So Russell, you've got a fantastic history with Universal. Could you just tell us a little bit about your involvement with the Studio and the Studio’s legacy?

RUSSELL CROWE: Well, you know, when you go to the cinema, and those credits come up at the beginning of the movie, the Universal logo is essentially one of the recognized brands, one of the stamps of what actually differentiates what, you know, average moviemaking may be, and a real experience in the cinema, you know. There's only a few of those iconic stamps that you know, people have been seeing in the whole history

RUSSELL CROWE: of motion pictures, and the Universal brand is one of them. And I remember being pretty excited when I first was going to work with Universal, you know, and as it's turned out, we have quite a collection of nice movies that we’ve made together. And you know, personnel comes in and goes, and stuff, but there's a constant at Universal, and that is a love of filmmakers and filmmaking. And you know a combination of personalities which are, you know, even from a management perspective or artist base, it's always been a comfortable place for me to make a movie.

And it's a way of working that has worked for a very long time.

RUSSELL CROWE: A long time, yeah.

The studio stretches back almost to the origins of cinema itself.

RUSSELL CROWE: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Tell us a little bit about Gladiator. [Technical talk]
I was asking about Gladiator. Tell us how you first got involved with that. How did you become a part of the Gladiator?

RUSSELL CROWE: Well, I got a phone call saying that, it was just very simple, it was “we just want to test the water here. See if you're interested. It's 184 AD. You start off as a Roman general, and the director is Ridley Scott.” Now, my normal thing is well, just send the script over. And they were like “whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, we'll see. [Laughs] We don't really want to show you that document just yet. We just want to know your response to this, you know. It's 184 A.D., you start off as a Roman general. You're being directed by Ridley Scott. Would you like a conversation?” [Laughs]

RUSSELL CROWE: I was like, “yeah, okay, cool.” So I went and met Ridley, and we had a great chat. We talked for about three hours, and it was funny actually because when I met him, I was about 250 pounds and bald. I had just come off the set of The Insider. And I was bald on The Insider because I couldn't get my hair to go the same way that Jeffrey Wigand’s hair was, so I shaved it all off, and just wore a wig.

RUSSELL CROWE: But, so you must have [laughs] seen me coming into the room and going, [talks out of the side of his mouth], [mumbles] “You gotta be kidding me.” [Laughs] Anyway, we had a nice chat. And he showed me a bunch of images, and just some things he had in mind, and it was really, very exciting. I don't think I actually has been in a situation prior to that, where here was a filmmaker, he was going to make a film, he had about a half a dozen images, and the cigar in his mouth and going, [does impression, mimes smoking cigar] “It's going to be like that.” [Laughs] It's like, “right, ok.” You know, usually it begins with a script, but that one didn't. And I look back on making that movie

RUSSELL CROWE: and, quite frankly Ridley and I had a number of drinks together over the years and going [laughs] “how did that one work again? What was the formula of that?” Because it really was by the seat of our pants. He had to, you know for that particular period of time, a pretty big budget, $103 million, and all of the mathematical problems of that to solve, you know, that being how do you bring Rome to life? How do you bring that time period to life?

RUSSELL CROWE: And they had that small thing of, of having about 21 pages of what you know your average consideration would be about 120 if you are going to make a feature film, but we had about 21 pages of script that we could begin with. And, but we had a great group of minds on that. We had Walter Parkes, we had David Franzoni, we had Doug Wick, we had John Logan, we had Bill Nicholson, so we had a bunch of people working on what the other pages may be. [Laughs] And we just started, you know, and we shot out that first 21 pages in a couple of weeks, and then we got to Morocco with 400 crew or something like that, and met on the weekend

RUSSELL CROWE: and worked out what Monday was gonna be. And it was like that the whole shoot, you know. And, it is really, it's one of my aims in life is to make a movie with Ridley Scott with an actual script. Because I believe he would be a powerful filmmaker, beyond anything he's ever achieved, if he would actually just acquiesce to begin with a script that he is comfortable in shooting, and then, because a lot of stuff [laughs] would get sorted out, like you know, way ahead of time. But I've made five movies with him.

RUSSELL CROWE: And I think the most we've ever had ready to go is about 60 pages. So that's like half a film, you know. Just imagine. Imagine what it could be with an actual script, but then again, you know, so much stuff just comes up in the moment, and that's what's the real fun thing about working with Ridley is because he gets himself completely organized, he gets really focused on what he's doing, and you're in the middle of something, and something becomes apparent, and he knows that's exactly what he's been searching for and he just grabs it. You know, so that's a fun thing with working with Rid, but you know, I got involved based on that three prong statement, you know. It's 184 A.D., you start off as a Roman general [laughs] and you are going to be directed by Ridley Scott.

