Ashley Smith On ‘Captive,’ Kate Mara & Her Recovery From Meth Addiction [EXCLUSIVE]

Ashley Smith‘s harrowing story of being held in captivity by murderer Brian Nichols is the basis for Captive, a new feature starring Kate Mara and David Oyelowo.

Ashley Smith On ‘Captive’

Playing Smith, once a young mother and meth addict living in Duluth, Ga., is Mara. Though Smith admits to initially having one particular reservation about Mara’s portrayal of her, she admits that the 32-year-old actress did an amazing job in Captive.

“What I thought she got wrong at first was the accent,” Smith told uInterview in an exclusive interview. “I thought she gave me too much Southern twang, but as I watched my interviews over the last week I realized that I really do have a lot of Southern twang, and I do sound like a little country bumpkin. So, she did very good in playing me. I think she did a phenomenal job.”

When Nichols entered Smith’s home, holding her at gunpoint, she’d recently become widowed, been sucked into drug addiction and had, as a result of her demons, lost custody of her daughter. It was a low point in Smith’s life, but while being held captive, she found her strength. She handed Nichols over her drugs, but refused to partake of them herself, and she read aloud Rick Warren‘s The Purpose Driven Life to keep herself on track.

“I was definitely trying to do everything that he said, and so when he asked for the drugs I told him that I had them, and I gave them to him. He asked me if I wanted to them with him, and it – for me – it was almost as if God was asking me, not Brian Nichols,” said Smith. “Did I want to do the drugs? Because if I wanted to do the drugs I was gonna go home and be with Jesus, but if I wanted to say no to drugs then he would change my life.”

Smith added of the Purpose Driven Life that it served to dissolve the wall between her and Nichols, as they could both relate to feeling like sinners in need of some sort of redemption.

“I read it out loud to him, and I did begin to see a change in him,” said Smith of Nichols, who is currently serving a life sentence for his crimes. “He softened a lot, and we just began to talk about how we were both sinners saved by God’s grace, and how he had made bad choices in killing four people, and I had made bad choices in choosing drugs over my daughter. But ultimately we were sinners saved by God’s grace, and God still loved us despite what we had done.”

Asked what advice she would give to others struggling with a meth addiction, Smith advised that they turn to God: “I would say to them, “That’s all he’s waiting for. He’s waiting for you to give him your brokenness so he can change it into something beautiful.”

Captive hit theaters earlier this month.