Crowe is not a man to take any slight lying down, especially when he categorically denies it ever happened. Australian film director PJ Hogan (the man behind Muriel’s Wedding and My Best Friend’s Wedding) has gone on record with a detailed and rather disparaging account of the Kiwi’s apparently disastrous performance for one of the biggest films of 1997. Crowe took to Twitter immediately to set the record straight.
Hogan described an apparently painful early script read-through for My Best Friend’s Wedding to author Scott Meslow in the book From Hollywood With Love.
He said: “I don’t know what went wrong. It was one of the worst table reads I’ve ever experienced. Russell was seated opposite Julia. He gripped that script, and he stared at that script, and he didn’t look at her once. He read every line in a monotone.”
A table read typically happens once a director has assembled his cast and is the first time they all get together to start working on the script and their characters. So this implies Crowe had been hired for the role.
According to Hogan that wasn’t even the worst of it.
The director added: “At one point, Julia was literally leaning over the table, staring, like, inches from Russell’s face, trying to make eye contact. And he wouldn’t look at her.
“At the end of the reading, Russell came up to me and said, ‘I thought that went pretty well.’ And then I knew: Russell was not going to be in My Best Friend’s Wedding.”
So far, Roberts has remained silent about what did or didn’t happen but Crowe has emphatically put over his side of the story.
Crowe tweeted yesterday: “Pure imagination on behalf of this director.
“I did not audition for this film. I have never done a table read with the actress mentioned. Would be funny if it wasn’t so pointless.”
According to Hogan, Crowe had been reading the role of sportswriter Michael, who is the titular best friend of Roberts’ food critic Julianne.
She realises she is in love with him when he announces his engagement to Cameron Diaz’s ditsy socialite Kimmy.
The chemistry of the final cast and the frothy filmmaking propelled the movie to a blockbusting $300million worldwide on a modest $38million budget.
As Crowe pointed out, disappointing he has never worked on screen with Roberts. However, the pair were united at the 2001 Oscar ceremony.
He took home the covetted golden statuette for his role as wronged Roman soldier Marcus Decimus Meridius in Ridley Scott’s epic swords and sandals reboot Gladiator.
Roberts won her first and only Oscar for her feisty, electrifying portrayal of real-life crusading legal clerk and crusading activist Erin Brockovich.
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