Transcripts For KQED Charlie Rose 20150427

And by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose Russell Crowe has had a remarkable career as an actor. Won an Academy Award for his performance in Ridley Scotts gladiator, also nominated for roles in hon row wards a Beautiful Mind and michael mans the insider. He now tries his hand at directing. The water diviner follows an Australian Farmer played by crowe who travels to gallipoli in search for his three missing sons. Here is the trailer for film. You have been in five wars but you cant even find your own children my boys. shouting arthur, henry and edward conner. Were not leaving your brothers behind i left them together. And they died together. They shall be buried at home beside their mother. Ill find them and ill bring them home. Im going to gallipoli. Theres nothing there for us. You walk off your farm, turn off your newspaper for what . Theyre all killed in a day. Maybe you could help him. You know what the chance of finding his boys are. If you havent found out yet this is your son. This is not mine. How did you know . Its a necessity where i come from. You cant stay. Go home, mr. Connor theyre my boys. nr the water diviner rose i spoke to Russell Crowe earlier this week in new york and here is that conversation. You said the movie chose you rather than you choosing it. Yes. Rose what did it mean . It was the truth because i was in the middle of a busy period of time. I had taken quite a break after robin hood. I read a bunch of stuff and hadnt worried about it too much. In 2011 i got a run of i read a script and yeah, im into that and that. So i said im interested in five things. Normally, they would cannibalize each other and you would end up doing one or maybe two. But for some miraculous reason the juices of all five movies got together and worked out the number of weeks they needed. I did man of steel broken city and the others. I also got separated then. I have kids, run a Football Team. It was an extremely overwhelming year and then this script arrived and i wasnt really looking for it. I was developing other things. Id had the intellectual concept of being a director for a long time and ive probably directed about 30 video clips three full lengths. I have been educating myself, you know. Rose looking . No, like i said, i had things i was developing. But when i agree to act its basically because i have such a visceral connection with the piece that i cant say no. I dont base my decision on pedigree or money. Its always the individual character. I call it the goosebump factor. Thats what im always looking for. I found myself reading this script and having that visceral actor, making notes and crossreferencing pages where he would say things and you get the goosebumps, a little sweat on the forehead. The other thing was happening when i go to meet directors to work with them, im never going to be attracted to the guy who doesnt really know what he wants to do. He just wants to have a casual chat. Im attracted the guys who go im gonna do it this way rose and i need you. Yes. And they have part of the tone of what theyre talking about is theyre the only person in the universe who could tell the story the way it needs to be told. So im reading this script, and this voice said, i had never heard come out of myself, it was present and was saying you must take responsibility for this story. Only you can read between the lines, only you can see into the shadows, only you can make this culturally important for both australians and turkish and other people around the world. Id never had that before. Basically, i finished reading once, made a phone call and said i want to do this movie but only if its my responsibility. Rose so what was it about this script and this story that made you feel that way . Well, its such a big answer because its culturally really significant. The battle of gallipoli is huge. Its the first time theyve engaged in war fair under their own flag. Prior to that they were an extension of the british empire. They fought in crimea and the world war but now they are under their own flag and its a group of volunteers, an Expeditionary Group of volunteers. Britain puts out the call says we need help in our defense and the defense of our european friends. Hundreds of thousands of men and industriallies are going to put up their hands. Its a story about a man and his three children who go to war and dont come back. Im a dad of two boys so thats going to get me at a very essential level. But the other thing was there too, and this may be the most important thing it felt to me as if there was an opportunity to make a war film or a film that talks about war with a level of honesty that other people havent really taken it to, you know . I mean, i know theres sort of a cliche that some people say that every war film is an antiwar film but thats not true because we quite often couch these actions in terms of brave riand courage and we bravery and courage and leave it at that. We dont talk about grief. We dont talk about that moment between engagements when thenrco wounded men are lying in the field calling