Pope John Paul II blesses actor who plays role of Karol Wojtyla in new movie

Vatican City, Nov 15, 2004 / 22:00 pm

Expressing his surprise upon learning of the making of a movie about his life, Pope John Paul II left the Polish actor who plays his part in the film speechless on meeting with him. The movie, entitled "Karol Wojtyla: the story of a man who became Pope," is set to be screened on Italian television early next year.

"When I learned that the Pope was going to receive me I became very emotional," said Piotr Adamczyk in an interview with the Italian magazine Sorrisi e Canzoni. "But at the same time I was very nervous because I didn't know what to say to him."

Adamczyk said that while playing the role of the Pope he had "so many things to ask him, but when his secretary had presented me to the Holy Father, for the first time ever, I forgot my lines."

He said that he was worrie about what the Pope would think about the film and about his interpretation of the role, because in his youth the Holy Father had been an actor. "I hope he will be indulgent if he finds some mistake in the film or in my acting in particular. It's not easy to play the man in front of whom everybody loses their voice, as I did in the Vatican," he said.

The actor, who recalled that as a child he went to greet the Pope during his first trip as Pope to Poland in 1979, said that "in the end, he will be the most important judge" of the film. He highlighted that it was a fiction film and not a documentary

The story begins 1930 in Wadowice, the small town where the Pope was born and raised and ends with his election to the papacy on October 16, 1978 at the age of 58.

The film, whose sound track is composed by Ennio Morricone, cost more than 10 million euros to make, and is directed by Giacomo Battiato.