Source: Empire (UK)
January 2001
Proof Of Life: Part 1
Russell Crowe interview
By Alistair Harkness
In Proof of Life, Russell Crowe plays Terry Thorne, an ex-SAS soldier turned kidnap and ransom negotiator hired by Alice Bowman (Meg Ryan) when rebels in South America kidnap her engineering husband, Peter (David Morse). Filmed on location in the Andes by veteran director and former Peace Corps activist, Taylor Hackford, the shoot proved almost as eventful as the movie itself and marked Russell Crowe's first role since Gladiator turned him into an international star last year. In London for Proof of Life's UK premiere, Empire Online caught up with both Hackford and Crowe at the Dorchester hotel.
AH: How much kidnap and ransom insurance did the studio take out for you and were you worried about shooting in South America?
RC: I think Taylor reckons he insured me for about 150 quid: just enough bus fare to get someone else into the gig. We had a lot of people from different Special Forces units: ex-Royal Marines, ex-American Marines, ex-SAS; guys who were actually built into the crew, so we had a little bit of protection on the set. Ecuador is a very unpredictable place and we were quite close to Columbia, which is basically what the movie is about, not this fictitious place called Tecala.
AH: What did you learn from your conversations with the real SAS guys?
RC: It was very interesting. I picked up a lot of stuff that I used for the character out of those conversations and those conversations are not necessarily things that other people would be comfortable talking about ....
AH: What effect did shooting in the Andes have on you?
RC: The geographical location increased the normal pressures, you know? The jungle location was about an hour-and-a-half from Quito and Ecuadorian roads are not the best in the world, particularly when you get out of the main city centre. You have potholes and seven or eight earthquakes a day, which means that there's a lot of landslides. So I started living in the jungle. I got the jack with the drive, you know? An-hour-and-a-half there and an hour-and-a-half back every day, I was like, 'forget about it.' So I just started living in my trailer. I made a barbecue out of an oil can and stole food off of the caterer and just waved as everybody drove out each day and greeted them as they came back in the morning. And the locals were like 'are you crazy? There are wild cats in the jungle.' But quite frankly, I'll take the wild cats over the Ecuadorian drivers any day of the week.
AH: How do you deal with the fact that your private life is splashed all over the press?
RC: It kind of gets to a point where it's so much bollocks that you just let it slide. It's something that's difficult that you kind of get used to, I suppose. Having people at the front gate of my farm and stuff like that, it's like, 'how the fuck did you get here?' That sort of changed things but I still manage to get about and do the things that I want to do and all that sort of stuff.
AH: How do you feel about Taylor Hackford's comments that your off-screen relationship with Meg harmed the movie's performance?
RC: Is that what he said? He's a fucking idiot isn't he? Seriously, y'know? What a knob!
AH: Are you the same person you were three years ago?
RC: Yeah I don't think, fundamentally, I've changed at all. I think, fundamentally, I'm the same arsehole I was three years ago.
AH: Richard Harris has spoken of you as a soul mate, a throw-back to the sixties. Do you see yourself in his kind of mould?
RC: I don't know much about moulds, mate. Playing a scene with him was absolutely magnificent, though. He's a very wise man and he's covered quite a lot of things in his career. I just found Richard to be a fascinating individual with a huge heart and a great bloke to sit down and have a chat with. I'll give you an example, another Gladiator story....
AH: This is your second year as an Oscar nominee. Are you better prepared for it this year?
RC: I had a little bit of fun going there last year because I took my niece as my date and so I was seeing the whole thing through her eyes. But it's a very long night and you spend the whole time sitting there going, 'Come on, get on with it.' I was very surprised I got a nomination this year, I'll tell you. I would have been happy for the rest of my career being an Oscar nominated actor, but 'two-time Oscar nominee' has a nice ring to it as well.
Proof of Life Interview Part 2
Director Taylor Hackford
Excerpted ~
AH: Gladiator came out while you were filming and turned Crowe into a full-on movie star. What impact did it have on the production?
TH: When he became an international phenomenon with Gladiator, what was important to me was this: is he going to change? Well, he didn't change. He was just as difficult before as he was after. He was not an easy person to work with and I don't like working with easy people. Russell challenges; he asks a lot of questions and they're intelligent questions. He has many good ideas and I will take those ideas every single time. I didn't find any difference at all with Russell pre and post-Gladiator success. He's a thorny individual, but he delivers.
AH: Russell was quite... frank in his disagreement with your comments over the effect of his relationship with Meg. Has this left any bad blood between you?
TH: I have absolutely no personal animosity towards Meg or Russell. They were fantastic and totally professional and they did a great job for me and [their relationship] never impeded the work process one iota, okay? But, I mean, I'm watching television one day and seeing Marisa Tomei on Tuesday and Helen Hunt on Wednesday and Mel Gibson on Thursday and [their film] What Women Want opens on Friday. That's the process and we didn't do any of that [for Proof of Life]. That is a fact of life. I don't blame [Crowe and Ryan], I understand their situation. There was nothing I could do to control it. You just have to stand on the sidelines impotently and watch it go. But it did have an effect on the movie's [performance]. Now Russell may disagree with me and he certainly expresses himself candidly, but it doesn't bother me. The fact is, as I've said over and over again, I loved working with him. He's not easy and it's a very intense experience and we had lots of give and take. We saw each other last night [at the premiere] and we talked about going to Australia and working again.