for water, their mothers, calling for god. We dont see it in that way. So it comes with a huge responsibility, a movie like this, a responsibility to a contemporary audience to not speak down to them to actually take them to a place where, you know the geopolitics and history of the time, theyre not necessarily completely on top of or they dont really know anything about. It has a responsibility to the men and women who actually are in service for our countries and what theyre really facing because this is the thing that we often dont talk about its a life and death situation and a responsible for future generations. I have two little boys. I want them to know if this comes up in their life what the truth of this situation is. War is not about bravery and courage. War is most often about grief. Rose and dying. Whats interesting about this in addition to what you say and what you want to say about war is how the story was discovered. A letter. Yeah. Rose mentioning the old chap. Theres this incredible guy called Lieutenant Colonel hughes. He was actively a soldier, part of what they call the live force, and he was on the battle battlefield three times. He kept getting removed from the battlefield but not for being wounded but for disentry and influenza. So i suppose where he had this experience where he kept coming back to the battlefield and his friends were dead. Then he would make new friends. He ended up being connected to the battlefields for a long time. Then he put his hand up to being the man after the war. He would go back to the battle battlefield and basically try to identify as many sets of bones as he could. He had befriended an australian commonly called c. W. Ben but his initials are actually c. E. W. Ben. And he wrote a memoir of his experience of the soldiers in this battle and in it quoted a letter that he and colonel hughes had met and hughes wrote a letter said one old chap managed to get here from australia looking for his sons graves. We looked after him and put him on a boat to ben dee sees. Andrew anastasios said who would travel, you know, a search of a mad man to try to find a son who was long dead. So they researched it, Andrew Anastasios and he brought in a fellow to partner up on it a fellow called Andrew Knight and they looked into itnr a couple of years and hard and fast. They found a few, you know, could be him, could be him, you know, and there was still an attachment in Andrew Anastasios mind to the idea of waterni divining because his grandfather was a waterni diviner a famous one, who found water for mel gibson in the 80s when mel had property incoe1. Rose they know where water is located when nobody else can see it or hear it. Yes, but a large part is practical. He talks about the movie. He can go out into the valleys and see by the markings in the ground where the water fell last time where it ran and then just through a series of logic go to a place where it most likely pooled here. So this would be the area where its under the ground. The next bit is the bitnr thats not available to all of us, only a small percentage of people have, whether by using wood or metal or whether just purely a sensation in the hand to feel that water under the ground. Its a real thing, you know. I mean, ill tell you 98 of the people who say they can do it are probably charlatans but there are probably people who can do it. I witnessed my dad do it when i was about 14. Thats why again i had another connection. When i was talking about this in australia he called me up and said you have to stop saying that, mate, i never found a body of water in my life. I said, no in 1978, we had just gotten back from australia and were on our way to sport come out into the street, all these council guys are there looking for, you know, obviously a leak in a water pipe. My dad went inside and got one of those old metal coat hangers, formed it into a shape of a y walked up and down, stuck it in the grass and said the break is here. Three hours later we come back from sport and thats exactly where the council are digging up. My dad goes, well, yeah, i can find broken pipes. Rose whats the significance of joshua being a water diviner . Just adding to the dimension of the character . Well, giving his journey a basis as well, you know. That its not necessarily just about luck, that there is a spiritual aspect to it or more correctly an intuitive aspect to him, you know. Because you know i just went through its mainly a practical job water divining, and when he gets to that battle battlefield, he has his sons diary and a handdrawn map. The entire battlefield where nine people 9,000 people died in four days is the size of two tennis courts. You can cut it down to a very slim tunnel of where they could possibly be. So hes got all that practical information but then on top of that hes got the four years that hes spent wandering about wondering about what happened to his boys. Hes got that inside him. When i talked to people, you know, some people reject the idea that somebody might be able to do that, but, you know, we use intuition in our daily lives all the times in our social reactions. Parents