June 27, 2019 • 24 mins
Russell Crowe phoned in from his hotel room in LA to chat to us about his fascinating new character in 'The Loudest Voice', available on Stan from July 1. He told us about the Lord of the Rings role he missed out on, the dinosaur head he bought from Leo and addresses that incident with Moby.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Loudest Voice. Premiere is Monday only on stan Now.
This is a seven part series. It's based on Roger Ayles.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
He was the man.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
He was the force behind Fox News that basically changed
the conversation about the highest levels of government over in
the States. This bloke was very, very powerful. Here's a
bit of the show.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
You're in America television, noises kid. We're gonna give him
a vision of the world the way they want it
to be.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
We pasted politics.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
It's war and bring back fairness and balance.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
We're gonna win.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And the man that plays Roger Ales is good friend
of ours, the magnificent Russells.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Good morning boys, how's it down there? And beautiful Sitney,
I'll see live? You talking about that?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Came with you?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
You sound like an old school radio present. Is that
our of talks? Is it rusty?
Speaker 3 (01:02):
No? I was just making some shit up, mates.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I was just going with something from you would have
done them.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Just came into my head. Felt like being a bit
of a dicky of that.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, you're very welcoming this show.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Do you want to and do you want to play
that persona Russell?
Speaker 4 (01:17):
You would have when you started your acting career, did
you do a little bit of radio. Was there some
community radio or university radio that you did at all?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
You've got one of those voices.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
No, I don't know, not No, that was just I mean,
I was doing a theater at one point in Melbourne
and we were doing the Rocky Horror Show, and it
was that was back when it was still a very
dark kind of risk hip, that kind of thing before
it got celebrified, you know. And we used to do
(01:50):
our own radio show every week, much as the characters
that we'd play on stage. But you know, and I
did a lot of that sort of stuff that you went. Look.
One of my things when I was a teenager was
prank calling people and I would pretend I would pretend
I was a radio DJ and I'd give them a
trip to Fiji. And I was really joyous to love it.
(02:14):
I don't know how, but the ensuing weeks went for
that when nobody called them back. But so you would call.
I was big on the old prank call.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You would call them and say that you were from
a radio station.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Congratulations, you want a trip to Fiji?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
No, no, no, they had to answer some questions first.
I didn't just give it to them get to a competition.
I asked them their permission if they wanted to be
on the show, and I did different voices from the
thing to make it sound like it was a radio
show and I was the producer and I was the announcement.
I answered the questions right and then they got Fiji.
It was it was big.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Did you also with your mates? Did you do prank calls?
Ringing bars and stuff and making up names like Amanda
hugging kiss and stuff like that, Russell, did you do
that over the years?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
No, I never did that one. I got over the
prank calling around fourteen.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
We're still doing it here, you.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Were still doing it the drinking age.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
We're still doing it.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Let's do it a weekly segment PK Calls with Russell Krame.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
See let's talk about the loudest voice.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
That's not a bad idea.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
I saw the first episode yesterday and it is awesome
because the character that you play is larger than life.
And I can't wait to see more of this because
you've got the fat suit on your doing all that.
But it's the personality that's the biggest thing in the
idea of launching a TV network in twelve months that
then gets cut to six months and pulling that off
(03:35):
is a phenomenal story.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
It is. I mean, but you know he had thirty
years of experience. Oh my god, the fire alarms going off?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Is that a prank call?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
That is an experience behind him. I try and find
a quiet place, maybe in the corlor.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
You've start You've been on fire so much, Russell, you've
started a fire at the hotel.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
You're not having your lung bustle in the room, are you, mate?
Speaker 3 (04:03):
So what we're talking about ales? Yeah, may look, you know,
at the age of twenty six, it's a fascinating story
with Roger, you know. I you know when it first
came up, Man, the whole hotel was going off.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Have you got to get out of here?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I tried to go out and try to get it quieter,
and it's like even worse out there, Holy Ship, because
a competition Amanda and Jones are trying to screwze you guys.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Where are you in your room right now?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
I canceled on them because they've got really bad taste
in music, so they're just trying to get you back there.
I'll take you out anyway.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Get onto the belcony, mate.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
As I was saying. You know when I when I
first came up, I was like, well, i'd I'm interested
in this because I knew Roger through the frame of
Fox News, and I knew if I knew anything else,
I knew he had been a presidential advisor. But when
I started to actually deep dive into his life, you know,
because I was impressed by the writing and the scripts.
Then you find out at the age of twenty six,
man he's the executive producer of The Mike Douglas Show,
(05:04):
which was made in Philadelphia and at the time was
the number one daytime TV show, and he was breaking
ground left, right, and center. They sent a TV crew
to interview Lady Bird Johnson and do a tour of
the White House, and that had never been done before.
One getting a politician's wife on daytime TV, and two
having a camera inside the White House, seeing bedrooms in
(05:25):
the kitchen, and you know, so you know, he was
an innovator right from the beginning. He said this offhand
thing when Richard Nixon was a guest, and the thing is,
as the Mike Douglas Show executive producer, he had guests
like Martin Luther King, He had guests like Malcolm X.
