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Russell Crowe says the studio behind 'L.A. Confidential' stopped paying for his hotel and rental car to get him to quit

posted 2 years ago by TMC-4 (20160)
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https://www.datalounge.com/thread/32838802-russell-crowe-says-the-studio-behind-l.a.-confidential-stopped-paying-for-his-hotel-and-rental-car-to-get-him-to-quit

Russell Crowe has said that the studio behind "L.A. Confidential" stopped paying for his hotel and rental car to get him to drop out of the movie.

In the 1997 movie, which was released by Warner Bros., the "Pope's Exorcist" actor portrayed Wendell "Bud" White, a violent LAPD officer out for revenge against corrupt officers in the force.

"A few days into the rehearsals, the studio stopped paying the bill at the hotel and they stopped paying for my rental car," Crowe said in a video interview for Vanity Fair released on Saturday.

"The studio didn't want me to be in that role. They wanted, I think, Sean Penn and Robert De Niro in the film, or something."

Crowe said that he was undeterred by the studio's to get him to drop out and kept turning up to set until they eventually accepted that he wasn't going anywhere.

"There was probably a four or five-day period there where I was leaving the hotel of a morning by going down the back stairs because I knew the manager of the hotel was waiting for me in the foyer to ask when the bill was going to be paid," he recalled.

"If I paused and said, 'I'm not turning up to work,' they just would have taken that opening to get me out of the movie," the actor said.

A representative for Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The film, which is based on James Ellroy's 1990 novel of the same name, follows an investigation into a series of homicides in 1950s LA and also stars Kevin Spacey, David Strathairn, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, and James Cromwell.

Crowe's comments come as Ellroy condemned the film as "turkey of the highest form" at the L.A. Times Festival of Books, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Speaking about the adaptation of the third book in his "L.A. Quartet" series, he said: "The director died, so now I can disparage the movie," adding that he thinks Crowe and Basinger's performances were "impotent."

https://www.insider.com/russell-crowe-la-confidential-studio-wanted-to-replace-him-2023-4

[–] DancingintheDark (1628) 2 years ago

Good article!

[–] TandyMan (11115) 2 years ago

Interesting. This is the first movie where I took note of Crowe's name and started looking for his next projects. I thought him and the flick were pretty bad ass. I guess it might have made more money with a more well known name attached. I don't think it would have made the movie any better. It's a nice little noir script but it's no Goodfellas or anything.

[–] liscarkat (18460) 2 years ago

The movie is an improvement on Ellroy's novel. I tried reading the book, but it was so bad I dumped it after the first chapter.

[–] Turb (158) 2 years ago

Ehhh Penn or Bob wouldn't have been as a good. Glad he grinded it out. Very good movie.

[–] bozo_500 (13130) 2 years ago

They probably wanted Mel, biggest star of the era, and he had a very 1950s look, in fact you can just imagine him in that role

[–] letess (1540) 2 years ago

Bud White was written for Michael Madsen. But yes, Mel Gibson was considered.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Crowe's comments come as Ellroy condemned the film as "turkey of the highest form" at the L.A. Times Festival of Books, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Speaking about the adaptation of the third book in his "L.A. Quartet" series, he said: "The director died, so now I can disparage the movie," adding that he thinks Crowe and Basinger's performances were "impotent."

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Hmmm...and Ellroy said such GOOD things about the movie when it came out. (Paid to talk? Paid NOT to complain?)

Novel writers often don't like the movies made from the books they SELL for money.

Two examples:

ONE: Stephen King famously hated Kubrick's version of The Shining and Jack Nicholson's casting and performance in it. King backed a "more faithful" TV adaptation with Steven Weber in the Nicholson part. Nobody remembers it, but the Kubrick/Nicholson(admittedly, the flawed film of a genius) , lives on.

TWO: Arthur LaBern, the author of the book from which Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy(1972) was made , wrote a letter to the freakin' LONDON TIMES for publication in which he said (generalized) that Hitchcock and screenwriter Anthony Shaffer(hot from Sleuth, but evidently not very good in Labern's eyes) had dumbed down his book, inserted "archaic" old British phrases evidently out of Hitchcock's youth, and had made Scotland Yard look like idiots.

