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December 2014 | January 2015 Turkish Delight Pavlova Exotic Summer Pudding Thing of Legend Bradman’s Invincibles The Dogs Don’t Talk! Staying Sane in Retirement Asset Rich, Cash Poor Making Your Home Pay Russell“Working with RidleyCrowe is like holding the paints for Titian” first up executive diary I pen this with the The Opposition pretence rumble of the G20 in that there is no need for That time again! full flight and a huge budget reform as well as As a National Seniors member, you may focus on the goals the associated desire for of the world’s most revenge for the actions have received an invitation to participate powerful. 2014 has during their term in power, in our annual Social Survey. National been a global year. have not contributed Seniors is seeking to understand more It has reinforced positively to the debate. about the experiences, intentions and how connected and No it has not been a year impacted we are by attitudes of the over-50s across issues of positives. ‘But next events across the season’ he cried, ‘get ranging from finance and health to world. It has also ready for next season!’ wellbeing. Your responses will provide been a year of conflict, Michael O’Neill terror and distress CEO National There is optimism that vital insights into those things that are for ordinary men, Seniors Australia free trade deals secured important to you both now and into by the government with women and children the future. If you’ve received the survey, – for world citizens China and Korea and everywhere. an agreement with Japan will deliver we encourage you to have your say. benefits to the Australian economy in The unfolding catastrophe that the the years ahead, which is good for all ebola virus is to countries in West including the over-50s. Securing the Africa and the potential threat to future economic security of the nation citizens elsewhere, has been belatedly rests on our presence in international recognised. The humanitarian and markets. other implications for the world from ebola are of huge proportions. Domestically, the New Year will Indeed, Sir Bob Geldof dusting off the likely see the release of the latest vocal chords to rally the music world Intergenerational Report. It will for aid reinforces both the seriousness provide an opportunity for the national and the global connection. leadership to provide more informed analysis and hopefully progress from The disappearance of Malaysian Airlines blaming the nation’s trouble on ageing flight 370 and the shooting down of to acknowledging that with any MH17 caused great distress to families challenge comes opportunity. across the globe including in this country. For National Seniors, 2015 will be Calling grandparents The gruesome spectacle of extreme important as it undertakes planning for violence by ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq the decade ahead. This will be significant The University of New South Wales, has appalled all and seen the spread of as a period of successful consolidation with National Seniors’ support, is running ‘lone wolf’ home-grown terror to western and foundation gives way to a more bold an online survey for grandparents who countries. This is disturbing for all – and and visionary future for the organisation. intended to be so by the perpetrators. There will be opportunities for members provide regular care for their grandchildren, and who are currently employed, or have The wash-up of the G20 Summit will to contribute thoughts about what their occur over time and with consideration organisation should be doing in the been employed in the last five years. of the detail and achievability of the decade ahead. Details will appear in The researchers are keen to hear your the magazine and on the website from commitments. The proposed economic views about caring for your grandchild, early in the New Year. growth targets provide encouragement the impacts on your life, and how you think but as has been evident domestically, In the spirt of optimism and with grandparents who are providing childcare the implementation of policy changes the season of Christmas, I close with to achieve the targets remains the key. an extract from Charles Dickens’ can be better supported. The survey A Christmas Carol. will shed light on how caring affects the Our government’s intentions around employment decisions of grandparents budget reform have been subsumed “I will honour Christmas in my heart by a combination of limited and try to keep it all the year, I will live and how communities and governments policy preparation, ineffective in the Past, the Present and the Future. can support their caregiving role. communication and dealing with a The Spirits of all Three shall survive The survey takes 15 minutes to complete difficult and diverse cross bench. within me…” www.surveys.unsw.edu.au/f/159455/6ccf/ 14 50 SOMETHING December 2014/January 2015 cover story I’m at a Gold Coast movie convention, as one of only two media outlets granted an interview with Russell Crowe who has flown in to promote his new film The Water Diviner. I’ve been waiting an hour-and-a-half for the Foxtel crew to wind up, and the publicity girls are nervously checking their watches as the shadows lengthen. “He’s flying back home to Sydney this afternoon,” one explains. “What time is his flight?” I ask. They look at me as if I should know. “He’s got his own plane”. Ah, that’s right. It’s easy to forget that Russell – who hangs out at rugby league games in trackies, and whose reputation for brawling earned him a spot on the American cartoon South Park some years ago – is a MEGA movie star. All up, without sequels or franchises, Crowe’s films are said to have raked in almost $4 billion at the box office and attracted a string of Academy, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations and awards. Think Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, The Insider, Cinderella Man and American Gangster. Even blockbuster film director Ridley Scott described him as one of the world’s top three actors, in an interview with 50 something. At home, this father of two is respected for putting his own money, time and effort into one of Australia’s founding rugby league clubs, the South Sydney Rabbitohs (est. 1908) as it teetered on the brink of collapse. Eight years later it sits at the very top of the league ladder following its first grand final win in four decades. Now, as Russell Crowe makes his directorial debut this Christmas, the question on everyone’s lips is: Just how far can the Midas touch go? Tell us about The Water Diviner. The movie is set mainly in 1919. It’s about a father who has waved off three sons to war, and all three get shot on the same day in August 1915, the Battle of Lone Pine. The grief drives his wife insane. So he finds himself alone and he decides to fulfill a promise, to go across the world and retrieve the bones of his sons. What were the challenges of being on the other side of the camera? It was a very natural, easy transition. I first started working in front of the camera in 1970 at the age of 6, I’ve played leading roles in feature films for 25 years and I’ve worked with many directors from Ridley Scott to Peter Weir and Michael Mann. I know the language that actors require to be spoken in; I know the language that film crews talk in. I’ve been on so many film sets, in so many situations and part of so much problem-solving With a string of hugely successful that it’s the time for me to do this sort of thing now. What are the lessons from Gallipoli and are they just movies and a champion football team as relevant today? under his belt, Russell Crowe is trying Gallipoli is a big part of our culture. I’m as proud as the next person of the sacrifices made on our behalf back then but I look at his hand at directing. Sarah Saunders it now – I’m 50 years old, I have two sons of my own, and would I be the man who pats his kids on their backs and encourages them catches up with him. to go off to war? I’m afraid I’m not that person. The romance goes out of war the moment you step on the battlefield. The Water Diviner is unapologetically anti-war. Pro-Australian. Anti-war. 18 50 SOMETHING December 2014/January 2015 You have an incredible body of work. You know you’re getting somewhere in When I was 7 years old they won the What are you most proud of? Australia when every man and his dog grand final and I remember feeling more calls you by the same nickname. So I’m confident about my own crazy dreams In terms of complete movies, my favourites Rusty to everybody whether they know because my local football team were the would be Cinderella Man and A Beautiful me or not. Nobody’s ever asked me, but champions. If you’d asked me then when Mind. But in terms of movies I’ve enjoyed I hate that name. But now it brings a I was 7, would it be 43 years between then making, I love being on sets with Ridley smile to my face when people say it. and the next time, that would have been Scott. I’ve worked with him five times inconceivable to me.