Former hostage Ashley Smith recounts terrifying night that changed her life

There, in the middle of the night, he abducted Ashley Smith (Kate Mara) on the street and forced her at gunpoint to take him home with her.

But before he was caught, Nichols found his way to the apartment of a single mother named Ashley Smith.

“Captive” dramatizes Nichols’ massacre with jaw-dropping intensity. But en route to the courtroom, he overpowered a sheriff’s deputy (Diva Tyler) and took her gun before embarking on a bloody killing spree that would claim the lives of the judge, a court reporter, a police sergeant and a federal agent.

Robinson did not realize at the time, but being held hostage by Nichols would change her life path.

Actor David Oyelowo plays Brian Nichols, a murderer on the run determined to make contact with his newborn son.

FOX 5’s Lisa Rayam sat down with Ashley Smith.

“I truly believe the film is about the fact that in God, no one is beyond redemption”, Oyelowo told CBN News. We just could never quite find the flawless DNA for it. Being that it was sort of a fictional thing, I think that it was hard for Pastor Rick Warren to gt his head around that idea of a just out-of-whole-cloth story that tapped into the power and the truth in his book. “To them, they had so much passion in their heart for telling the story to help other people”, said Smith. He takes her captive in her own home and threatens to harm her and those she loves if she doesn’t do everything he says. In total, it has sold over 30 million copies worldwide and is the second most translated book, after the Bible.

“Here we are now talking about a film that has been made about these events”.

I hope to. My philosophy is to keep the audience guessing and I think I’m about ripe to get a little less intense so yeah, I have nothing on my plate as a producer so hopefully anyone out there who is reading this interview can present me with that.

In the film after Smith reads Nickels some passages of the book, he asks her if she could forgive him, to which she responds, “I don’t know, but maybe God can”. She’s lost her first husband to drug-related violence and is battling her own addictions. “Seeing this 5-foot-3, 90 pound, redheaded girl knock on the door, I went, ‘You’re supposed to be me?’ I was like, how is that going to happen?” she says, laughing. “That’s where a long career lies, that’s where you continue to grow as an actor”, he said.

“Every time I’ve watched it, I’m holding my breath the whole time”, Smith said. Oyelowo and Mara make the most of their smaller silent moments, forging a tenuous bond by slowly and believably opening up to each other, and Nichols’ entire introduction is a lengthy and tense action sequence devoid of dialogue (in which a buffed-up Oyelowo races through the streets sporting a suit jacket with no shirt underneath – proving a different kind of commitment to the role). “And then he took his hat off and he said, ‘Brian Nichols.’ And I’m like, wait, I’m like, that’s the same man I saw in the mug shot earlier”.

“As I talked to them, I was like, this isn’t just about making a movie to make money”.

March 12, 2005 was a very dark day for Smith. Smith’s story is one of grace, courage and forgiveness and one that all Christians should embrace. “A woman who gained her life back, who facing crisis redoubled and redoubled beyond that night and is now living evidence of God’s redemption, God’s forgiveness, God’s ability to reinstall hope into a hopeless situation”, Oyelowo described.

One of the stars of the film, David Oyelowo, who plays Brian Nichols, went on record, saying, “I was drawn to this story because it beautifully illustrates how a broken spirit can be healed by an unexpected source of hope”. Something transcendent happen, something unexpected happened.

When questioned what the successful actor thought his objective was he assuredly responded without hesitation.

“I was able to have conversation with Brian Nichols that helped him understand I’ve been there”, she said. “You don’t need to appeal to non-Christian audiences; in fact, I think it hurts you”, says Phil Contrino, chief analyst for Boxoffice.com. “Drugs had been a way of life that I had let consume me for many years before that and I had a choice, whether I was going to use them or not”.