Russell Crowe’s Massive New Role Challenge: First Look at Upcoming Film!

The historical film “Nuremberg,” directed by James Vanderbilt (known for “Truth” and “The Price of Truth”), has just released its trailer. This significant cinematic project features a cast including Rami Malek, Russell Crowe, Leo Woodall, Michael Shannon, Richard E. Grant, and John Slattery, revisiting one of the most pivotal trials in history.

Held from November 20, 1945, to October 1, 1946, the Nuremberg Trials sought to bring to justice 24 top officials of the Third Reich, all charged with war crimes.

In the film, Rami Malek plays American psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, who evaluates whether Nazi prisoners are mentally fit to stand trial for their actions during World War II. Russell Crowe portrays German war criminal Hermann Göring, a role he prepared for by shaving his beard for the first time in five years, as he shared on his X account.

How do you embody such a character?

New Zealand actor Crowe discussed his attraction to the role in an interview with Deadline, who visited the set. He explained, “Usually, the things that scare me are what draw me in. The script immediately grabbed my interest but also drained me emotionally. How do you embody such a character? That’s typically what attracts me. It’s also why you haven’t seen me in 15 other films like ‘Gladiator’.”

“Nuremberg” is based on the book “The Nazi and the Psychiatrist” by Jack El-Hai, which details the interactions between Kelley and a group of Nazi criminals at the end of the war. Kelley was the first allied psychiatrist to assess Nazi leaders like Göring, Rudolf Hess, Julius Streicher, and Karl Dönitz. While the trials themselves have been depicted in films before, such as Stanley Kramer’s 1961 “Judgment at Nuremberg,” the preparatory work for the trials had not been explored until now.

Rami Malek, who read El-Hai’s book and also accessed Kelley’s “22 Cells in Nuremberg,” shared with the American media about his character, “Kelley couldn’t help but feel empathy for Göring. He believed he was there to ‘dissect evil’, as he puts it in his book, but later discovered that Göring wasn’t inherently evil. He realized that anyone, at any time, under any political landscape, could commit such atrocities. That must have been an absolutely terrifying realization. The psychiatrist came to understand how easily evil could permeate society.”

The film “Nuremberg” is set to release in American theaters on November 7. A release date for France has not yet been announced. Following this, Russell Crowe will join Henry Cavill on the set of the “Highlander” reboot.