#2406 - Russell Crowe

Joe Rogan (0:03)

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Jamie (0:06)

Trained by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.

Joe Rogan (0:14)

How are you, sir?

Russell Crowe (0:15)

Good to see you. Joe Rogan.

Joe Rogan (0:17)

Yeah, good to see you.

Russell Crowe (0:18)

Nice to see you, man.

Joe Rogan (0:19)

Your movie's great.

Russell Crowe (0:20)

Thank you very much.

Joe Rogan (0:21)

When does it come out?

Russell Crowe (0:22)

In the United States, it comes out November 7th. And then various dates over the next month and a half or so around the rest of the world.

Joe Rogan (0:31)

It's a fucking heavy movie, man.

Russell Crowe (0:33)

Yeah. It's a heavy movie.

Joe Rogan (0:36)

The trial, that footage, was that all real footage? The Holocaust footage? Real footage of the plows?

Russell Crowe (0:42)

It was one of the reasons that inspired Jamie to go ahead, that he was given access to that footage, some of which has never been seen since 1946

It's a very interesting way that he makes the subject matter accessible, because it's such a dry topic from the outside, right? He's a court case. He's yet another courtroom drama, procedural or whatever. So I can imagine that people would see that and go, well, this might not be an exciting watch or something. But he sort of puts the audience in this position where he allows them to start to be amused by some of the things that are going on, and the interpersonal relationships, and when the commandant of the prison has to call up his two top mental health experts and dress them down for getting into a fist fight, things like that, there's a charm to it. Then he gets you into the courtroom and he locks the door. He goes, now you're going to see what we're talking about. So, I think it's a very interesting film device to disarm people before he starts giving them the real juice, you know?

Joe Rogan (1:59)

Yeah, it's also a fascinating psychological tape from the psychiatrist, from Kelly's perspective. You know, because the way he's describing all human beings, that all human beings are capable of these horrific acts.

Russell Crowe (2:18)

Yeah. And that's the thing that was a very unpopular take at the time, actually led to his removal from the process, because he wasn't fulfilling what the War Department wanted him to say, which is, you know, all Nazis are crazy, you know, ruled by a madman. And this is a unique experience. But that's not what he found in sitting down talking to the 22 major Nazi sort of names that he was assigned to post-war. He realized that every single one of these people was, you know, was normal. Well, there was a couple that were pretty out there. But you know, for the most part, he was dealing with rational men.

Joe Rogan (3:07)

Yeah, that's what's scary.

Russell Crowe (3:08)

How the hell did they end up making this series of decisions if they're rational men?

Joe Rogan (3:13)

Well, it just seems like things just get pushed slowly but surely into this unbelievably horrific place.

Russell Crowe (3:23)

Right.

Joe Rogan (3:23)

Like, it starts off, it's just a war. It starts off, Hitler's in power. And then slowly but surely, things get pushed. Yes.

Russell Crowe (3:32)

And that's the thing that's, you know, difficult because gigantic jumps, we can all read. Right. But little incremental changes.

Joe Rogan (3:43)

Right. The boiling of the frog.

Russell Crowe (3:45)

Just how, you know, you take away this person's rights, that person's personal power, you know, and slowly, you know, you get to a point where the average person then turns around and goes, how did we get to here? Right. You know, I thought it was, I thought it was about something else. You know, there's a smoke screen going up and I thought we were doing that. And as it turns out, it's very different.

Joe Rogan (4:08)

Yeah, that's the, one of the scariest aspects of human beings is our ability to dehumanize others, to turn others into something less than us. Non-human, an other.

Russell Crowe (4:21)

Right.

Joe Rogan (4:22)

Humans with families, with mothers and fathers and children.

Russell Crowe (4:25)

It's one of the most dangerous things. I see it going on everywhere at the moment, that we're trying to say that you're either, you know, and for one or the better team name, that you're either red or that you're blue.

Joe Rogan (4:37)

Right.

Russell Crowe (4:37)

And humans are far more nuanced than that. They're not, we're not that extreme, you know? And that, the idea that you can split all of us into two camps, it's kind of nuts.