You know, he also had you know, exotic dancers that
wrap pythons around their body and stuff. Can do it
(05:46):
with daytime TV. But one of the guests was Nixon,
and Nixon was making this disparaging remark about wasting his
time doing this frivolous thing called television, and Roger, you know,
full of the juice of his age, but like the
ripe age of twenty, turns around to his presidential hopeful
and says, mister Nixon, if you don't begin to understand
the power of television, you will never win another election.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
So a couple of weeks later, you know, Nixon's campaign
reaches out to him and says, you know, mister Nixon
wants you on board. Wow. So he shifted he's into politics.
And then after the victorious Nixon campaign, which went to
shit a little bit later on, but that wasn't his
sole he goes into broadway production. Right. So that's the
(06:29):
other thing you've got to remember about about Roger. When
he's leaving high school and he's in college, he's the
kid that plays the piano that starts to sing along. Wow,
you know, And his ten years as a Broadway producer
where he's working out, Okay, what's the opening song? You know,
what are we hitting them with before the break? How's
the big dance routine? Going to work out? What's the finale?
(06:51):
Those theatrical things play out in metaphor. When he is
doing Fox News, he.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Was also very brutal. Russell, I'd like to hear a
story from you, because you know, in this first episode
they launched it in six months. On the first day,
he gets all of the employees in at four am
to start the day. This is the launch of Fox News,
and there's one bloke there who doesn't look interested, he's
got his arms crossed, fires him on the spot. It
just gets rid of him straight. I mean that's just
the first episode. But this guy, what are some of
(07:21):
the myths of the urban myths or the stories that
you've heard about Roger Rales where he has been brutally honest?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Well, the interesting thing about him if you Google search him, man,
the only thing you're going to read about is his demise. Yes,
how there was you know, sixteen people accusing him of
sexual harassment and all this heavy stuff that was going on,
and a shift in the culture which just put him
completely on the outer and his twenty year tenure at Fox,
he was just finished. Yeah, you know. But when you
(07:50):
sit and you talk with the people that work with
that worked with him, the people that had ten, fifteen,
twenty year lives with Roger, you know, they want to
talk to you about how much they love him, how
much he has meant in their lives, what a mentor
he was, how creative he was, how exciting it was
to be in a Roger Rowl's environment because there was
(08:12):
never something that came up that was unsolvable, you know,
So I had to try and find a balance between
what these people that you know, lived with him and
knew him felt and what was in black and white now,
you know. And Gabe Sherman's book, The Allowed His Voice
in the Room is a very well researched and very
in depth look at the arc of his life. But
(08:33):
even though Gabe Sherman comes from a completely opposite political
point of view, he still stands back and he's a
little bit in awe of you know, he calls him
some kind of combination between Barnum and Edgar j Edghober.
You know, he's like, who is this guy who built
this influence over his life. I mean, Roger Ailes is
(08:53):
the guy in two thousand sitting in the newsroom the
presidential election between Gore and Bush at three o'clock in
the morning, and he says, just call Florida for Bush,
and none of the numbers indicate that. He says, just
call Florida for Bush. So Fox US called Florida for Bush.
Every other TV station followed their lead. Wow, they cut
(09:18):
down the track right when they're looking at Supreme Courso
and it was quite clear the Electoral College votes should
have gone our Gore. He stood there in the wind
and just influence just made it happen.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Because you know, there's that great line Russell where he
talks about we're going to give people what they need,
even if they don't know they need it, and that's
exactly well, that's not.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
That's not what he says. Somebody says. He says that
we're gonna gives people a view of the world that
they already are predisposed to accept. You know, they want
to see America in a certain way, So why don't
we just let them see America in a certain way.
That's you know, that was his position to play into
(10:07):
an available audience that he believed was being underserved. You know.
One of the other things of people that have worked
with him say, though, you know, if you did do
the wrong thing, you could expect to have a very
florid taking down for Roger, and that he was extremely
inventive in the way in which he would throw you
off just screwing up. You know. One of my favorite
(10:27):
lines is actually in that scene you were talking about before,
you know, and it was a line that he used
in regard to other people sort of backing away from
a fox perspective, and we use it in that scene.
If you want to paint your ear and white and
run with the antelopes now as she chance for us.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
One of my highlights on your social media accounts is
a game that you play saying you put up a
photo and you say where am I?
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Where am I now?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
And usually you're traveling around with your being indoor garden
party or something like that, and people guess where you
are in the world. Sammy Burgess likes to respond quite
a bit, and his answer is always, Russell, you're behind
your phone taking a photo.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
They're not not.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
As creative as he things they are, but yeah, yeah,
you see that lovely shot of him. Though the other
day he lost the bet with Adam Raynolds wear saying
cricket shirt at training all day amazing.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, when the Poms went on the Poms in the
World Cup, he had to wear the Australian outfit and
he was very very upset.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
He wasn't happy.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
He looks like a really sad five year old in
that picture.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Mate, Where where's indoor garden party at?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Mate?
Speaker 4 (11:37):
You've been recording, You've been touring, There's been some live shows.
