RUSSELL AND THE MEDIA

‘Russell doesn’t necessarily see the noble side of my profession.’

– Journalist RB Brenner

During shooting of The Insider, which saw Russell made up to appear much older, he began to resemble his dad. One unwelcome byproduct of this was that his father had to experience what his son goes through on a regular basis. ‘Dad was at the premiere in Los Angeles and he was being chased by photographers. And my dad is just a bloke, you know? And after the fourth one came running up taking his picture, he turned round and said, “Look, fuck off! I’m not him!”’

At first glance Russell and journalism have an uneasy relationship – he the no-nonsense Australian tough guy, they the sensation-seeking media desperate to rake up any dirt they can on him. But Russell, like most major movie stars, knows that the press are vital to anyone’s dreams of conquering Hollywood. Film actors who don’t buy into the Hollywood hype and all its baggage and still come out the other side as A-listers are few and far between. While Russell is arguably one of those success stories, he has also attempted to court the media in the past.

Journalist Jack Marx famously told all about his encounter with Russell Crowe. It started when the Sunday Morning Herald journalist received a phone call from the actor, asking to meet up for dinner. What happened afterwards would be a cautionary tale about journalists getting too close to their subject.

During the meeting, Marx was bombarded with questions about his personal life, with his meal left untouched because his mouth was busy answering questions about every aspect of his life. The last question, enquiring was how much he was paid, left Marx tantalised about the possibilities open to him. Thinking that the meeting could lead to a job with Russell – why else the money question, he reasoned? – he was nonetheless delighted when he was asked to attend a rugby game with the actor.

After several other phone calls leading to a meeting at his office, Marx was finally told the reason for the courting. Russell wanted someone to be a ‘champion’ for him in the media, particularly for his music career, for which he felt he was being unfairly criticised.

After agreeing to be such a champion, although he would wonder if he was making the right decision when making his Faustian pact, Marx was later asked to write an article about Russell by the film company behind his then new film, Cinderella Man. Marx claims that Russell revealed that the music mission was ‘nothing more than a test’. His ‘Machiavellian’ plan was to make Marx his publicist. All that Russell needed was a positive article about him for the film.

Marx wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald article, ‘There was a journalist in London… who had written many stories on [Russell], and as a consequence had enjoyed drinking with Russell in 22 cities of the world. This journalist had resisted all pressure to write bad Russell stories, and was thus much loved and rewarded. “So you see, Jack,” he wrote, “not all journalists are cunts.” He added that if I wanted to do the story, then, he was “cool with it”.’

Marx wrote the piece, smoothing over some of the facts for a sympathetic portrayal of Russell rather than a gushing one. Nonetheless, Marx claimed that his piece was considered ‘low and shitty’ by Russell.

Marx’s Herald article, which recounted his meetings with Russell in greater detail, painted the actor as a manipulative individual who had promised certain journalists the world if they posted positive articles about him.

Talking about his article further in The Telegraph in 2006, Marx said, ‘Russell was clearly grooming me. Perhaps he never intended to make me his publicist – that was just a carrot to dangle. But then he had no need to go to the lengths he did just to get a good interview. I did feel a bit dirty when I was sitting eating supper with him on his farm. A little voice in my head was warning me that this was not real friendship, but I ignored it. I was in denial that he saw this as just a showbiz transaction.’

Ironically, Russell had hit back at the idea that he uses the media in the first article that Marx had written about him. In it, Russell said, ‘I think it is kind of ridiculous to imply I’m in cahoots or in bed with the media. A preposterous notion – a cynical reframing, more than likely, sourced from the same voices who, two years ago, were trumpeting my distance or aloofness as the problem.’

Another journalist, Martyn Palmer, who struck up a genuine friendship with the actor, had this to say about his friendship with Russell. ‘He was 25 and at the start of his Australian film career and I’d been sent to interview him.

‘We became unlikely friends. For reasons which neither of us has ever really analysed, we just got along. When he was in the UK, he’d camp at my place. When I was in Australia, I’d stay in the spare room, on a mattress, with a piano he was renovating and various guitars.’