Russell Crowe's drunken auction plan

5 April 2018

Russell Crowe's divorce auction came to him after a "couple of vodkas".

Russell Crowe

The 53-year-old actor is selling over 200 items owned by himself and his ex-wife Danielle Spencer - who have sons Charles, 14, and Tennyson, 11, together - in the 'Art of Divorce' sale and he revealed the idea for the clear-out came as a way of stopping their separation from feeling too "heavy" and looking for a "positive" way to view the split.

Russell - who split from Danielle in 2012 but only had their divorce finalised last year - explained: "I was flying through the centre of Australia, what they call the APY Lands, going to these different arts communities and I was going through that exact conversation, it [the divorce] was starting to feel heavy.

"We separated five and a half years ago so it's kind of been in my life and sort of pervasive across it for such a long time, I was looking for a way to bounce that into something more positive so this is what I came up with.

"It was after a couple of vodkas in the middle of the desert."

The 'Les Miserables' star has had "a lot of fun" putting together the auction, which helped him lighten having to "deconstruct" the end of his marriage.

Speaking on UK TV show 'Good Morning Britain', he said: "Getting to this point with the divorce, and no matter how amicable a split is, you've still got to unwind things at a very deep level. I've never been someone who deconstructs things, I've always been someone who builds things, so it was quite a big lesson in life to become someone in life who can deconstruct things.

"I thought to myself, while I'm in the middle of doing that, how else can I do that? How else can I apply that. This is what I came up with.

"Actually it's been a lot of fun, this is almost like doing a full production. It's taken me 12 months, choosing the articles and how they balance with each other.

"It's been joyful. I'm kind of excited to see what happens."

And it isn't just the idea for the auction that came to Russell after a few drinks, as he revealed one of the most unusual items in the sale, a dinosaur skull, was a purchase he made while boozing with 'Body of Lies' co-star Leonardo DiCaprio.

He explained: "I'd just done a film with Leonardo DiCaprio and we were drinking together one night at his place and he's got - I hope he doesn't mind me saying - a beautiful art collection and one of the things he had was this mosasaur skull.

"I was admiring it and he was like, 'Actually I want to move that one along because I've got something else I want to put in that place'. So bottle of vodka later, a cheque was written and I had myself a dinosaur skull."