IT'S NO MEAN FEAT TO play heavy, nearly bald, and desperately unhappy when you're a handsome, young, carousing kind of guy. But what Russell Crowe, 35, shares with Jeffrey Wigand, 57, the whistle-blowing scientist he portrays in The Insider, is the kind of fiery intensity that makes people watch and listen. While Wigand’s determination brought shocking corporate data to the public-concerning Big Tobacco's knowledge of nicotine addiction, which the companies had tried mightily to suppress -- Crowe channeled his resolve into a performance so powerful it may just land him his first Oscar.

The New Zealand native has taken on showy roles before -- the neo-Nazi skinhead of 1993’s Romper Stomper, the rogue cop of 1997’s L.A. Confidential -- but by beefing up to 238 pounds, donning a wispy gray wig, and utterly transforming himself for The Insider, Crowe has gotten the most attention. "You don't enjoy it, but it's part of the job," says Crowe of playing someone whose life is falling apart. "But you're intensely concentrating on something that deserves intense concentration, and that's where you get your enjoyment. You certainly don't get it from looking in the mirror when you're 200-and-something pounds."

Crowe, who spent hours reading about Wigand's troubles with his former employer (the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.) and watching his videotaped legal depositions, finally met the man in the spring of '98 when Wigand visited the set. "He's not immediately likable," says Crowe. "He's not a talk-show host. He's a real person, flawed like we all are." But after the two met in private and spoke about emotional issues, Crowe recalls, "I said to myself, I will honor this man."' Now Crowe himself has a chance to get the glory.

(by Rebecca Ascher-Walsh. Entertainment Weekly, Special Oscar issue, March 2000)