Russell Crowe made a joke about “sodomizing” his co-star in the 1992 movie “Romper Stomper” at Wednesday’s Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, in a riff that was cut from the broadcast version of the ceremony.
“I just want to talk about what binds us together. There’s two things really. One is an abiding passion for our pursuit and the other is sensitivity,” Crowe said as he took the stage to introduce the Best Asian Film of the Year, according to The Daily Beast.
But his remarks about “sensitivity” in the industry in the wake of widespread accusations of sexual misconduct soon went wildly off course.
“I was sodomizing Jacquie McKenzie on the set of ‘Romper Stomper’ and I didn’t actually intend to do that but I was trying to keep my bits away from her bits, and she’d been given one of those pieces of elastic that the girls get when you do the love scenes, which protects them from all things, and my bits and pieces were in a little canvas sack with a drawstring, similar to when you used to buy chewing gum as a child,” he explained.
The Oscar-winning actor continued, “And it wasn’t actually in my desire to keep the bits apart. It wasn’t until the opening night of the film that it was pointed out by none other than Jacquie McKenzie’s beautiful late mother that we were in fact, in her mind, engaged in sodomy. Anyway that was just a story about sensitivity.”
In response to Crowe’s joke, McKenzie took to Facebook to clarify, “There were no blurry lines on that awkward day’s filming back in 1991.”
“Russell was reflecting on the indignities of shooting a particular scene, in the R-rated indie film ‘Romper Stomper,’” she added. “Over the eons, he and I have often laughed at the awkwardness we felt shooting that scene. How we were trying to be as protective of our modesties as we could, as ‘sensitive’ to each other’s feelings as we could BUT when the director called ‘action’, the scripted action was violent and explicit. We were both new to the industry at the time — it was my first film — and, yes, it was uncomfortable. For everyone. Scenes like that always are. Also for family and friends when they later watch the work on the big screen.”
While a spokesperson for Crowe has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment, Crowe did give a statement to Sydney’s 2GB radio station: “Obviously I was only intending to make people laugh. Especially Jacquie, and she did. I didn’t mean any offense to anyone and it wasn’t a comment on other issues.”
The Guardian reported that the bit was cut from the broadcast.
Listen to the audio above, and see McKenzie’s complete Facebook post below.