Russell Crowe isn’t a fan of following any teaching when it comes to acting, preferring to rely on “the Russell Crowe method”.
The actor was promoting his new action comedy The Nice Guys with co-star Ryan Gosling which is premiering out of competition at the Cannes film festival.
“I’ve never been to drama school,” he said. “I’ve been acting since I was six years old and over time you get more and more efficient at getting to the centre of the character. I don’t even know what the Stanislavski method may be. I have no fucking idea and I don’t care to know. Seriously, it’s not that complicated. If you want to be an actor, work it out for yourself. I actually like the old Olivier quote: ‘learn your dialogue and don’t bump into the furniture.’”
Crowe and Gosling star as an unlikely duo who team up to investigate a conspiracy in 1970s Los Angeles. The pair were in high spirits throughout the press conference, possibly linked to the enthusiastic reviews the film has been getting. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called it “horribly enjoyable” while Variety’s Owen Gleiberman praised it as “smashingly disreputable”.
“Russell did all his work from New Zealand,” Gosling joked. “The chemistry was added in post-production.” When a reporter from Vanity Fair Italy asked if they were “bad men”, he replied: “I’m Batman, he’s Robin”, while a Colombian journalist was told by Crowe that she shouldn’t be on radio because she’s got “a beautiful face”.
It’s the latest film from Shane Black, who was last in Cannes to premiere his directorial debut Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which matched Val Kilmer with Robert Downey Jr. He’s also been behind buddy action comedies Lethal Weapon and The Long Kiss Goodnight. He said he was proud of his latest pairing.
“You have two physical comedians,” he said. “The best kind of comedy for me is not one that takes its cue from being pretentious. It’s one that is more like a juggler on the street corner who’s constantly aware that they’re going to throw tomatoes unless you keep it lively. Ryan in particular was particularly willing to fling himself off of stuff onto other stuff and sometimes there was glass in the middle”.
