In 2014, Russell Crowe made his directorial debut with The Water Diviner, an earnest post-World War I tale about a father looking for the graves of his sons lost at Gallipoli in which he also played the lead role. It had been a long-planned labour of love. But his second directing job – the gambling thriller Poker Face – arrived out of the blue. And at a poignant time.
“When the producer asked me to take it on, it was 10 days after the passing of my father,” he says.
