‘I never realised the actor he’d become.’
– Ian Smith (Harold Bishop)
It was just another morning for Russell in his small Sydney flat when he stopped in his kitchen and sat down on a chair. A bird hovered outside before setting down on his windowsill. The bird, a rare kookaburra, looked him in the eye and it was then that Russell get a strange sensation – a feeling that something had happened to his beloved grandfather.
He rushed to the phone to call his parents, and was told that Stan had died. ‘I insisted the bird was my grandfather’s spirit, but my mom would have nothing of it.’ Later, she would break down in tears when a family friend also revealed that a bird visited her that same day.
The death was a crushing blow to Russell. He had adored his grandfather and had even saved what little money he had to take Stan out for a meal when he’d visited Sydney six months earlier. ‘My grandfather came to Australia to try to explain to me that he was dying. I was a young kid, very much into myself at the time. I was busking on the streets, just to make enough money to pay my rent. There was this Japanese restaurant I’d always wanted to eat at, but couldn’t afford, so I suggested we go there.’
It ended up being a costly misfire as the smells in the Japanese restaurant brought back painful memories for Stan of his time in the war. ‘We couldn’t have the talk he wanted to,’ he said sadly.
His grandfather had been something of a mentor to Russell, with Joy noting that her late husband and grandson were so alike. When she’d first met Stan all those years ago, she had wrongly perceived his ambition and fierce ambition as arrogance – something that has tarred Russell for many years. Joy gave Russell her late husband’s World War II medals and his prized camera, as well as a selection of his famed war stills.
The devastated Russell was a mess. He had lost his grandfather and he had been axed from Blood Brothers. A brief flirtation with the idea of enrolling at Sydney’s National Institute For Dramatic Arts – a highly regarded drama school which counted Mel Gibson among its former students – came to nothing after he realised he was learning so much through on-the-job experience and he didn’t want to lose that momentum. But the more he performed on stage in Melbourne and Sydney the more he felt that it was on screen that his future lay.
In a 1997 interview, he said, ‘Theatre was my driving ambition in life as a young man. I couldn’t think of anything more magical than working in an Arthur Miller play at the Sydney Opera House. But the film director, George Ogilvie, offered me a chance to work in a film. It takes a real specialist, a theatrical performer like Geoffrey Rush, to make sure the guy in the 40th row of a live theatre house gets it. I never felt in my heart of hearts I could achieve that. I had never imagined making movies then because I didn’t think anyone would want me to be in their movie. Once I got onto a movie set, I realised this was my medium.
‘Because what I discovered in the process was I had no limitations as an actor in the cinema. After George saw me in a number of theatre roles he said, “You’re going to make a great cinema actor.”’
At this point Russell had already managed to land a role in two popular Australian TV shows. The first was an appearance in the courtroom drama Rafferty’s Rules, and this was followed by a four-episode stint in the long-running soap opera Neighbours.
Because of his stage work, Russell had signed on with the agency Bedford and Pearce, but he was still reluctant about starring in the soap as petty thief Kenny. ‘I was reading the script and I’m thinking, “This is awful.” Then I get to the last scene and I’ve got to punch Craig McLachlan, and Jason Donovan’s trying to break up the fight while Kylie Minogue is riding on my back trying to strangle me. And I went, “Yes, I’ll do it.”’
‘I did four episodes of Neighbours in 1987, and four episodes of Neighbours takes about 25 minutes to shoot because they work a pretty tight schedule. I got more money for that four days’ work than I got for the whole season at Melbourne Theatre.’
Ian Smith, who played Harold Bishop, said he’d been surprised at Russell’s subsequent success. ‘I never realised the actor he’d become. I really didn’t get to know Russell that much. He wasn’t with us that long.’
But Russell was desperate to be in films, and he was to get his wish in Blood Oath. The World War II courtroom drama, which told the true story of an Australian military lawyer’s job to prosecute Japanese war criminals, featured a small part for Russell – but it was a foot in the door nonetheless. He would be teaming up with his Neighbours sparring partner Jason Donovan – who was hoping that this film would show he was more than just a soap actor and pop star.
The film starred Bryan Brown, a popular leading man in Australia at that time. Russell’s role was very much in the background with Brown in the foreground. Not that Russell cared very much. His audition had impressed the film’s casting director, who hadn’t expected such an intense and energetic audition for that part.
Russell recalled of his screen time, ‘I just walked around the back carrying Bryan’s pencils. “Pencil, Mr Brown?” It’s hard to look like you’re not trying to get your head in the shot.’
When an interviewer asked him if he was ever tempted to do just that, he snapped, ‘No, of course not. Don’t be stupid. I tell you though, I learnt a hell of a lot on that set. It was my first feature and Bryan was great.’
In the TV special Russell Crowe: Behind The Gladiator, he recalled, ‘I got to work with him [Brown] for about 10 weeks and watch him, observe him and ask him lots of questions. It was kind of cool, because the major work I had done before that in terms of acting was about professional work on the stage – you know, stage musicals – so it was a really different environment.’
It was clear he loved working with Brown, and he showed a willingness to learn despite his reputation.
‘To get fit for the part Russell would run miles and miles in ridiculous heat,’ said John Clarke, the film’s script editor and an actor in the film. ‘We would be travelling to and from the set in vehicles and we would pass Russell, looking magnificent and bathed in sweat, pounding the roads.’
One anecdote burned in Russell’s mouth as much as it did his mind. It happened during first day of filming. ‘As I came walking out of the jungle,’ he said, ‘I decided I’d smoke a cigarette, which is fine. The only problem is that they didn’t shoot the scene only once, they shot it 27 times from all number of angles. At the end my throat was killing me. Bryan Brown asked me what I’d learned that day and I said, “Never smoke a cigarette in a scene.”’
Blood Oath – or Prisoners of the Sun as it would also be known – performed only averagely at the box office. It would signal the end of Donovan’s attempt to become a movie star but for Russell it was just the beginning.