The Unofficial Russell Crowe Resource Page

This article is from Premiere. Thanks to Jennifer of the CrowePeople mailing list for typing it in.

Proof of Life

The Pitch: When an American engineer (David Morse) is taken hostage by guerrillas in Colombia, kidnap-and-ransom specialist Terry Thorne (Russell Crowe) arrives to negotiate his release. During the five- month battle to free him, however, Thorne and the engineer's wife (Meg Ryan) engage in a soulful affair that will force her to choose between her husband and the man hired to save him.

The Big Picture: "Colombia is the kidnap capital of the world," says Taylor Hackford (The Devil's Advocate), who elected to film much of the movie in the Ecuadorian mountains instead. Not that this didn't have its own obstacles. At least 20 people left the production because of altitude sickness, Morse (The Green Mile) says, "One big rugby-player guy got up to 14,000 feet and keeled right over. Of course," he adds wryly, "the people who smoke three packs of cigarettes a day and drink could handle it." Crowe, one of the hardier souls, even performed some of his own stunts. "Some people think hanging off a helicopter without a safety line at 70 feet is grave danger," Crowe says. "But my attitude is, if you're concentrating, it's not."

Inspired by a Vanity Fair article, the script, by Tony Gilroy (The Devil's Advocate) was written for Ryan, who received $15 million, her highest payday to date. Crowe, however, was the third choice for the role, behind Mel Gibson and Harrison Ford. "Castle Rock wanted big stars, "says Hackford, who was arguing for Crowe long before "The Insider" and "Gladiator" hit theaters. "Meg stepped right up and said, `I want to act with him.' Says Crowe, "We're really enjoying doing the scenes together. This is wildly far from her romantic comedy work." (The world press went wild when, late in production, Ryan and husband Dennis Quaid announced their separation and Quaid filed for divorce, amid reports that Ryan and Crowe were out on the town together in London.) Tragically, Morse's stand in William Gaffney, was killed when a flatbed truck he was riding in went off a cliff during a seemingly routine shot in Ecuador. "The crew was devastated," says Morse, who had returned to the U.S. for a few days to attend a family matter. None of them, however, felt the impact more than he did. "That would have been me," he says quietly. (Warner Bros., December 15)

Back to the previous page

This website is in no way affiliated with nor endorsed by Russell Crowe. All the material on the website is collected from already existing websites, from various publications or from mailing lists. Claims, comments or contributions should be mailed to the webmaster.