinematic works is the fact that he hasn't had sole top billing since Master and Commander (meaning our last impression of him carrying a movie was a decidedly negative one). Even in 2009's awful Robin Hood, he shared the poster with Cate Blanchett. When viewed individually, none of these factors would be enough to create the public perception of him as a talented, but somewhat squandered actor; it takes all three in conjunction for that.
In an interesting confluence, 2014 can fix or at least address, every one of the issues we just went over. While Robin Hood undoubtedly damaged his stock, it's nothing he can't recover from. He has 2 topflight projects coming out, Winter's Tale and Noah. He will play a major role in the former and undoubtedly have to carry the latter (the presence of Anthony Hopkins and Emma Watson not withstanding, when you're playing the titular role in a movie, the other actors are garnish). Another year with plenty of visibility and the usual press rounds for each movie where the cast and crew talk about how great he is to work with can't help but dampen his perception as something of a loose cannon. The truth is, that since '05, his biggest controversies have been on Twitter, and who in the public eye and actually posting to their own account (rather than a handler managing it) can avoid one of those? Even in just the 8 years since, throwing a telephone seems almost quaint compared to the behavior of some in Hollywood.
The flipside of that coin is that if Winter's Tale and more importantly, Noah, fail to live up to some fairly lofty expectations, it could mean the end of Crowe as an A-lister, at least until a legitimate John-Travolta-in-Pulp-Fiction style comeback. I can see plenty of scenarios where Noah, even if it's good, becomes the lesser-known sibling of Christian Bale's Exodus, also due out in 2014. The Volcano to its Dante's Peak, or Olympus Has Fallen to its White House Down if you will. Either way, 2014 is a year to watch for Crowe.
When it comes to his selection of projects, over the 9 year timeframe I just mentioned, he did a matching 9 movies. Not exactly a slow pace, but hardly one that taxes an A-lister like Crowe (compare that to Samuel L. Jackson's roughly 38 projects in the same span, including some television). We equate exposure with success, and since he tends to pick his spots, we feel he hasn't capitalized on the success of Gladiator. His off-screen altercations have been well-documented with perhaps the most famous being his phone-throwing incident in '05. Behavior typically associated with an actor on the downswing (at least when it's re-occurring), Crowe has had to fight that perception ever since, and is still seen as an actor that comes with "baggage." The only one that should actually enter a discussion about his cinematic works is the fact that he hasn't had sole top billing since Master and Commander (meaning our last impression of him carrying a movie was a decidedly negative one). Even in 2009's awful Robin Hood, he shared the poster with Cate Blanchett. When viewed individually, none of these factors would be enough to create the public perception of him as a talented, but somewhat squandered actor; it takes all three in conjunction for that.
In an interesting confluence, 2014 can fix or at least address, every one of the issues we just went over. While Robin Hood undoubtedly damaged his stock, it's nothing he can't recover from. He has 2 topflight projects coming out, Winter's Tale and Noah. He will play a major role in the former and undoubtedly have to carry the latter (the presence of Anthony Hopkins and Emma Watson not withstanding, when you're playing the titular role in a movie, the other actors are garnish). Another year with plenty of visibility and the usual press rounds for each movie where the cast and crew talk about how great he is to work with can't help but dampen his perception as something of a loose cannon. The truth is, that since '05, his biggest controversies have been on Twitter, and who in the public eye and actually posting to their own account (rather than a handler managing it) can avoid one of those? Even in just the 8 years since, throwing a telephone seems almost quaint compared to the behavior of some in Hollywood.
The flipside of that coin is that if Winter's Tale and more importantly, Noah, fail to live up to some fairly lofty expectations, it could mean the end of Crowe as an A-lister, at least until a legitimate John-Travolta-in-Pulp-Fiction style comeback. I can see plenty of scenarios where Noah, even if it's good, becomes the lesser-known sibling of Christian Bale's Exodus, also due out in 2014. The Volcano to its Dante's Peak, or Olympus Has Fallen to its White House Down if you will. Either way, 2014 is a year to watch for Crowe.
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