Russell Crowe sat down with Australia’s Women’s Weekly — why, I’m not sure — and used the opportunity to take a certain generation of actresses to task for not acting their age. “To be honest, I think you’ll find that the woman who is saying that [the good roles for women have dried up is] the woman who at 40, 45, 48, still wants to play the ingénue, and can’t understand why she’s not being cast as the 21-year-old,” he says. “If you are willing to live in your own skin, you can work as an actor. If you are trying to pretend that you’re still the young buck when you’re my age, it just doesn’t work.” Now, before you get out your pitchforks, Crowe has some anecdotal evidence to back up his claims. “I have heard of an actress, part of her fee negotiation was getting the number of children she was supposed to have lessened,” he says. “Can you believe this? This [character] was a woman with four children, and there were reasons why she had to have four children — mainly, she lived in a cold climate and there was nothing to do but fornicate all day — so quit arguing, just play the role.” Also, Crowe insists that he’s given the same tough love to himself, saying, “The point is, you do have to be prepared to accept that there are stages in life. So I can’t be the Gladiator forever.” But come on, Russ. Some of us actually saw your dreadful “Robin Hood.” But hey, maybe it’s a really, really recent revelation for him. Follow Ned Ehrbar on Twitter: @nedrick
Russell Crowe has some advice for older actresses: act your age
