Russell Crowe 'Threatened To Kill Producer With Bare Hands,' Says New Book

The Guardian:

Russell Crowe threatened to kill a veteran producer with his bare hands during a 3am phone call while filming his Oscar-winning role in Gladiator, according to a new book. Branko Lustig, 77, a Holocaust survivor, immediately telephoned Steven Spielberg in Los Angeles and asked to leave the production.

Read the whole story: The Guardian

Comments

[mrphantastyque]

10:05 AM on 05/14/2010

Born in New Zealand in sixty-four
A hot-headed actor named Russell Crowe
He loves to act but he loves one thing more
Fightin' Round The World

He fights his directors and he fights his fans
It's a problem no one understands
If there's two things he loves it's fighting and
Fightin' Round The World

Makin' movies, makin' music and
Fight-in' Round The World!
Russell Crowe!

[Somali]

11:03 AM on 04/30/2010

He's a Holocaust survivor and Russell Crowe gave him the jitters?

[raven119]

05:19 PM on 04/29/2010

Liked him in LA Confidential. Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind tried my patience. Haven't bothered to see one of his films since. Robin Hood looks like a reason to stay home with a good book instead.

[SunInMyBelly]

10:57 AM on 04/29/2010

I still think he's got great eyes.

[Dr Confuso]

09:49 AM on 04/29/2010

Russell has reached a point in his career where he no longer has to tolerate the unmitigated B.S. that producers try out on people. Given that the typical hollywood production can have 5-10 'producers', a few 'associate producers' and an 'executive producer' thrown in and one gets the idea that 'producers' are nothing more than someone who has arranged some financing, got a certain actor to sign on or is the boy/girlfriend of a studio exec. In other words, they are parasites. Russell comes from New Zealand by way of Australia. I'm Australian and to put it simply: 'unlike you yanks, we don't tolerate a lot of sh*t.'

[Theatrixnyc]

05:32 PM on 04/29/2010

Yes. Men always prove just how tough they are when they end up in the can for grade-school bully behavior. They always look so tough standing behind bars, their life in a shambles, and career gone.

[Cloball]

09:49 PM on 04/29/2010

He's still my favorite actor and Gladiator my favorite movie.

I'm sure he's grown up in the ten years since this event happened. Maybe at 3:00 AM he needed to sleep. You never know with these stories.

[Theatrixnyc]

10:48 AM on 04/30/2010

3 AM? What, was he calling the producer to come to his trailer and pay the hooker?

[nickwib]

07:42 AM on 04/29/2010

A certain British media tycoon, now gone to the deep, once threatened an IT engineer that if a job was not finshed by a particular time, he would personally castrate the the poor man, "...with my teeth".

[rougebaisers]

02:34 AM on 04/29/2010

That's not so bad. I do that all the time.

[FackinL]

01:35 AM on 04/29/2010

If you've ever met a movie 'producer,' you'd relate to Mr Crowe's sentiments. Good on yer mate from one kiwi to another.

[XCITIZEN]

01:31 AM on 04/29/2010

It won't be long until Russell Crowe is a has-been. I mean really, Gladiator? Robin Hood? What's next, a super-hero movie remake?

[Johnny2Bad]

01:18 AM on 04/29/2010

Russell is the man. Anyone who has worked in Hollywood knows that producers are slim and would sell their mother, sisters and daughters into slavery for a hit movie. So what if the guy was a holocaust survivor that has nothing to do with the fact that he was being cheap with Crowe's people and deserves to be slapped around. The only purpose of its mention it is to beat the public over the head in a pathetic attempt to win sympathy for a tighwad producer.

[Theatrixnyc]

05:10 PM on 04/29/2010

A tight-wad Producer? How much was Russell being paid for "Gladiator"? Maybe he could have coughed up the difference himself, they are his employees after all...or he could do without the entourage and be a big boy and use the potty all by himself. He was probably just looking to pay family members for being with him on the set, and if that is the case he should have negotiated it into his contract before the start of the film. Russell has a reputation as the biggest male DIVA of them all.

[Cloball]

09:51 PM on 04/29/2010

He was big when he did Gladiator but not huge.

[LMPE]

11:42 PM on 04/28/2010

Well, that's RC's persona. Keith Richards is the guy who does every drug imaginable (or is that Jack Nicholson?), Russell Crowe gets aggressive.

[thegreyarea]

11:08 PM on 04/28/2010

Born in New Zealand in sixty-four
A hot-headed actor named Russell Crowe
He loves to act but he loves one thing more
Fightin' Round The World

He fights his directors and he fights his fans
It's a problem no one understands
If there's two things he loves it's fighting and
Fightin' Round The World

Makin' movies, makin' music and
Fight-in' Round The World!
Russell Crowe!

[Angelaaaa]

10:43 PM on 04/28/2010

Not a huge fan of Rusty but anyone who threatens a super-rich producer for not paying a decent wage to the underlings, can't be all bad.

[Kalifornicated]

11:33 PM on 04/28/2010

He's super rich himself. Probably richer than the producer. He's a selfish stingy sob. Why didn't he make up the difference? That would have been classy. On 'Master and Commander' when they approached him about supporting shooting with union extras and day players and paying union wage he told them to go jump. Greatest actor in the world indeed.

[Angelaaaa]

08:08 AM on 04/29/2010

Maybe now but then he was a jobbing actor. Remember, Gladiator was his big break.

And no, he is definitely NOT the world's greatest actor - not even close.

[Ergon]

10:23 PM on 04/28/2010

I'm a fan of Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott's, but the D-Day inspired snippets in the Robin Hood ads of soldiers landing on a beach in medieval landing craft, seemed a bit, oh, jumping the shark :)

[BrainDart]

09:49 PM on 04/28/2010

This was Gladiator -- a movie about men who kill to live. Maybe he was still in character. To test this theory, he could play a mute wimp. Russell, contact me, I'll write the script for you.