Russell Crowe says in a recent interview that Michael Jackson prank-called him for over three years and that he was nearly abducted by al-Qaeda in 2001.

The 50-year-old Australian actor said Michael would constantly jokingly call him in hotel rooms after learning the pseudonym Russell was using throughout his stays while promoting his directorial debut The Water Diviner in Europe.

“For two or three f*cking years,” he says. “I never met him, never shook his hand, but he found out the name I stayed in hotels under, so it didn’t matter where I was, he’d ring up do this kind of thing, like you did when you were 10, you know. ‘Is Mr Wall there? Is Mrs Wall there? Are there any Walls there? Then what’s holding the roof up? Ha ha.’

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The star of “Gladiator” was clearly not amused.

“You’re supposed to grow out of doing that, right?” said the irritated actor.

Russell was building on a previous statement he made about the unusual calls from the former King of Pop, who died in 2009, during an interview with The Sun in 2013.

He said in an interview at the time, “He’d ring me and in a strong voice and say, “There is an emergency and you need to leave the building.”

‘I’d ask, “Who is this?” And he’d say, “Do not worry Russell, just kidding, this is Michael.”’

Crowe, who became the greatest thing in Hollywood after a run of tough guy roles and notoriously flung a phone at a New York City hotel staff, is uncertain why the late pop artist would single him out.

In an interview with The Guardian, the actor says so many ridiculous things that you can’t help but no longer question why he’s such a jerk at times. He gets into confrontations with paparazzi, tosses phones at people, and smokes in hotels despite signs that indicate “no smoking.”

“Even walking down the street was a pain in the arse. People want a piece of you,” Crowe said.

“And something else happens, man. You build all these friendships and then you hit a certain level within the business and those people need you now, if you’re connected to their thing, their thing gets done, their life is enriched, and friendships get damaged because you say no. Suddenly I was destroying people’s hope and dreams if I said no to something. It was rather intense.”

In 2001, he told the Guardian about Al Qaeda dangers. “I still really don’t know to this day what that was all about. All I know is, I arrived in LA, got to my hotel, as I’d done umpteen times before, started unpacking, and there was a knock at the door and a team of FBI guys wanted to sit down and discuss something with me. And then, for nearly two years, they were always around. I remember going to the Golden Globes and having, like, 16 security guys with me. I don’t even know why. They wouldn’t give me any details. And of course, people were like: ‘Look at him, he thinks he’s Elvis.’ And then one day they just weren’t there any more,” the star said in an interview.