HOLLYWOOD — James Faulkner, who plays Randyll Tarly in the sixth season of hit HBO fantasy drama “Game of Thrones,” portrays the Catholic saint Paul in the Biblical movie, “Paul, Apostle of Christ.”
Purveyed in the perspective of the Apostle Luke, the film depicts Paul in the midst of a brutal Roman campaign against religion, persecuting all those who share the faith and preach the word of the Lord through the most gruesome methods ever devised.
Paul, is held prisoner and sentenced to death by Roman Emperor Nero. Luke, risks his life to visit him and there decides to write another text containing the beginnings of “The Way” and the start of what will later be known as the Church.
Chained and confined in the infamous Mamertine Prison, under the command of the hateful Prefect Mauritius Gallas, Paul introspects, realizing the tribulations he underwent: countless floggings, starvation, stoning, hunger and thirst. Now, as he waits for certain death alone in the dark, shadows of his past misdeeds haunt him and he wonders if he will be able to finish the race well.
The two apostles struggle against the weakness of humanity and one of Christianity’s grueling oppressions in order to spread the Gospel of Jesus and keep the faith as a beacon of hope to all the believers across the land.
“When I think of God's grace and mercy and who's the one embodiment of that, it's always Paul to me. Somebody who goes from basically the greatest persecutor of early Christians into the greatest evangelizer in all of church history,” writer and director Andrew Hyatt shared.
Starring Jim Caviezel as Luke, French actor Olivier Martinez as Mauritius Gallas and Faulkner in the titular role, “Paul, Apostle of Christ” is now exclusively screened at SM Cinema theaters nationwide.
Interview with James Faulkner
For your movie “Paul, Apostle of Christ”, how did you prepare for the role?
“Life prepared me for the role of Paul and a good knowledge of the New Testament. I was lucky enough to be brought up in the Anglican faith and I’m familiar with the New Testament.
As you know I was casted on short measures and didn’t have an enormous amount of time to prepare but I did read all of Paul’s lessons, which gave me an insight into the spirit and character of the man. Which I have not mentioned before is, I consulted a friend of mine who is a great deal more of anerudite than I who gave me a really good thumbnail sketch and I also could draw the resources of by better educated director and the screenwriter, Andrew Hyatt.”
What’s it like doing a drama history movie versus other genres?
“I simply institute phrase as a drama history movie, so many of my interviews I have been asked, the film has been purely viewed as a faith based film and in my opinion it should not viewed as such, it is an art show which happens to record a moment in history that has been passed down to us through the millennia and using text drawn from scripture with which we are all familiar with, that in a sense immediately styles the film a faith based film. But it is not a faith based film, it is an art film that records a powerful moment in history.”
What was the most challenging part in playing Paul?
“The challenging part of playing Paul is to contain the anger of the pugilist that was formed, Paul was a boxer, Saul was a boxer and as such a physically powerful man and in his early life he’d be an enforcer for the Jewish faith and for the synagogue, he has a line’I was perfect in the ancient laws of Israel.’
He then undergoes as we are all familiar with the Damascene moment, when he is struck down on the road to Damascus and the Lord speak to him and asked him why he persecutes him and those are the crucial faith, blinded at that moment he recovers and seven years later he begins his ministry and to contain all of that and then to imagine the privations of 30 years of the world, he is shipwrecked thrice, he is stoned near to death twice, he is scourged and beaten and chased from time to time to contain that physically in my being, in my walk, in my physicality, to contain and denounce the anger that was in Paul and turn that anger into love, that was the challenge.
The director gave me a fantastic note where he described Paul with his approach to other people, his comfort ability that what should be entirely comfortable in Paul’s presence although Paul was a difficult man and a complex man. The love that was within Paul made him comfortable to be around and he was able to communicate directly and a man who was particularly adroitat understanding the psychological make-up of his fellow man and conversion, the hatred within his fellow man into love and thereby achieving at the end of his life, at a moment which is extraordinary within the film to depict redemption of Paul.”
Did you gain a different perspective on the life of Paul and the time Jesus lived then in the early church?
“I did, I can honestly say allowing the words and the personality as drawn by Andrew Hyatt to permeate within me that it has changed my views of people and of the world and I consider it an extraordinary privilege to be allowed to play a seminal character within the history of the church and I would hope to be a better person for the experience.”
What’s the secret to you staying in the entertainment industry for almost 50 years now and what’s the most fulfilling part of your work?
“Profound good luck that I am accorded opportunities to continue with my work as a writer, I consider it a very important part of my development.
I still see myself as being someone that’s in development, I hope I learn something of this world and of my craft every day that I live and I feel that I am very privilege to be able to continue to work with young actors, fresh actors, actors with different ideas, actors that show me different ways to approach a role and I take from them as much I would hope as they gone off me and my experience of nearly 50 years in this profession.”
What else do you want to achieve in your career?
“I don’t have any specific goals, to me the best job is the next job and that will allow me to experience a different aspect of life and of my personality things I could bring to a role and the things fresh writing would bring and give to me. And if I could continue to work, I want to work every day, I enjoy my work hugely and that only grows with each fresh challenge that appears.
I am often very frightened by a new material when it is offered to me, when I know I have to address it, I know I have to challenge myself and that keeps me current.”