have an, inkling on a given school day that something went wrong and its true. You talk to women in particular and particularly young women and say has there been an exboyfriend in your life who became an exboyfriend because of an intuitive process where you knew they were somewhere they werent supposed to be . They say, absolutely. Its a real thing. Rose did you want to star in a movie you directed or did you like this character so much that you wanted to i was perfectly happy to give up the character. Just to have the opportunity to direct. But it was given to me in a very clear its independent but i have investors. Theyre, like, were prepared to give you x and if youre going to direct and not be in it, thats x minus and as a director you want as many assets as you can. Giving up a massive chunk of potential budget didnt seem to make sense. Rose why did you want to direct . I love the art form, charlie. And i have been working in it since i was six years old in front of a camera, lead roles in films from the age of 25. You know, composition, color texture, you know the difference between music and silence, all of these things. Rose control . Well, control but not in the way that everything has to stop while you work out what you need. Its not that. Its having the ultimate say because what you want to do as a director, the privilege of being a director is that you get to bring the smartest hearts and minds that you can towards you and say, okay, i love your work, as a production designer. Im going to this place, i need you at your best, this costume designer, i love the way you did this and i need you at your best. And the d. P. , andrew who won the Academy Award for lord of the rings, we knew we worked together. I went to him and said can we expand this and make a feature . He said, i would love to. So you get the amazing opportunity to bring these incredibly smart people toward you. Rose had you been taking notes. Absolutely. I had no problem stealing from anybody. Same way they had no problem stealing with me. Rose you talked to ridley and ron howard. You didnt go to anybody saying, look my agent ought to be cool if he called ridley to get a message of support as i was about to start. He said, so, ridley, russells about to start shooting his movie, you know, anything you want to tell me . He goes oh, hell be fine. laughter the two people i got actual practical advice from is two people i have never been on the set with as a director. Ben stiller, who is an actor who directs and he said to me one thing to keep in mind because i get the feeling youre the sort of person who will focus on your actors, youre still the lead role. Make sure you shoot what you need and you get into post because your story wont have a spine. Rose because youre worrying about your other characters. Thats exactly because youre giving of your self. The other piece came from ely roth who i love as a person but whose movies creep me out, i cant watch them. He said,eth not the fact you have been in front of a camera since you were six years old or made future films in lead roles for 25 years that will really assist you. What you will find when you get into this, the fact youre a dad that will make it easy for you. Rose because the heart of the story is being a father in search no, because on a set you need to listen to people and communicate to them and you need to communicate with them in the voice that individual requires just like your kids. Your children have very different personalities and you will talk to one one way and another another way, you know, and thats the way you have to be on the film that you have to keep up with. I put an emphasis on creation. I let everybody know at the beginning i understand every single truck and piece of equipment is a platform for performance and thats our attitude, that is our priority on a daily basis. I create an Energy Around me that Everybody Knows theyre allowed to be at their very best. Rose but preparation was essential for you. How do we prepare to make this movie because some have described it in stories i have read about this as you went through a kind of boot camp. Part of that i assume is to make sure theyre where you are. And what else . Yeah, you see, what im doing is im taking a group of Young Australian actors and im showing them how i do it, right . How i prepare. This may be for a film or whatever. This is what i do. Physically, i prepare. Emotionally, i prepare. Intellectually. So i take them to a situation where im filling them up with the information, swilling them up with the tasks that lay ahead of them so in a tenday period every day is long walks, yoga, weight sessions, horse riding, weapons skill training, we might do archery which is about focus, a 50kilometer bike ride, an a talk from a history professor about the history of the ottoman empire. Then all i need for them is to be consistent until the day they come on my set. When they arrive, i have a young man who has a mile of depth behind his eyes because hes confident, he knows who his character, is he knows his part of the story. He knows all about the history of the time, the