- I remind you the truth may be vital,
but without love, it is unbearable.
(warm jazz music)
- Hi, I'm Krista Smith and the host of The Corner Booth,
and I have Jonathan Pryce with me here
which is very exciting.
It's great to see you, thank you so much for coming.
- My pleasure.
(warm jazz music)
- This is just such a beautiful story.
Pope Benedict, which is Hopkins,
so much of the movie is you two together, you know--
- Yeah. - So, so many great scenes.
Tell me what it was like to work with him.
- It was a bit like Francis going to meet Benedict.
He was in awe of the Pope and I think I,
going into those scenes with Tony,
initially, I was in awe of him.
And I'm still in awe of him.
- Pure and simple, you implied the rest of us
not living simply enough.
- Can one ever live simply enough?
- On the matter of the priests?
- I was misquoted.
I said celibacy can be a blessing,
it can also be a curse.
- Yeah, not homosexuality?
- All I said was--
- No doubt misquoted again.
- Taken out of context.
- Ah.
- I love him deeply,
we had the most wonderful time working together.
And we made each other laugh a lot.
He's in awe of me, and he, because on the call sheet,
I don't know if people know this,
when you have a call sheet to go on the film set,
you've all got numbers attached to you.
- Right.
- And I was number one and he was number two.
(laughing)
It was a cause of a lot of ribbing between the two of us.
- Yeah, of course, who's number one
on the call sheet, right?
- Yeah, well, he would change the sign on my trailer.
(laughing)
He put it number two.
- Oh, he would?
- He would be number one.
And when he emails me, he says,
hello, number one, this is Sir Number Two.
You know, he doesn't let me forget.
- I wanted to experience the moment with you.
- Well, father.
If I was pope, I'd be in here every day.
- Hah, what else?
- What?
- Well, if you had been chosen,
what would you do?
- Oh, holy father.
- No, this place would be different, I think, eh?
- So, talk to me a little bit about
getting this project and becoming Jorge.
- That's a good title. - Yeah.
- Becoming Jorge.
I suppose it all started for me
when Pope Francis was created pope,
the internet was alive with photographs
of the two of us together.
People were pointing out the likeness,
I wasn't very flattered.
(laughs)
That's not what I see when I look in the mirror,
but no, even my son texted me, just said,
daddy, you're the pope.
And then this script came
with Fernando Meirelles attached to it.
You know, I was at first a little doubtful
about playing the pope,
it's kind of a big deal.
It's a great responsibility.
But it's because he was, Fernando was directing,
I thought I desperately want to work with him.
It's thanks to him, really, that my, you know,
my interest in the project grew.
- What was the hardest part in getting into him?
- There was nothing hard about it.
I knew there were elements of him that I liked and admired.
What he was trying to do,
changing the Catholic Church,
making changes within the Vatican was fine,
but I didn't think it affected me
'cause I'm not religious at all.
But what does affect me and the rest of the world
is how he's an inspiration for people
to think of opening borders,
not building walls,
but building bridges.
And I like that aspect of him,
and so, this'll be a worthy, good,
honest project to be involved in.
- Fernando Meirelles, as you said,
like, "City of God," amazing,
did he live up, I imagined, every expectation you had?
- Oh, absolutely, I mean, he had and César Charlone,
the cameraman, the confidence you get
from working with a cameraman like César
is that you know that everything you do,
he's going to capture.
He's right in the middle of it.
Sat there and it was all his work was handheld,
and then you've got static cameras around the set.
But you always knew that César was there,
supporting you with the camera.
And then Fernando is just a fantastic man.
He's very warm, but he's also very intelligent.
And he also knows exactly what he wants.
He just guides you into the way of doing it,
and then he sits back, and we all sat back
and enjoyed the experience.
- You learn so much in the movie, just about humanity
and tolerance and pushing--
- Well, that's the great thing about it is you,
you know, that title could put people off,
they're thinking I'm gonna see a sort
of a treatise about the Catholic Church,
but what you're going to see is two men
discussing issues of the day,
discussing humanity in a very,
I didn't really, I did,
I'm surprised how much people laugh.
And that's a great device,
it's like theater.
You make people laugh,
and then you undercut them with the seriousness
of what you're talking about.
And I think that's the beauty of this film,
it's very entertaining.
- We are at an impasse.
You cannot retire from the church
unless I agree to your going,
and I cannot resign until you agree to stay.
It's a conundrum, a theological conundrum.
- You don't understand.
I could never be--
- You know in your heart of hearts that it could be.
- Your body of work is just beyond,
and just the theater,
I love that you're going back to theater.
Do you prefer one or do you like to mix it up all the time?
'Cause you do.
- When I can make a film like "The Two Popes,"
I would always prefer film.
- The attention to detail is just magnificent.
- Yup, yup.
- I loved every minute of it, but--
- Thank you, thanks.
- Thank you very much for coming in to talk to me.