Russell Crowe plays hardball

On Australians, cowboys, and conservationists
MATTHEWS:  Australia—it's my second-favorite country.  This [The U.S.] is my favorite. And maybe this is your second-favorite country.

CROWE:  I have great deal of love for America and what it stands for, mate.

MATTHEWS:  We had the cowboy experience, the frontier.  It's so far behind us now.  We've become very politically correct now.  You guys seem to be still close to the Outback, guys like you and Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson.  There is so much of that cowboy feeling that comes across in your acting.  And I've seen all your movies.  Cowboy, that is not the right word.  Tough guy. 

CROWE:  Look, you know, reality is, mate, I'm not—I'm not tough at all.  I don't get scared very easily, but, you know, my wife terrifies me. 

“I'm not tough at all.  I don't get scared very easily, but, you know, my wife terrifies me.” — Russell Crowe on being tough

I think, in Australia, we have a mythology about the Outback, you know, which is really readily accepted, you know, but is not necessarily all truth.  I mean, the reality is, the Australian Outback is a tough place.

MATTHEWS:  “Crocodile Dundee.”

CROWE:  Tough place.

MATTHEWS:  The guy who goes in and gets a cold one, tells some jokes, rowdy jokes, gets in a fight.

CROWE:  I'm very good friends with Steve Irwin, and apart from the last bit, he says that, you know, Steve very much epitomizes that.  And sometimes Australians are embarrassed about that, because he is so enthusiastic about it, his life.

You know, and often people misunderstand what Steve does.  Steve is a conservationist.  He saves things.  He doesn't kill things or hurt things, you know.  He will move an animal to a more protected area.  He operates, you know, hundreds of acres of conservation land for all different types of creatures, from echidnas to koalas to platypus.

In fact, I'm working on a project with him at the moment.  I'm on a river in Australia where we're trying to regrow the native plants right near the river bank, so the platypus will thrive.  I mean, it's just he has a great care for that.  And so do I.  And I think that's all embodied in what it really means to be an Australian, because you can't live in a country that's so unique and have so many unique animals without really respecting that environment, you know?

But you've got to understand that we don't have the benefit that the continental USA had where, you know, the larger slice of the land that you have is arable, is workable, and does have water.  We had kind of the opposite percentage, you know, where 80-plus percent of the center of Australia is very, very difficult land not only to work, but to traverse in the first place.

MATTHEWS:  It's hot, too.

CROWE:  It's a desert.  And it's, they say, the oldest continent, the first one to pop up, and therefore has had many, many more years of exposure to weather patterns and all that sort of stuff.   But not a great deal of Australia is actually reliably farmable, even where I have my property, which is in land from Coffs Harbor and the Orara Valley.  You know, we cyclically will have droughts.  So, I was actually just hesitant to move on 200-and-something cattle, because we are just unsure that we will have the water and the feed to look after them for the season. 

MATTHEWS:  Yes.   I'm trying to figure out the Australian attitude.  There is a great joke about Australia.  I hope it doesn't offend you.  I guess I'll know if it does, about the guy applying for immigration to Australia. 

CROWE:  Right. 

MATTHEWS:  And they say, have you got a criminal record?  And he says...

(CROSSTALK)  

CROWE:  ... said it.

MATTHEWS:  Is that still required?

MATTHEWS:  You like the joke?

CROWE:  Yes.  Yes. 

MATTHEWS:  Do you guys still have an attitude about the Poms, the Brits, that we've lost, that they're the imperialists?  I look at all the movies like “'Breaker' Morant.”  You know, Kitchener is the bad guy.  “Braveheart,” Edward Longshanks, the English king is the bad guy.  You seem to have that anti-colonial, anti-imperial feeling that we used to have and maybe we're losing because we're getting too big in America.

CROWE:  I think our relationship with the English is far warmer than it appears on the surface.

MATTHEWS:  Mixed feelings?

CROWE:  Well, it's the greatest—it's the greatest competition for us to play any game against England. 

MATTHEWS:  Yes. 

CROWE:  And the fact that we beat them most of the time in anything, particular at the games that they invented, is a great source of enjoyment.   But I think  there very definitely is some serious rejection of ideals, given that our side has moved on quite a bit in the last 100 years.  You know, we don't really see that the monarchy as any kind of threat.  Most people, I suppose, even if they believe in republican ideals for Australia, as in getting rid of all attachments to the monarchy and the Union Jack altogether, they still sort of have an acknowledgement and a slight affection to the fact that this is our past and this is our history.

But the independence thing, the freedom thing, the ...

MATTHEWS:  Republic.  Are you for a republican Australia?

CROWE:  Very definitely.  But I am also not into the idea of a republic wherein it brings in more political offices that I would call “jobs for the boys.” I don't see that the current structure that they tried to sell to the Australian public actually has any credibility to it, because it is exactly that.  It doesn't actually take into account those freedoms.  It just adds more bureaucracy.

Breaking his rule… Crowe talks politics
MATTHEWS:  You guys have a different vision of the world than we do, but I noticed when you—I always wonder what Australians think when they see this so-called special relationship between us and the Brits. 

“I know this is all going to sound extremely ironic, but I am quite specifically anti-violence...  It's like, OK, there was a specific job to do. Get the job done, bring everybody home.‘ — Russell Crowe on his feelings about war

You know, the first time we went to war in Iraq, Margaret Thatcher is with Bush Sr.  And she says, “Don't go wobbly, George.”  All of the sudden, we're at war.  Then the president and our president now, the younger Bush, is in league with his partner Tony Blair.  You wonder who is leading who.

When you look at the Americans and the British going to war in the Middle East again and again, literally, what's the Australian's view?  Are you for or against this?

CROWE:  Well, obviously we are fully entwined with what you're doing, because...

MATTHEWS:  Are you for it personally, the war in Iraq?

CROWE:  No, I am not.   Our hand is up first every time you guys say, “This is what we need to do.”  But—and I know this is all going to sound extremely ironic, but, you know, I am quite specifically anti-violence.

MATTHEWS:  Are you anti this war?

CROWE:  What I would like to do is I would like to see is a solution.  What I am anti is taking a kind of colonial—colonialization aspect, and, you know, putting roots down there. It's like, OK, there was a specific job to do.  Get the job done, bring everybody home.  Bring them home safe, as quickly as possible.

Would he ever run for office?
MATTHEWS:  Are you going to run for office?  You talk politics pretty discernedly there, about Australian politics.

CROWE:  No.  And, really, quite frankly, I'm—I've probably just broken a cardinal rule of mine as an actor to—discussing politics, because I didn't want to be in a situation where I was refusing an answer to a question, because I really don't think that somebody in my job has got any right to actually stand up and say anything.

You know, my job is entertaining people.  And that's what I do, you know?

MATTHEWS:  That will be well-received, sir, that comment. 

(LAUGHTER)

CROWE:  Cool.

MATTHEWS:  Thank you, Russell Crowe.  Thanks for taking—good luck with the movie, fabulous movie. 

CROWE:  Cheers.

"Hardball with Chris Matthews" airs every weeknight at 7 p.m. ET on MSNBC TV.

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