How's it going well?
Speaker 3 (11:40):
We actually we have n't been touring. We just went
to Sweden to record. You know, we've spread The members
of the band are spread over the world and one
of the members of a guy called Kyle fk and
he lives in Stockholm and Sweden, and so this time
around Now Get Together was in Sweden. We recorded actually
at Benny Anderson studio, the fellow from ABBA, and he
(12:02):
came down and listened and stuff, and he actually really
loved these new songs. But we just had a great
week in stockham Men. We recorded ten songs in seven days.
But we also threw it out on social media like
who wants us to come and sing at their house
kind of the house, and we ended up dropping in
on this kid who was the kid. He's twenty six
(12:24):
year old or twenty three year old and an actor,
and he was having birthday cake with his mum and dad.
So we just lobbed at this place that he was
having his birthday party, and we sang him a song
and chat with him and did photos with his family
and stuff, and then we played at this private party.
And it's ironic as the band's called into a garden party,
and this guy put up this massive tent in his
(12:47):
garden and he had three or four hundred people over.
So we played that, and then we gathered all the
other really kind invitations that we'd been sent on social
media and gave the people who'd sent them the opportunity
to come down to the Abbess studio and listen through
to the songs we'd recorded. So as we left, they
did like a two or three page article on in
the daily paper, and unbeknownst to us, they'd been running
(13:10):
all of our social media stuff had been run on
the nightly news and in the newspapersish, so I didn't
know what was going on. It was good, I mean
we left the town really golden and Carl simultaneously, he's
the producer of the new of each album. Tim, Yeah right,
because they were best mates. So he was also doing
(13:32):
uh press for that and they'd be sitting talking and
they were just as interested to ask him how things
were going with indoor garden party as the Tim experiencer, Hey.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Russell, did you get a did you get a photo
from Ed Sheeran? Were He gave him a gift with
your recipe of that famous and we gave him the
cocktail maker the mixer. Did he send you on through?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Have you been to this?
Speaker 3 (13:56):
He did, and it just it was such a classy gift, guys,
it just looked fantastics something else.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
When he was really.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Toughed about that. It was when we just saw him.
I just sat in Florence. He played in front of
sixty thousand people and still too. I actually sat on
the stage and watched the show from behind him also,
So it was pretty amazing, man, especially later on into
the last few songs and people are getting out of their
(14:24):
iPhones and stuff. Yeah, right, sixty thousand people. I mean,
you know, I've seen him four times on this tour
and it's hard to explain. He just keeps getting better.
You know, it's crazy how slicky is at the moment.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Well, what's a better Russell ad Sharon or Wu Tang
Claian What what's a better one? Do you get down
into the motion and have a bit of a jump
down there for the Wu Tang.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Oh, I love me a little bit of Wu Tang.
You know. You know he mates with Bobby Diggs the
Riza for a long time. And yeah, I don't know
if i'd get into the most like to have an elevated.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
Russell. What about the what about the story? Because old
maybe he's had his book out and we were laughing
about the story that came out and maybe shared some
story about meeting you in a bathroom and then then
he said, Russell Crowe shirt front of me or against
the wall in a trough or something and he walked
outside to someone.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
You know, I remember that that story when it came
out at the time, because you're pretty big then, and
it was like headlines all over the world, and you know,
we asked his legal representatives, you know what dates were
we talking about? Yeah, because I had no memory of it,
and so we checked cross checked it with my passport
and I was in Ecuador. He was in Sydney. I mean,
(15:44):
like you were talking about it, you know what.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
You know, I think most of his most of his
book was made up. It seems to be whatever stories
he's been I don't know.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Well he also said that he had a relationship with
Natalie Portman, but she can't remember that.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yeah, you know, he obviously lived in the phone world.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
The other big one, the chat, brilliant chat that you
just had with Howard Stern as well, and the Lord
of the Rings opportunity that you had that Vigo Mortenson got.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Did we were? We didn't.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Howard didn't work out how much that was. Was it
ten percent of the franchise if you took that role
or was it that much or was it a lot
smaller than that?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Russell, No, it was that much.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Oh of the gross did you work at Aday? Were?
You know? I think the studio at the time were
just trying to ensure themselves, you know, against the large
amount of money they were spending. You know. But like,
you know, what I said to Howard was the real situation.
I'm talking to Peter Jackson on the phone and I
just got the sense that he wasn't really that interested
(16:52):
in me being in it, that he was going to
accept it if you had to kind of thing. And
I was like, well, I'm all right, man, you don't
have to hire. That's cool, you know. And you know
I was, you know, you've got to be sensitive to
those sort of things. Now you look back on it
and blah blah blah blah, it is what it is.
