Russell Crowe's desire to take Australian citizenship has been rebuffed twice, the 50-year-old actor has revealed.
Applications for Australian citizenship by Crowe were rejected in 2006 and 2013.
The revelation, made to the British magazine Radio Times during an interview to promote his new film The Water Diviner, will come as a shock to most Australians who consider him a true blue "Aussie".
Born in New Zealand, Crowe has lived in Australia since 1968 when his family moved here. He was aged four at the time.
Since then he has built a long career starring in some of Australia's most acclaimed and most loved films, from Romper Stomper to The Sum of Us.
He is also considered one of Australia's most successful film exports, having starring in some of Hollywood's biggest films, including Gladiator and Man of Steel.
During that time, Crowe has balanced being a cultural ambassador for both his homelands, his native New Zealand and his adopted home, Australia.
"I've been voted one of Australia's 50 national treasures, I've even had my face on an Australian stamp, the only non-Australian to do so, apart from the Queen, of course," he told Radio Times.
"It's so unreasonable," he added.
Crowe cited a recent change in the law, which complicates the process for New Zealanders wishing to take Australian citizenship.
"No matter how long you'd been in the country, if you weren't in Australia for the majority of 2000 to 2002, when I was particularly busy filming overseas, you can't become a citizen," he said.
The projects Crowe would have been filming at the time include Mystery, Alaska, which was filmed in Banff and Canmore, in Alberta, Canada, Gladiator, which was filmed in the UK, Morocco and at Fort Ricasoli in Malta, and Proof of Life, which was filmed in Ecuador.
The legislation governing trans-Tasman immigration stipulates that New Zealand citizens wishing to obtain Australian citizenship must have been in Australia on February 26, 2001, and holding an "SCV" - a "special class visa" - which is issued to all New Zealand citizens upon arrival in Australia.
The SCV gives permission for New Zealand citizens to remain and work in Australia.
If an applicant was not present in Australia on that day, they must instead have spent a "period or periods" totalling 12 months in Australia on an SCV in the two years immediately before February 26, 2001.
Based on his filming schedule, which Crowe says kept him overseas for most of that two-year period, the actor does not qualify on either point.
Having failed to meet the criteria for "general eligibility", Crowe would then have been required to apply under a different category, for "applicants in special circumstances".
Crowe's remarks were released ahead of a fuller interview in the magazine.