geopolitics and everything that would be a natural piece of knowledge, he has the skill set on board to ride a horse, to use the weapons of the time and hes confident and ready to go. Not a single minute of time is wasted on my set on actors trying to recall a line, you know, because my emphasis has been right from the beginning on setting a standard and encouraging them to rise to that standard. Rose how many takes do you do . Very low ratio. Average three or four. Rose thats it. Yes. Rose how do you get it in three or four takes. Preparation. A lot of directors will b. S. You about how prepared they will and they will set something up and make it up as they go. Theyll realize it doesnt work and will change it and try it another way. Im on a little independent film with an independent film budget. I havent got time for those kinds of shenanigans. I have to know what im looking at and trying to get. So, seriously its just a more interesting day if you move faster. Its more interesting for the crew. Rose Clint Eastwood another director whos done well and is an actor has the same philosophy because he wants his actors prepared but also wants to give them room to be all they can be because of what theyve learned. Im not going to move on if somebodys not getting somewhere or somebody feels they still have Something Else to do. Rose how do you direct yourself . A lot of the things you do on a set from my point of view is youre trying to interpret what the director wants. Thats what youre there for. Rose you know what the director wants here. Yes. So they can pose a shot, have certain camera shoots. Then with certain questions you say now i know what youre trying to get out of this particular setup. But if ive set the composition of a shot then i just cut out the middle man and i can step into my own shot and do it easier. Rose this is what the telegraph says about you crowe mounce the story in roughly moded fashion but his best achievement is wrestling with a thinskinned leading man and extracting the most soulful performance he has given in years. Of all directors to remind us, a relaxed subtlety can be Russell Crowes forte who would guess it would be Russell Crowe. If i am thin skinned how am i still here after all the things that have been said about me and the way i have been painted . If im thin skinned how to i manage to keep doing my job . Some parts are complimentary. Rose i took it as compliment. As a director yourself, you could get the kind of performance you got here. Yeah but it comes wa whole lot of pretentious double talk. Rose why would some writer write that kind of thing . Where does the idea you might be thin skinned come from . Because if youre giving me bleep i wont give you an answer immediately. Im not that guy who puts up with that. If youre thinking i can get away with this because im on camera, then youll find out you cant and i will talk to you and have a natural conversation with you as i would if we were talking about a party or on the street or whatever. A lot offies in your position this has nothing to do with you obviously, charlie, because ive always had great fun with you very smart conversations, be awe lot of guys will use the fact that their job as a short of veil of protection for themselves so theyll do, quote unquote, more courageous things because they feel theyre protected, you know, because of their job, you know. And if youre rude to me, ill be rude back. If you ask me nice questions i will do my very best to give you rose thats not been my experience with you by the way. Weve had a long series of conversations that have had to do with you being an actor and making film. When you took what you shot to the editing room did you have the film you wanted . My first comp was, i think, two hours and 45 minutes Something Like that. Rose your first composite. Yes. Now, ive worked with many directors their first comps were about seven hours. So i was already in my mind as shooting, i already had a fairly good idea that thing i shot on that particular day probably wont use that because i can jump that. Heres the thing with directing its like being in the country with no Light Sources around you on a clear night. You look up in the sky, there is 15, 20 points of light. A minute goes by, 100 another minute 10,000, another minute, and you can see the interconnections of galaxies and the milky way and everything you know. And thats kind of what directing is like, the more you stare at it, the more you can see. Rose is it all you wanted it to be, the ex spencer of directing . Oh, yes. Rose so you cant wait to direct your next fill snm. Its such a substantially more interesting job, you know. Rose than acting . Oh yeah. I used to think acting was the greatest job in the world and then i did this and this is just so much more suitable to me. Me as a 51yearold father of two with a massive accumulated onset experience, you know, i know the rules of filmmaking. Detail and collaboration and i can apply them easily. I know the nature of filmmaking, relentless and i know how to meet it with relentless energy. I know the first thing to say to a crew in the morning