ITALY: Pope Benedict watches world premiere screening of a two-part CBS mini-series starring Jon Voight on the life of the former Pope John Paul II

Record ID: 220325

  • Title: ITALY: Pope Benedict watches world premiere screening of a two-part CBS mini-series starring Jon Voight on the life of the former Pope John Paul II
  • Date: 23rd November 2005
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF THE FILM SCREENING ON BIG SCREEN
  • Embargoed: 8th December 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA8TR6PO5JJL9AD21AIPDKPVBQL
  • Story Text: Jon Voight, the actor who shot to fame 36 years ago as an aspiring stud in "Midnight Cowboy," plays the late pope John Paul II in a two-part CBS mini-series to be aired in early December in the United States.
    "We shot in Poland and we shot in Italy and it was a very emotional experience for me. I don't, I didn't expect it. I had a great admiration for this fellow and I wanted to do him right and I think we put him in a proper light. And the people who surrounded the work, you know, the people in Poland, the people in Italy, it was an amazing thing how they almost wanted a symbol to express their love to maybe get some closure, because they had perhaps not had the chance to say goodbye," Voight told Reuters in Beverly Hills earlier this week.
    The 66-year-old Oscar-winner met Pope Benedict on Thursday night (November 17) at the Vatican where both attended a special world premiere screening of the film.
    Voight, who won an Oscar for best actor playing a handicapped Vietnam veteran in the 1978 film "Coming Home," said in a recent interview that his Catholic upbringing helped him get into the role.
    But while nearly all the roles in his long career have been fictional, for this project he faced the challenge of playing perhaps the most filmed and recorded person in history.
    Voight likened his preparing to play John Paul, who died last April after reigning for nearly 27 years, to that of an "amateur anthropologist" digging for clues on behaviour, sense of humour, gestures, body language and facial expression.
    Voight also said he could not have done the film without having lived a long and sometimes troubled life himself.
    The four-hour mini-series on CBS is one of several television films that have been made since the Pope died. Competing network ABC will air its own series on Dec 1.
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