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The original story for Hollywood Pictures' intense action/drama "G.I.
Jane," and heroine Lt. Jordan O'Neil, had its gestation in the fertile
creative mind of screenwriter/executive producer Danielle Alexandra. Christened
"the female Tom Clancy," because of her mastery in the male-dominated
world of action/political thrillers, Alexandra was inspired to write "G.I.
Jane" based on the current political issues and news-breaking headlines
about women serving in combat.
Lt. Jordan O'Neil, as envisioned by Alexandra and played by Demi Moore,
is representative of the exemplary woman the screenwriter believes would
be chosen for, and have a chance to survive, the grueling special training
that SEAL recruits undergo. "From day one, long before I sold the project
and wrote the screenplay, there was never any question in my mind that anyone
other than Demi Moore would play the role of Lt. O'Neil," Alexandra
says. "I believed she was the only actress credible enough and capable
of handling the physical and emotional ride. Prior to my pitching the story
to any studio, I met with Demi to discuss the project. She responded immediately.
And as I wrote the screenplay, I thought of the personal and physical strength
that Demi has as an individual, a survivor, a woman, an achiever -- an actress."
Bold creative choices in her work are a hallmark of the meteoric career
in film achieved by Moore. With the role of Lt. Jordan O'Neil, she adds
another dimension to the range of her talents and the remarkable and memorable
characters in her repertoire.
"I was looking for something a bit more physically challenging for
my next film," Moore says of her initial interest in playing this demanding
role. "I wasn't interested in just stepping into a man's character
in an action movie. What "G.I. Jane" afforded me was the opportunity
to deal not only with the enormous physical demands of the action genre,
but also to be involved with something that had great substance. The story
deals with a subject matter that is not only topical, but also very important,
because of the bigger issue of women having more choices available to them."
Of all the bids that came in from studios in the bidding war for "G.I.
Jane," Danielle Alexandra chose Caravan Pictures because of her personal
desire to work with Roger Birnbaum and Joe Roth.
For his part, producer Birnbaum says, "When I first heard the story
for this film, it was in a pitch from Danielle. She came into the offices
here at Caravan, and I just found it all very, very exciting. It was a personal
story with drama and action, and had a lot of characteristics that could
attract a large audience.
"There's so much that goes on in this film, in terms of understanding
what the Navy SEALs really are about and what they do, and the training
they have to go through," Birnbaum continues. "It also has a lot
of political intrigue, as well. And Demi, quite simply, was the perfect
actress for the role of Lt. O'Neil, because she is physically very strong
and also extremely bright. Any person, whether it's a man or woman, who's
selected to go through the Navy SEALs program needs to start off being a
real tiger, and I think Demi is just that."
"I always loved it; Demi always loved it," says director Ridley
Scott about their mutual attraction to the "G.I. Jane" project.
"Also, an opportunity to work with Demi Moore, an actress with enormous
talent, would be interesting to any director," he says. "What
made it even more interesting was that the film's subject matter was so
provocative, too. A woman entering combat training in a very rarefied area
in the military, and how she fares against all the obstacles placed in her
way."
"G.I. Jane" took eight months of research before Alexandra began
to write the screenplay. Then, after several successful drafts, David Twohy
made his creative contributions by enhancing the action elements of the
story. As Alexandra says, "'G.I. Jane' was written by a woman, for
a woman, about a woman; but what makes the screenplay so great is that you
have David as the action writer, and me as the dramatic action, character
writer. I genuinely believe that 'G.I. Jane' is more special because it
has this combination of writing in it. When you combine the two, you have
a combustible piece of material."
While the screenwriters honed the script, the producers and director
Ridley Scott began selecting the supporting cast. "The whole process
was a producer's dream," the filmmakers agree. "I'm afraid it
may never happen that way for any of us again."
To play the role of Senator Lillian DeHaven, the politician who picks Demi's
character for special categories military training, the filmmakers looked
to Academy Award®-winning actress Anne Bancroft. "We're blessed
to have Anne," says Scott. "She presents a very incisive, smart,
and elegant professional politician. I didn't want a caricature, and Anne
can be sympathetic while on the other hand being very tough. Actually,"
he continues, "she would be a good politician."
For Bancroft, the role came at an opportune time. "I'm attracted to
a role if I'm ready for it," she explains. "I recently had been
playing a lot of women who stay at home, a mother, a great aunt, a grandmother.
Here was a glamorous woman with a great sense of herself who is out in the
world. It was nice to pull that out of myself."
For the role of Master Chief John Urgayle, Scott wanted "somebody fresh
and new." He did not have to look far. "I'd had my eye on Viggo
Mortensen since seeing him in 'Indian Runner.' It was a very dark movie,
but he was a very interesting presence. Then my brother Tony used him in
'Crimson Tide.'"
"I just met Ridley and got the job," confirms Mortensen. "It
was flattering to be cast without any apparent hesitation on his part in
such an important role. I am very grateful to him." Creating his antagonistic,
hard-driving character was more of a task. In order to accurately depict
the Naval Special Operations training practices, Mortensen went to the naval
base in Coronado, California, where he watched the actual training and talked
to as many active and retired SEALs as he could. Describing the character
he finally developed, the actor says, "I am the law and all must obey
or suffer the dire consequences."
Casting and training the troops who would realistically portray the background
characters was of major importance for the filmmakers. "Ridley Scott
and Demi both felt that, in order for this movie to appear realistic, the
actors in the film would actually have to go through some of the training
exercises on film," notes producer Birnbaum. "They needed to be
prepared for their roles both psychologically as well as physically."