Not a bad start even if you haven't got a script. [Laughs]

RUSSELL CROWE: Yeah, well, we got away with it. That's the thing, you know, that's why we occasionally sit together and raise a glass and go “well, [laughs] dodged a bullet with that one mate.”

And with already a history with Ridley, as well as all the experiences you've had with all these great directors over the years, have you sort of refined in your mind what it is about Ridley, just the way he works, that does work so well? That doesn't mean that he can take the helm of these massive juggernaut…?

RUSSELL CROWE: yeah, well, when it comes to Ridley, I mean, you can't go past the fact that I think, I think he made 2000 commercials before he made the [sounds like Jewelist]. So whatever it is that he might have had to learn then about narrative, and actors, and all these other things that go along with the full, you know, the actual filmmaking aspect of it you know, and in those 2000 commercials for their time

RUSSELL CROWE: many of them were cutting-edge, groundbreaking, you know, and were at, you know, were things that then Cinema filmmakers borrowed from, you know, so he was already in that position. He's, he's, look he is a brilliant artist. You know, he has a great little trick that I love watching him do, when an actor is not getting [laughs] what he wants them to do, he then will draw where the actor is in the frame so [laughs] you know, that particular actor might get something out of the fact that he sees what Ridley is seeing, you know.

RUSSELL CROWE: But Ridley will be talking to the actor like this, and drawing it for him so the actor’s looking at it in the right perspective, so he's in fact, drawing it upside down. [Laughs] I mean, when you talk about filmmakers, the individual stuff that they have onboard, what they bring to the job, you know, so he brings all of that experience, and a personal resilience. I mean he's, he's a tough man, you know. He's, and he has learned over time to not get frivolous, you know, not get too excited. Just to know if something is working, he knows, right. Because he's got another however many hundreds of shots to set up and everything, and one shot doesn't make the movie, you know, so you know, but he's also

RUSSELL CROWE: he is always available, you know. He's available to have a talk, you know. Sometimes he doesn't necessarily want to get involved in a confrontation, you know. He doesn't really want to talk about something that you may disagree about [laughs] you know, but he is really always available, and, and he, you know, he just has that instinct. He knows if somebody is coming, saying you know what, this thing is tickling in the back of my mind. He's hired the person to do that job, to examine that particular part what he's doing, so he wants to listen, he wants to get the solution.

RUSSELL CROWE: He said to me once, “Never give me a good idea in post production. Because I will hate you. I will just absolutely hate you. If something is on your mind, if it's bugging you, if it's there, just tell me, right. If it's a good idea, I'll steal it, and it's going to be in my movie, and nobody will ever give you credit, simple as that.” [Laughs] Or something like that. [Laughs] I probably put a twist on it, but yeah,

RUSSELL CROWE: I mean, he's, you know who, what he brings as an individual is, is unique and you know, I like the way that he, he cares about how much things cost. You know and, he cares about how much things cost and that is, it just suits my personality that he should do that. You know, I like the fact that he's responsible that way. You know, I like the fact that he knows exactly how many severed heads he has in the art Department, so he can only, you know, decapitate like nine people today,

RUSSELL CROWE: and that's going to be it, and he's just going to have to deal with it. [Laughs] you know, but I like that. That he doesn't have you know, 30 heads that he never gets to use. He uses what he plans for, and the fact that he, the reason that he can be involved in these big movies without necessarily having a scene by scene document in front of him, you know, is because he is so finally organized, befor he even begins, you know. And you know, the severed heads is just one.

RUSSELL CROWE: example of, you know because it also goes down to on something like Robin Hood, it's like, how many bows you need constructed? How many arrows do you need made? You know, what's the likelihood you know, how many archers will you have? How many takes will it be where you are just shooting arrows off into the ocean, which won't be recovered? You know, and he's gone through that. And he has the mathematics, and you know, somebody might say it's 10,000, but you know, he'll look at it and say you know what, I will get this done as long as all the archers are tuned, and ready to go, and know what they're doing.


