| Entertainment Weekly, Jan 4, 2002 Misc quotes from the article that turned me around: EW: Sam Raimi, who directed you in ''The Quick and the Dead,'' has been quoted as saying ''The problem with working with Russell is that he always has a good idea. And he has no tact.'' RC: Well, we're talking about Raimi five or six years before he understood the importance of narrative. Raimi is going to be one of the great directors of this century, I truly believe that. But he's only just got to the point where the blood and gore and exploding heads are less important than the story he's telling. EW: Here's another one: ''Russell is the rudest actor I've ever met. He's also the most committed. So if he wants to abuse me and then give me the most sensational take of all time, I don't care.'' That's from Geoffrey Wright... RC: He's an idiot... EW: But he made a terrific film -- the one where you play a neo-Nazi skinhead in Australia. Wasn't that a big breakout performance for you? RC: Yeah, but he's been giving quotes based on that movie for 10 years. I mean, I made a movie with him called ''Romper Stomper,'' the shoot of which was 28 days long. I've known Wright for eight weeks of my life, in 1991, okay? So he's got no right to be giving quotes based on that experience. EW: Okay, last one: Taylor Hackford publicly complained that ''Proof of Life'' never had a chance at the box office because it couldn't compete with your real-life romance with your costar, Meg Ryan. RC: He can say that, but I think he's being fundamentally weak as a man. I mean, it's just morally insipid for him to say that, because every single day I did as much as I possibly could for him. If he doesn't have the capacity to hear what I'm saying or hear what other people are saying, if he wants to take the position that he's above all suggestions, then I don't know what to say. You know, my preference would be that I never have to make another comment about Mr. Hackford again in my career. EW: Deal. How do you feel about talking about Meg Ryan? RC: On the relationship? EW: Yeah. It's the classic movie-star dilemma, isn't it? How do you live your private lives when you're two of the most watched people on the planet? RC: Carefully. But the thing is, how can you deny yourself something that was absolute and passionate and gigantic? We fell in love. It happens -- thank God. It was an incredibly intense period of my life and obviously of her life. She's a magnificent person. If anything, I owe her an apology for not being as flexible as I might have been. I don't think I'll ever make that mistake again. EW: You mean about not leaving your farm in Australia to be with her in Los Angeles? RC: You know, I'm putting myself in a bad spot here. What I've just told you is more than I've ever said publicly, but it isn't enough. In black and white on the page, it won't be big enough to convey how huge and important that relationship was to me. How important she still is to me. But I don't want to say any more because it's really nobody's business. EW: Basically what you're saying, though, is that you're not entirely comfortable being a movie star, or at least being famous. RC: All that stuff, this public persona of me -- let's call him the wild man -- that is not helpful. It doesn't make me more of a box office draw. It's the quality of my work that makes people want to go to my films. All the other stuff is superfluous. All the National Enquirer stuff, the jabs in the gossip columns, trying to belittle me by associating me with people sexually or whatever -- all of that is bulls---. It's all a negative and it's actually really bad for what I do. Because when I walk into a room now, all this other stuff comes with me. All this baggage that has nothing to do with reality. I mean, look at the newspapers the last couple of weeks. Apparently there was a stampede on my farm. RC on Courtney Love: She was going through kind of a hard time. I'm a gentle soul, so we sat down and found a way for her to express what she was feeling, which was writing it down. And she got to the point where what she was writing was really upsetting. But it was brilliant. She's a poetess. She has a lot of great stuff inside her, if she would just concentrate on the work. I always had a lot of time for her until earlier this year when she kind of verbally attacked a really good friend of mine, so now I see her in a different light. EW: You're referring to the Oscars, when you took your ex-girlfriend Danielle Spencer and Love made a scene banging on your limo window? RC: Yeah. And also the fact that she didn't come out and say, ''No, it wasn't a sexual relationship'' until 10 or 11 months later. That bothered me. She got pregnant and had a miscarriage or something, so it was printed that it must be my child, right? She didn't come out and say it wasn't possible since there was no sexual relationship. And the thing is, I don't believe it's the gentleman's prerogative to ring up the media to deny a sexual liaison. It's ungallant, for a start. Anyway, every single one of those publications that ran the story [ about my being the father] knew it wasn't true. And they ran it anyway. EW: But you wanted to be a musician, no? You still do. You still perform with your band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts. RC: That's kind of a difficult thing, because I don't need it. I'd be fine committing my songs to paper or tape by myself, without it being a public thing. But I have a group of people who've been involved in this band for 17 years. And the only thing that gives them a platform for their work is also the only thing that prevents them from being taken seriously: me. EW: Some roles must be easier to commit to than others. RC: They all require commitment. Somebody the other day was saying to me that they liked my performance in ''The Insider'' and in this new movie better than the one I gave in ''Gladiator.'' I was like, ''Hold on a second, mate. 'Gladiator' was a fully emotionally realized performance. Every now and then we'd fight some tigers, all right, but the emotional journey this guy was on is why people loved it.'' EW: But when every role requires a De Niro-esque commitment, how do you choose your pictures? Every choice becomes extremely important. RC: It's about goose bumps, man. I read the damn script. If I start digging it, I literally get goose bumps on my skin. I get a physical reaction to it and that's the movie I make. That's why it's so unpredictable what I'm going to do next. It's not like I go searching for a type of movie. I don't say, ''Okay, now I want to be in a movie wearing a toga.'' |