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February 20, 2008

Sir Ridley Scott used to say he'd never work with the same actor twice. Then came Russell Crowe.

"It's a stressful occupation because everything's unknown, minute to minute," said Scott in his cavernous West Hollywood offices. "When you add to that equation, you're going to meet a stranger . . . there's a bit of a waltz, or a boxing match. It's soft blows as you're trying to see who this other person is you're dealing with. Once you do it again it gets a little easier to get to the heart of the matter. The third film, you get to those conversations way sooner."

"We've perfected the art of the wordless argument," said Crowe by phone from Australia. "We don't always agree on everything but we agree on one basic thing: that we trust each other.

"He gives me a certain amount of responsibility, and that really engages me. I love coming back to him with things I've discovered, saying, 'Oi, Guvnor, check this out,' because he really appreciates it."

They're in post-production on their fourth film together (following "Gladiator," "A Good Year" and last year's "American Gangster"), the Middle East spy thriller "Body of Lies" (costarring Leonardo DiCaprio), and are busy prepping a fifth, "Nottingham," a fresh take on Robin Hood that melds the various legends with historical fact.

"Some of these things I'm going into, scratching my head: 'What am I going to do with this one?' " Crowe said. "But I know I have a voice with Ridley; I know sometimes he's giving me things specifically because there's things he's staring at within that character he can't solve by himself. He just has a trust that we will solve it together."

When pressed for the secret of their alchemy, Scott shrugged: "Perhaps it's an Aussie-Brit thing? A shared sense of humor?" -- but he did admit their chemistry evolved from a dangerously unstable state.

"If 'Gladiator' appeared smooth, it was not. It was a pretty bumpy ride," said Scott, acknowledging the much-reported difficulty of that Oscar-winning film's shoot. But he laughingly declined to detail any conflicts with his star: "No, that's not nice. There was some shouting and aggressive behavior. . . . What came out of it, actually, was 'Let's really, really think about this and don't go there.' So now it's quite a strong relationship."

Crowe credits Scott's deft navigation of that film's obstacles, such as what the actor saw as outside interference and starting with only a fraction of a script, that "made me really begin to respect him because he was truly a great leader on the set."

Despite their struggles, Scott proved open to Crowe's input -- even when the actor wanted to chop someone's head off. Although the director worried that Crowe's suggestion for a climax to a fight scene was so violent it might change the film's rating, he allowed the actor to demonstrate it. As Crowe told it, "I did the sequence and finished with this double-handed decapitation, and he turned around to his first assistant and went, 'Terry [Needham], how many heads have we got left?' "

"I found Russell to be inordinately smart," said Scott. "When he's doing anything he becomes an expert in it. Which means I've got to become an expert also so we can at least exchange opinions."

"To me, working with him is like doing a cinematic master class," said the Oscar-winning Crowe of the three-time Oscar-nominated director. "Time has created the connection we have, and being in the trenches together. We've looked at a big tall mountain and climbed that mountain and patted each other on the back and said, 'See you in the morning.'"

-- Michael Ordoña

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