Russell Crowe was educated on The Pope's Exorcist
Russell Crowe needed to get "fascinated" by his character Father Gabriele Amorth in the new supernatural horror film 'The Pope's Exorcist'.
Russell Crowe had to get "fascinated" by his character in 'The Pope's Exorcist'.
The 59-year-old actor plays the role of Father Gabriele Amorth – an Italian Catholic priest who claimed to have performed thousands of exorcisms during his life – in the new film and revealed that he had to do a lot of research as he had never heard of his alter ego before the film.
Russell told Collider: "The key thing for me on this was getting fascinated by him. I know it makes me seem very naive, but I had no idea there was a job called the Chief Exorcist of the Vatican. I was like, 'Oh, okay.'
"I thought that was something that somebody had made up, and then I looked up and realised it was real. And then just tracking back through Father Amorth's life, it's a fantastic journey. It's a fascinating journey."
The 'Gladiator' star took a deep dive into Father Amorth's story for the film and suspects that others will do so when they see the movie – which is based on the priest's memoirs 'An Exorcist Tells His Story' and 'An Exorcist: More Stories'.
He said: "I began to believe in Father Amorth through reading about his life experiences. So by extension, if he's written it down in a book, he didn't make it up. So, there it is.
"The first two books, if they don't shake your foundations, nothing will. But it's definitely worth looking into."
Russell added: "And look, I met colleagues of his, I met friends of his, I met a man who did 160 exorcisms with him, and the way they talk about Father Amorth, it's not necessarily that he's on a pedestal, but he's certainly in his own rare air. They talked about him with a great deal of respect."
