“Me Saying Yes Was Going to Get in His Way.” Russell Crowe Did Not Feel Welcome When He Was Offered a Role in The Lord of the Rings
Russell Crowe, years later, does not regret at all his decision to turn down the role in The Lord of the Rings that was offered to him. He preferred to respect Peter Jackson's vision.
It's hard to imagine that any actor wouldn't want to star in the iconic The Lord of the Rings, directed by Peter Jackson. And yet when the offer of a role in these films was made to Russell Crowe, the artist turned it down, and even many years later, knowing the success they have had and their status today, he still does not regret the decision he made.
And there was a pretty solid reason behind it, which proves that the actor cared about the director's vision and didn't want to disrupt it with his presence, because, as he confessed, he wasn't chosen for the role by the filmmaker, but by the producers, and he immediately realized that Jackson as Aragorn wanted to see someone else. Crowe, on the other hand, was not going to stand in the way of his vision, which is why he turned down the role in The Lord of the Rings, he said during an interview with GQ.
I don’t actually [regret it]. I very much felt the studio were making that decision, not the film director. I talked to Peter Jackson over the phone, and he wasn’t saying the sort of things that directors were saying to you if they were really trying to attract you to a project. And I just kind of got a sense that he already had somebody else in mind that he wanted to do. And me stepping forward and saying yes was actually going to get in his way. So there’s a nuance in that conversation that other people might not hear — we’re both New Zealanders — in his own way without him saying anything negative, that he had another plan. So I just left it at that.
Crowe respected Jackson's plans, thus enabling him to engage Viggo Mortensen for the role after the director's first option did not go through. Initially, the filmmaker wanted Stuart Townsend to play Aragorn, however, the studio deemed him too young, so the role was ultimately not given to him.
As you can see, the process of finding Aragorn must have been a stressful experience for Peter Jackson, but fortunately everything worked out well, and the role went to an actor who suited everyone involved.