But at the time it was the right.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Decision for me to any other roles. You've probably been
asked this one hundred times, so, but any other roles
that you didn't take or you're knocked back, that we
would know.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
That it happens. It happens continuously. You can't get into
the frame that I've been in and the business that
I'm in without having to say no, you know. And
that's that's one of the funny things that happens, man,
because on your the first part of your journey is
all about an upward trajectory, you know. And I did
things in a very traditional way in la you know,
(17:40):
I'd been doing meetings and smaller jobs independent films for
years before larger opportunities came my way, and I'd become
a part of the landscape, and so I knew a
lot of people. So as I was getting jobs and
being successful, those people all are your supporters, yes, because
they met you back in the day exactly. And then
(18:02):
big things happen, like you start getting nominated for stuff,
and those people are going to be voting for you
because they met you back in the day, you know.
But then every one of them has a project they
want you to do.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yeah, of course, now you know, even though.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
One before you're back then you know, and so now
you're literally getting hundreds of things that you have to
say no to.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Is there one that you regret?
Speaker 3 (18:24):
And that's when everything gets complicated, and that's when your
jectory starts taking wider term business?
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Is there a role that you regret that you would
have loved to have done now that you look back,
and I mean, you've had some amazing characters over the years,
but is there is there well, the.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Only one that actually would have a tinge of regret
in it? Really, because you know, I turned down the
Matrix series, you know, I read I read the first
draft twice. Yeah, I couldn't get past page thirty six
the first time to read it again, I put it
down to page thirty four.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
It was great.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
And if any of those actors pretend that they did,
but you just didn't know what the movie was going
to become, they just pull of ship. That was just
it was so hard to make a decision based on
the document, you know. But the one that I possibly
do regret was turning down the Johnny Cash biopick with James.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
You would have killed it in But again, it was.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
One of those funny things with a kind of an
internal morality. It was like, this is a dream job
for me. You know, I've been playing singing Johnny Cash
song since I was a little boy, of course, you know,
but I felt that I would be then getting stuff
that I hadn't earned. I'd be climbing on Johnny Cash's
(19:45):
back to get Grammy nominations or something, and it just
felt wrong to me. Saw that film, he's well, you know,
I know from personal experience that he's one of the
greatest actors out there. So the fact that he did
in the credible job was absolutely no surprise to me.
But from the very first notes, when that camera is
(20:05):
pushing through the prison and the soundtrack starts, you know,
the knife jabs into the heart began. You know, Oh God,
not only did I want to do the movie, but
this is the exact version of the movie because I
wanted to do because.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
You didn't you one stage, Rusty, Is that right?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
I've still got still got one. Yeah, I actually I
still got two. Yeah. So I've also got a prize
possession connected to Johnny Cash. It didn't cost me a cent.
One day, I just opened an envelope and they're on
a letterhead. There's a letter from Johnny Cash and it
says I think this is the entire letter. It says
(20:46):
deer Russell. My wife June and I went to the
movies on the Friday night and we saw a movie
called The Gladiator. And on the Saturday we returned to
the cinema and we watched it the second time. On
the Sunday ovening, we go to a group of friends
and we attended the cinema again. I don't want to
(21:07):
thank you for your portrayal. It cuts my heart yours
and music.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Oh wow, that you never that. The other story that
came out of the Howard Stern chat, which made me laugh,
was that when you bought the Dinosaur from Leonardo DiCaprio
and I just I'm trying to work out how you
go from having chatting dinner with Leo and we're just
chatting about the industry and doing a bit of that,
(21:33):
and then it's all of a sudden and do you
want to buy a dinosaur head? How how does he
have that?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
He's got a beautiful, incredibly well curated collection.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Yeah, right, okay, And we.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Were really just having a drink and looking at the
various things is he had put together over the years
and ended up standing by this dinosaur head. But you know,
I think I was quite clear on Howard that you
don't get into negotiations for a dinosaur head unless you've
had a few drinks, you know. Well, it was enough
(22:13):
to make it a sensible idea. Yeah, and also, you know,
my kids at the time were really into dinosaurs. My
eldest he wanted to be a pale intelligence exactly, you know,
rock up with a real dinosaur head, you know. And anyway,
so that was there was a bit of fun that
ended up being sold at the.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Oxen the What a great chat. It's always brilliant talking
to you Russell, Well know how busy you are. The
loudest voice Premiere is Monday only on stand. You've got
to go watch this. This series is unbelievable. It will
blow your mind. Also tonight Big One Rabbit, O's Tiger.
Do you want to send a message out to the
boys if they're listening, Well, look.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
You know they know that I'm not in the habit
of discussing football with them. You know, on game day,
they know it's game day. And you know, we have
a great vibe around our club at the moment. We
have incredible will for effort and work and connection with
each other. And Wayne Bennett's brought some great things to
(23:11):
the club. And you know we also have a deal
of affection towards Michael Maguire as well. Yes, and you
know a long history of feuds with the boat, both
the half of the West Tigers club. It's going to
be a good game.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
It's going to We've gone through.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
A very tough period at the moment between origin and injury.
We're very understaffed, or have been on the staff. But
we're coming out of that. Nothing else dramatic happens, but
for four round seventeen we'll have our entire thirty four
man squad on deck. For the rest of the season,
from them. So that's a good.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Position if you're an L.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
A Russell to wave the box and is that okay?
Speaker 4 (23:48):
We just take the tame, drive the bus or the boat.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
They don't muck around with that house mate. We look
to make a proper behind something. I'm a list Russell Craye.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
We love you buddy, Thank you mate, I appreciate the time.
