For some roles, actors have to really push themselves. Especially when one has been personally moved by the story. Russell Crowe experienced this with his film The Insider, for which he not only shaved his hair.
Which film is it about? In 1999, The Insider was released. In the film, Russell Crowe plays Jeffrey Wigand, the vice president of the research department of a tobacco company. The movie is based on the true story of Wigand, who worked with a journalist as a whistleblower to expose the tobacco industry’s secrets.
Both the journalist and Wigand had to stand against the tobacco industry, which certainly did not want the information about the harmful effects of cigarettes to become public. Russell Crowe went all out for the film, even shaving his head for a wig. However, there was a problem: he had to play a well-built guy in Gladiator.
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You can see how he looks in Gladiator in this trailer:
He had to get in shape quickly for Gladiator
In a recent interview with Joe Rogan (via YouTube), Russell Crowe revealed that he had admiration for the man he was to play in The Insider. When he met him, he asked many questions, which, according to Crowe, even brought him to tears. He wanted to embody the role perfectly.
One of his problems was his hair. They tried to alter his hair to behave like that of old people
. According to him, it was bleached seven times and styled to the right places. However, it didn’t work, and Crowe told Michael Mann, the director: Just give me a wig.
He then shaved his head for that. He also gained weight for the role.
But this caused problems for his subsequent role. As Maximus, Crowe achieved huge success with Gladiator. However, three months before the role, he had a shaved head, was almost 20 kg overweight, and due to the wig, there was a difference in skin tone between his head and face.
He still wonders how it was possible for Ridley Scott, the director of Gladiator, to still want him: I don’t know how it was possible that he ever saw me as that character.
Despite the short time, Crowe managed to prepare for Gladiator as well. According to Men’s Journal, he did this with a strict diet. He trained with weights, learned sword fighting, and worked on his own farm. However, he did injure himself multiple times on the set of Gladiator. Even five years after Gladiator, he trained his body to the max: Russell Crowe trained intensely for a role, even fought against real opponents – Still experiences pain almost 20 years later
