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THE MOVIE:
A Beautiful Mind

THE STARS:
Russell Crowe • Jennifer Connelly
Ed Harris • Christopher Plummer
DIRECTOR: Ron Howard
PRODUCER: Brian Grazer

U.S. RELEASE DATE:
December 21, 2001 (limited)
January 4 (Nationwide)

THE CONCEPT:
A drama inspired by the events in the life of mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr., a highly eccentric genius who fought schizophrenia and, with the help of his devoted wife Alicia, triumphed over tragedy and received the Nobel Prize in 1994.

Hotly tipped for a range of Academy Awards nominations, A Beautiful Mind already has six Golden Globe nominations to its name:
Best Picture • Best Actor (Russell Crowe)
Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Connelly)
Best Director (Ron Howard)
Best Screenplay (Akiva Goldsman)
Best Original Score (James Horner)

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THE COMMENTS:

RON HOWARD:
"It's the first time I've done a film about a person. I usually do films about situations and I try to pump as much character as I can into them. You can't apply a formula to this movie. It's a little bolder than I've been structurally in the past. There's definitely a level of the complexity in this drama."
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RUSSELL CROWE (John Nash):
"I read a large amount of scripts and I only make a small amount of movies. What attracted me to doing this script is not only that you had what I thought was a great personal and human story of triumphing against the odds, it was a magnificent romance that spanned five decades and, in reality, is still in existence. "
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RON HOWARD:
"Russell doesn't walk like John Nash, doesn't sound like John Nash, doesn't behave like John Nash, but there were a few things that I observed in the early conversations and meetings I had with Russell that were like Nash. One was that sense of self, that 'I am who I am, and I'm going to behave as I behave come hell or high water.' Nash couldn't change to accommodate; some people thought he was an extraordinary genius and a fascinating person to spend time with, and others found him inaccessible and even rude. Russell also has this charisma. The other thing that I felt from Russell initially was a very aggressive, ambitious intellect, and that's something you can't fake, it's not a matter of lighting him a little bit better! Either the wheels are turning or they're not!"
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JENNIFER CONNELLY (Alicia Nash):
"I auditioned for this movie. I met with Ron and talked to him first and then I came in and read scenes with Russell. I can't even remember what scenes we did, but by the time I left there were tissues all over the floor and my script pages were everywhere. It was an explosive experience just working on the scenes, it felt like an exploration even in the audition working with Russell and Ron."
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BRIAN GRAZER:
"I think this is Ron's most mature film and his best work. He doesn't have hyped-up moments and it's not warm and fuzzy, if anything it's a darker and colder story than he's ever told. And it's shot in a way that makes it more stark even though it's cinematically engaging, interesting and exciting."
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RUSSELL CROWE:
"Ron Howard has everybody in the world fooled that he's some kind of simple bloke. He's one of the most intense filmmakers I've ever worked with, but he does it in a gentle fashion and that's because he's organized and he knows what he wants, and that's a great platform for me to start working from."
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Text by Judy Sloane. More from Crowe, Howard, Connelly and Grazer here: PAGE 2 • Back to top

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Images above © Universal Studios / Dreamworks LLC.
Feature © Visual Imagination 2001. Not for reproduction