Russell Crowe has hit out at claims he angrily confronted fans outside a Paris hotel. The famously taciturn Australian actor was filmed exiting the hotel on Sunday (24 May), where he was faced with a wall of autograph hunters. In the video, he can be seen urging the crowd to stay put – albeit with strong language – and saying that he would leave if any crushing occurred.
"Stay where you are, don't f***ing push in on me," Crowe said. "I'll come to you. Give everybody space." To reiterate his seriousness, he added: "As soon as somebody is a d***, I'm gone. You got me? We clear?"
Crowe then signed portraits of many of his old films, including Gladiator. One person asked him to sign the picture "Maximus", his character in the 2000 Ridley Scott epic, only to be told "no", before Crowe walked off.
The tabloid site TMZ published the footage but framed the interaction far more negatively than it was, headlining the story: "Russell Crowe Explodes on Pushy Autograph Seekers ... Back Off or I'm Gone!!!"
In response, Crowe tweeted his upset at the story today (26 May). "Clickbait," Crowe wrote. "Everybody got their autograph and selfie, the passage to the hotel was kept free for guests, and I still got to the airport on time. One man, no security. Handled. What's your problem?"
Many Crowe fans leapt to his defence. "Russell is a solid guy," one wrote. "Anyone [who] says otherwise can get bent."
Crowe was famously hotheaded at the peak of his career. He threw a phone at a hotel concierge in 2005 and had a brawl with a businessman in a London restaurant in 2002 – a fight only broken up when EastEnders hardman Ross Kemp intervened.
But the A Beautiful Mind star seems to have mellowed in recent years, having curbed his drinking and losing 57 pounds of weight. "If I decide to have a glass of wine with dinner, it's going to be a really nice wine," he told The Joe Rogan Experience last year. "I try not to have casual drinks now. Like, just have a drink for the sake of it."
Crowe most recently didn't star in the action sequel Gladiator 2, but admitted to being "slightly jealous" of new leading man Paul Mescal. The film's director Ridley Scott also admitted he hadn't consulted Crowe about the sequel – but for one obvious reason. "I think [Russell Crowe] is still one of the best actors in the world, and I think we have a good relationship," Scott said. "I hope we do. As long as he doesn't start bitching about how he wasn't consulted. Why would I? [His character's] dead!"
