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Ladder 49 premiere story

The red carpet was red-hot outside Disney’s legendary El Capitan Theater, as a battalion of fire engines lined Hollywood Boulevard for the premiere of Ladder 49. Critics are calling the film the most compelling big-screen depiction of firefighters’ personal and professional dramas, and several of Los Angeles’ bravest ladder crews–and a spunky firehouse Dalmatian–were on hand to greet the film’s stars John Travolta and Joaquin Phoenix as they arrived for the film’s world debut.

Phoenix, who stars as a up-and-coming fireman who reflects on his life after being trapped in a blaze, and Travolta, who plays Phoenix‘s mentoring seasoned fire captain, were joined by co-stars Morris Chestnut, Robert Patrick, Jacinda Barrett, Balthazar Getty, Billy Burke, Kevin Daniels, Tim Guinee and producer Casey Silver, as well as a star-studded guest list that included Travolta‘s Punisher co-star Tom Jane, Diana Ross, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Jon Voight, Anne Archer, Powers Boothe, model Janice Dickinson, Traci Bingham, Natalie Cole, Michelle Trachtenberg and musician Robbie Robertson, who created the music for the film.

In a nod to the theme, both the shockingly statuesque Barrett–whose father was a 33-year veteran firefighter in her native Australia–and Travolta‘s wife Kelly Preston donned fire-engine red frocks. Barrett wore a flashy crimson Marc Jacobs dress, while Preston was clad in a glittery, cherry red Asian-inspired vintage gown with a long, leg-baring slit.

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Smokin’

Travolta showed his appreciation for the real-life firefighters by ensuring that a pair of Maryland firefighters had seats for the screening. The actor had flown Phillip Bird, Jr. and Ken Ward into Chicago on his personal 707 for an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show after learning of their valiant efforts saving the life of a fellow fireman in a blazing home when his oxygen tank dislodged and he was overcome by smoke. Later they were his special guests for the premiere.

(It’s a shame that Phoenix isn’t as gracious as his co-stars – his increasingly erratic behavior with the press seems to grow with each new film, and the actor quit the red carpet less than a third of the way down when he apparently didn’t like reporters’ seemingly innocuous questions)

Travolta told us that while learning the ropes of firefighting with a Baltimore ladder company, he discovered despite their reputations as stalwart heroes, the men and women behind the scenes were genuine people, flaws and all. “It wasn’t surprising as much as confirming and affirming that they were as great a people as I thought they would be,” Travolta said.

He added he believes Ladder 49 shows them in an authentic light: “It’s revealing sides of firefighters’ personalities that I think are important. Because they’re our guys right now, y’know? I’m very proud of our getting it right in this movie.”

The Right Stuff

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Part of perfecting the roles was the intensive, if slightly abbreviated, four-week stint living in Baltimore firehouses and accompanying crews on alarms that all the actors experienced before shooting. “The training takes about eight weeks full time to get it right,” said Travolta confidently, “and we were almost that.”

In fact, one member of the cast showed that he learned his lessons well–not for the cameras, but when it really mattered. While training with the Baltimore City Fire Dept., actor Tim Guinee found himself challenged to rise to the occasion during a response to an actual blaze.

“I was riding with a guy named Chief Heinbeck, a famous fire chief, and we got a call to a five-alarm fire on the tenth story of a 14-story building,” Guinee told us. “I happened–by sheer luck, nothing skillful or brave about it–to bump into a woman who I actually thought was a corpse, and we got her down and the ambulance guys revived her. It was extraordinary–and what real firemen do all the time.”

The actor–whose real-life friend Paddy Brown, a captain at FDNY Ladder 3 in New York, died on Sept. 11, 2001–was later awarded a citation for his quick actions from the Baltimore city fire commissioner, but he says he didn’t feel like a hero when it happened. “Any time I went into a building was on fire, it scared me,” Guinee admitted, and he added that he’s sure actual firefighters feel the same fear he did on a daily basis. “My guess is they get sacred and they go in. They’re people and that’s what so heroic.”

After the screening the cast and crew reconvened for the after-party at L.A.’s historic Station 27, which now serves as the Los Angeles Fire Department Museum. Surrounded by a fleet of antique engines–contraptions so old-fashioned it was difficult to figure out how they were manned–the stars quenched their thirst by sharing cocktails with the local firefighters.

Ladder 49 opens in theaters nationwide Friday. For video interviews on the making of the movie, see “Related Links” at top

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