RUSSELL CROWE: You know, I'll get this done with 5 1/2 thousand. You know [laughs] And if you do that line by line through everything, you know, you can create room for yourself as a filmmaker when you know, something else comes up, and you want to expand on something from the page, you know. So it's, it's always an adventure with him, but it's always by the seat of your pants. You know, and, you know [laughs] I suppose, I suppose I would really miss that if we did have a script. However, I’d just like to experiment just once. Just once. [Laughs]

From your mouth to his ears. Let's hope next time. How did Gladiator change your life? Your star was very much already on the ascendant…

RUSSELL CROWE: Yeah, it did, it did change because you know, sometimes those sort of movies come along where it is, and it's not necessarily the first weekend of box office, you know, though that was very healthy for Gladiator. It, there's something happens, a film just connects with people, there's a sort of, you know, they call it the Zeitgeist right. You know, and that's one of those movies where it just you know, it was bigger a month after it came out than it was on the day it came out. And it was bigger than that two months later, and a year later, it was bigger than the day it came out, and it carried on for quite awhile.

RUSSELL CROWE: And what are we, 12 years, 13 years since we shot it right? Still plays on prime time TV, you know, around the world. It’s still like the feature movie of the week, you know, so not a lot of movies have that sort of legs. You know, and so I'm really lucky to be involved in it from that perspective but it did change my life, you know. After LA Confidential it was kind of easy to be famous, because you could just, you know, you could get into whatever show you wanted to go to or get a table at a restaurant, you know, if that happened to be this thing or whatever, you know. That was easy. But after Gladiator it changed. It became a different thing, you know. It, you go across this line where

RUSSELL CROWE: your life, your any aspect of privacy or whatever is just taken away from you. So there was a couple of years of dealing with that. But you know, I don't think, I don't think I would give up all of the positive things from doing that movie, just because I had to deal with that. So you know…

And the Academy award must've been a nice sort of confirmation that you were all working towards something that was good.

RUSSELL CROWE: Yeah, you know, and I wish in a large way, I could share that with Ridley because really I mean, [laughs] if the director doesn't get an Academy award, how can it be best film? I don't, I don't understand, what happened? It was just [gestures with hands] [laughs] you know, film is the director's medium, and if you know, anyway, but um yeah, that was a pretty cool moment. You know, Jodi Foster actually called me afterward and after I made my speech, and I remembered everybody's name and all that sort of stuff, and I didn't collapse like so many do, and she said that's probably you know, when you look back on it, 50 years from now or whatever, you're gonna realize that that was actually a perfect moment, and it just played out for you.

RUSSELL CROWE: And it's funny because couple of years later, or a year or so later, Nicole Kidman, she was up for the Academy award, you know, and she called me and she said so look, you know, people are saying it might happen. I mean, what should I expect? And I said “the moment they say your name, your seat will actually fall from underneath you. The adrenaline rush that hits you, even if you're not conscious of the number, somewhere in the back of your mind, there's 2 billion people watching you right now, you know. And there's also a whole history of your life, if you’re a

RUSSELL CROWE: performer like myself or Nicole or many other actors where you've tuned into this thing, you know. You know what it's about. It's about excellence and blah blah blah, or that's perception you know. And, so I said to her, “look, the first thing that's going to happen is you're going to get this shot of adrenaline, seats going to drop away, but the thing you just gotta keep in mind” you know because I said to her, “you will win. The thing you got to keep in mind is that there's all these people watching. There's all these young girls who are like you were 10, 20 years ago, right. Show them your strength. Show them actually who you are, right. And just give them something, you know. A little drop. A little inspiration.

RUSSELL CROWE: Just say look, you know, I know what you're thinking, you know, and I was you. I thought that too. I thought this is impossible, you know. Whatever you do, don't cry. Just be clean, pure, say your message, tell everybody you love them, you know.” So she gets up on stage [cries very loud] [laughs]. And then she says, “Russell Crowe told me not to cry.” I was like, “what? What are you dubbing me in for?” [Laughs] yeah, no, it's an amazing thing.

RUSSELL CROWE: It's a very special thing, when you’ve, you’re growing up in life in, in acting at least, if not movies, you know, I started when I was six in 1970 so something like the Academy Awards, as I think I said on the night, you know, it's, it was a ludicrous thought that it would ever include me, you know, to be on that list of 76 blokes that have won that award, you know.

Amazing. Because, you know, you looked very cool, and to hear you were going through all of that. [Laughs]

RUSSELL CROWE: It's a funny thing, you know, I actually, it comes up every now and then because people bring it up, and see there was a little thing that was happening, there was a side plot, there was a subplot to that evening, you know. At the BAFTA awards, I had gone up to the actor called Jamie Bell, who was nominated for Billy Elliot. I had gone up to him you know, put my arm around him, little fella, he was only 16 at the time. Then I said, “listen, when you win tonight, don't forget to mention me.”

