Russell Crowe says that getting a chance to film in Ireland was the main reason he decided to take the leading role in his very first horror movie, The Pope's Exorcist, adding, "It was a grand summer. I did a lot of bike riding."
In the new movie, which is released on Good Friday, he plays the buccaneering Gabrielle Amorth, a real-life priest - a Lambretta-loving, wise-cracking maverick who was the Chief Exorcist of the Vatican.
Speaking via Zoom from his 320-hectare farm in Australia’s Orara Valley, the supernaturally laid-back Crowe told RTÉ Entertainment that the chance to make a film in Dublin, Limerick and Wicklow was the clincher for him.
"I had a good time making this movie and that’s partially got to do with where we shot," the 58-year-old said.
"We shot in Dublin and surrounds. We were in Trinity College, we were on the north side for a while.
"We shot in Bray a lot and Marley Park and we went down to Limerick, and it was a grand summer, I did a lot of bike riding."
Inspired by the files of Father Gabriele Amorth himself, The Pope’s Exorcist follows Crowe as he investigates a young boy’s possession in Spain - but ends up uncovering a centuries-old conspiracy the Vatican has desperately tried to keep hidden. Imagine!?
Crucifixes, holy water, and consecrated oil are all waggled about but Father Amorth is James Bond in a collar.
Faith No More and The Cult are on the soundtrack and as the good padre, who fought the Nazis in World War Two, quips, "The devil doesn’t like jokes. My nightmare is France winning the World Cup."
It’s so Crowe it aches.
"Playing a character who is just so full of cool stuff was a major reason I loved this film," he says.
"This guy’s real life got me excited and that was one of the things I went back to the director and the writer and the producers about.
"OK, we’ve got the story, but this priest’s real life has to be honoured and respected so let’s delve into who he is and try and capture the man. the more I looked into this life, it seemed to come down to two things and his effectiveness as the chief exorcist of Rome.
"It came down to the purity and his humour and I tried to capture both of those things.
Released on Easter eve, the timing of The Pope’s Exorcist is perfect. However, Crowe says he and the whole cast and crew were well aware of certain religious sensitivities to the subject matter and Ireland’s own recent reckoning with the Catholic Church.
"I was aware of Ireland’s connection with religion because that was a daily conversation when we were making the movie," he says. "But I don’t think Ireland is that much less Catholic than it’s been. I think that people might have a connection to the church in Ireland that’s different from other places.
"A deep affection but at the same time, there have been troubling things that have happened and revelations that have come to light but that stuff was a known truth, anyway, and it took a few things to happen for it to be put on the table for people to see it and discuss it.
He adds, "But I think the thing that has happened with that at the same time is that the Irish people have come together to vote for same-sex marriage. You start to see the nature of the country at lot more. It’s a very accepting and loving culture.
"As gruff as some people want to be, I find Irish people very warm. When we were shooting, for sure, we were aware of being respectful to people’s beliefs."
Crowe says that he is not a fan of horror movies and that during filming "a lot of unusual things" happened on the set, but "you keep your balance and see them as coincidence, otherwise you’re going to drive yourself a little bit insane."
"When you’re working with dark subject matter, you do have to keep your objectivity and one of the thematics in this movie revolves around birds," he says.
"We’d been shooting down in Limerick and we came back to this house we were staying in on the coast outside Dublin and there was a dead bird on the doormat of the door to the house so a couple of people I was with got scared by that.
"But I just went to a different place with it. There was a lot of creatures in the woods around there and we’d been there for a few days, and this was just a little welcome home gift."
The Pope’s Exorcist ends with a set-up for a sequel, if not a whole franchise. If Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves can have one, isn’t it high time Russell Crowe had a franchise too?
"Here’s the thing," he says, with a laugh. "As you know, I’m famously not franchise-able, mainly because crossing back over ground I’ve already walked on is not necessarily something that excites me.
"I have found that every single time I do a movie where everybody is absolutely, completely positive there’s gonna be a sequel, it never happens.
"But I think the more obvious we are about this the more the chance it does get a sequel but yeah, there is a set-up at the end of the movie that says there could be potential for 199 sequels, so we’ll see.
"Would I be interested in expanding on this character? I think the set-up that I’ve done in this film gives me great licence to have fun telling other stories. I quite like the character of Gabrielle Amorth."
The Pope's Exorcist is in cinemas on 7 April.
