Source: Australian Broadcast Corp
December 8, 2000
Proof of Life's Trouble-Plagued Shoot
By Sharon Knolle
Torrential rains and landslides, a volatile leader, a tragic death, and a runaway romance - the stuff of great drama, right? Right. Especially considering that it all happened behind the scenes of director Taylor Hackford's new drama, Proof of Life.
The runaway romance between co-stars Russell Crowe (who plays a hostage negotiator) and Meg Ryan (as the woman whose husband is kidnapped) has all but hijacked the drama as far as the media is concerned. But Hackford and his actors have been loath to talk about the love affair, just as they've been reluctant to comment about the accidental death in April of co-star David Morse's stand-in.
After working side by side with Ryan and Crowe in those steamy Ecuadorean jungles, Hackford and Morse (who plays Ryan's husband) said they didn't realize what was up. Not until shooting moved to London - and those tabloids first began spreading the news of the affair - did the Proof crew get the facts.
"They were incredibly professional and they were discreet," says Hackford of his leads. Co-star David Caruso agrees: "What I was aware of was two people digging into the material and allowing the chemistry to happen."
"Filming Proof of Life was no Cole Porter cocktail party," Hackford says. The director insisted on filming on location in the rugged Andes mountains - making it the first Hollywood movie to film there. "Taylor is very interested in authenticity. We probably could have filmed in Central Park, but he wanted the location to be a rough one," says Caruso.
Morse admits that his role, that of an American businessman abducted by terrorists in fictional South American country Tecal, was rough. "Months and months ... it wears you down, shooting at 14,000 feet for 14 hours a day." Morse lost 25 pounds to realistically portray a man wasting away, and was going for 40 pounds until his doctor told the 6-foot-plus actor it was too much, too fast.
"Every day, filming was a challenge, with people literally being carried off the mountain on stretchers, collapsing [due to lack of oxygen]," but there was one day that really took the cake. "[Hackford] lost it one day really badly," says Morse. "He lost it at me and he lost it at some of the girls who had never acted before, he lost it with the crew, he just lost it with everybody.
"Everything was going wrong. He was so out of control of the environment. He'd scouted this one location a month before and it had the greatest view in the world, and when we got there, it was snowing and we never saw it. It could have been Los Angeles, it could have been anywhere."
Hackford was also having trouble getting one of the actresses to slap another actor playing a terrorist, and, with precious daylight and his magnificent shot fading, the director decided to show how her how to do a movie slap.
"She just didn't understand," says Hackford, who says he gave the actress a light slap to show her what he had in mind. As for the disappearing view, it magically made it into the film - even though no one on location could see it - thanks to an optical fog filter the director of photography produced.
After "losing it," Hackford apologized to one and all, which Morse says "makes him the real commander."
"He sees himself as a commander, essentially of a huge ship ... and he really chose to do this in difficult circumstances. In some ways, that came back to bite him, but it adds to the quality of the film, which is what he wanted," says Morse.
Source: Gold Coast Bulletin
December 8, 2005
Album an insight into what makes Russell tick
Russell Crowe says the motivation for his solo album, My Hand My Heart, and the inspiration for a tender love song is the woman he calls his salvation.
Crowe, who will show off the album when he plays Southport RSL on Sunday, says his music reflects his love and respect for Danielle Spencer, his wife of two and a half years.
"It's just a statement of understanding; an expression of love and appreciation (for her)," says Crowe of the song Weight Of A Man.
My Hand My Heart was released in May, just months after the star left Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts, the band he co-founded in 1984.
"I played with that band for a long time and, when we were touring in 2003, I just felt that the community really wasn't focused," he says.
When the film Eucalyptus, which was to star Crowe and Nicole Kidman, fell over earlier this year, Crowe found time to make some music. Serendipity also helped. His collaborator, Alan Doyle from Canadian band the Great Big Sea, had arrived in Australia at the end of his honeymoon and was free.
Doyle and Crowe co-wrote six of the 10 tracks on the album, which also features five of the seven TOFOG members ("the ones who care to know what I'm writing about at the moment") and was recorded at Crowe's rural property.
The first single, Raewyn, was praised by singers Sting and Billy Bragg and spent several weeks at the top of the music download charts.
"On this record . . . the areas that we wanted to talk about came first," says Crowe.
"I had the inclination. I definitely had the stories bubbling inside me and it all became very simple at that point."
The songs are introspective and intricately laced with the kind of fine story-telling that appears in a Paul Kelly or Johnny Cash record. There's also some deft humour and a haunting choral requiem Crowe wrote for the late Richard Harris - in the style of a football song.
Oscar-winner Crowe likens writing a song to constructing a movie character.
He says his relationship with Doyle is similar to those he has with Ridley Scott, Michael Mann and Ron Howard, the directors of Gladiator, The Insider and A Beautiful Mind: "When we discuss things, I can see in my mind what they're talking about.
"For example, I know exactly what Ridley's asking for given that he might be talking about some gigantic landscape, but I still follow him because I can see in my mind what he's saying. And the same thing with Alan."
The song Weight Of A Man is perhaps the album's most personal and talks about the burden of being married to Crowe and the attendant movie-star lifestyle.
"I certainly understand that she (Dani) is not in an easy position, it comes with a lot of stuff," he says.
"And when you're just married and having a baby, there's stuff that gets thrown at us outside our relationship that can come at really inopportune times.
"But we have known each other for a long time and I think that song acknowledges that."
Source: The Australian
December 8, 2010
10 Questions - Jack Thompson
You had your first big break with the TV series Spyforce back in the early 1970s. Was it an exciting time in your life?
Spyforce was a wonderful experience. It was the dawn of the renaissance of the Australian film industry, we all worked incredibly long hours, and I used to watch the work from the day before on editing facilities next to a condemned house in Narrabeen (Sydney). We produced 8 1/2 minutes of screen time a day - a lot.
The release of The Sum of Us in 1994 not only helped to break Russell Crowe internationally, but helped to open doors in Hollywood for you as well.
It was a fabulously successful film. It brought international interest in Russell, and attention to me as a mature actor. It was such a delight because it was so well-written. I loved Harry's line that his son Jeff wasn't really gay - just "cheerful".
Do you think Harry, as a character, as a father, resonated so strongly with audiences because he exemplified the very best of the Aussie male?
Undoubtedly. I grew up with men like Harry, in the bush, in the Army. Their attitude being that it doesn't matter what you do in your home; it's how we get on here that matters. David Stevens [playwright and screen writer] told me he wrote it as a tribute to the tolerant and intelligent Australian men he'd worked with and known.
