Ah, Russell Crowe. Over his years in Hollywood he's gained a bit of a reputation as a hard man, on and off the screen. But now, the (formerly) hard-smoking, hard talking actor has shown a softer side to his perceived gruff nature.
It turns out that he loves animals, and even has developed a friendship with some horses that has lasted over many years and a few films.
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This all came about after Liam Neeson said that he had made friends with a horse on another film, then encountered that same horse again on the set of his latest film, the Coen brothers' western The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
To his surprise, the horse seemed to remember him from the earlier film, another western.
Neeson told Page Six: "I'm saying this horse knew me.
"He actually remembered me from another western we made a while back... He whinnied when he saw me. And pawed the ground.
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"I love animals. When we worked together before I took special care of him. I fed him treats. Gave him apples."
Beautiful stuff, no?
Well, while some people were cynical about it, Crowe chimed in to say that he had also bonded with animals that he met when filming his many epic films, including Robin Hood, Gladiator, and Les Misérables:
Bless.
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It turns out that Crowe and Neeson aren't the only actors to develop special relationships with their animals while on set.
In fact, Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortenson bought two horses from the sets of those films. He also then bought a horse from the set of another of his films, Hidalgo.
Back in 2004 he told Entertainment Weekly: "I did buy the horse. I thought about buying him all during the shoot."
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He also then told the Guardian in 2009: "I met him, and we got along well and I wanted to keep seeing that horse, so I bought him. He's fat and happy and lazy."
To be fair, that sounds like a decent life to be living. Is it normal to be jealous of a horse that has everything you've ever dreamt of?
Featured Image Credit: UniversalTopics: TV and Film, Celebrity, US Entertainment, Animals