Russell Crowe’s longstanding friendship with Anthony Albanese has resurfaced as Australia prepares to go to the polls on May 3.
The Hollywood megastar, 61, and current Prime Minister, 62, have known each other for some 25 years via the South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby league club, which the actor has part owned since 2006.
The Oscar winner said Australia is ‘lucky’ to have Albanese as PM in a Sky News interview with Erin Molan in 2023.
‘Here’s what I’ll tell you about Anthony Albanese,’ Crowe said in the resurfaced clip.
‘When I took over the club every man and his dog asked me for stuff, you know. And he never did.
‘He never did. And he always turned up. If there was something big going on for the club and we wanted his presence he always turned up.’
Russell Crowe’s longstanding friendship with Anthony Albanese has resurfaced as Australia prepares to go to the polls on May 3
The Hollywood megastar, 61, and current Prime Minister, 62, have known each other for some 25 years via the South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby league club, which the actor has part owned since 2006
Mr Albanese is a long-time supporter and life member of the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
‘And he kept up his own membership and he buys his own tickets,’ Crowe added.
‘Of course, if he’d asked me for something I would have said yeah, but he never did. Because if he wanted to go to the game he was going for his own reasons.
‘You know, that to me shows the quality of the guy.’
Crowe said he thought Australia was ‘really lucky’ to have Mr Albanese as Prime Minister because of his authentic nature.
‘With all the opaque bull***t we’ve had to deal with for the last 10 or 15 years, we’ve got a guy who is at least going to tell us the truth,’ the Gladiator star said.
‘Now he might not make the decisions that you want individually every time, but over time what Anthony will do is improve the lives of the people in this country.
‘And that is a politician’s job, not the other bull***t we have seen from people who have pretended to be in that position in the last decade or so, the actual job of improving people’s lives and that’s what I believe he is going to do for us.’
‘Here’s what I’ll tell you about Anthony Albanese,’ Crowe said in the resurfaced clip. ‘When I took over the club every man and his dog asked me for stuff, you know. And he never did
Crowe and Karl Stefanovic were recruited by Kyle Sandilands to organise a bucks party for Albanese in 2024.
The Prime Minister, who is getting ready to tie the knot with his fiancé Jodie Haydon later this year, has repeatedly come under fire for his circle of celebrity friends.
Crowe even narrated a Labor advert campaign starring Albanese in 2022.
The minute-long clip voiced by the actor shows Albanese meeting Aussies on the campaign trail, as well as stock footage of senior Australians and a farmer in a field of wheat.
The advert caused some controversy when it was revealed to have used stock images from foreign companies.
When asked which current or former Australian prime minister he would most like to play in a movie, Crowe joked that the ‘cheeky person’ in the back of his mind wanted to say ‘none of the bastards’.
‘If you think about it – and it’s funny because we didn’t know it at the time – but through my lifetime with political people like Gough (Whitlam), like Malcolm Fraser, like Bob Hawke, like Paul Keating… we had some extremely intelligent men looking after the interests of our country, and we were very lucky,’ Crowe said.
‘You cut to a little while later and the same quality… hasn’t been there.’
But if forced to choose, Crowe would be keen to bring the life of Gough Whitlam to the big screen.
Australian Labor Party leader Gough Whitlam was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975.
