Russell Crowe’s Sons Reject Robin Hood

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin

After watching dad Russell Crowe step into character on the set of Robin Hood, sons Charles, 6, and Tennyson, 3½, were initially thrilled to receive a private screening of the film.

“This is a thing they wanted to see and Dad’s going to let them see it … and it’s going to be a spectacular event in their lives,” Crowe joked during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Monday.

However, when a few last-minute delays left the trio sitting in the theater for over a half-hour, Charlie and Tennyson let their pent-up energy get the best of them.

“In that 35 minutes they do like 20 laps, they’re running around, going in the projection booth and out again and they’re just burning up that energy,” Crowe says, before adding that their excitement began to wane once the film started rolling.

“Literally five minutes in — five minutes in! — and [Charlie] goes, ‘Can we go now, Dad?’ And [Tennyson] is going, ‘Dad? Dad? When are you going to get a horse?’ ‘In a minute, baby. I’ll get one in a minute.’ ‘Yeah, but Dad, when are you going to get a horse?’”

Once the youngest Crowe got his wish, it was all downhill from there, the actor laughs.

“When I got the horse, he goes, ‘Dad, you got the horse, can we go now?’”

– Anya Leon

Comments

omg that is the funniest story on earth (besides violet affleck thinking jen garner was some stranger). i feel so sorry for russell because his kids weren’t that wild about the movie as he thought they would be, but then again you really can’t blame a 6 and almost 4 year-old for getting bored while watching a movie.

- maggie on April 17th, 2010

Russell seems to be such a great dad. His kids are so so cute, and they look so much like him.

- Niko on April 17th, 2010

Hahaha thats cute and so typical of lil kids….they have no attention span at all. Cute family

- Dee on April 17th, 2010

Haha, I love young children and their lack of patience. Although I would probably be bored by then too!

I really really hate to nitpick, but taking 3 and 6 year olds to a Pg-13 movie? Obviously it’s his children and his decision, but I can’t imagine ever doing that, especially such a violent movie.

- Sarah on April 17th, 2010

@ Sarah; I’m not sure of course but they might have showed an edited version of the movie to make it suitable for his kids. I think Jennifer Connelly mentioned that her youngest son only saw a shorter edited version of the animated film 9 and her oldest son saw the full version because it was a little too scary for her youngest son.

- Kim on April 17th, 2010

There’s more to the story. Russell’s kids had visited the Robin Hood set during filming, seen all the props, horses and even had their own little medieval costumes and play swords. So the film had been part of their lives for some time. They knew it was make believe. Russell is such a caring parent, I’m sure he gave their viewing appropriate thought.

Typical kids … all the anticipation and energy… then their attention spans wane. I remember taking my 5 year old to Disneyland. She was so excited to visit it at last, but once we got there, she just wanted to leave and go back to the hotel pool. kids.

- Mimi on April 20th, 2010