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Michael Jackson Prank Calls: Russell Crowe Speaks About His Directorial Debut And The Tricks Jackson Played [Video]

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 01:45 PST, Apr 23, 2015

Oscar winning actor, Russell Crowe, was recently interviewed about his directorial debut in The Water Diviner. While speaking about the movie, he brought up the tale of his strange friendship with the late Michael Jackson and the humorous prank calls Michael played on him.

While they never actually met, Jackson played several tricks on him over the years.

On Wednesday, Crowe appeared on the Today Show, promoting the U.S. release of The Water Diviner. While speaking, the 51-year-old spoke fondly of Michael Jackson and the funny prank calls he played on him and even managed to do a passable impression of Jackson’s high-pitched voice while he was at it.

He told the Guardian that even though he never actually met the King of Pop, apparently it was always a lot of fun and was completely in character for Jackson.

“If you know Michael, then you know it’s a real thing, it’s just something he liked to do.”

The Daily Mail reports that in the Guardian interview, Crowe said, “For three f—ing years, I never met him, never shook his hand, but he found out the name I stayed in hotels under. So it didn’t matter where I was, he’d ring up. Do the kind of thing you did when you were 10.”

When speaking of one of the actual pranks he said Michael phoned him, asking, “Is Mr Wall there? Is Mrs Wall there?” On responding in the negative, Crowe got the response back from Michael Jackson, “Then what’s holding the roof up?”

Crowe said, “You’re supposed to grow out of doing that right?” He then added using a perfect impression of Jackson: “If you’d go ‘who’s this’ he’d go ‘don’t worry Russell. It’s only Michael.'”

Besides the fun aside about Michael Jackson’s phone pranks, Crowe said that he is happy that he got into directing in his latest project.

“It’s substantially more interesting, directing than being an actor.”

“Artistically, it’s the deepest, satisfying thing I’ve ever done.”

Apparently Crowe took his new job very seriously and even had around a dozen of the young actors involved in the movie head out to his farm in Australia for a boot camp before filming began.

“Preparation is always the key when you’re working on film.”

“I chose to use some of what I had to make sure that they were going to be in the right pocket, showed them how I do it.”

Crowe explained his role as Joshua Connor in the film, which is the story of a man trying to come to terms with the fact that his sons, missing in the Great War, might be dead. Reportedly the meaning of the title The Water Diviner represents the spiritual connection that his character shares with his three sons and his grief-stricken wife.

Getting back to Michael Jackson, who tragically passed away in 2009, the popular singer was well known for his eccentric behavior and funny sense of humor, but this particular story was surprising to many.

In other news relating to Michael Jackson, the Inquisitr recently reported that his children, Prince and Paris, have vowed to clear up the molestation rumors that are still doing the rounds.

[Photo: Russell Crowe Pablo Cuadra / Getty Images, Inset: Michael Jackson Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic Alan Light]

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