RUSSELL CROWE: [laughs] So he won that night, and he gets up on stage and he goes, “Um, well, look, Russell Crowe told me I had to mention him so I'll just get that off.” [Laughs] It was really cute, and adorable actually, you know. And I hadn't seen him for a while because you know, you go around and do these things, and he was actually at the Academy Awards. And he came up to me on the red carpet, he wasn't nominated, he came up to me on the red carpet

RUSSELL CROWE: and he put his arm around me and he said, “when you win, don't forget to mention me.” You know it was like, right on mate. Okay. So you know, I'm going through that thing, the adrenaline and all that sort of stuff and [breathes quickly] but in the middle of that while I'm talking, you know, if I watched that footage, I can see myself thinking, how do I get Jamie into this speech? [Laughs] And then I started going through that thing of like you know talking about when I was a kid or whatever you know, people grow up in the suburbs of Sydney or Auckland or Newcastle like Ridley Scott or Jamie Bell. [Laughs]

RUSSELL CROWE: The opportunity just came out so no matter what the adrenaline was, I'm still on. I'm still doing the gig, you know, I mean. I'm still sort of, you know, so it's a, it's a funny odd moment, but you know you see, you take a guy like Christian Bale, you know. Very cool, calm, collected, together character, he gets up, you know, forgets his wife's name during the course of his speech [laughs]. It is an adrenalized moment. It really is. It's just, it's a heavy wave to deal with. But a very enjoyable one I must say.

No preparing for that. I imagine. No preparing for it. Let me ask you about A Beautiful Mind. How did that happen for you?

RUSSELL CROWE: I got a call from Jeffrey Katzenberg about, about that actually, you know. And he was really super keen on it. And I was in Austin, Texas. I was recording an album with my band, and I had no desire to be reading any scripts or whatever but he was very, very, it wasn't, you know, there wasn't any… BS about what he was saying. He was just very clear about it. “I really think you should read it.” You know, that night or the next night or whatever I sat on the back porch

RUSSELL CROWE: of the house in Austin, and I read it, and it was an amazing experience to read, you know. Probably, you know, I've had, you know, I've been really lucky man, I've read a lot of great scripts, but that is probably the best one to read, you know. Because the thing that happens in the movie, happens in the script, you know, you're just reading it, reading it, reading it and then [snaps fingers] bang, and it clicks that everything you read up until now

RUSSELL CROWE: is actually in the imagination of a single character, and that everybody else's responses to his imagination are vastly different, you know, in truth. And that was a great, great cinematic trick, you know, but it was there on the page, and you know I remember like after about 20 pages looking back at the title page Akiva Goldsman, right. I just knew that Akiva Goldsman and I were going to be friends, you know what I mean. Because this thing was just a little fucking gem, you know.

RUSSELL CROWE: So I met Ron, and at first he was, I think he was in the post production on something else, and he wasn't really, didn't really have it in my, so two or three meetings we had until I really saw the filmmaker, Ron Howard, come out, you know. And that was very inspiring. And you know, it was a crazy idea, you know. It was a crazy idea to play this guy and it took a lot of effort, you know. And I say that, I don't say the word effort in the terms of something negative, you know.

RUSSELL CROWE: It's just like, I really had to clear everything else in my life in order to fit the amount of detail that I needed to have in my imagination to drive that you know. It was, and you know, some days were sort of raucous, and some days were extremely delicate, you know. And they just all roll into one, and it was a long time, you know, after that movie where, before it went away, you know. It kind of, things when they're that deeply embedded in you, you know, they do stay with you. And it's not that she walk around being John Nash, and you go looking for your glasses and your funny hat or anything, you know.

RUSSELL CROWE: It's not that. It's just you know, you've been to a certain place, you know, you've been on a certain emotional journey, and it takes a while for your own life to actually come back into a focus, you know. And I've done two movies with Ron Howard, and both times, it's the same experience you know. I think he's pushed me individually as an actor more than any other director, you know. Intellectually on Beautiful Mind and physically on Cinderella Man, you know, so but isn't that funny, because I really can't wait until I work with him again, you know. [Laughs] Probably because of that.

I was just thinking, that must be the ultimate.

