From the Canadian film site, Canoe.

SWEET REVENGE:
FOR RUSSELL CROWE, REVENGE IS SWEET

With an Oscar nomination for The Insider and a box-office smash with Gladiator, Crowe has become a major player in Hollywood. Directors and producer are clamoring to get him into their future projects.

This was certainly not the case when the Aussie actor arrived in Tinseltown n 1994 to star in Sharon Stone's western, The Quick and the Dead.  His L.A. agent sent him to an audition for The Shawshank Redemption.

"It was for a small role so (director) Frank Darabont wouldn't deign to see me.   I met with one of the female producers, "Crowe recalls. "She was horrified that I spoke to her in an Aussie accent. She told me to wise up and only use an American accent when I went to meetings and auditions. "I told her I was an actor and that accents were part of my job."

When Crowe met with director Lawrence Kasdan for a project he soon realized "the guy wasn't listening to me. His mind was somewhere else. It was unbelievably rude.   "I met him at the Directors Guild Awards this year and he came over and introduced himself and said we should have a meeting.  "I reminded him we had met and that he didn't impress me as a human being.

Crowe says he is eternally grateful to Curtis Hanson, who directed him in L.A. Confidential.  "The studio did not want me. They even stopped paying my hotel bill. So Curtis said we were a package deal.  "Curtis talked to me about doing the Michael Douglas role in Wonder Boys, but I had committed to both The Insider and Gladiator.
We're both determined to do a sequel to L.A. Confidential. That's something I'd rearrange my schedule for."

Crowe will star as a circus freak for Jodie Foster opposite Claire Danes in Flora Plum.

See more of Crowe at CANOE:

~Article typed by Big Apple