Started as good pope-bad pope, eventually found grey area: Meirelles on 'The Two Popes'

When Fernando Meirelles came on board to direct "The Two Popes", it presented the Brazilian filmmaker an opportunity to revisit his Catholic roots but forced him to set aside any bias he had in the story of the ideological clash between Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

The film chronicles the story of the then sitting Pope Benedict XVI (played by Anthony Hopkins), a conservative, who must persuade the yet-to-be Pope Francis (Jonathan Pryce), a reformist, to become his successor.

Fernando always admired Francis for his views, but the film offered him a chance to look at Benedict and his writing intimately.

 

"To be honest, when I read the script, for me, Benedict was the bad guy and Francis was the good guy, but may be because of my favourite. Because I like Francis, I tend to support him against the other," Fernando told PTI.

But as he progressed, Fernando started seeing the duo beyond the good-bad binary, learning particularly about Benedict and his views on Christianity.

"I really learnt more about Benedict and I think he has a point. He thinks the intent of the Church is to connect us with something beyond and so it shouldn't be dealing with everyday life as it would lose its purpose.

"I read some of his writing, there's something there, but I still support Francis. That if everybody is suffering around, you'll never be able to get in touch with anything else. I started the project seeing black and white and in the end there were more grey areas."

Based on Anthony McCarten's play "The Pope", the film pulls out a casting coup with Hopkins and Pryce coming together for an ideological battle on screen, playing the two Popes who must find a common ground to forge a new path for the catholic church.

When the 64-year-old filmmaker signed the project, he googled the pope to see if his face reminds him of some actor and was surprised to see what the search engine showed.

"If you Google the Pope, you'll see a lot of his pictures alongside Jonathan in his Game of Thrones character! He does look like Pope and is a good actor so I thought I should at least check him."

The "City of God" director then deep dived into watching films and interviews of Jonathan to figure out if he sees Pope Francis in the actor.

"I saw some of his films and then stumbled upon his interview where Jonathan was being himself. He was friendly, humble, funny and I felt he has the same energy that the Pope has and offered him the part."

For the part of Benedict, Fernando required an older actor and was convinced, Hopkins would bite into the role.

"Because Benedict was 84 when he became Pope, I wanted an older actor. So we sent Anthony the script and he said yes. It was so easy, both the actors we approached said yes."

For Fernando, the filmto stream on Netflix from December 20gave a chance to understand several important movements of the Church through its history.

"When I started going to church, as a kid, the mass was in Latin. The priest would always face the alter, with his back facing the audience. Then this all changed when there was a big reform. I never understood it back then, the way I do now, that what the conservatives and reformists want.

"I had to start from the scratch. This was a fascinating world. This is the great thing about my job, whenever you make a film on a specific subject, you've to learn a lot, get into world I would never otherwise. I love it," he adds.