Russell Crowe debunks Gallipoli 'mythology'
Actor and director Russell Crowe says there is a conversation we need to have about Gallipoli.
Promoting his new film, “The Water Diviner”, Crowe took Sunday Night behind the scenes of his first film as both an actor and a director.
"The thing that resounded with me when I read the script was the Turkish perspective I knew the number of Australian and New Zealand dead but I didn’t know the number of Turkish dead."
He expressed some controversial views about Gallipoli 'mythology' around the invasion.
“You know, I think, after 100 years, it’s time to expand that mythology. And I think we should be mature enough as a nation to take into account the story that the other blokes have to tell. You know because we did invade a sovereign nation that we’d never had an angry word with.
“And I think it’s time it should be said.
“For all the heroism you want to talk about, you know, for me, a fundamentally more important conversation is the waste of life and these things should, you know, we shouldn’t celebrate the parts of that mythology that shouldn’t be celebrated.”
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The actor also confronted speculation about his personality and work methods.
Crowe was charged with assaulting a staff member of the Mercer Hotel in 2005 when he threw a telephone but told Willesee it had been blown out of proportion.
“I never touched him mate, never laid a finger on him, did not physically hurt him,” Crowe said to Willesee.
Crowe said he became frustrated because he couldn't place a call back to his family in Australia.
“I am in a fancy hotel in New York….and the only thing stopping me between the line out and the conversation with Danni and Charlie…. was this bloke who refused to make it easy.”
The Academy Award winner said it was his sensitivity that got him into trouble.
“Look, I’m extremely sensitive, and that’s probably where some of my negative stuff comes from. I’m a little bit intuitive, so I know from a handshake whether somebody means me good or ill.”
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