Russell Crowe says FBI told him he was al-Qaida kidnap target

Russell Crowe says FBI told him he was al-Qaida kidnap target

Russell Crowe was the target of an al-Qaeda kidnapping plot in 2001 at the height of his Gladiator fame and has had FBI protection since.

The Oscar winning actor was first contacted by the FBI in 2001 and warned of the threat, according to a story in the March edition of GQ Magazine.

The FBI approach was made in the months before Crowe’s Oscar win for Gladiator.

“That was the first (time) I’d ever heard the phrase al-Qaeda,” Crowe said.

“It was about – and here’s another little touch of irony – taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as sort of a cultural destabilisation plot,” says Australian-born Crowe.

Crowe was protected by the FBI on subsequent film shoots and industry engagements such as the Golden Globe awards.

Crowe told the magazine he never really understood the situation.

“I never fully understood what the fuck was going on,” he said.

“Suddenly it looks like I think I’m fucking Elvis Presley, because everywhere I go there are all these FBI guys.”

Crowe had also hired his own private security.