Russell Crowe


Russell Crowe has range. In last year's Romper Stomper he was the baddest, baldest neo-Nazi gang leader the Melbourne suburbs had ever seen. In his new film, Love in Limbo he's a Welsh virging who skitters out of a whorehouse faster than a puppy from a pound. Somewhere in between is the real RC, 29, a Kiwi who calls Sydney home and assesses his boyish mug as 'the ugliest!'

If that's his definition of an AFI award-winner who is constantly in demand, we'll take it. After funding fell through one week into shooting Red Rain, a thriller set in Italy with Jennifer(Flashdance) Beals, RC was off to Hollywood in March--his fifth trip there in eight months. 'The place is addictive, but I'm not that attracted to the place,' he says. When he told an American agent he couldn't figure out what studio people expected of him, she said, 'Why don't you just stand there and say: 'I want a job!' relates RC with a chuckle. 'That's just not me.'

RC says he has some 'surprising' stage work in store and stars as a horseman in the drama The Silver Brumby, due out later this year. As for beauty, he thinks that in others it 'makes me less receptive, not more. Some people use their looks as their personality.' So what does he fancy? 'A lively mind, subtle flirting. I mean mental flirtation.' Absolutely. So did we.


WHO, 5/3/93


BACK