to make them more efficient and i know the intimacy to talk with the actors. Rose youre a better director because you have been an actor. I dont think without my experiences i would have any sort of ability as a director. I might have, you know like many young people come out of film school and have concepts of what it is, but if you havent done it you just dont know. Rose you got everything out of Russell Crowe that you wanted out of Russell Crowe . Everything that i asked for and, whats more, he slept with me every night too. laughter rose how is he . He could probably go to the gym more often. Rose looking for the next film to direct . I have a fair idea of what i want to do. Rose whats that . You know, this business, as soon as you say it out loud, it just gets further out of your reach. I started talking about it openly a few months ago and realized i was actually doing myself a disservice. But certainly i have a couple of things but, you know, like this project, i could say any number of ideas. But like this project its probably going to be something that comes out of the blue. Rose were you obsessed by this while you were doing it . Oh, yeah. Rose does this have anything to do with the ending of your marriage . I would say, you know once you become a parent that every single thing in your life is seen through prism of parenthood and, you know, that comes along with that along with that comes the same sort of experience as a married man, you know. I was so proud to wear that ring, charlie, you know, and every now and then ill look down on my finger and its not there anymore and i dont feel balanced you know. So to this day everything that i do is still connected to that, you know. We havent done the deal yet. You never know. Rose havent done the deal yet means what . Were not sort of officially stamped divorced. Were separated. Rose so youre hopeful . I didnt get married to get divorced, you know. I have a great example of my mom and dad who have been married 53 years or something now, you know, and, you know at parties theyre still the one sitting in the corner with each other. Rose so you have a beautiful idea of what a great marriage is. Yes. Ill admit quite freely that im a little bit of a workaholic. I do love my job, you know. Rose imagine my surprise. As much as i realize that in my sons life my presence is a very important thing, i also know just from examples of my friends and people that i know you know, the one legacy ive really got to give my boys is my work ethic, you know, because theyre going to be facing big old tough life themselves shortly, you know, and they have, you know, a privileged lifestyle that i never had growing up as a boy, you know. So where i can teach them that that is not magic that comes from hard work, it comes from rising at 4 00 in the morning and being the last person left working, you know. Rose thats what being good is about. And they both have that thing in them where, you know, they which they get from their mom as well. I mean, shes a singersong writer and shell record something a hundred times if she doesnt feel its right. So i do know, you know, as they get to a particular stage now that, you know it took me three years to make the movie and two things are at play. I pick my number and the wheel is spinning. If i get a result out of this my investors will believe in me and i can do it again so it gives me complete control. It gives me control of geography. If ripley wants to morocco, i will go. Iceland, thats where i will go. I want to be where my kids are. If im making my own film im in control of my Creative Life and i can flip my schedule around and so instead of being away 75 , home 25 , it changes. Rose being a parent is a huge part of your life today. Its the greatest privilege i can think of, being a dad. Rose so can you imagine transitioning out of acting or will acting have the same kind of appeal and also it will make your film have more box office . Right at the moment its more sensible that i did both jobs because as i said before i think as a director it just gives me a larger effort, right . Hopefully, there is a time in the future where, you know, somebody else who is an alist male or female, you know, watches the water diviner says i love it what do you think of this project and its a vehicle for them. Rose why was it you started acting at six . My mom was a catererrer. My grandfather was a cinematographer. He was part of the Museum Film Unit in the second world war. He put his hand up for the his service as a soldier doing his job and became a war photographer and went to every theater of war and was highly decorated and won an mbe from the king of england for a bees called east direction on bogenville. But the rest of his life he was an editor and director in his own right and a lot of his friends were producers and directors. So we had a slight association to the business. One of his friend was my moms godgodfather and roger was producer commonly known as the cheapest producer in the business but also a pretty smart guy. He made a show called spy force in australia between 69 and 72 when tvs were in black