>> rose: welcome to the program. tonight, russell crowe. he has a new film in which he directed and starred in called the "the water diviner." >> i'm reading the script, and this voice said, i had never heard come out ofñiñi myself was present and it 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 andñiñiñr turkish people and people around the world. i'd never had that before. i finished reading it once, made a phone call and said i want to do this movie but only if it's my responsibility. >> rose: cruls cruls for the russell crowe for the hour next. funding for charlie rose is provided by the following.

>> 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 scott's gladiator, also nominated for roles in hon row ward's a beautiful mind and michael man's 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 can't even find your own children! >> my boys... (shouting) >> arthur, henry and edward conner. >> we're not leaving your brothers behind! >> i left them together. and they died together. they shall be buried at home beside their mother. i'll find them and i'll bring them home. i'm going to gallipoli.

>> there's nothing there for us. you walk off your farm, turn off your newspaper for what? they're all killed in a day. >> maybe you could help him. you know what the chance of finding his boys are. >> if you haven't found out yet -- >> this is your son. this is not mine. >> how did you know? it's a necessity where i come from. >> you can't stay. go home, mr. connor! they're my boys.ñr

"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 hadn't worried about it too much. in 2011 i got a run of -- i read a script and yeah, i'm into that and that. so i said i'm 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 wasn't really looking for it. i was developing other things. i'd had the intellectual concept of being a director for a long time and i've 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 it's basically because i have such a visceral connection with the piece that i can't say no. i don't base my decision on pedigree or money. it's always the individual character. i call it the goosebump factor. that's what i'm always looking for. i found myself reading this script and having that visceral+ actor, making notes and cross-referencing 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, i'm never going to be attracted to the guy who doesn't really know what he wants to do. he just wants to have a casual chat. i'm attracted the guys who go i'm gonna do it this way --

>> rose: and i need you. yes. and they have part of the tone of what they're talking about is they're the only person in the universe who could tell the story the way it needs to be told. so i'm 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. i'd never had that before. basically, i finished reading once, made a phone call and said i want to do this movie but only if it's my responsibility. >> rose: so what was it about this script and this story that made you feel that way? >> well, it's such a big answer because it's culturally really significant. the battle of gallipoli is huge.

it's the first time they've 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 it's 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. it's a story about a man and his three children who go to war and don't come back. i'm a dad of two boys so that's 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 haven't really taken it

to, you know? i mean, i know there's sort of a cliche that some people say that every war film is an anti-war film but that's 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 don't talk about grief. we don't talk about that moment between engagements when theñrçó wounded men are lying in the field calling for water, their mothers, calling for god. we don't 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, they're not necessarily completely on top of or they don't really know anything about. it has a responsibility to the men and women who actually are in service for our countries and what they're really facing because this is the thing that we often don't talk about it's

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. what's 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. >> there's 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 itñr 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 waterñi divining because his grandfather was a waterñi diviner a famous one, who found water for mel gibson in the '80s when mel had property inçóe1.

>> 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 it's under the ground. the next bit is the bitñr that's 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. it's a real thing, you know. i mean, i'll 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. that's 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 we're 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 that's exactly where the council are digging up. my dad goes, well, yeah, i can find broken pipes. >> rose: what's 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 it's 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 -- it's mainly a practical job water divining, and when he gets to that battle battlefield, he has his son's diary and a hand-drawn 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 he's got all that practical information but then on top of that he's got the four years

that he's spent wandering about -- wondering about what happened to his boys. he's 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 it's true. you talk to women in particular and particularly young women and say has there been an ex-boyfriend in your life who became an ex-boyfriend because of an intuitive process where you knew they were somewhere they weren't supposed to be? they say, absolutely. it's 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 -- it's independent but i have investors. they're, like, we're prepared to give you x and if you're going to direct and not be in it, that's x minus and as a director you want as many assets as you can. giving up a massive chunk of potential budget didn't 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. it's not that. it's 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. i'm 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 didn't 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, russell's about to start shooting his movie, you know, anything you want to tell me? he goes oh, he'll 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 you're the sort of person who will focus on your actors, you're still the lead role. make sure you shoot what you need and you get into post

because your story won't have a spine. >> rose: because you're worrying about your other characters. >> that's exactly because you're giving of your self. the other piece came from ely roth who i love as a person but whose movies creep me out, i can't 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 you're 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 that's 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 that's our attitude, that is our priority on a daily basis. i create an energy around me that everybody knows they're 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 they're where you are. and what else? >> yeah, you see, what i'm doing is i'm taking a group of young australian actors and i'm 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 i'm filling them up with

the information, swilling them up with the tasks that lay ahead of them so in a ten-day period -- every day is long walks, yoga, weight sessions, horse riding, weapons skill training, we might do archery which is about focus, a 50-kilometer 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 he's 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 he's 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: that's 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. they'll realize it doesn't work and will change it and try it another way. i'm on a little independent film with an independent film budget. i haven't got time for those kinds of shenanigans. i have to know what i'm looking at and trying to get. so, seriously it's just a more interesting day if you move faster. it's more interesting for the

crew. >> rose: clint eastwood another director who's 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 they've learned. >> i'm not going to move on if somebody's 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 you're trying to interpret what the director wants. that's what you're 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 you're trying to get out of this particular setup. but if i've 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 thin-skinned 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 crowe's 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 i'm 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 you're giving me (bleep) i won't give you an answer immediately. i'm not that guy who puts up with that. if you're thinking i can get away with this because i'm on camera, then you'll find out you can't 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 i've 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 they'll do, quote unquote, more courageous things because they feel they're protected, you know, because of their job, you know. and if you're rude to me, i'll be rude back. if you ask me nice questions i will do my very best to give you -- >> rose: that's not been my experience with you by the way. we've 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, i've 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 won't use that because i can jump that. here's the thing with directing -- it's 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 that's 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 can't wait to direct your next fill snm. >> it's 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 51-year-old 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: you're a better

director because you have been an actor. >> i don't 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 haven't done it you just don't know. >> rose: you got everything out of russell crowe that you wanted out of russell crowe? >> everything that i asked for and, what's 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: what's 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 it's 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 i'll look down on my finger and it's not there anymore and i don't feel balanced you know. so to this day everything that i do is still connected to that, you know. we haven't done the deal yet. you never know.

