For The Nice Guys star Russell Crowe, making the Shane Black movie was a chance to live in a time period that he thinks deserves a little more credit. “It’s a great decade as far as I’m concerned,” Crowe said. “I remember everything about the ‘70s. I was only a little kid. It was a time where I was being awoken by everything.”
Many films look back to that era and go into overdrive when it comes to the fashion, music and feel. Don’t get us wrong, As you can tell from The Nice Guys trailer, the film is pure ‘70s, but a Crowe reported in the recent press day, Black and his production team gave us the feel without having the audience drowning in it.
“I think that’s one of things the movie does really well. It doesn’t give into that kind of extremity. So many of the films or TV series that get made set in the ‘70s, everybody’s got colors that were really only seen on Soul Train worn by the performers like The O’Jays,” Crowe said.
“It wasn’t as full on as some of the pastiche expressions of the ‘70s have been. You do have elements of that, particularly in the party scene and stuff like that, but everybody looks normal. They look real, sort-of centered in the world of Los Angeles and that’s partially due to the production designer, the costume designer, but also Shane Black’s desire to not make that kind of pastiche thing.”
Audiences will leave the theater after witnessing The Nice Guys and want more of Crowe and co-star Ryan Gosling together. The pair play a duo of private detectives working a missing persons (and even murder?!) case through the murky streets of ‘70s Los Angeles. Producer Joel Silver has another hit on his hand one of the things Crowe enjoys most about the flick is its attention to detail in its musical menagerie.
“I love the soundtrack. I’m definitely going to get it on vinyl,” Crowe said. The actor has started collecting the old(er) musical art form and The Nice Guys soundtrack will certain find its way into his home. “I did this thing a couple a years ago where I just decided I was going to recreate the record collection of my youth. I’m about a third of the way through. But, I keep getting other stuff that I never had when I was younger. For example, one thing that I had not done probably since 1978 — it’s probably uncouth for some people. If you have a big enough sound system, if you listened to Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell from beginning to end, that is an immense record. You remember that was the hit single, but every single song on that is just crammed full of pop beauty — little riff lines, lines of lyrics and hooks, gigantic chorus and bridges from hell. It’s is a great record.”
Although Crowe may seem like a stranger to comedies, if you look back at his film career, he is not averse to being funny. “There’s always comedies in the cycle,” he reported.
But there was something truly powerful about the script for The Nice Guys. It’s funny, oh… it’s really funny. But, it’s not a straight-laced comedy. It has so much more going for it. “I just really liked the density of this script and what the narrative was trying to achieve. And I thought it had really noble intentions. I wouldn’t have described it necessarily as a comedy because it’s full of social commentary and other things that you don’t necessarily find in just a comedy.”
Crowe was not necessarily on board with The Nice Guys from the beginning. It was a little more complicated than actor asked to appear and he said yes. Let’s let him tell the tale.
“It’s kind of an embarrassing story. I read it and I really liked it, and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s cool.’ I said to my agent, ‘I liked it. I was really surprised. The narrative is really dense. There’s a lot going on.’ He said, ‘The studio is sending you a list of people that they want to be in the movie with you.’ And I read the list and called my agent and was like, ‘Listen, obviously this is not the project I thought it was. It’s something else. I must have really wanted it to be something because I read too much into it. Just don’t bother expressing interest.’ And he said, ‘Shane Black got on the plane five hours ago.’ I was like, ‘Seriously?! Okay.’ I had a plan… I would invite him over to my house, offer him a drink and cook him a steak, and then half-way through, I’d say, ‘You know, I really thought it was something else. I’m sorry I wasted your time,’” Crowe recalled.
“So, he arrived and I said, ‘Hey, man, would you like a drink?’ He said, ‘I don’t drink.’ That was most of my plan. He had to be drinking in order to hear what I had to say. I was like, ‘What do you mean, you don’t drink?’ He said, ‘I’m allergic to alcohol.’ I said, ‘What do you mean, you’re allergic to alcohol?’ He said, ‘Yeah, one drink and I break out in handcuffs.’ I was like, ‘That’s funny.’ So, I said, ‘Look, we’ve got a bit of a problem. I’ve gotta tell you something.’ He said, ‘Well, I’ve gotta tell you something. Can I go first?’ I said, ‘All right, you go first.’ And he said, ‘Ryan Gosling.’ I was like, ‘What?!’ He said, ‘Ryan Gosling. I had a meeting with him before I went to the airport. He knows it’s going to be you. He wants to play the other character. What do you think of that?’ I was like, ‘How do you want your steak?’ And then, the evening got back on track.”
Good thing, because Crowe and Gosling have impeccable chemistry and we stated prior, we hope The Nice Guys does well… because we want more of these two, much more.