and white but shot it on color. So when we got Color Television in australia in 1975 he showed it had been on and it was on again and got another check. He convinced my mom to come on a set and cook 200 meals a day. Rose so you were hanging around set. Yes and weekends and school holidays. Rose did you love it when you first did it . It scared the hell out of me. The first time i had a line of dialogue, i was six years old, i couldnt get it out of my house. I couldnt talk no matter how many times they did the take. I was working with a famous australian actor called Jack Thompson who 20something years later played my dad in a movie in a comic circle. I was there with jack, they say action. He does his line. Im supposed to say its my ankle and i cant talk. So nervous. I said i cant do it again take two. What is it . You know. He just gives the director a bit of a nod. They go take three. He goes, looks like its your knee. I said no, its my ankle. laughter at the time, obviously i didnt realize the manipulation. When you think about it later on you think how kind was he that instead of, like, saying you stupid child or whatever, do this line, hurry up, he actually just worked out a way to allow me to give my line. Rose what i love about you is youve done all these interesting things. Youve got your band, have your band. Have a new album coming out in september. Rose you own a Football Team. A rugby league team. Rose part of a league. The National Rugby league of australia, the biggest televised football sport in australia. Rose how much time does that take . A number of years. Nine years ago i took some of my ill gotten gains and bought the rose from hollywood. Bought the Football Team of my childhood because what kind of a dream is that to buy the Football Team of your childhood. Yeah, i suppose,. Rose growing up in boston and having a chance to buy the red sox. I know a guy who got a chance to buy the red sox and he blew it. Hell still bring it up every time. laughter sport is so connected to the community that its not like where you have franchises that can move around. The geography is the franchise. The south sydney, a particularly part of sydney. The cbd to the airport and the coastal beaches below an area called bronte, and thats a very complex area. You have some of the most dense areas are government housing. You have the highest urbanized aboriginal population in the country and some of the most expensive realities in the country so its a complex area and theyve fallen into such a state of disrepair. You guys have that phrase giving back. I call it community penance and thats been nine years of my life. Certainly for probably four to six of those years it took so much time, it was a fulltime job. There was actually a fellow called Jamie Packard who eventually became a partner in what i was doing. Rose he comes from huge wealth. Yeah, and whose father carey i was very close with. So jamie and i werent close at all when his dad was alive but since his dad passed on, weve just gotten together and he sort of realized, i suppose the qualities that his dad enjoyed. Rose hes, also, i think a famous gambler wasnt he . He was. And the biggest tipper on record, i think. Rose yeah. He asked a waitress in vegas one night youre very personalized i see the way youre operating with everybody i think youre a nice person. She says, thank you mr. Packard. He says, whats your situation . You married . Kids . Mortgage . Yeah. How much do you owe on your mortgage . Oh about 150,000 and as he was leaving he gave her 150grand. What a guy. Probably got more out of it than she got out of it. Because im known to have known carey, wherever i go people who knew him or benefited from his generosity liked to tell me the story. So, you know, the amazing things, i dont know if you notice, but he had a heart attack one time. Rose go ahead and tell the story. Miraculously, driving past his rural property, there was one of three ambulances that had a defibrillator on board so his life was saved. He would have died at 57, 58. So when he, you know realized how lucky he had been, he asked why arent these machines in every ambulance . And they said oh, its costly blah blah blah. And in his typical gentle and elegant manner he said, well thats bleep and bought a defibrillator for every ambulance in south wales. So tens of thousands of lives have been extended because of that. Rose its just asking the right questions is what i like. Why arent there these machines in every ambulance . It saved my life particularly when he found out the cost. Its not like theyre a Million Dollars each. Its a matter of a few thousand dollars. You know, he did a lot of great things in australia. Jamies come on board now with the team. And when he asked me a few years ago, i thought about it and i was, like, its at least 45 to 46 hours a week, and thats when i started to think, this is unreasonable. You know, i took this thing on as sort of a side project but it kind of took over for a while, but we got it roll, you know. We took them from being perennial losers to being competitive, from competitive to dominant and then last year on the fifth of october for the first time in 43 years, we won the National Rugby League Championship. Rose in how many years . 