Russell Crowe’s directorial venture The Water Diviner is dedicated to ‘lost and nameless soldiers.’ He shares how he designed the scenes to bring out the horrifying experience
How was the experience of directing a film for the first timeIJ
Taking the directorial helm was not just a career risk, it was a big life risk. If The Water Diviner proves commercially successful, I will be able to bring back other films to direct in Australia, to work in the city I want to work in and, crucially, be more present for my sons, Charlie, 10 and Tennyson, 8.
What kind of liberty do you think an actor has, specially an Oscar winner, while choosing a filmIJ
An actor, even an Oscar-winning one, does not usually have that level of control. People go, ‘You are a movie star — surely you can call those shots.’ But I am not that kind of an actor. I look for the role that excites me and work with it despite whoever that director happens to be or wherever he wants to shoot the film.
The film portrays battle scenes and its aftermath. Was it hard to leave that behind at the end of the dayIJ
That’s part of the construct that I put together. My reading of Gallipoli battle stories quite often talked about that noise that rose up out of no-man’s land after a particular engagement. I realised no one had really portrayed that before. There’s no significant TV or film on the particular subject matter that actually shows that and I thought there’s no better way to put people in a place of realism than to show them that situation. So many people have said to me, ‘I never thought of that. I thought once (the soldiers) go over the top of the trench, they get hit by a bullet. They’re dead. It’s nice and clean.’ But it’s not like that. You see in this movie, of course, men who are bleeding out and people with severed limbs. You understand more about the horrifying experience that it must have been.
Did you have a hard time going home at the end of the day and not taking this with youIJ
What was the most touching with that scenario was how well those young actors did it. That whole sequence in the movie was shot in two takes. I was talking earlier in the line about the preparation level you take actors through, or that I took them through on this film. And that’s why you do it, so they can be in the pocket of what they’re doing immediately. They don’t require any time to warm up. They’re just there and willing to give that sort of performance. You don’t necessarily take it home. It’s too weighty a thing to carry around and you’ve got a lot of responsibilities when you’re shooting a film like this and a lot of things to do the next day. But, you know, I contemplated that situation of how I would shoot it for a long time before we did it and I spoke to the actors involved in it about four months prior to them shooting it. I told them what I wanted to see out of it and they were consistent in their preparation and brought themselves to the set in the place where they were ready to be those characters. Then they gave me performances like that. It was amazing.
How would you describe yourself as a directorIJ
I shoot as much as I need to. But part of that preparation with the actors is my own and the rest of the crew’s preparation. Take one is valid and usable. I don’t believe in the warm-up stuff. But what I try to do is create an energy around me where everybody on that film set knows that they’re allowed to be at their very best, similar to what you do with your kids. I have two boys and they’re both very different people, so the way I can talk to one changes when I talk to the other. That’s the way you should be on a film set. You should treat that individual who’s there, at your request — and it’s a privilege for you that that person agreed, whether it’s the production designer or the DOP or the costume designer, to be on your set. So you need to get the best out of them. You need to utilise everything they can bring to you and that’s done through communication. Detail and collaboration are the two rules of film.
You have dedicated the film to the ‘lost and nameless soldiers.’ Did you have a chance to visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier while you’ve been in DC areaIJ
I haven’t done that during this trip but I actually worked here in 2007 and 2008 and I’ve ridden all over Washington DC and the surrounding areas, so I have been on my bicycle to pretty much every monument. It’s an amazing place.