Russell Crowe on playing Vatican's chief exorcist

Brut America

Exorcists don't just exist in horror movies — they also exist at the Vatican.   For 36 years, Father Gabriele Amorth was the Vatican's chief exorcist. We spoke to Russell Crowe about his portrayal of Amorth in the film, "The Pope's Exorcist."

Transcript

00:00For the intercession of the Virgin Mary,

00:03may Satan annul you.

00:05No! No! No!

00:08Gabriele Amorth, you know, he did a job that I...

00:11When I first heard about it, I thought somebody had made it up.

00:13Exorcism is my job.

00:15But there actually is a job

00:19as the chief exorcist of the Vatican,

00:21and he did that job for 36 years.

00:24...and my son,

00:25I'm going to exorcise him.

00:27Satan!

00:29Who is going to exorcise him?

00:31The woman!

00:32No!

00:33The woman!

00:34I'm going to exorcise him!

00:37He grew up in the town of Modena in Italy.

00:40At 17, he goes to Rome, he travels to Rome,

00:42he goes to the Paulist Brotherhood,

00:45he says to the chief priest,

00:47you know, I want to become a priest, I've had a calling.

00:51And that man says, you're not old enough.

00:54You've got no life experience,

00:55you've got nothing to teach people,

00:58or empathise with,

00:59so come back when you've got some more life experience.

01:02Now, it's 1942.

01:04The Second World War is raging, you know.

01:07Italy is, of course, a fascist country at this point in time.

01:10Gabriel Amorth gets back to Modena and

01:14makes the decision to join the resistance there.

01:17He becomes a partisan fighter.

01:18So now, this is a young man

01:20who knows he has a calling to serve God.

01:22Now he has a gun in his hand and he's shooting to kill.

01:26He's wounded himself during that experience,

01:28comes out of his war years and goes into law school,

01:33completes his law degree,

01:35and then starts working as a journalist,

01:36but still has this feeling, this calling.

01:39So he goes back to that same brother at the Paulists

01:44and says, the calling is still with me.

01:48And the guy says, well now, 10 years later,

01:51you have that experience I was talking about.

01:54You'll have that empathy,

01:55you have some wisdom on board,

01:56you've had extreme experiences.

01:58So when people are in peril or when they're sad or whatever,

02:02you've got something to say, so come on board.

02:04So then he goes to theology school when he's nearly 30.

02:08So that's the beginning of the next section of his life,

02:10which is 30 years with the Paulists,

02:14which is about communication.

02:17He produces radio, he produces television,

02:19he writes hundreds and hundreds of articles.

02:22He becomes this incredible figure.

02:24It's not till he's turning 60 that Father Candido

02:28picks him to take over as chief exorcist.

02:32And from what I read and talked to people about,

02:35Amorth was shocked.

02:37He didn't, he was like, how can that possibly be?

02:40I'm basically, yes, I am a priest, but I'm a journalist.

02:44How can you be coming to me to talk about

02:46being an exorcist, you know?

02:48And Father Candido said,

02:49I can't tell you why you're the one, Gabrielle,

02:52but I just know you're the one.

02:55And that leads him to being the chief exorcist

02:57for the Vatican for 36 years,

02:59and writing 12 books about his experiences.

03:02I found him as a character absolutely fascinating.

03:06And the two things that it boiled down to for me,

03:09the reason I believe he was so effective in his job,

03:12is the purity of his belief on one hand,

03:15and the availability of his sense of humor on the other hand.

03:19If you're dealing with afflicted people all the time,

03:21you're dealing with people that are in the darkest phases

03:23of their life and their families around them,

03:27and you're the man who's supposed to be trying

03:29to bring some relief to that person,

03:31or bring that person to the light,

03:33you can imagine that having a sense of humor

03:36would be very important to keeping your own sanity.

03:38My favorite thing that he said

03:40is probably when he said, you should never do yoga.

03:45Because yoga requires of you

03:49to put yourself at the center of the universe.

03:53And surely, that is a position that should be occupied by God.

03:58So just do stretching.

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