43 years. Rose how good is that. It was brilliant. In that moment, i had always wondered, day dreamed, what would i do if we were to win you know . Will i, you know scream with joy . Will i drop to my knees and offer a prayer of thanks . In the moment and, you know, they were shooting me on tv because 83,000 in the crowd and 4. 65 million households watching this on tv, a huge number, an olympic gains level for numbers. Just a quiet and deep sense of satisfaction came over me. When it was obvious that it was our day and we couldnt be tracked down, you know, i didnt yell i didnt scream, drop to my knees, you know. I turned to the guy that i started the whole process with nine years before i shook his hand and i said, congratulations,mate. And he said, and to you mate. And we just stood there and let everybody else celebrate. Because its about the players and the warriors. The weekend warriors, the members of your club the fans of your club, you know, that give up their time every weekend, whose lives, you know, blessed with the wind and cursed with the loss. They go through the ups and downs with you every week. Its about everybody else at that point, you know. Ive done my job i just step back and watch everybody else have a party. Rose how hard it is to reach that moment. How many people who have been in pursuits of various sports of World Championships and never got there. With our sports, we won the grand final so were the National Rugby League Champions of australia. In our sport you then get the opportunity to play whoever won the european league. We go to england nervous as anything because were now playing a Champion Team of another, you know league altogether, and we had to play at their home ground for some reason it was their choice, and they chose to play at their home ground which is like 18000 people. Were playing the game there. Everything is stacked against us. Their season is underway. Were in preseason. Were at their home ground. Their crowd, there are about 200 of our fans that we knew would be there. The game started and we just couldnt be turned around. We ended up beating them. Rose are you planning on bringing rugby to the united states, to vegas . Thats something ive had in mind. There are a lot of rugby played here. Rugby union is a 15man code. Our game is a 13man code which americans understand easier because theres defined periods of offense and defense. So that idea to become the actual world champions in the rugby league, i want to expand that. I think its a great idea to expand it. Take the top four teams from australia and the European Competition and meet halfway and play in vegas for example. If americans are ever going to love this sport theyre not going to love it because of exhibition games or of games like recently the new zealand team played the American Team in chicago, these two teams are very different. Oil blacks are the pinnacle of the sport and the americans are out of the top ten. But if you were to take the four top clubs of australia and four top clubs of europe and put them in a competition where there is blood on the line because thats the nature of the sport americans would love it. Once they understand that tackles is downs, we punt at the same time you do, the only thing we dont do is throw the ball forward, you know. Rose do you think of yourself as an australian . Yeah, i do. Rose you do. I left australia in i went to australia in 1968 when i was four years old. My formative years were spent there and attitudes came from there. When i went back as 13 i was treated as a foreigner. Ill never forget i was not welcomed at home. That was from boys at school, to teachers. So as soon as i could as an adult, i left new zealand and went back to where i was more comfortable. Rose and thats home. Yeah,ive lived in australia 39 of my 51 years. I had a choice. At a certain point in my life i could have chosen to live anywhere. Rose any mart part of that life you regret . Charlie, im what seems to be like the modern concept. I appreciate my regrets. Thats the stuff ive learned from. People say to me, you know, im going to live my life without regrets well, youre not going to learn anything. Rose youre not going to take any risks or chances and will be afraid to fail. Yes, but it also means you have to cut yourself a bit of slack. If you mess up every now and then its bound to happen rose and in your case, theres somebody that will photograph and write about it. And its the writing that does the most damage because the writing fills peoples imaginations and its not ever likely factual. They create a scenario and paint you in the next possible light. Before you know it, this gargantuan monster has grown up around you and a lot of times it grows up around you because youre not answering your questions. Because you dont choose or never chose to be a celebrity. I was an actor who happened to do the job to a certain level and an opportunity came with that and very luckily i got into a situation where im working with some