RUSSELL GROW: ‘Gladiator’ Oscar-Winner Crowe Confesses How He’s Gone From Muscled ‘Sexiest Man’ to ‘Weird Looking’ Bloated Deep-Sea Fish

Oscar-winner Russell Crowe has opened up about his transition from the "sexiest man alive" to a bloated deep-sea creature.

During a recent interview, Crowe was asked what it was like seeing his clean-shaven face for the first time since 2019.

He said: “Have you ever seen one of those documentaries where James Cameron takes a camera down to the Mariana Trench, and you see these really weird-looking fish? It was kind of like that. Took a number of days for my puckered skin to fucking come back to looking human.”

The Gladiator actor discussed turning 60 soon, telling the interviewer he “can’t believe it”. He explained how his head wasn’t ready to accept it, but the injuries done to his body over the years have forced him to start feeling it.

He explained: “I’ve got no cartilage in my big toes because the sports that I played were all lateral movement sports – tennis, rugby and cricket, where you’re sprinting from a cold start – on top of the fight sequences, where sometimes you’ve got to make a very extreme sudden move to save yourself in a situation where something’s gone wrong.”

Crowe listed off a number of injuries he’s suffered over his decades-long career as an actor. He suffers from fasciitis, shin splints, bone-marrow edemas under both knees and has several issues with his back.

“I’ve got ribs that just pop off the spine if I put them under too much pressure,” he continued. “I’ve had two operations on my left shoulder, but now that shoulder is so full of arthritis that for me to get back to a place of comfort, they’ve basically gotta cut in, take the whole humeral head out, they’ve gotta chop it in half, stick carbon fiber in there and sew it back up, and there’s a recovery period of 11 months.”

Ultimately, The Nice Guys actor said his injuries were worth it in the long run.

Crowe said: “That’s the way I did it.”

“I remember back in the early ’90s, I was talking to some older American guys, and this one guy said, ‘Look, you see that guy over there who’s dressed exactly the same as you? He’s here so you don’t have to roll in the dirt for six or seven hours a day.’ And I’m like, ‘But I’m playing the character, so I’m gonna be the one rolling in the dirt.’ As you get older, you realize they were just trying to point out that maybe it’s better to keep your own tendons.”

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To prepare for his next role as the Nazi war criminal Hermann Göring in the upcoming film Nuremberg, Crowe would ride a thick-tired mountain bike from his rental house to the studio, deliberately taking the hardest route.

The actor logs his time on social media, trying to beat his record, usually reaching somewhere around 45 minutes each ride.

GQ interviewed Crowe about his upcoming film and the battle damage he's taken throughout his career.