Good on your legend.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Bye bye
The Loudest Voice. Premiere is Monday only on stan Now.
This is a seven part series. It's based on Roger Ayles.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
He was the man.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
He was the force behind Fox News that basically changed
the conversation about the highest levels of government over in
the States. This bloke was very, very powerful. Here's a
bit of the show.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
You're in America television, noises kid. We're gonna give him
a vision of the world the way they want it
to be.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
We pasted politics.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
It's war and bring back fairness and balance.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
We're gonna win.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And the man that plays Roger Ales is good friend
of ours, the magnificent Russells.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Good morning boys, how's it down there? And beautiful Sitney,
I'll see live? You talking about that?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Came with you?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
You sound like an old school radio present. Is that
our of talks? Is it rusty?
Speaker 3 (01:02):
No? I was just making some shit up, mates.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I was just going with something from you would have
done them.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Just came into my head. Felt like being a bit
of a dicky of that.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, you're very welcoming this show.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Do you want to and do you want to play
that persona Russell?
Speaker 4 (01:17):
You would have when you started your acting career, did
you do a little bit of radio. Was there some
community radio or university radio that you did at all?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
You've got one of those voices.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
No, I don't know, not No, that was just I mean,
I was doing a theater at one point in Melbourne
and we were doing the Rocky Horror Show, and it
was that was back when it was still a very
dark kind of risk hip, that kind of thing before
it got celebrified, you know. And we used to do
(01:50):
our own radio show every week, much as the characters
that we'd play on stage. But you know, and I
did a lot of that sort of stuff that you went. Look.
One of my things when I was a teenager was
prank calling people and I would pretend I would pretend
I was a radio DJ and I'd give them a
trip to Fiji. And I was really joyous to love it.
(02:14):
I don't know how, but the ensuing weeks went for
that when nobody called them back. But so you would call.
I was big on the old prank call.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You would call them and say that you were from
a radio station.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Congratulations, you want a trip to Fiji?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
No, no, no, they had to answer some questions first.
I didn't just give it to them get to a competition.
I asked them their permission if they wanted to be
on the show, and I did different voices from the
thing to make it sound like it was a radio
show and I was the producer and I was the announcement.
I answered the questions right and then they got Fiji.
It was it was big.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Did you also with your mates? Did you do prank calls?
Ringing bars and stuff and making up names like Amanda
hugging kiss and stuff like that, Russell, did you do
that over the years?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
No, I never did that one. I got over the
prank calling around fourteen.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
We're still doing it here, you.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Were still doing it the drinking age.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
We're still doing it.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Let's do it a weekly segment PK Calls with Russell Krame.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
See let's talk about the loudest voice.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
That's not a bad idea.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
I saw the first episode yesterday and it is awesome
because the character that you play is larger than life.
And I can't wait to see more of this because
you've got the fat suit on your doing all that.
But it's the personality that's the biggest thing in the
idea of launching a TV network in twelve months that
then gets cut to six months and pulling that off
(03:35):
is a phenomenal story.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
It is. I mean, but you know he had thirty
years of experience. Oh my god, the fire alarms going off?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Is that a prank call?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
That is an experience behind him. I try and find
a quiet place, maybe in the corlor.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
You've start You've been on fire so much, Russell, you've
started a fire at the hotel.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
You're not having your lung bustle in the room, are you, mate?
Speaker 3 (04:03):
So what we're talking about ales? Yeah, may look, you know,
at the age of twenty six, it's a fascinating story
with Roger, you know. I you know when it first
came up, Man, the whole hotel was going off.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Have you got to get out of here?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I tried to go out and try to get it quieter,
and it's like even worse out there, Holy Ship, because
a competition Amanda and Jones are trying to screwze you guys.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Where are you in your room right now?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
I canceled on them because they've got really bad taste
in music, so they're just trying to get you back there.
I'll take you out anyway.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Get onto the belcony, mate.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
As I was saying. You know when I when I
first came up, I was like, well, i'd I'm interested
in this because I knew Roger through the frame of
Fox News, and I knew if I knew anything else,
I knew he had been a presidential advisor. But when
I started to actually deep dive into his life, you know,
because I was impressed by the writing and the scripts.
Then you find out at the age of twenty six,
man he's the executive producer of The Mike Douglas Show,
(05:04):
which was made in Philadelphia and at the time was
the number one daytime TV show, and he was breaking
ground left, right, and center. They sent a TV crew
to interview Lady Bird Johnson and do a tour of
the White House, and that had never been done before.
One getting a politician's wife on daytime TV, and two
having a camera inside the White House, seeing bedrooms in
(05:25):
the kitchen, and you know, so you know, he was
an innovator right from the beginning. He said this offhand
thing when Richard Nixon was a guest, and the thing is,
as the Mike Douglas Show executive producer, he had guests
like Martin Luther King, He had guests like Malcolm X.
