Russell Crowe strikes off-tone note at AACTA awards with sodomy story
Russell Crowe has faced criticism following a speech at the Australian Academy of Cinema, Television Arts (AACTA) Awards last night, claiming he sodomised co-star Jackie McKenzie on the set of Romper Stomper.
Crowe – who also presented the award for best Asian film – said he wanted to take a “riskier” side step ahead of announcing the winner.
“I just want to talk about what binds us together,” he began.
“There’s two things really. One is an abiding passion for our pursuit and the other is sensitivity.
“I was sodomising Jackie McKenzie on the set of Romper Stomper and I didn’t actually intend to do that but I was trying to keep my bits away from her bits and she’d been given one of those pieces of elastic that the girls get when you do those scenes, which protects them from all things, and my bits and pieces were in a little canvas sack with a drawstring.
“And it was actually my desire to keep the bits apart. It wasn’t until the opening night of the film that it was pointed out by none other than Jackie McKenzie’s beautiful late mother that we were in fact, in her mind, engaged in sodomy. Anyway that was just a story about sensitivity!”
His comments come a week after McKenzie spoke about her experience of sexual harassment, groping and bullying throughout her career. McKenzie was in the crowd last night.
#watershedmoment #timeforchange https://t.co/bTVwUcXiTq
— jacqueline mckenzie (@JMcKenzie) December 2, 2017
Although there was laughter among the crowd, there was confusion as to the relevance of the anecdote, particularly in light of recent events in the industry.
Last week, AACTA chairman Geoffrey Rush stepped down from his role after allegations surfaced around inappropriate behaviour during his time at the Sydney Theatre Company.
I guess you had to be there …
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Where he missed the mark, was misreading his audience. That was a room full of lefty-luvvies, whose socio-political groupthink is almost as blinkered and bad as an ABC-Fairfax gathering. On this occasion Rusty was a “Kiwi actor”.
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