RUSSELL CROWE: But he's, he's a, as a filmmaker Ron combines all whole bunch of things that are, you know, he's, he's a very sensitive guy, right. But he, that sensitivity is married with intellect and it's married with the technical understanding that goes back you know, to making super 8 films, when he was seven or eight years old, you know. And he was already a professional in the business at that time, you know, a very experienced professional actually by seven or eight, you know.

RUSSELL CROWE: So in that same way that I was talking about Ridley, there's a whole bunch of things that come with Ron that are not necessarily on the surface, you know, for people who are outside of the job and see, but I know Ron as a really organized, very straightforward, deep thinking, creative leader, you know. That's who my Ron Howard is. It's not Opie, and it's not Richie Cunningham, you know. He's a completely different person than that rubbish, you know what I mean. He's, you know, so that's why I like working with him. I know I'm really safe with him, you know what I mean.

RUSSELL CROWE: You know, whatever extreme you are going to go to you know, he's going to get it. He's going to get it all, you know. He's going to get everything that he needs for, for the movie, you know. [Laughs] Sometimes of course that means you end up boxing for 12 hours a day, over however many days, over however many months, you know what I mean, because he wants to get the thing that he wants, you know. And he's greedy. He's greedy as when it comes to making the movie. You know, set up, set up, set up, shoot, shoot, shoot, day after day, you know. But that's fantastic. You want, you need the guy running the movie to be that, you know. To be greedy, to be you know

RUSSELL CROWE: of like, you know, wanting every single day to be fuller, and more detailed, and complex than the day before. And so you know, on Ron Howard's sets, great place to be. That experience with Beautiful Mind was, you know, and to think, I don't know how many awards it's won from the various medical organizations around the world, but I think the last time somebody told me it was over 20. I think it's, probably flown past that. Because that interpretation, that visual interpretation of what is really an, an, an oral disease you know

RUSSELL CROWE: everybody gets it. The people that have lived with relatives who don't know what the hell is going on, they have just heard this word, and that was apparently applying to their, their, you know, brother, sister, father, mother, cousin, whatever it is you know. And that movie puts it in a perspective, so they understand it a little clearer. It's like, okay, so you know, it's just, it has its magic in that way, you know. So it's a great story. It's a wonderful movie. It has that cinematic rug pulling that happens, but on top of it, it has this other resonance that it really has been helpful to a lot of people.

And again one of these films, that you've been in that has this longevity as you say. Whether it's LA Confidential, Gladiator or Beautiful Mind, you know, these are films that persists, live on in our imagination, and looking back at our list that Universal sent us of these films that the studio has produced, there seems to be an ordinate number of films that I will sit down and watch tonight.

RUSSELL CROWE: Well, I think that, that resonance with Universal movies is a direct result of their focus on the artist, and the art of making films, you know. I mean, everybody is under immense pressure these days particularly that the economics of film, you know, takes a certain position. But still, I think that has been the persistent, singular, core value for Universal, you know. Work with great filmmakers, make great films, the economy of scale [laughs] and balance will look after themselves, you know. And you go back and you see

RUSSELL CROWE: the type of film, I mean, like you know Spielberg makes his first movies at Universal, you know. Jaws, I mean, who is the executive that says “yeah. We’ll spend that money on a plastic fish. Go ahead Steven.” [Laughs] I mean who is that genius. [Laughs] I bet he's having a good time at the moment, you know. I mean, that's just one example of hundreds and hundreds of movies they've done. And, but that artist focus means that you have the spectrum, you know. You have everything from you know, one man talking in a room to 10,000 people, you know, on a battlefield or 50,000 people in a Coliseum, you know.

RUSSELL CROWE: And you know I think, it must be, it just must be in the Universal book of rules or something, page 1, must be, is it a good story? [Laughs] Make that movie, you know. And that's a pretty good rule.

Is there a film that sticks out in your mind as something that is very close to your heart?

RUSSELL CROWE: Well, last time I did this, I ended up doing about 25 minutes of standup comedy on the fact, can you give me that list? Because it's just ridiculous, isn't it? I mean, the movies that they have done.

I mean this is it.

RUSSELL CROWE: Hold on. I have to get my goggles on. [Puts on glasses] This has changed since Rome. [Looks at movie list] [technical talk]

RUSSELL CROWE: [looking at movie list] I’ll just mention the ones that pop out. So All Quiet on the Western Front, well, 8 mile, there's a funny combo straight away. American Graffiti since we are talking about Ron Howard. Apollo 13, and you got the Back to the Future movies, the think that's what, my son just watched those. Watched all three in a day. We were up on the farm on a rainy day and he asked me about it, so I put the first one on, and that's his new obsession.

