Rusty on his 'split personality'

He's played everything from a Gladiator to a mathematical genius, but no role is quite as complex as Russell Crowe's latest character in The Mummy.

Speaking to Be at the film's premiere in Sydney on Monday night, the 53-year-old revealed what it took to get into the zone when came to preparing for his role as iconic literary figure Dr. Henry Jekyll in the latest reboot of the franchise.

"I went back to the source material, back to the Robert Louis Stevenson book and re-read that," Russell told Be on the black carpet.

"I read it when I was a kid but I had forgotten all the details of it and it really is quite a strange, strange tale. You can see it's written at a time in London when Jack The Ripper was in operation and stuff like that, it's very dark, and so trying to bring those elements to this story, which is obviously a 100 and something years later, while still keeping a connection to that. The way that we reversed the reality of those characters is kind of cool."

Admitting that the premiere was the first time he would be seeing the movie, Russell added that he was "forward to seeing it and getting people's reactions" to the character, who struggles to control his "split personality" of Jekyll and Hyde while heading the mysterious organisation Prodigium, the link that will see films set in Universal's "Dark Universe" connected.

Rusty also opened up about working with long-time friend Tom Cruise on the movie, telling Be that while the pair had spent over two decades wanting to work together, it was finding the right project that took time.

"It was fantastic, it's funny because one of the first things we talked about when we met in '92 was 'What should we do together?' and a few things came up over the years but they never really landed and this is a very different take on what that could be.

"I wasn't really interested in a black-and-white-good-guy-bad-guy kind of thing but we did discuss a more of a Butch and Sundance kind of connection at one point," he joked.

"With this it's just a lot less obvious than that, you don't really know where the good or where the evil lies in this particular tale."

RELATED: Tom Cruise on exploring his dark side

Meanwhile Tom praised Russell, saying he was just as excited to finally work with his friend and believes his character brings a "balance" to the movie.

"It's crazy. I have always admired his work and finally I was here and was like 'If we could get Russell to play this character I would be so happy' and fortunately he said 'Yeah I'm interested,'" Tom told Be at the premiere.

"To have that opportunity to know someone for so long and really know their work, I've seen all of his films, and to watch him create this character on set and watch that process and really dive in with us, was a pleasure for me.

"He brings a balance to any film that he's in, and to have him plat that character and I loved the way that he played it. You see him exploring and create that character as he was going along and I think also for the dark universe as Jekyll Prodigium, where is that going to go? The potential is enormous and fun for an audience."

Watch the videos to check out Be's chats with the stars of The Mummy!

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