Old Warrior Hitchcock didn't take this lying down. He told the press "Well, this author had a scene in the book where they found an incriminating fingerprint on a potato...stuffed into a dead woman's vagina. I wasn't about to film THAT." I've read Labern's book and in the key "rape murder of a woman in her office at lunch" scene, the psycho killer's lines are much more crude and blunt than in the movie, though Hitchcock used a few of the lines from the scene in the book -- the ones that worked. The movie is better than the book.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

They probably wanted Mel, biggest star of the era, and he had a very 1950s look, in fact you can just imagine him in that role

--

One of the reasons that LA Confidential is such a unique movie in movie history(and particularly in the movie history of the 90s), is that here was a "tough cop action movie" in which no known tough action cop male star was cast!

Part of the issue is that the movie REALLY wanted its three leads(Bud White, Ed Exley, Jack Vincennes) to be "co-equal," so casting a big star in the Bud White part(Gibson, Willis, Ford) would have thrown off the balance. It would have been a story about "a big star and his two sidekicks."

In the alternative, they would have had to cast ALL big stars in the three roles:

Bud White Mel Gibson
Ed Exley Johnny Depp
Jack Vincennes: Jack Nicholson

(As examples)

And this movie couldn't support the budget to buy ALL those stars. Nor do big stars like to share their movies with OTHER big stars; they would have gotten a lot of "noes."

So we ended up with "Australian newbies" Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce in two of the roles, and Kevin Spacey(still not quite a big star, nor an action lead) in the third. I'm convinced that this "non-star casting" allowed the story and historic atmosphere of LA Confidential to dominate the movie; it never turned into a "star vehicle."

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Interesting. This is the first movie where I took note of Crowe's name and started looking for his next projects. I thought him and the flick were pretty bad ass.

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Me, too. Russell Crowe ended up the biggest "new star" to emerge from LA Confidential; and in retrospect, LA Confidential NOW has a big star in it(Russell Crowe.)

Consider: by 2000, Crowe was in Gladiator, a Best Picture winner that nabbed him a Best Actor Oscar. The next year, 2001, Crowe was in ANOTHER Best Picture winner(A Beautiful Mind) and NOMINATED as Best Actor(in a role that probably should have given him a back-to-back Tom Hanks style win, but did not.) Crowe was BIG. (Now he is big in size, alas.)

The woman with whom I saw LA Confidential in 1997 was sure that Guy Pearce would become a big star, she was hot for him; alas, it didn't really happen, but Pearce has worked ever since, with one indie classic(Memento) on his resume and lots of working actor cred(plus a villain role in Iron Man 3 and thus Marvel cred.).

Kevin Spacey became a big star too. He already had a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Usual Suspects, and a role in Se7en that SHOULD have killed off his star career, but didn't. LAC set up Spacey for American Beauty, and ITS Best Picture win, and HIS Best Actor win. Which I think is a crime -- Jack V is Spacey's greatest role and LAC far better than American Beauty. But..that's Hollywood.

---
CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

I guess it might have made more money with a more well known name attached.

---

But the balance of the story(split among three leads and several more supporting characters) would have been thrown off. It would have become "a Mel Gibson movie" with all the star persona he would bring, for instance.

---

I don't think it would have made the movie any better.

--

Maybe a little worse. A big star has the power to reduce other actors lines and scenes.

---

It's a nice little noir script but it's no Goodfellas or anything.

---

Well, Goodfellas is my favorite movie of 1990, and LA Confidential is my favorite movie of 1997, but when I looked to name a favorite movie of the 90s...LAC got the nod. Its personal. I can objectively see GoodFellas as more of a great classic, from more of a great director but...it rather falls prey to its own style - DeNiro's inarticulate mumbling, Pesci's raging schtick. LAC has a grand, sweeping, and dark story to tell, more levels.