You know, he also had you know, exotic dancers that
wrap pythons around their body and stuff. Can do it
(05:46):
with daytime TV. But one of the guests was Nixon,
and Nixon was making this disparaging remark about wasting his
time doing this frivolous thing called television, and Roger, you know,
full of the juice of his age, but like the
ripe age of twenty, turns around to his presidential hopeful
and says, mister Nixon, if you don't begin to understand
the power of television, you will never win another election.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
So a couple of weeks later, you know, Nixon's campaign
reaches out to him and says, you know, mister Nixon
wants you on board. Wow. So he shifted he's into politics.
And then after the victorious Nixon campaign, which went to
shit a little bit later on, but that wasn't his
sole he goes into broadway production. Right. So that's the
(06:29):
other thing you've got to remember about about Roger. When
he's leaving high school and he's in college, he's the
kid that plays the piano that starts to sing along. Wow,
you know, And his ten years as a Broadway producer
where he's working out, Okay, what's the opening song? You know,
what are we hitting them with before the break? How's
the big dance routine? Going to work out? What's the finale?
(06:51):
Those theatrical things play out in metaphor. When he is
doing Fox News, he.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Was also very brutal. Russell, I'd like to hear a
story from you, because you know, in this first episode
they launched it in six months. On the first day,
he gets all of the employees in at four am
to start the day. This is the launch of Fox News,
and there's one bloke there who doesn't look interested, he's
got his arms crossed, fires him on the spot. It
just gets rid of him straight. I mean that's just
the first episode. But this guy, what are some of
(07:21):
the myths of the urban myths or the stories that
you've heard about Roger Rales where he has been brutally honest?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Well, the interesting thing about him if you Google search him, man,
the only thing you're going to read about is his demise. Yes,
how there was you know, sixteen people accusing him of
sexual harassment and all this heavy stuff that was going on,
and a shift in the culture which just put him
completely on the outer and his twenty year tenure at Fox,
he was just finished. Yeah, you know. But when you
(07:50):
sit and you talk with the people that work with
that worked with him, the people that had ten, fifteen,
twenty year lives with Roger, you know, they want to
talk to you about how much they love him, how
much he has meant in their lives, what a mentor
he was, how creative he was, how exciting it was
to be in a Roger Rowl's environment because there was
(08:12):
never something that came up that was unsolvable, you know,
So I had to try and find a balance between
what these people that you know, lived with him and
knew him felt and what was in black and white now,
you know. And Gabe Sherman's book, The Allowed His Voice
in the Room is a very well researched and very
in depth look at the arc of his life. But
(08:33):
even though Gabe Sherman comes from a completely opposite political
point of view, he still stands back and he's a
little bit in awe of you know, he calls him
some kind of combination between Barnum and Edgar j Edghober.
You know, he's like, who is this guy who built
this influence over his life. I mean, Roger Ailes is
(08:53):
the guy in two thousand sitting in the newsroom the
presidential election between Gore and Bush at three o'clock in
the morning, and he says, just call Florida for Bush,
and none of the numbers indicate that. He says, just
call Florida for Bush. So Fox US called Florida for Bush.
Every other TV station followed their lead. Wow, they cut
(09:18):
down the track right when they're looking at Supreme Courso
and it was quite clear the Electoral College votes should
have gone our Gore. He stood there in the wind
and just influence just made it happen.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Because you know, there's that great line Russell where he
talks about we're going to give people what they need,
even if they don't know they need it, and that's
exactly well, that's not.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
That's not what he says. Somebody says. He says that
we're gonna gives people a view of the world that
they already are predisposed to accept. You know, they want
to see America in a certain way, So why don't
we just let them see America in a certain way.
That's you know, that was his position to play into
(10:07):
an available audience that he believed was being underserved. You know.
One of the other things of people that have worked
with him say, though, you know, if you did do
the wrong thing, you could expect to have a very
florid taking down for Roger, and that he was extremely
inventive in the way in which he would throw you
off just screwing up. You know. One of my favorite
(10:27):
lines is actually in that scene you were talking about before,
you know, and it was a line that he used
in regard to other people sort of backing away from
a fox perspective, and we use it in that scene.
If you want to paint your ear and white and
run with the antelopes now as she chance for us.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
One of my highlights on your social media accounts is
a game that you play saying you put up a
photo and you say where am I?
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Where am I now?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
And usually you're traveling around with your being indoor garden
party or something like that, and people guess where you
are in the world. Sammy Burgess likes to respond quite
a bit, and his answer is always, Russell, you're behind
your phone taking a photo.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
They're not not.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
As creative as he things they are, but yeah, yeah,
you see that lovely shot of him. Though the other
day he lost the bet with Adam Raynolds wear saying
cricket shirt at training all day amazing.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, when the Poms went on the Poms in the
World Cup, he had to wear the Australian outfit and
he was very very upset.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
He wasn't happy.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
He looks like a really sad five year old in
that picture.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Mate, Where where's indoor garden party at?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Mate?
Speaker 4 (11:37):
You've been recording, You've been touring, There's been some live shows.
How's it going well?
