State Of Play
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Film In Preview: State Of Play
In his latest film Russell Crowe plays a journalist in an American re-make of a critically-acclaimed six-part British serial, ‘State of Play’, which first aired on BBC One in 2003.
The film abridges the original story somewhat in the telling of a journalist’s investigations into the suspicious death of a Congressman's mistress and the web of lies that hold the White House aloft. Crowe concedes, he’s not the logical choice to champion the art of journalism - but that doesn’t mean he can’t.
Scene: Why did you want to make ‘State Of Play’?
Russell Crowe: “In fact, I was not predisposed to do this film at all in any way, shape, or form. I was back in Australia. The sun was shining. I was looking forward to a very long summer at home, and I got a call from the studio. They said Brad Pitt had left the project and asked if I would please look at this project. The first thing I did was to look at the work of Kevin Macdonald, and my absolute desire was to dismiss it completely. Do it quickly. Do it in a day and get on with my holiday. But you can’t dismiss ‘Touching the Void’, and you can’t dismiss ‘The Last King Of Scotland’. It’s as simple as that.”
Do you like Cal McAffrey? Do you have sympathy for him?
Russell Crowe: “I think he goes on a journey of rediscovery and finds out just how far away he is from his ethical standards, just how far he’s allowed himself to drift. I’ve sat in front of journalists for 30 years of my life, so I have a lot of observational material to call on. I’ve been praised, flayed and betrayed, and those experiences obviously are going to colour the way I think.”
Has playing a journalist changed your opinion of them?
Russell Crowe: “No, not really. But the fact that I may harbour disappointment and anger about journalists in certain situations, does not preclude me from having a deep personal opinion that it is a noble profession.”
Do you have a view on the future of journalism?
Russell Crowe: “If there is a crisis in serious journalism, it’s been created by journalists because we’ve been trivialising news for at least a couple of decades. We have been blurring the line between news and entertainment in order to try and achieve a larger distribution, more sales, and better ratings. But in every newspaper, no matter what level of seriousness that newspaper has a reputation for, there are pages of absolute tripe that the editor knows to be untrue, but they will titillate the readers.”
Would you like to direct a film yourself one day?
Russell Crowe: “I think about directing. I see it as a natural progression some day, and my next film represents my first major film as a producer. I’ve never produced a film of this size. I’ve done little documentaries and TV shows, things like that, in the past but nothing like this.”
‘State Of Play’ is in cinemas from May 28.