of the best visual artistest in the world and being demanded of to work at my very best and we achieve some cool stuff. We achieve movies that a lot of people saw and won awards. But i never went to celebrity school. I dont know about it. I understand fame a lot more now at age 51 and accept it . And youve made some accommodations or not. Yeah, when i can. If somebody wants an autograph ill give it to you. But theres another thing where because people see you every now and then ignore somebody whos literally chasing you down the street. But thats not your average movie fan. Thats some person who will sell that. I just had 14 photographs with this guy out of side. But he doesnt care about me. Hes thinking money. I dont care about that. I dont care about the paparazzi guys that camp outside your house. But what i have stopped doing is i used to say you know you probably read many times ive hit a photographer. Ive never done that in my life. Never. What ive done is ive saved some of the most stinging verbals barbs just for those sort of people. You know . And theyre shredded wounded and bleeding going back to their editor and theyre trying to put it a physical thing that i just ripped them apart emotionally with a single sentence. But fame came to me, looking back, kind of a rush, and i probably wasnt ready for it, didnt know about it. I had a lot of people around i could have asked but i just didnt care about it to ask, you know. So you stumble around a bit and find your way. Ive come to grips with it now. Quite frankly the things i have been able to do with my family, the lifestyle i give my children, im so, so grateful. Rose they can get an education anywhere they want to. They go to the school, my boys right that i was so jealous of the boys going to that school because they were always the coolest. One particular day, when my wife asked me what school, i said that school. Thats where they have to go. Theres a thing in australia and probably here, too if youre a kid growing up and a woman got on to a bus, you stand up and give them your seat. Thats basic gentlemanly manner, chivalry, you know. The school that my boys go to are famously competitive with another school thats right next to them, you know. I went to a complete different school. Im sitting on the bus full of boys from this school, right and we hit a bus stop and now come on board ten or 12 boys from the school theyre very competitive with and one by one, without a word or a grin or a wink between them, they stood up and offered their chair. I mean, that was wit at a deep level, i thought at the time. And because they did it with such grace no animosity was created and the guys who were being given the chairs were like actually thats pretty funny. So i just remembered that. The spirit of those young men. They were fine young men, and thats what i want my kids to be and they will be. Rose when you look at the acting, have you achieved what you wanted to achieve . By that, i dont mean awards, but i mean what you inside know youre capable of and have done. Sometimes i look back at that body of work and when i say look back, i actually watch movies but i think of things like Beautiful Mind or cinderella man, more recently noah, you know rose right. You know, ive had some incredible challenges put in front of me and, you know, i know in the deepest point of my heart that in those situations and all the situations i get into in acting, you know, i do my very best every day and, you know, sometimes i do scratch my head and think what is left, you know . What role could there possibly be that might attract me . Then, of course an opportunity like les miz comes up. Rose or phat fathers and daughters. That will tear your heart out. I showed it to a group of women in los angeles and the one word was cathartic. Yeah were watching a story about another person and her relationship to her dad but from the moment im thinking about my father and my conversations with my father, my relationship and my love for my father. You could look around the room and everybodys face is just sheeted with tears, you know. A beautiful film. Gabrielle who made the sheet of happiness made great films as a director in italy before he moved to america but i think its his finest work and then to say frieda is the lead, but there is another actress in the film only 11, her name is Carlie Ann Rogers and shes a heartbreaker. Amazing skill for an 11yearold. Rose congratulations on the water diviner, directed by and starring Russell Crowe. Thank you. Rose for more about this program and earlier episodes visit us online at pbs. Org and charlierose. Com. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org rose funding for charlie rose has been provided by the coca cola company, supporting this Program Since 2002. And by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. The following kqed production was produced in high definition. [ music ] its all about licking your plate. The food was just fabulous. I should be in psychoanalysis for the amount of money i spend in restaurants. I had a horrible experience. I dont even think we were in the same restauran