What an amazing way to see them for the first time as well.

RUSSELL CROWE: One, two, three. Yeah, yeah, he was, you know, he's one of those kids that’s like the Star Wars geek or the Harry Potter geek, you know, he's got all the info so, for him it was like, “yeah. Three movies worth of detail all in one whack.” He was loving it.

It's a cool thing to do with your kids isn't it? Is to remember, “oh God, they should see that.” And sit them down, and you end up watching them, not watching the thing. I do that with my son, just watching him watching the film.

RUSSELL CROWE: Well, even though it was quite a bit earlier I did that with my oldest son with the Princess Bride. Read him the book, and then watched the movie together, and just watched him, you know become enthralled. The exact same thing that was happening with the book, where like the kid was like, yeah don't care, you know, then it grabs him and he's like, “don't go, don't go, read more.” You know, that's exactly what happened with my son. And then when he watched the movie [laughs] and he saw Mandy Patinkin and Andre the Giant, and these things just come alive in his mind, I absolutely flipped out. I lost the list, here we go.

RUSSELL CROWE: So we got, what do we got? Billy Elliot, the Big Lebowski, The Birds, Blues Brothers, Born on the Fourth of July [laughter in background] [overlapping] Tom's, Tom's seminal performance. No yeah, it is crazy though. That's what happened last time, I started going through, I mean, things like Bridget Jones Diary, I mean these are seminal performances from certain actors in the prime of their lives, you know. Brokeback Mountain with Heath, you know. Casino with Sharon.

These films that really sum up what an actor has done in their careers.

RUSSELL CROWE: I think last time I was talking about this sort of started talking about The Sting, you know. It's a great film. But like, the, the funniest thing with this list I suppose is the reality break of how many of these movies I have seen, you know. It's like the list of the ones I haven't would be significantly shorter. I mean, Monty Pythons Meaning of Life [laughs] I mean, come on, you know. That's kind of like…

I watched that with my son about a year or two ago.

RUSSELL CROWE: Oh, you did? How old is he?

He's 13. Just forget how out there some of it is. It's way out there.

RUSSELL CROWE: [laughs] That's the, you know the, [does impression] “Get that one for me. Would you [sounds like Deardre]? [Laughs] Terrible. Animal House, you got Belushi but also Blues Brothers. Who was the executive that was in charge then when making movies with John Belushi?

Crazy.

RUSSELL CROWE: [overlapping] That would have been a high wire act.

Crazy stuff. He's probably sitting in a nice big office now.

RUSSELL CROWE: Scarface. They're going to redo that, aren't they?

Are they?

RUSSELL CROWE: Yeah. That's what I heard.

Anyone attached?

RUSSELL CROWE: That's a hard job. That one.

Jesus. Yeah. [Laughs]

RUSSELL CROWE: I mean that, that thing, that movie is still so visceral. It's just ridiculous, you know. That chainsaw thing. Far out, man.

That again is a film that I would love to show bits of it…

RUSSELL CROWE: Sophie's Choice…

I could probably only show about 4 minutes of it.

RUSSELL CROWE: [laughs] Yeah. So Sophie’s Choice, wow, Touch of Evil, Vertigo… Yeah well you know, you can go through this and get stuck on one but you know, bottom line is congratulations. [Laughs] Congratulations Universal because this is, this list is probably, you know, second to none when it comes to studios and their bodies of work, you know.

Is there any one or two things there that you kind of think God, you know, that is a…

RUSSELL CROWE: Don't get back on the question. We got away with it. Now we’re moving on. Fuck me. Jesus. Fuck. Come on, son. Not just a wink to a blind bat, off we go. [Laughs] And what was the last thing, it was the birthday greeting thing. What did I say before? [Technical discussion]

RUSSELL CROWE: Ready spaghetti?

RUSSELL CROWE: So your lens is at a bit of an angle there? You’re kind of like that. [Positions arm at an angle]

It's the matte box.

RUSSELL CROWE: Oh, it's just the matte box? Good, good, because I was starting to do that. [Leans to one side] [laughs]

We've got you on the Titanic.

RUSSELL CROWE: Ready spaghetti?

RUSSELL CROWE: Congratulations Universal on 100 years of very, very fine filmmaking. And I for one am looking forward very much to the next 100 years. Happy birthday, and all the best.