BBC´s "Talking Movies" / A Beautiful Mind

Russell on taking the role:
"It became an imperative. If I read a script and I start playing the character subconsciously and making notes and making decisions on behalf of the character while I´m still reading it for the first time, they're generally the scripts I end up making"

Laura Metzger,("Talking Movies"), on Alicia Nash:
"... Alicia hangs on by his side. She´s a loving force who eventually brings Nash back to reality and that quality is exactly what Crowe says Connelly brought to the role."

RC: " Jennifer walked into the room and there was just sort of something... a little more special, a little more specific to the role, you know? For as good looking as she is and for as, you know, vivacious and all that sort of stuff that she is, she also had a major maternal thing going on, you know, she´s a very nurturing person and that is the key, I think, with the character of Alicia."

Tom Brooke, chief critic and interviewer:
"I've always thought of Ron Howard as a rather conventional, mainstream, feel-good director, so I went into ABM wondering just how he tackles some of the film´s dark subject matter.

Howard doesn´t shy away from showing some of the more lurid aspects of Nash´s descent into paranoid schizophrenia, but he does romanticize the character. Some of the realities of Nash´s life are being ebbed, brushed away. Nash, in his younger years, reportedly spouted racist and anti-Semitic epithets, he had sexual relations with men and had a mistress, but you´d never know that from watching this movie. The film suggests his wife stood by him loyally; while she has remained devoted to him, the fact that the couple divorced is never mentioned. Also, the representation of Nash´s mental illness will not please everyone; it suggests that love played a huge role in pulling him out of his darkness. This notion flies in the face of medical evidence that schizophrenia is caused by a chemical imbalance that can only really be treated effectively by drug therapy.

But what nobody can deny is that Howard has fashioned an emotional story of a man who´s learned how to keep madness at bay that really tugs at the heart strings. What´s memorable about this film isn´t the story, it´s the mesmerizing performances of its leading actors. Jennifer Connelly really, really shines as Nash´s wife and Russell Crowe is once again s-pec-tacular. As he did in The Insider, he undergoes a physical transformation and becomes his character in a manner that is spellbinding."

(Thanks to Patricia for the transcription and the captures)

Host Wally Kennedy interviewed actor Paul Bettany, who was promoting A Knight's Tale, which opens in May. Paul is currently working on A Beautiful Mind. The following is an excerpt from the interview.

Wally Kennedy: I want you all to meet Paul Bettany. He's been running around Princeton making 'A Beautiful Mind' with Russell Crowe. Tell me about . . . Russell Crowe. Before he won the Oscar, was there tension? Do you think he was nervous and pensive? Or does he get nervous about anything?
PB: I don't think he gets nervous. He doesn't seem to have nerves. He was so calm. He was annoyingly humble about the whole thing. I would have been running around naked with my Oscar saying, "I've got an Oscar, and you haven't!"

WK: Paul, you've got this naked thing you've gotta work out. (Paul spends several scenes in "A Knight's Tale" naked.)
PB: It's a hobby. Don't judge me by your rules!

(Both laugh)

WK: Did he bring the Oscar to the set?
PB: No, nothing so gauche! He showed me the Oscar because I wanted to see it. Nobody else would touch it because they thought it would bring them bad luck. But I was kind of like (motioning like he's grabbing the Oscar) I'm never gonna get one of these fellas!

WK: You know what I wonder . . . there are certain guys that just draw women like a magnet. Is Crowe one of those guys?
PB: You never know cause you can never go out with him normally! You know, cause we went out to a bar. He came in through the back door. Then when we left, he went through the front door and he found out why he came in through the back door! Cause it took him a half an hour to walk this far (measuring a couple of feet with his hands).

WK: Cause they're standing in line?
PB: Cause they want autographs and stuff. It's pretty tough for him.

WK: Now speaking of going out to bars, if you had to guess, who do you think are better drinkers, the English or the Australians?
PB: We're all on a par.

WK: Is that right?
PB: We're only beaten by the Irish! (Laughs)

WK: Shouldn't have gone there! (Laughs)

Well, what's it like working with Ron Howard? Like so many people in this county, did you get 'Happy Days', and 'Andy of Mayberry' on the BBC?
PB: Yes, oh yeah!

WK: And is he that guy?
PB: Yeah, he's that guy, but balder. He's so charming . . . directs really quietly, gives you lots of space. It's a good way to spend 12 hours a day.

WK: Is it one of those things? I mean how old are you?
PB: 29 of your Earth years. (Giggles)

WK: OK . . . do you wake up and say, "God, I'm getting paid for this. This is really fun!"?
PB: Yes, sometimes. When you're an English actor working in American films, you sometimes have the same sort of hours as an 18th Century pit horse. Which is, they film until you sort of drop dead! (laughs) But, uh, you wake up and say, "People are actually paying me to say this. I can't believe it!"

WK: (Wrapping up) Well it was nice meeting you Paul. Give our best to Russell.

(Transcribed by and thanks to Dolores)