Wow. That takes me back. John Nash independently invented hex in grad school. A sequence of scenes involving hex were cut from the movie "A Beautiful Mind". T

Wow. That takes me back. John Nash independently invented hex in grad school. A sequence of scenes involving hex were cut from the movie "A Beautiful Mind". The first day that Russell Crowe joined the production, he was occupied with hours of makeup tests for his aging progression. Ron Howard had me meet him during a break, to discuss the hex and go scenes to come. The first dozen of a crew that would be hundreds hadn't met him either, so they hovered nearby as we talked. To my surprise, Russell asked me what mathematical truths drew Nash to this game. Never underestimate people; I went for it. Rather than explaining the proof Nash liked that the first player could always win, I decided to explain why some player had to win. As I talked, Russell drew me in with fascinated, understanding facial expressions. When I was done he looked at Ron, "Can you get me the Parker Brothers rules? They're for 8 to 80, I didn't understand a word this guy just said!" Peals of laughter from the room. Months later we're filming a roomful of grad students playing hex, and Russell doesn't like what the script has him saying. He gets permission to ad lib. "Think of the black stones as water, the white stones as land. Either you can swim across this way, or there's a land bridge that way..." My longest day shooting, I woke at five, and was an actor in the pen ceremony that evening. Close to 24 hours awake, I found myself nodding off high at a party in Russell's room, everyone singing various national anthems. I learned much later that Russell had been kidded as a child for not knowing the New Zealand anthem. By the party he knew them all. He likes jokes only he gets, jokes with long fuses.