Papal Robes, and Deference, Fit O'Toole Snugly
(from the July 26th New York Times)
Papal Robes, and Deference, Fit O’Toole Snugly
By ANITA GATES
DUBLIN — On a typically drizzly Irish day Peter O’Toole crossed a movie studio lot, protected by a huge green umbrella. He was elegant in white papal robes and red cape, with a characteristic glint in his world-famous eyes.
Spotting a new acquaintance, he called out, “Did you see Page 8 of The Irish Times?” He proceeded to read aloud the report about the Protestant leader Ian Paisley’s criticism of Pope Benedict XVI for the “excommunication of all Christendom” by endorsing a Vatican declaration that Roman Catholicism was the only true church.
Mr. O’Toole, 74, had just completed filming his portrayal of the 16th-century pope Paul III in Showtime’s much-talked-about series “The Tudors,” which returns for its second season next spring. Even out of character he seemed happy to discuss religion.
“I am a retired Christian,” he announced playfully, relaxing in his trailer at the end of a hard workday. His costume had been replaced by sweater, jacket, pants and an ascot.
Six decades after his altar-boy childhood and subsequent loss of faith, Mr. O’Toole said he looked elsewhere for life guidance. “I suggest that an education and reading and facts aren’t bad things on which to ponder a few notions,” he said. But he acknowledged a “very strong and very real” spiritual side to his nature.
“No one can take Jesus away from me,” he said, having just expressed an affection for the Sermon on the Mount (“Blessed are the meek,” etc.). “There’s no doubt there was a historical figure of tremendous importance, with enormous notions. Such as peace.”
Mr. O’Toole’s character will spend most of next season in an epistolary battle with Henry VIII (the equally blue-eyed Jonathan Rhys Meyers) over the king’s insistence on a divorce from Catherine of Aragon so he can marry Anne Boleyn. The real pope at the time was Clement VII, but in last season’s brief papal scenes Clement was played by Ian McElhinney. So when Mr. O’Toole came on board, the series made him Clement’s successor, Paul III, instead. (Actually, by Paul III’s time, Anne was already in her grave. But what’s a little dramatic license among friends?
The “Tudors” set can look a bit like the Island of Lost Handsome British Actors. Besides Mr. Rhys Meyers (who turns 30 on July 27 and plays a particularly young, fit Henry), there are, among others, Jeremy Northam as Thomas More, James Frain as Thomas Cromwell and the newcomer Henry Cavill as Henry’s hunky brother-in-law Charles Brandon.
But the presence of Mr. O’Toole caused a stir. Few of the actors have scenes with him because the pope is in Rome, but several managed to be on the set to be photographed with him or simply shake his hand.
“He’s the only poster I’ve ever had on my wall,” Mr. Rhys Meyers said, recalling his youthful adulation after seeing “Lawrence of Arabia” for the first time. “I just hope that I can hold up against him.”
But Mr. Rhys Meyers quickly regained his kingly attitude. “I’d love to have had a scene with Peter,” he said over tea in his own trailer. “It would have been war. It’s war anyway.”
Michael Hirst, who has written every episode of the series so far, said he was delighted to have Mr. O’Toole speaking his dialogue. “The pope was extremely cynical, so what I wanted was to hear the character of a man who is spiritual but also worldly,” Mr. Hirst said. “He says something about, ‘The French king has guns and soldiers, whereas we must make do with truth and beauty.’ ”
Mr. Hirst mentioned another cherished line. It was part of a discussion of Henry’s infatuation with the cunning Anne Boleyn, and it reflected the past of Paul III, who had mistresses and children.
“You and I have done well to escape the craft of women,” the pope tells Cardinal Campeggio (John Kavanagh). “Celibacy is an immense relief.”
Mr. O’Toole, who was married to the British actress Sian Phillips for 20 years (they divorced in 1979), recited the same line during his interview, which ended with a couple of glasses of red wine (a Margaux), one of his current drinks of choice. (The other is whisky.)
He chatted about other subjects: his lifelong avoidance of physical exercise but enjoyment of sports (he professed to be taking up archery), his background (born in Connemara, reared in Leeds, England, the son of a racetrack bookmaker), training (the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London) and past roles, which have included a cardinal in a television “Joan of Arc,” angels in “The Bible” and a British lord convinced he is Jesus in “The Ruling Class.”
He recalled having played a pope before, onstage when he was 24 and filled in at the last minute for an older actor. (In “Becket” he was on the other side, playing a king, Henry II, who ordered the murder of the archbishop.)
Ultimately the subject of the Oscar was broached. Although he reluctantly accepted an honorary one in 2003, Mr. O’Toole has never won an American Academy Award and has surpassed the record of his old friend Richard Burton as the actor nominated most often (eight times, most recently for the 2006 film “Venus”) without ever winning.
Mr. O’Toole smiled, got up to retrieve a small spiral notebook and revealed inside a tiny, Oscar-shaped piece of golden paper: a bit of confetti, he said, from a party after this year’s ceremony.
“So,” he said pleasantly, “I’ve got my own, thank you very much indeed.”