The One Lifestyle Change Russell Crowe Says Saved His Life

Russell Crowe is doing that rare two-hander: a real-life reset and an on-screen comeback. He just went on Joe Rogan and 60 Minutes Australia and, in very Russell Crowe fashion, laid it all out — the weight loss, the booze, the girlfriend, the no-thanks-on-marriage — while his new film Nuremberg quietly turns into legit awards chatter.

The health reset: from red flags to 57 pounds down

At 61, Crowe says he dropped 57 pounds over the past year after realizing, while shooting Nuremberg, that his health was sliding fast. Friends were apparently scared enough to say the quiet part out loud: they thought he was right on the edge. One close friend says he knew he was in real trouble — the weight, the constant pain, the exhaustion, the way he couldn’t move like he used to. In their words, his lifestyle and size had him basically dying.

So he changed course. He cut way back on drinking, taught himself moderation, and now limits the party to one night a week. These days he’ll nurse a single glass of really good wine instead of tearing through the bottle. When Rogan asked what’s tougher to ignore, alcohol or gambling, Crowe didn’t pick one; he said both get normalized while everyone ignores the damage they do.

He also credits teaming up with the health platform Way2Well for helping tamp down inflammation. He’s not pretending to be a scientist, but says IVs and targeted injections in his shoulders and knees made his body feel less inflamed, which is a big part of why he can actually move and train again.

'I’m a big proponent for having a drink — it’s my cultural heritage and, as a working class man, it’s my goddamn right, Joe. But as you get older, there are things you learn about your capacities.'

Love, yes. Marriage, no.

On 60 Minutes Australia, Crowe was crystal clear about his relationship status with 33-year-old Britney Theriot: very happy, very together, zero plans to get married. He laughed off the recurring tabloid headlines about an engagement and said life is joyful as is — so why mess with it?

He described the romance as the best kind of old-school: boyfriend and girlfriend, wherever they are in the world, doing basically everything together and keeping a little edge of respect that makes them wake up smiling. For timeline fans: they met on the set of Broken City in 2013, went public in 2020 after being spotted playing tennis, and they’ve been inseparable since. Crowe was previously married to Danielle Spencer; they split in 2012 and finalized in 2018. They share two sons.

Nuremberg: the performance people are talking about

Crowe’s personal rebuild syncs up with the kind of role that reminds everyone what he can do. In Nuremberg, directed by James Vanderbilt (Truth), he plays Hermann Goering opposite Rami Malek’s U.S. Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley. It’s a claustrophobic psychological duel set against the Nuremberg trials — and while the movie itself sits at around 68 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, his work is getting the louder applause.

Critics are calling it a towering, best-in-decades turn. TheWrap says he reaches a level he hasn’t hit in a long time. The rogerebert.com review highlights how dangerously charming yet measured he is. USA Today says he looks ready to crash awards season. Variety flat-out goes here:

'Crowe acts with consummate command.'

It’s been more than 20 years since his last Oscar nomination (A Beautiful Mind, 2002), and you can already hear the whispers about a fourth nod. The Associated Press is on the same page, calling this some of his strongest work in years.

Where this leaves him

After a run of smaller projects and some messy real-life chapters, Crowe looks locked in again — healthier, sharper, and back in roles worthy of the guy who used to bulldoze awards seasons. Second golden era? Don’t rule it out.

Nuremberg is now playing in theaters nationwide and is expected to hit major streaming platforms early next year. If you’ve seen it, I want to hear where you land on the performance-versus-movie divide.