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POPE JUDE
Jude Law, in his first major TV series, plays a handsome, cunning 21st-century pope – and here he reveals why the controversial show might put the fear of God into the Vatican
Jude Law on his controversial role as a tortured, conniving pontiff in The Young Pope, his first major TV series
Not since he first started in the business more than 25 years ago has Jude Law starred in a TV series, but the role of Lenny Belardo, the improbably handsome, cunning, chain-smoking pontiff in Sky Atlantic’s new ten-part series The Young Pope, was simply too good to resist. Belardo is the fictional modern-day Pope Pius XIII in the controversial new show, which threatens to rip the lid off the secretive power struggles that go on inside the Vatican, and for Law he was everything he wants in a character.
‘The name of the show is The Young Pope, so everyone thinks he’s going to be super-liberal – the young guy in the Vatican changing things in a very modern way,’ he tells me when we meet in Venice, where the series has just been unveiled to huge acclaim with critics praising its ‘exhilarating mischief’ and ‘dreamy ambience’. ‘But the surprise is that this is actually a very God-fearing, dogmatic young man who approaches matters in ways that are completely different from the way anyone would have expected. Lenny is everything that appeals to an actor. He’s complicated, beguiling, three-dimensional, and a lot of light is shed on him as the story progresses.’
Directed by renowned film director Paolo Sorrentino ( The Great Beauty, Youth), it begins with the Vatican’s College of Cardinals engineering the election of Lenny as pope. The series comes out at the same time as bestselling author Robert Harris’s new thriller Conclave; set in the near future, it too is a tale of Vatican intrigue as cardinals gather in incensefilled rooms to elect a new pope.
In Sky’s show, not only is the pope an American, but at 47 he’s unprecedentedly young to take the post, and the College, led by Belardo’s Machiavellian mentor Cardinal Spencer (James Cromwell), thinks his age will make him easier to manipulate than an older man. But as the series progresses, and Belardo attempts to navigate the power struggles of the Vatican, they’re in for a big surprise.
As a cardinal, Belardo was mildmannered and conservative, but as pope he immediately comes into conflict with the ecclesiastical hierarchy as he tries to break free of those trying to manipulate him, principally Cardinal Voiello (Silvio Orlando), who hopes to become the power behind the throne. He demands Cherry Coke Zero at breakfast and reverses a Vatican smoking ban introduced by one of his predecessors, John Paul II – but only for himself – and his decision not to authorise any reproduction of his image angers those trying to market the Vatican to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.
Yet although he appears to be a reactionary, Belardo is a fragile man haunted by a deep wound from his past. He was raised in a US orphanage, and has no idea who his parents are or why they abandoned him. He feels the only person he can trust is the nun who brought him up and instilled his faith in him, Sister Mary ( Diane Keaton, another Hollywood star making a rare foray into TV), and as soon as he becomes pope he insists on hiring her as his special assistant when his relationship with the faith – and those around him – becomes ever more turbulent.
‘ He’s going through a spiritual crisis,’ explains Jude. ‘He’s an orphan who believes that eventually through his faith he will understand why his parents left him all those years ago and find out where they are now. He kept to his faith and now he has the top job in the Church and God still hasn’t given him the answers. During the series you’ll see him struggle with the fact that he’s still not getting the answers he thinks he deserves to get.’
His spirituality begins to unravel as he embarks on ever more un-Christian behaviour. His hiring of Sister Mary irks Cardinal Voiello because it was a role he wanted, but he then rubs salt into the wound by asking her to oversee everything Voiello does. But his cardinal sin, as it were, is to break the sanctity of the confessional by asking the priest who’s taken confession to tell him the secrets of others as a way of furthering his own agenda.
One idea Jude had to jettison after taking the part was that of playing the role as a pope rather than a human being. ‘Being British and not knowing much about this system, I thought I needed to do a lot of research and come to understand the Catholic faith more – what it is to be pope, what it is to live and work in the Vatican. So I started reading the Bible and looking at papal history, learning all the inside stories, but I didn’t feel I was getting any closer to stepping convincingly into this man’s shoes. So Paolo suggested I stop doing that and concentrate instead on getting a very clear picture of Lenny Belardo. Who is he, what’s his history, and how does he conduct himself? So really, it was about creating a real man who happens to be pope.’
No saint himself, over the years Jude Law has become as well-known as a father of five children by three different mothers as for his roles on stage and in films. But one of the elements that helped Law find his way into his character this time was the costume. ‘Wearing a uniform is a big part of my life,’ he laughs. ‘The funny part of being an actor is you get to work, you take your own clothes off and you spend the day dressed as someone else, and then you get home and your children say, “What have you done today, Daddy?” And I say, “Well, today I dressed up as the Pope!” But it does make a differ- ence, particularly for this part. It made me understand how it felt to be a real person who puts on these beautiful vestments and then becomes the face of a religion to millions of people.’ He
‘He’s a pope who’s going through a spiritual crisis’
says it helped that most of the clothes were white. ‘There’s something about wearing all white, all day that’s strangely demanding. Even the socks are white – you wear little white stock- ings and knickerbockers underneath it all. And then a lace undershirt and then the shirt and then the coat and the cloak. All in white. It makes you separate, untouchable. These are a set of clothes that have evolved over hundreds of years, so every element of the outfit has a story to it. It was quite a long procedure to put it all on, and you need help because it has so many buttons and certain things have to be tied in certain ways. And the act of putting all that on was really helpful to get to the right place in my head to play him.’
Playing Sister Mary, the nun who raised him and in many ways remains the voice of his conscience, is an unusually serious role for Diane Keaton. ‘She was nervous about taking this role at first,’ Jude confides. ‘She kept saying, “I’m a comedian, and I want to do my schtick, but Paolo doesn’t want me to be funny – what am I going to do?” But I think Paolo made a very smart choice in casting Diane for this because he didn’t cast her for her humour, he cast her for her heart. She’s so warm, and she has a kind of inner beauty, a purity to her, that suits the character so much. She’s very mischievous too – sometimes even a little naughty. She teased me from the minute I met her. She never called me Jude, only Your Holiness.’
Jude – more accustomed to appearing in movies such as The Talented Mr Ripley and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes series, in which he plays Watson – had been waiting for an opportunity to take a TV role. As he points out, television today is not what it was. ‘It isn’t the same as when people had tiny TVs at home with bad sound. Everyone now has huge TVs with great sound and it’s become the playground for many talented writers, directors and, therefore, actors. I was curious to play a character over ten hours as opposed to two, and Paolo and I discussed this – we’re both wired to film, and it required a new approach, a new rhythm, to unpeel the character over a longer period.’ It’s rumoured the Vatican is less than thrilled about the series. But Jude, who says he admires the incumbent, Francis I, considerably, says he’s prepared for any reaction. ‘I’d be surprised if there weren’t a varied reaction,’ he shrugs. ‘This is a very sensitive subject that has a great resonance for many people. I hope everyone knows our intent was always to be curious and respectful, never judgemental or mean, and certainly not scandalous. What we’re trying to do is to hold a mirror up to the institution, as opposed to pointing a finger at it.
‘I’m a great believer in faith, and my curiosity has led me to Buddhist literature, Catholic literature, Islamic literature, ideas I hope will make sense of who I am and why I’m here. I think this series has made me think daily about faith and my relationship with it and how important it is.’
The Young Pope starts on Thursday at 9pm on Sky Atlantic.