Russell Crowe praises Turkish actor Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ on Twitter

ISTANBUL

Academy Award-winning actor Russell Crowe on Jan. 5 praised Turkish actor Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ on his Twitter account, reaching out to nearly three million followers.

Upon news reports that Tatlıtuğ was offered the role of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in an upcoming movie depicting the Battle of Gallipoli during the First World War, Crowe wrote “Kıvanç!!! Very good actor” in response to another user.

Tatlıtuğ then wrote to Crowe in order to thank him.

“Russell. Happy New Year! Thank you for your kind words. How nice that you are still watching,” Tatlıtuğ wrote on his Twitter account on the same day.

“I am so honored and very appreciative. It’s been a while, it would be nice to meet again, maybe in 2018,” he added.

The Battle of Gallipoli was fought by the Ottoman Empire in the Dardanelles Strait in 1915, defending against Alliance forces trying to break through to Istanbul. The victory gave Turkey a massive morale boost, which enabled it to wage the War Independence and eventually, in 1923, form a republic under Atatürk from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.

Tatlıtuğ is particularly well-known in the Arab world through his performances in various popular TV serials and is sometimes called “the Brad Pitt of the Middle East.”