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Russell CROWE instructed by Jim LARVEN
Lausanne – 8 June 2010
Jim LARVEN, the Secretary General of Archery Australia, was called to give personal instruction to famous actor Russell CROWE who played Robin Hood in the recently launched movie. Jim shared this wonderful experience with us.
How come did you get to give archery lessons to Russell CROWE for the 2010 Robin Hood movie? Who and how did they contact you?
I am well known in Australia as an instructor and coach. I am also a collector of archery history with over 500 bows and other memorabilia in my collection going back to the late 1800's. As well as my involvement in modern high performance archery, I have an interest and background in historical archery making my own longbows as a hobby. The producers in the US contacted me as it appears I was recommended. We could not get our hands on any of the bows or arrows that would be used in the movie so I made some longbows and arrows that resembled traditional English longbows of the period which were used for training and practice.
When, where and how did these lessons take place? I was not the official archery coach for the movie, this was a person in England but I was asked to provide personal instruction to Russell. He is a perfectionist and never undertakes a movie role unless he is totally prepared. The instruction was done on his farm which is some 500km north of Sydney over a period of about 12 months usually over weekends.
What kind of advice did you give him? He needed to learn barebow archery with traditional side of face anchor to fit into the movie's script and to shot a longbow. He had never done archery so it was firstly the basics and then developing a technique that would demonstrate that he was an experienced archer. We also spent a lot of time training to nock, draw and shoot an arrow while running as this was called for in the script. The important point was to make it appear he was totally at home with shooting a bow. I think this was achieved.
How was your relation with the actor and how would you define him as a person? He is a great person and very professional totally dedicated to getting the role correct in every way.
Have you been involved in the movie in any other ways?
Not directly, there was a chance to be an extra but that was in England and required too much time away. We did talk about various aspects of the movie and my thoughts on how archery should be portrayed. I did suggest slow motion shots of arrows leaving the bow would be interesting, and if you have seen the movie they were.
Do you have any funny/special anecdotes to give about the time you spent with Russell CROWE? There were some early morning sessions fitting in between gym work, long mountain bike rides and horse riding training. One memory is of his farm which is a wonderful place located in arguably the best part of the east coast of Australia. The farm has a large population of kangaroos, and many other native animals, including a quite large snake (I avoided it).
What will be your best memories from this experience? I only had a small part with the movie but I am looking forward to the long term benefits for the sport, I was particularly interested in making sure the sport is portrayed accurately and in a positive manner. I think the movie has achieved that goal and will be great promotion for the sport.
Have you ever trained any other public/famous people? I did instruct be it only for about 20 minutes the Prime Minister of Australia. I have also trained a few people for some local movies, TV shows and TV commercials. I have also provided bows, arrows, targets butts, etc. for movies and TV commercials. We have a TV Show coming up in a few weeks where we will train some football players from various teams who will then have an archery competition against each other. Thanks a lot, Jim, for sharing your wonderful experience! Ludivine MAITRE WICKI World Archery Communication
Jim LARVEN, the Secretary General of Archery Australia, was called to give personal instruction to famous actor Russell CROWE who played Robin Hood in the recently launched movie. Jim shared this wonderful experience with us.
How come did you get to give archery lessons to Russell CROWE for the 2010 Robin Hood movie? Who and how did they contact you?
I am well known in Australia as an instructor and coach. I am also a collector of archery history with over 500 bows and other memorabilia in my collection going back to the late 1800's. As well as my involvement in modern high performance archery, I have an interest and background in historical archery making my own longbows as a hobby. The producers in the US contacted me as it appears I was recommended. We could not get our hands on any of the bows or arrows that would be used in the movie so I made some longbows and arrows that resembled traditional English longbows of the period which were used for training and practice.When, where and how did these lessons take place? I was not the official archery coach for the movie, this was a person in England but I was asked to provide personal instruction to Russell. He is a perfectionist and never undertakes a movie role unless he is totally prepared. The instruction was done on his farm which is some 500km north of Sydney over a period of about 12 months usually over weekends.
What kind of advice did you give him? He needed to learn barebow archery with traditional side of face anchor to fit into the movie's script and to shot a longbow. He had never done archery so it was firstly the basics and then developing a technique that would demonstrate that he was an experienced archer. We also spent a lot of time training to nock, draw and shoot an arrow while running as this was called for in the script. The important point was to make it appear he was totally at home with shooting a bow. I think this was achieved.
How was your relation with the actor and how would you define him as a person? He is a great person and very professional totally dedicated to getting the role correct in every way.
Have you been involved in the movie in any other ways?
Not directly, there was a chance to be an extra but that was in England and required too much time away. We did talk about various aspects of the movie and my thoughts on how archery should be portrayed. I did suggest slow motion shots of arrows leaving the bow would be interesting, and if you have seen the movie they were.
Do you have any funny/special anecdotes to give about the time you spent with Russell CROWE? There were some early morning sessions fitting in between gym work, long mountain bike rides and horse riding training. One memory is of his farm which is a wonderful place located in arguably the best part of the east coast of Australia. The farm has a large population of kangaroos, and many other native animals, including a quite large snake (I avoided it).
What will be your best memories from this experience? I only had a small part with the movie but I am looking forward to the long term benefits for the sport, I was particularly interested in making sure the sport is portrayed accurately and in a positive manner. I think the movie has achieved that goal and will be great promotion for the sport.
Have you ever trained any other public/famous people? I did instruct be it only for about 20 minutes the Prime Minister of Australia. I have also trained a few people for some local movies, TV shows and TV commercials. I have also provided bows, arrows, targets butts, etc. for movies and TV commercials. We have a TV Show coming up in a few weeks where we will train some football players from various teams who will then have an archery competition against each other. Thanks a lot, Jim, for sharing your wonderful experience! Ludivine MAITRE WICKI World Archery Communication
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