Speaker 3 (11:40):
We actually we have n't been touring. We just went
to Sweden to record. You know, we've spread The members
of the band are spread over the world and one
of the members of a guy called Kyle fk and
he lives in Stockholm and Sweden, and so this time
around Now Get Together was in Sweden. We recorded actually
at Benny Anderson studio, the fellow from ABBA, and he
(12:02):
came down and listened and stuff, and he actually really
loved these new songs. But we just had a great
week in stockham Men. We recorded ten songs in seven days.
But we also threw it out on social media like
who wants us to come and sing at their house
kind of the house, and we ended up dropping in
on this kid who was the kid. He's twenty six
(12:24):
year old or twenty three year old and an actor,
and he was having birthday cake with his mum and dad.
So we just lobbed at this place that he was
having his birthday party, and we sang him a song
and chat with him and did photos with his family
and stuff, and then we played at this private party.
And it's ironic as the band's called into a garden party,
and this guy put up this massive tent in his
(12:47):
garden and he had three or four hundred people over.
So we played that, and then we gathered all the
other really kind invitations that we'd been sent on social
media and gave the people who'd sent them the opportunity
to come down to the Abbess studio and listen through
to the songs we'd recorded. So as we left, they
did like a two or three page article on in
the daily paper, and unbeknownst to us, they'd been running
(13:10):
all of our social media stuff had been run on
the nightly news and in the newspapersish, so I didn't
know what was going on. It was good, I mean
we left the town really golden and Carl simultaneously, he's
the producer of the new of each album. Tim, Yeah right,
because they were best mates. So he was also doing
(13:32):
uh press for that and they'd be sitting talking and
they were just as interested to ask him how things
were going with indoor garden party as the Tim experiencer, Hey.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Russell, did you get a did you get a photo
from Ed Sheeran? Were He gave him a gift with
your recipe of that famous and we gave him the
cocktail maker the mixer. Did he send you on through?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Have you been to this?
Speaker 3 (13:56):
He did, and it just it was such a classy gift, guys,
it just looked fantastics something else.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
When he was really.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Toughed about that. It was when we just saw him.
I just sat in Florence. He played in front of
sixty thousand people and still too. I actually sat on
the stage and watched the show from behind him also,
So it was pretty amazing, man, especially later on into
the last few songs and people are getting out of their
(14:24):
iPhones and stuff. Yeah, right, sixty thousand people. I mean,
you know, I've seen him four times on this tour
and it's hard to explain. He just keeps getting better.
You know, it's crazy how slicky is at the moment.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Well, what's a better Russell ad Sharon or Wu Tang
Claian What what's a better one? Do you get down
into the motion and have a bit of a jump
down there for the Wu Tang.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Oh, I love me a little bit of Wu Tang.
You know. You know he mates with Bobby Diggs the
Riza for a long time. And yeah, I don't know
if i'd get into the most like to have an elevated.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
Russell. What about the what about the story? Because old
maybe he's had his book out and we were laughing
about the story that came out and maybe shared some
story about meeting you in a bathroom and then then
he said, Russell Crowe shirt front of me or against
the wall in a trough or something and he walked
outside to someone.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
You know, I remember that that story when it came
out at the time, because you're pretty big then, and
it was like headlines all over the world, and you know,
we asked his legal representatives, you know what dates were
we talking about? Yeah, because I had no memory of it,
and so we checked cross checked it with my passport
and I was in Ecuador. He was in Sydney. I mean,
(15:44):
like you were talking about it, you know what.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
You know, I think most of his most of his
book was made up. It seems to be whatever stories
he's been I don't know.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Well he also said that he had a relationship with
Natalie Portman, but she can't remember that.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yeah, you know, he obviously lived in the phone world.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
The other big one, the chat, brilliant chat that you
just had with Howard Stern as well, and the Lord
of the Rings opportunity that you had that Vigo Mortenson got.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Did we were? We didn't.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Howard didn't work out how much that was. Was it
ten percent of the franchise if you took that role
or was it that much or was it a lot
smaller than that?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Russell, No, it was that much.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Oh of the gross did you work at Aday? Were?
You know? I think the studio at the time were
just trying to ensure themselves, you know, against the large
amount of money they were spending. You know. But like,
you know, what I said to Howard was the real situation.
I'm talking to Peter Jackson on the phone and I
just got the sense that he wasn't really that interested
(16:52):
in me being in it, that he was going to
accept it if you had to kind of thing. And
I was like, well, I'm all right, man, you don't
have to hire. That's cool, you know. And you know
I was, you know, you've got to be sensitive to
those sort of things. Now you look back on it
and blah blah blah blah, it is what it is.
But at the time it was the right.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Decision for me to any other roles. You've probably been
asked this one hundred times, so, but any other roles
that you didn't take or you're knocked back, that we
would know.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
That it happens. It happens continuously. You can't get into
the frame that I've been in and the business that
I'm in without having to say no, you know. And
that's that's one of the funny things that happens, man,
because on your the first part of your journey is
all about an upward trajectory, you know. And I did
things in a very traditional way in la you know,
(17:40):
I'd been doing meetings and smaller jobs independent films for
years before larger opportunities came my way, and I'd become
a part of the landscape, and so I knew a
lot of people. So as I was getting jobs and
being successful, those people all are your supporters, yes, because
they met you back in the day exactly. And then
(18:02):
big things happen, like you start getting nominated for stuff,
and those people are going to be voting for you
because they met you back in the day, you know.