Note in passing: Was the 90s the greatest decade for crime films and thrillers in movie history?

GoodFellas
Misery
Miller's Crossing
Silence of the Lambs
Cape Fear(remake)
Reservoir Dogs
Unforgiven(a Western noir)
Carlito's Way
Pulp Fiction
Casino
Heat
Fargo
LA Confidential
Jackie Brown
Face/Off
The Big Lebowski
Out of Sight
Psycho(remake -- gets Hitchcock into the decade)
The Matrix(a SciFi noir)

[–] letess (1540) 2 years ago

If every novelist could get their story made into the movie the likes of what Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland did with LA Confidential... and the likes of which we most likely will never see again. The legacy. Like winning a billion dollars. Makes me wonder if Ellroy really is a good writer because I hated The Black Dahlia, the book and the movie. I’m going to read LAC. At least he had the grace to say the preposterous after Hanson’s death. But his plot was so perfect. Three very different cops. One who is a brawny brute. An inexperienced idealist. And a suave smooth talker. Each piqued by a mystery and pursuing in different directions. Throw in ‘50s LA and seedy glamor and police corruption with police brilliance. And, voila.

About Bud. Crowe initially didn’t want it. He didn’t think he was tall or big enough. (Sterling Hayden post WWII was referenced and that’s why Madsen was the guy the writer had in mind.) Crowe got a small apt to walk around where he had to duck door frames and just feel hulky. Using impotence and Crowe in the same sentence is inane to me. But I did think Basinger wasn’t all that in this movie (she was in all her other movies)…. something was missing in her tone and delivery. It was flat. I did wonder if another actress was in it, like Izabella Scorupco (she says she turned it down?), what it would have been.

And then you have Tarantino’s interpretation of Rum Punch. Unlike Ellroy, Elmore Leonard loved Jackie Brown. This is where the writer and director takes the source material and completely spins it upside down. Most creative interpretation ever and would be considered woke today.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

If every novelist could get their story made into the movie the likes of what Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland did with LA Confidential... and the likes of which we most likely will never see again. The legacy. Like winning a billion dollars.

--

Hanson (with his film critic/historian background) and Helgeland(newly hot -- he'd just written the so-so Conspiracy Theory for Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts; a classic example of a star vehicle somewhat hurt by star demands) rolled the dice on making BIG changes to LA Confidential, such as how and when and where a major character gets killed, and eliminating a first chapter reveal of the main villain -- and it worked.

I always figured that Hanson or Helgeland had some of this new material "tucked away" for ANOTHER script and MOVED it into the LA Confidential story. But that's just a guess.

Two years after LAC, Helgeland wrote for Mel Gibson again, in what I thought was a pretty good remake(with a great cast and some new twists) of the old Lee Marvin movie "Point Blank." Gibson was fun WORKING at the kind of tough guy cool that Marvin just HAD...but I like "Payback" and I feel some LAC intelligence in it - DESPITE massive re-shoots , new ending and everything.

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Makes me wonder if Ellroy really is a good writer because I hated The Black Dahlia, the book and the movie.

---

I saw LA Confidential and THEN read the book and some other Ellroys. He "kept my vote" for his wild writing style, but I may have been influenced BY LAC in liking Ellroy. BTW, Ellroy wrote a bracing non-fiction book about the unsolved murder of Ellroy's bar-liking mother in Los Angeles circa 1958. Its a rather poignant look at a rather sick man(somehow he reminded me of R. Crumb in look and manner.) So no verdict from me on James Ellroy's "value." But he made his mark and LAC is the best proof.

---

I’m going to re-read LAC. At least he had the grace to say the preposterous after Hanson’s death.

---

There's a body of interesting comments about famous movies and actors and writers and directors AFTER their deaths. I can't think of others right now, but I know I've read some.

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But his plot was so perfect. Three very different cops. One who is a brawny brute. An inexperienced idealist. And a suave smooth talker. Each piqued by a mystery and pursuing in different directions. Throw in ‘50s LA and seedy glamor and police corruption with police brilliance. And, voila.

