The creepy true story on which ‘The Exorcist of the Pope’ is based, the new Russell Crowe

His story was straight out of a (horror) movie, so it was only a matter of time until we saw him on the big screen: Father Gabriele Amorth is at the center of ‘The Pope’s Exorcist’, the film starring Russell Crowe which can be seen in Spanish cinemas from April 5. Although what he tells us is mostly fiction, his protagonist is a true representation of a real priest who performed over a hundred thousand exorcisms in his lifetime as the Vatican’s chief exorcist.

In an interview with PICTURES, Crowe spoke passionately of his approach to this real character: “My main focus during my preparation for this film was to immerse myself in the personality of this man, Father Gabriele Amorth, and discover all the nuances that existed in his real life and experiences, and try to incorporate these details into the film”. The actor, winner of the Oscar for ‘Gladiator’, highlights “a bit of unexpected sense of humor, a bit of irreverence” in the personality of this exorcist, one of the most famous in history.

“He’s honest to the core, and when you’re part of an organization like the one he’s in, sometimes telling the truth isn’t what people want you to do…so he tends to be a bit of a rebel there.” meaning,” explains Crowe (You can see the full video with their statements at the beginning of this article).

For more than three decades, Father Gabriele Amorth was in charge of finding solutions for the numerous demonic possessions that came into the hands of the Church in the second half of the 20th century. “If you look at what he did in his job as the Vatican’s chief exorcist, he spent 36 years in that position, and in all that time he performed tens of thousands of exorcisms.. His daily life was dealing with those affected and their families, and there were people who were really going through very dark times, and he was the one who tried to offer them some comfort, to bring them into the light,” Crowe says.

In the film, this priest is portrayed as someone capable of discerning between a real possession and a false one caused by a psychotic break or simply by seeking attention. “In my research on Father Amorth, the most important thing for me were two things: there is a lot of purity in Gabriele’s faith, which is unquestionable, but connected to that is his sense of humor, which is also unquestionable. I wanted those two aspects to be in the film, and I was lucky that the director, the writer and the producers agreed with me,” explains the actor.

Indeed, Father Gabriele Amorth was an important figure in the Vatican and wrote numerous books about his work, beliefs, and experience. He even went through the Cuarto Milenio program, as Iker Jiménez recalled on Twitter:

As we can imagine, Hollywood has long pursued this story, but Father Amorth, who passed away in September 2016, never wanted to allow his story to be told.. That changed thanks to producer Patrick Kaczmarek, who convinced Amorth to adapt her main memoir into a movie. How did she get it? Thanks to her own Catholic faith. As he recalls in the film’s production notes: “I think I was able to succeed where other producers failed in that I was able to convince Father Amorth of my sincere religious devotion. In our exchanges, I was able to convince him that if he risked Working with me, I would try to make sure that Catholicism would be preserved in the film and that he would be respected as a person along with the Church and his religious order.”

The result is already in theaters, and while the actual lead is no longer around to see it, Russell Crowe has made sure to honor his memory.