al-Qaeda were planning to kidnap Russell Crowe

As early as 2005, Russell Crowe gave an interview to GQ Australia in which he said Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terror network were planning to kidnap him as part of a “cultural destabilization plan”. Crowe claimed the threat came in 2001, a few months before he received an Oscar for his work in Gladiator. And because of the threat, the Australian actor needed extra security details on the set of A Beautiful Mind and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

What happened with FBI?

And now, a decade after that revelation, Crowe looks back on the surreal incident and how it indirectly tarnished his reputation.

Speaking to The Guardian, Crowe says: “I still don’t know to this day what the hell it was all about. All I know is I got into LA, went to my hotel like I’d done umpteen times before, started unpacking, and there was a knock on the door and a team of FBI guys wanted to sit down and talk to me. And then they were always there for almost two years. I remember going to the Golden Globes and having about 16 security guards with me. I don’t even know why. They wouldn’t give me any details. And of course, people were like, ‘Look at him, he thinks he’s fucking Elvis.’ And then one day they just weren’t there.”

Crowe said the F.B.I. learned of the threat from a French policewoman in Libya or Algeria, who picked up the recording. In 2001, the F.B.I. confirmed that it was indeed investigating a conspiracy to kidnap Crowe. al-Qaeda were planning to kidnap Russell Crowe. However, by 2005, the actor said the F.B.I. Eventually, they began to suspect that the “threat had probably or possibly been exaggerated, and then they began to question their sources.”

“You just block people. Block the motherfuckers.”

These days, Crowe says he takes care of his safety, at least when it comes to social networking services. Asked by The Guardian how he protects himself from rude fans, the actor revealed: “Well you just block people. Block the motherfuckers.” He enjoys bouncing off Twitter users so much that he wishes the service would make the experience a little more enjoyable. “The thing that [Twitter] needs to work on is to give you more satisfaction when you block someone. When you hit “block,” there should be like a nuclear explosion, and that person’s photo shatters into a million fucking pieces, so you’re like, “Yeah, see you, bro.” BOOM.”

The actor knows he’s on to something with this Twitter-blocking vision. “Sooner or later they will, right,” he adds. “And you will know where the idea came from. “Russell Crowe won the Oscar for Gladiator, the FBI warned him that the al-Qaeda were planning to kidnap him

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Gladiator