‘The only role I regret’: Russell Crowe turned down this film 20 years ago and bit his fingers

In 2004, four years after winning the best actor Oscar for his role in Gladiator, New Zealand actor Russell Crowe could have won a second statue if he accepted another role he regrets turning down: that of a famous singer. Johnny Cash in the James Mangold biopic Walk the Line.

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Indeed, as he revealed in 2019 Fitzy and Wippa on Nova FM ( with the help of DailyMail), he was approached to play the legendary musician at the time, but opted out because he didn’t feel legitimate about the role. A decision he still brings up as the only regret in his career:

It was a dream job for me

“Only What I really regret, what I really regret, is that I turned down the Johnny Cash biopic.”he said.

“It was one of those inner morals things. It was a dream job for me. I’d been listening to and singing Johnny Cash songs since I was a kid, but I had a feeling I was getting something I didn’t deserve.”

Always at the microphone Nova FMThen the actor said that he really liked the film and that he immediately regretted his choice when he discovered it in the cinema:

These were exactly the kind of films I wanted to make

“From the first notes, when the camera rolls around the prison, it was like a knife to the heart. Not only did I want to make this movie, but it was exactly the kind of movie I wanted to make.”

Ironically, it was Joaquin Phoenix, his co-star in Gladiator and translator for his sworn enemy Commodus, who inherited the role of Johnny Cash, giving a superb performance that also earned him an Oscar nomination.

Would you like to see Russell Crowe in Walk the Line?

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