----
Hollywood brass evidently distrust "ensemble films" without a clear lead. They like "one star vehicles" --though they are harder to make today as our big stars dwindle.

But there is something to be said with watching a group of characters interact, criss-cross and come together. I have always LOVED movies like that -- from Separate Tables(you could look it up) toThe Trouble With Harry to American Graffiti to LA Confidential.

At the heart of LAC are three cops -- a trio, a triad -- and that can be very interesting, too. Think "Jaws": Chief Brody, young Hooper, and Quint MADE that movie between shark attacks and suspense.

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Noteable, though: Bud White and Jack Vincennes share only one little scene in the jailhouse near the beginning -- Jack warns Bud about his "buddy Stensland" going berserk on the Mexican-Americans in lock-up and Bud runs down there. And that's it: Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey never share a scene again.

But Spacey teams up with Pearce, and later Crowe teams up with Pearce and...that's enough to keep us interested.

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

About Bud. Crowe initially didn’t want it. He didn’t think he was tall or big enough. (Sterling Hayden post WWII was referenced and that’s why Madsen was the guy the writer had in mind.)

---

But Madsen didn't strike me as particularly BIG in Reservoir Dogs..rather thin and lanky. Truth is there are NOT too many "big guy actors" in movies in any decade; they are fairly diet-thin and shortish men. I think Bud is described as huge in the novel, but they would have had to FIND somebody. (There's a damn big actor playing Jack Reacher on TV these days to make up for short Tom Cruise in the role.)

--

Crowe got a small apt to walk around where he had to duck door frames and just feel hulky.

---

Good method prep. I don't always support such, but the world does change if you are in a smaller room or shower, etc.

---

Using impotence and Crowe in the same sentence is inane to me.

---

Yeah, ol' Jimmy Elroy seems to have thrown out the wrong line on that one.

---

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

But I did think Basinger wasn’t all that in this movie (she was in all her other movies)….

--

Interesting on both counts. So you think she won the Oscar for her "least good performance."

---

something was missing in her tone and delivery. It was flat.

---

Well, that seemed an affectation of the character to me -- from the novel? On its own terms, I think Lynn Bracken is a beautiful woman who had dreams(be a Hollywood star), lost them fast, and is now somewhat depressed and downtrodden beneath her sex work surface("We still get to act a little.") Also, Basinger was "old" for a sex siren type, and that showed through a little in the period make-up and hair.

Basinger may well have won her Best Suppporting Actress Oscar for LAC on behalf of all the MEN in the movie who were NOT nominated for Best Supporting ACTOR(they all could have been.) She also ended up representing the movie "solo" against the onslaught of Titanic and As Good As It Gets at the 97 Oscars. That plus the major win of Adapted Screenplay.

I thought she was good enough for the win, myself. Odd: she seemed rather sexless to me in the part, "the goods were on display but not the enthusiasm." THAT was part of her performance, too.

---

I did wonder if another actress was in it, like Izabella Scorupco (she says she turned it down?), what it would have been.

--Well, that's the story of a lot of casting. I wonder if Izabella went "d'oh!" when Kim picked up the Golden Man.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

And then you have Tarantino’s interpretation of Rum Punch. Unlike Ellroy, Elmore Leonard loved Jackie Brown. This is where the writer and director takes the source material and completely spins it upside down. Most creative interpretation ever and would be considered woke today.

---

I have not read Rum Punch. I understand that QT's main changes were to turn Jackie Brown from white to black( a big change, certainly) and to move the story from Florida to QT's old stomping grounds in South Bay LA, where Sam Jackson could have a beachfront apartment near a bunch of seedy LA neighborhoods.

Jackie Brown is my favorite of QT movies to date(one left!) and I suppose that's because the Elmore Leonard novel and characters "grounded it in some reality." There is no ultra-gore(though there are some murders.) I have an affection for the middle-aged characters -- middle-aged friends, middle-aged lovers, middle-aged enemies. Dialogue is fine as always -- both Elmore and QT know how to write it. It very much is what QT intended it to be : a laid-back, long(but not overlong) "hang out movie" in the tradition of a movie he loves: Rio Bravo. Which is ANOTHER ensemble piece: The Duke, Dino, Ricky Nelson, Walter Brennan and hot Angie Dickinson("a girl who can hang with the guys.")