>> rose: haven't done the deal yet means what? >> we're not sort of officially stamped divorced. we're separated. >> rose: so you're hopeful? i didn't 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 they're still the one sitting in the corner with each other. >> rose: so you have a beautiful idea of what a great marriage is. >> yes. i'll admit quite freely that i'm 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 son's 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 i've really got to give my boys is my

work ethic, you know, because they're 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: that's 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, she's a singer-song writer and she'll record something a hundred times if she doesn't feel it's 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, that's where i will go. i want to be where my kids are. if i'm making my own film i'm 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. >> it's 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 it's 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 a-list male or female, you know, watches "the water diviner" says i love it what do you think of this project and it's 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 mom's 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 couldn't get it out of my house. i couldn't talk no matter how many times they did the take. i was working with a famous australian actor called jack thompson who 20-something years later played my dad in a movie in a comic circle. i was there with jack, they say action. he does his line. i'm supposed to say "it's my ankle" and i can't talk. so nervous. i said i can't -- 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 it's your knee. i said no, it's my ankle. (laughter) at the time, obviously i didn't 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 you've done all these interesting things. you've 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. he'll still bring it up every time. (laughter) sport is so connected to the community that it's 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 that's 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 it's a complex area and they've fallen into such a state of disrepair. you guys have that phrase "giving back." i call it "community penance" and that's been nine years of my life.

certainly for probably four to six of those years it took so much time, it was a full-time 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 weren't close at all when his dad was alive but since his dad passed on, we've just gotten together and he sort of realized, i suppose the qualities that his dad enjoyed. >> rose: he's, also, i think a famous gambler wasn't he? >> he was. and the biggest tipper on record, i think. >> rose: yeah. he asked a waitress in vegas one night you're very personalized i see the way you're operating with everybody i think you're a nice person.

she says, thank you mr. packard. he says, what's 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 150-grand. what a guy. >> probably got more out of it than she got out of it. >> because i'm 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 don't 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 aren't these machines in every ambulance? and they said oh, it's costly blah blah blah. and in his typical gentle and elegant manner he said, well that's (bleep) and bought a defibrillator for every ambulance in south wales. so tens of thousands of lives have been extended because of that. >> rose: it's just asking the right questions is what i like. why aren't there these machines in every ambulance? it saved my life! >> particularly when he found out the cost. it's not like they're a million dollars each. it's a matter of a few thousand dollars. you know, he did a lot of great things in australia. jamie's come on board now with the team. and when he asked me a few years ago, i thought about it and i was, like, it's at least 45 to

46 hours a week, and that's 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 couldn't be tracked down, you know, i didn't yell i didn't 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 it's 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. it's about everybody else at that point, you know.

i've 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 we're 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 we're 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. we're playing the game there. everything is stacked against us. their season is underway. we're in pre-season. we're 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 couldn't be turned around. we ended up beating them. >> rose: are you planning on bringing rugby to the united states, to vegas? >> that's something i've had in mind. there are a lot of rugby played here. rugby union is a 15-man code. our game is a 13-man code which americans understand easier because there's 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 it's 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 they're 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 that's 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 don't 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. i'll 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 that's 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, i'm what seems to be like the modern concept. i appreciate my regrets. that's the stuff i've learned from. people say to me, you know, i'm going to live my life without regrets -- well, you're not going to learn anything. >> rose: you're 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 it's bound to happen -- >> rose: and in your case, there's somebody that will photograph and write about it. >> and it's the writing that does the most damage because the writing fills people's imaginations and it's 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 you're not answering your questions. because you don't 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 i'm 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 don't know about it. i understand fame a lot more now at age 51 and accept it? and you've made some accommodations or not. >> yeah, when i can. if somebody wants an autograph i'll give it to you. but there's another thing where -- because people see you every now and then ignore somebody who's literally chasing you down the street. but that's not your average movie fan. that's some person who will sell that. i just had 14 photographs with this guy out of side. but he doesn't care about me. he's thinking money. i don't care about that. i don't 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 i've hit a photographer. i've never done that in my life. never. what i've done is i've saved some of the most stinging verbals barbs just for those sort of people. you know? and they're shredded wounded and bleeding going back to their editor and they're 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 wasn't ready for it, didn't know about it. i had a lot of people around i could have asked but i just didn't care about it to ask, you know. so you stumble around a bit and find your way. i've 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, i'm 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. that's where they have to go. there's a thing in australia and probably here, too if you're a kid growing up and a woman got on to a bus, you stand up and give them your seat. that's basic gentlemanly manner, chivalry, you know. the school that my boys go to are famously competitive with another school that's right next to them, you know. i went to a complete different school. i'm 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 they're 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 that's pretty funny. so i just remembered that. the spirit of those young men. they were fine young men, and that's 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 don't mean awards, but i mean what you inside know you're 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, i've 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 we're watching a story about another person and her

relationship to her dad but from the moment i'm 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 everybody's 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 it's 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 she's a heartbreaker. amazing skill for an 11-year-old. >> 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.

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>> 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♪ ] >> it's 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 don't even think we were in the same restauran