The Heat from Down Under

A new wave of Australian actor in sweeping across Hollywood, delivering star wattage, sex appeal, swagger and talent to turn. We dare you to take your eyes off six of the best Aussie imports since Mel Gibson.

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Moviegoers have already caught on to the fact that there is something different about Australian actors. Actors from Oz have been causing a commotion since the early '80s, when we first began taking note of the heroically handsome, charmingly self-deprecating Mel Gibson (American-born but Aussie-bred), the brooding, charmingly self-deprecating Sam Neill, the versatile, charmingly self-deprecating Bryan Brown and the hugely likable, charmingly self-deprecating Paul Hogan. Hollywood is now responding to a new influx of Aussie talent led by the awesomely talented, charmingly self-deprecating Russell Crowe and the rascally, charmingly self-deprecating Heath Ledger. What is it with Aussies? For one thing, the best of them seem like a throwback to unapologetically macho movie giants such as Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn and Spencer Tracy--all-around regular guys armed with a ready pair of fists, a code of honor and a roguish gleam in their eyes. On-screen Aussies seem to be less burdened--or less illuminated, depending on how you see it--by such modern-day innovations as political correctness, but they're so appealing that female moviegoers forgo feminist sensitivities to swoon over them. Male moviegoers want to go out and wrestle crocodiles with 'em, because in a cinematic era of whiners, wankers and self-enchanted pretty boys, they "read" as rugged independents who'll look you in the eye and spit in it if they must. Here, then, are some of the new wizards of Oz who are raising a fever throughout Hollywood without breaking a sweat themselves.

Russell Crowe

The Heat: Having brandished his formidable acting chops, his scowling charisma and his oiled pecs in Gladiator, 36-year-old Russell Crowe is now the star that many have predicted he would be for years. Crowe's Oscar nomination for last year's The Insider, following on his LA Confidential wake-up call performance, had already earned him respect with filmmakers. Meg Ryan knew well enough to want him opposite her in the upcoming love story Proof of Life, and Jodie Poster had no doubt he could bring oft the role of a tragically deformed circus performer in the love story she's directing, Flora Plum. Now everybody wants him for everything.

Back Story: New Zealand-born Crowe had appeared on several Australian TV series and a few movies by the time he was six. He continued acting in TV and film throughout his teens while following around his set-caterer parents, after which he toured in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Grease. So, by the time he began making films he was an experienced actor--and it showed. In Jocelyn Moorhouse's arty, involving Proof, he was unaffectedly watch able and won a 1991 Best Supporting Actor award from the Australian Film Institute. As a violent skinhead in Romper Stamper, he won the Institute's 1992 Best Actor award. He proved his versatility again by beautifully playing Jack Thompson's gay son in 1994's The Sum of Us, Having seen Romper Stamper, Sharon Stone gave Crowe his first American break in 1995's The Quick and the Dead and declared him "the sexiest actor in movies." That led to an egregious waste of time in Denzel Washington's worst movie ever, Virtuosity, but things looked up when director Curtis Hanson (who'd also been impressed by Romper Stamper) chose Crowe to play the complex, brutal cop hero Bud White in LA Confidential.

Odd But True: Crowe, who is one-sixteenth Maori, sang during high school in the band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts and recorded songs under the name Rus Le Roc.

In His Own Words: "I'd move to Los Angeles if Australia and New Zealand were swallowed up by a huge tidal wave, if there was a bubonic plague in England, and if the continent of Africa disappeared from some Martian attack. In Australia, they treat you like a piece of furniture. Your mates are your mates and the folks who hate your dark and bloody guts, they don't change their minds. That's why I love it, I suppose."

Heath Ledger

The Heat: The brooding charisma and manly maturity that Ledger demonstrated in 10 Things I Hate About You set him apart from the herd of callow boy-men in Hollywood when he was just 20. When Mel Gibson chose him for The Patriot, a whole new level of stardom opened up. Now Ledger has donned shining armor to film the medieval adventure A Knight's Tale and will follow that up by swashbuckling in the wartime adventure romance Four Feathers.

Back Story: Although most Americans didn't catch on to him until 10 Things I Hate About You, the Perth-born Ledger has been a big noise in Australia for years. He began acting as a 10-year-old in musical productions at the Globe Shakespeare Company, and moved on to a string of series on Australian TV. He made his movie acting debut in the homegrown Blackrock (a nominee for Best Film by the Australian Film Institute) and Paws, then made Two Hands, a gangster pic costarring Bryan Brown that opened at the top of the Australian box office. In the 13-episode American sword-and-sorcery TV series "Roar" (created by Shaun Cassidy and shot in Queensland, Australia), he managed to look convincing as a young Celtic warrior in A.D. 400 until, despite an ardent Ledger following and a cast that included Keri Russell, the show got cancelled.

Odd But True: He was named alter Heathcliff, the tragic, passionate hero of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, and his sister was named Catherine after that same novel's willful heroine.

In His Own Words: "Hollywood is like an American high school. It has its own fashions, bitching, cliques and fads."

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