[–] letess (1540) 2 years ago

I did not like Conspiracy. And Payback is one of my favorite movies. I also loved Point Blank. I also liked watching River Wild. It is when I became really interested in whitewater rafting. In looking over Curtis Hanson’s background, I discovered that Hanson wanted Spacey for River Wild, but couldn’t get him. He wasn’t big enough, whereas I think he was his first cast actor for LAC. River Wild would have been a different movie.

I’d forgotten about Ellroy’s childhood. It explains Bud. My family members are early Angelenos. So I was familiar with the Black Dahlia with their stories. They had a house in View Park-Windsor Hills near Liemert Park where she was found. Some of those houses were built during prohibition and have revolving doors with hidden bars. Anyway, I didn’t like this book and I didn’t like the movie. It would be interesting to see what Ellroy thought of that movie.

About Kim. I hate to say it but it would have been better if she could have played this 10 years earlier. There wasn’t any actress more spectacular looking than Kim Basinger. As Bud says, “Better than Veronica Lake.” But, the heavy white powder backfired. Also something happened to her hair in their effort to duplicate Lake. Actually, I think they ruined her hair as she had the most fantastic hair. When I look at the other nominees, her winning was fine. It wasn’t that kind of Oscar role. It was more a visual for the story. I really liked her in Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love. At the end of LAC, she cuts off her hair, her complexion is peachier and not that powdered white, and she looks healthier and bouncier. For me, her casting was the weakest. Her personality was so tepid whereas Crowe’s was white hot - and I can understand, in this instance, Ellroy’s comment. Still - his/their story was my favorite of the three.

I saw Separate Tables and of course Jaws. Excellent movies. I didn’t see The Trouble with Harry. I can’t believe it but I haven’t. I too love characters’ paths crossing. But in LAC, each guy starts in the same place and then independently goes in a direction because of something that only happens to them and that ultimately leads to the finish. Bud first sees Lynn in a liquor store and then “Rita” outside. She and Stensland end up getting murdered in the Nite Owl Cafe. Jack hears about Patchett’s “all your desires” and the end is his end. Exley realizes the guys accused of the murders didn’t do it. And then all the puzzle pieces slowly come together to give the audience the full picture. This script was so well written and Titanic’s was so horrible.

I first saw Russell Crowe in the The Quick and the Dead. He says he owes his start to Sharon Stone who saw him in Romper Stomper. Leo was in The Quick and the Dead too, just two years before playing Jack in Titanic. Stone said kissing DiCaprio was like kissing your elbow and this sums up the entire lackluster love story of Titanic. Leo looked prepubescent. Actually, Crowe as he looked in The Quick and the Dead, would have been a better Jack. And then in Titanic, tossing a priceless necklace into the sea - just makes me cringe. Although I really like DiCaprio but not in that movie. He was so miscast. And, I actually think he didn’t like himself in this movie too. Maybe. He said - “I was such a punk.”

I couldn’t believe seeing Russell Crowe in The Insider. He was unrecognizable and he was fantastic. He should have gotten the Oscar for that movie. I wasn’t that big of a fan of A Beautiful Mind. I loved Master and Commander, 3:10 to Yuma, The Nice Guys. He did State of Play but I like the UK one better. He played in this playful love story with Salma Hayek. I am big fan of Crowe’s. I just love his voice. I love him. And I am glad he played Bud White.

I too loved Rio Bravo - especially Dean Martin - and I loved when Dino and Ricky sang together. Wayne and Angie were a little unrealistic and awkward, but John Wayne always looked uncomfortable with women, except for Gail Russell and obviously Maureen O’Hara where they were just a match in The Quiet American.

[–] andersonb85 (2085) a year ago

Interesting article..this is still my favorite film with Crowe in it.