But then every one of them has a project they
want you to do.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yeah, of course, now you know, even though.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
One before you're back then you know, and so now
you're literally getting hundreds of things that you have to
say no to.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Is there one that you regret?
Speaker 3 (18:24):
And that's when everything gets complicated, and that's when your
jectory starts taking wider term business?
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Is there a role that you regret that you would
have loved to have done now that you look back,
and I mean, you've had some amazing characters over the years,
but is there is there well, the.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Only one that actually would have a tinge of regret
in it? Really, because you know, I turned down the
Matrix series, you know, I read I read the first
draft twice. Yeah, I couldn't get past page thirty six
the first time to read it again, I put it
down to page thirty four.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
It was great.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
And if any of those actors pretend that they did,
but you just didn't know what the movie was going
to become, they just pull of ship. That was just
it was so hard to make a decision based on
the document, you know. But the one that I possibly
do regret was turning down the Johnny Cash biopick with James.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
You would have killed it in But again, it was.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
One of those funny things with a kind of an
internal morality. It was like, this is a dream job
for me. You know, I've been playing singing Johnny Cash
song since I was a little boy, of course, you know,
but I felt that I would be then getting stuff
that I hadn't earned. I'd be climbing on Johnny Cash's
(19:45):
back to get Grammy nominations or something, and it just
felt wrong to me. Saw that film, he's well, you know,
I know from personal experience that he's one of the
greatest actors out there. So the fact that he did
in the credible job was absolutely no surprise to me.
But from the very first notes, when that camera is
(20:05):
pushing through the prison and the soundtrack starts, you know,
the knife jabs into the heart began. You know, Oh God,
not only did I want to do the movie, but
this is the exact version of the movie because I
wanted to do because.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
You didn't you one stage, Rusty, Is that right?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
I've still got still got one. Yeah, I actually I
still got two. Yeah. So I've also got a prize
possession connected to Johnny Cash. It didn't cost me a cent.
One day, I just opened an envelope and they're on
a letterhead. There's a letter from Johnny Cash and it
says I think this is the entire letter. It says
(20:46):
deer Russell. My wife June and I went to the
movies on the Friday night and we saw a movie
called The Gladiator. And on the Saturday we returned to
the cinema and we watched it the second time. On
the Sunday ovening, we go to a group of friends
and we attended the cinema again. I don't want to
(21:07):
thank you for your portrayal. It cuts my heart yours
and music.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Oh wow, that you never that. The other story that
came out of the Howard Stern chat, which made me laugh,
was that when you bought the Dinosaur from Leonardo DiCaprio
and I just I'm trying to work out how you
go from having chatting dinner with Leo and we're just
chatting about the industry and doing a bit of that,
(21:33):
and then it's all of a sudden and do you
want to buy a dinosaur head? How how does he
have that?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
He's got a beautiful, incredibly well curated collection.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Yeah, right, okay, And we.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Were really just having a drink and looking at the
various things is he had put together over the years
and ended up standing by this dinosaur head. But you know,
I think I was quite clear on Howard that you
don't get into negotiations for a dinosaur head unless you've
had a few drinks, you know. Well, it was enough
(22:13):
to make it a sensible idea. Yeah, and also, you know,
my kids at the time were really into dinosaurs. My
eldest he wanted to be a pale intelligence exactly, you know,
rock up with a real dinosaur head, you know. And anyway,
so that was there was a bit of fun that
ended up being sold at the.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Oxen the What a great chat. It's always brilliant talking
to you Russell, Well know how busy you are. The
loudest voice Premiere is Monday only on stand. You've got
to go watch this. This series is unbelievable. It will
blow your mind. Also tonight Big One Rabbit, O's Tiger.
Do you want to send a message out to the
boys if they're listening, Well, look.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
You know they know that I'm not in the habit
of discussing football with them. You know, on game day,
they know it's game day. And you know, we have
a great vibe around our club at the moment. We
have incredible will for effort and work and connection with
each other. And Wayne Bennett's brought some great things to
(23:11):
the club. And you know we also have a deal
of affection towards Michael Maguire as well. Yes, and you
know a long history of feuds with the boat, both
the half of the West Tigers club. It's going to
be a good game.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
It's going to We've gone through.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
A very tough period at the moment between origin and injury.
We're very understaffed, or have been on the staff. But
we're coming out of that. Nothing else dramatic happens, but
for four round seventeen we'll have our entire thirty four
man squad on deck. For the rest of the season,
from them. So that's a good.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Position if you're an L.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
A Russell to wave the box and is that okay?
Speaker 4 (23:48):
We just take the tame, drive the bus or the boat.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
They don't muck around with that house mate. We look
to make a proper behind something. I'm a list Russell Craye.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
We love you buddy, Thank you mate, I appreciate the time.
Good on your legend.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Bye bye
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