The criteria included being in perfect physical condition, having the ability
to speed-run several miles and to run long distances, to swim 400 yards,
including 30 yards underwater, and to do hundreds of sit-ups, hundreds of
push-ups, and hundreds of squat jumps. "Being physically fit was a
big part of getting the job," notes stunt coordinator Phil Neilson,
himself a former member of the Marine Corps Elite Unit, Force Recon, who
assembled a training staff of former Navy SEALs. "We lucked out that
the actors and extras were really strong swimmers, and many of them had
military backgrounds."
In addition to the "Top Forty," director Scott needed to choose
eight actors for featured roles. These experienced actors, quickly referred
to as the "Great Eight," included David Vadim, Morris Chestnut,
Josh Hopkins, Jim Caviezel, Boyd Kestner, Angel David, Stephen Ramsey, and
Gregg Bello. They, too, had to pass the physical tests -- after which everyone
began two grueling weeks of military boot camp.
When I met with Ridley," recalls Morris Chestnut, "he said 'Would
you mind going down for some training?' I play basketball and all these
other sports, so I said, 'Yeah, no problem.' I had no idea what we were
in for! I wasn't prepared for running 30 miles in 100-degree weather, so
it was definitely a shock to train for this film. And the yelling! They
came after us and stayed on us."
"We took a very aggressive stance in the training program," says
military technical advisor Harry Humphries. "Phil Neilson and the SEAL
staff were the training cadre. We tried to show the harassment of the Special
Forces training and the skills, including weapons handling, that are taught
in that training. We encapsulated a 17-week course into two weeks, so those
actors were harassed to hell."
"We got them in the military frame of mind," confirms Phil Neilson.
"None of these guys knew each other, and now they're all buddies working
together as a team and a unit."
That team included one more member -- actress Demi Moore. "Demi is
a very impressive lady," notes Harry Humphries. "She certainly
had never been put into such physical working conditions. On the first day
of training, I saw this young woman out there with the rest of the troops,
getting muddy doing push-ups and sit-ups and squat-jumps and running around
obstacles. I said, 'That's a great stunt double,' so I walked up to her
and said, 'You've got a lot of guts.' That night we were introduced, and
the person I had perceived to be the stunt double was Demi! I can't say
enough about her tenacity and her willpower."
Notes producer Birnbaum, "Demi Moore is one of the biggest female stars
of our time, and in this movie, she gets beaten up and kicked around and
almost drowned. The role that Demi played was extremely demanding, one of
the most challenging roles I think any actor -- regardless of whether the
actor is a man or a women -- has probably had to go through. But she is
extraordinary. She put her whole heart and soul into this, and she was there
every single moment for this film."
Screenwriter Alexandra concurs, saying, "I envisioned Demi in the role,
and in no way did she ever let me down."
Moore actually considered the training a bonus to being in "G.I. Jane."
"I could have come in and asked to let the stuntwoman do the obstacle
course," Moore says. "But I felt I would have walked away having
missed an opportunity experiencing, first-hand, what these people actually
go through in training; it's the whole reason for doing this film in the
first place.
"I didn't want any special treatment just because of who I am or my
position in the film," Moore continues. "It was interesting to
step into the real-life experiences of what the SEALs go through."
"Demi did it all for real," Phil Neilson says. "She's very
athletic, but part of my job became to watch that she didn't walk away with
serious bruises."
Among other preparations was the need to give all the actors a Special Forces
hairstyle. When they first arrived, many in the group wore long hair and
mustaches. After a few days of initial training, Demi herself threw a "Shave
Your Dome" party in a nightclub. The producers roped off one side of
the club and wrangled the partygoers into a chair. "About 10 percent
of them had started with their hair cut short," recalls hair stylist
Dorothy Fox. "We needed to cut the rest of them right away so they
could get their heads tanned, because we shot in the sun a lot and we couldn't
have a bunch of red scalps."
The regulation cut was "an eighth of an inch," Fox says, "so
we had to re-cut everyone every four days. Counting the Top Forty, the Great
Eight, the rest of the actors, the stand-ins, the stunt men, and the occasional
extras, we did a lot of haircuts over those four months," Fox says.
Six weeks after the "Dome" party, on a much anticipated date in
the shooting schedule, Moore shaved her head to match that of the others.
Where some actresses might consider cutting off all their hair for a film
a call above and beyond that of duty, Moore was always committed to every
facet of the "G.I. Jane" project and was completely prepared for
all that was required of her character. "One of the big moments after
reading the script was the impact of the scene where Lt. O'Neil cuts off
her hair," Moore says. "It's an integral part of the story and
reflects her total commitment. I had five or six months before we reached
the point of filming that scene, and when the time came, I was ready to
do it in order to get on with the real down-and-dirty part of the training."
After the scene was shot, the assembled group of men cheered in approval.
"It was interesting," Moore continues, "I had more people
want to touch me. The funniest responses came from my children, who would
say to friends, 'Hey, do you want to come look at my mom's head?' as if
I were a show-and-tell item. Even my husband had a laugh."
"Ridley has always directed very provocative stories with incredible
depth of character," observes Demi Moore. "'G.I. Jane' is not
based on a true story, but is based on what could be true events, and Ridley
was the perfect choice as director because of the incredible level of realism
he brings to his films, and the mutual enthusiasm we shared for the project."
"I think we have a pretty spectacular film by Ridley," producer
Birnbaum agrees. "And I think this is one of Demi's best films ever.
People will embrace her in this, in a very, very big way."
Concludes screenwriter/executive producer Danielle Alexandra, "Although
this is a completely original story, it's reflective of the times. Hopefully,
it will inspire women inside and out of the military to be fearless, forgiving,
and committed to the limitless nature of their possibilities."
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