An armed killer on the run from cops, a woman held hostage in her own home – an ideal crime thriller plot. But for Ashley Smith, this was real. She tells Jo Gallacher about the story behind new movie Captive

FOR most of us, the idea of being held hostage by an armed killer is the stuff of total nightmares. But for Ashley Smith – who was a 26-year-old widow, struggling with drug addiction on the night she was held captive back in 2005 – this very experience turned out to be a blessing in disguise, changing her life for the better.

Brian Nichols was on trial for rape when he escaped from an Atlanta courthouse, killing four people before breaking into Smith's home. Incredibly, after seven hellish hours, he decided to let her go.

The remarkable story has now been turned into a film called Captive, starring David Oyelowo as Nichols and Fantastic Four actress Kate Mara as Smith.

Ashley Smith had married at a young age, but after only a couple of years, her husband was murdered by a drug dealer, and she fell into methamphetamine addiction.

"I had a child with my husband, but due to the drugs and the lifestyle I was living, I lost custody of her," says Smith, who's now in her mid-30s. "My life at the time was a big mess," she admits. "I was going back and forth between God and drugs."

In the middle of her recovery process, she received a copy of pastor Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life, one of the bestselling, non-fiction books of all time.

On March 11, 2005, Nichols, whose son had just been born a few days earlier, was scheduled to begin the third day of his trial for rape charges, at a courthouse in Atlanta. While changing his clothes, he assaulted a sheriff's deputy, stole her gun, and knocked her unconscious before going on the run. He went on to shoot four people dead, before driving to another town and forcing his way into Smith's apartment.

It was only after Nichols asked her whether she'd watched the news that day, that it dawned on her who he was. "I thought I was going to die," Smith recalls. When Nichols asked if she had any drugs, Smith was forced to reveal the crystal meth she was keeping in her house. "He asked me if I wanted to do the meth with him, which ended up becoming the turning point in my life."

In her subsequent book, Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story Of The Atlanta Hostage Hero, Smith admits she hit an all-time low. "I thought to myself, I'm not a mother any more, and I'm certainly not a positive person in society – this is what I deserve."

Alone with an armed killer, Smith made the choice to read aloud from The Purpose Driven Life.

"On the front of that book, it says, 'What On Earth Am I Here For?' That question was very important to me and something that I needed an answer in my life for," she says.

Although Smith knew her captor had committed terrible acts, "I had been on both sides of that and I felt I understood what he needed to hear. God still loves him. He is still a son to someone; he has a mother who loves him. I tried to see the person he was, despite the actions he had made."

Her faith paid off and Smith gave himself up. Though she'd taken a huge risk, Smith says she would "do it again" if she had to, and her actions didn't just positively impact Nichols – "it was the moment my life changed direction" too, she explains.

"When I walked out of my door, I felt like a totally different person, and that's what I've tried to do since then, just change my life."

Smith acknowledges that Captive might not be well received by everybody, due to its almost sympathetic view of Nichols, but insists: "The film is a good depiction of what happened. It stays true to mine and Brian's emotions and how we were feeling at the time."

She admits it was strange for someone to be playing her on screen, but was happy with Kate Mara's portrayal. "Kate did a phenomenal job, she gets a standing ovation from me!"

Since the ordeal ten years ago, Smith has remarried and has three children,. As well as working as a CT/X-ray technician in a local hospital, she also dedicates a lot of her time to public speaking, sharing the remarkable story of how her life was turned around.

"I was a widow, drug addict mum and I'm the one that lived, as opposed to four well respected people in the community. It was very difficult for me to understand why – why did God choose me?"

  • Captive is released in cinemas tomorrow