‘Journey to the (Revolutionary, Evil-Hating, Cash-Crazy, and Possibly
Self-Destructive) Center of Google’. That must go down as the silliest title for a tech
article this year, nevertheless GQ’s profile of Google
was an interesting read. After that I happened to browse around the GQ website and saw an interview with Russell
Crowe. He was named by GQ as the greatest actor of our
generation. Johnny Depp and Nicholas Cage were 2 and 3 (personally I’d rate Cage
number 2, based mainly on his performance in Vampire’s Kiss – one of my favourite
movies).
I read the long interview with Crowe and particularly enjoyed these quotes:
“If it’s not going to be that serious, I don’t want to do it. It’s a
personal taste. I don’t like watching an actor have the same fucking hairdo from
time period to time period, from character to character—I just think it’s
bullshit. It’s a waste of money and a waste of my time as an audience member.”
And a bit later…
“I get a very deep sense that the generation after Generation X is a very conservative
generation, and I’m not sure they understand the commitment part of what I do.”
Crowe goes on to talk about how he wanted to play Shakespeare in the movie
Shakespeare in Love:
“It was a 100 percent fucking home run, except the central character of William
Shakespeare was not a fucking writer—he was not smelly enough, he was not unshaven
enough, and obviously hadn’t had enough to drink. He was some prissy pretty boy.
What the fuck? That’s so disrespectful.”
And you had in mind a smelly, unshaven, drunk guy you thought could do it?
“Yeah, I wanted to see that grizzly fucker. I wanted to see him flower. I wanted to see
him blossom under the fact of love. I wanted to see where the sonnets came from. They
came from the same pen of despair that wrote Timon of Athens—I wanted to see that
guy. I wanted to see that guy with the sensibilities of a man that could create a body of
work that would last century after century. I wanted to see that.”
And you wanted to be that?
“I wanted to play that character. I loved the script. I mean, it was an incredibly
well observed script about actors. That’s why I thought it was so cool.”
Do you still think your version would have been better?
“[laughs] By fucking miles, mate. What are you talking about?”
Fantastic interview…
