Yes, The Pope's Exorcist is about a real person

Packed full of special effects and set pieces designed to provoke terror in audiences, The Pope's Exorcist (out April 14) is not some sticking-to-the-facts docudrama. As star Russell Crowe admits to EW about the movie, "There's obviously quite a bit of artistic license."

Crowe is, however, playing a real person, Father Gabriele Amorth. The priest replaced Candido Amantini as the Catholic church's chief exorcist in 1992 and continued, he would claim, to rid people of literal demons until his death in 2016 at the age of 91. Determined to publicize the subject of exorcism, the Italian Amorth published a slew of books, including 1999's An Exorcist Tells His Story, and had his work documented by The Exorcist director William Friedkin in his 2017 film The Devil and Father Amorth.

"What attracted me to this piece was the character himself," says Crowe. "I was intrigued with the job title: Chief Exorcist for the Vatican. I was sure some Hollywood screenwriter had come up with a snappy title. When I looked into it, I realized it was a real thing. Then, looking deeper again, I just found him fascinating. He documented the job, and so, from an actor's perspective, that's just a treasure chest, man."

Jonathan Hession/Sony; GIULIO NAPOLITANO/AFP via Getty Images Russell Crowe in 'The Pope's Exorcist' and the real Father Gabriele Amorth

In the course of his research for the film, which is directed by Overlord filmmaker Julius Avery, Crowe became something of an expert on Amorth.

"Gabriele comes from the town of Modena, which also is where Ferrari comes from," says the Oscar-winning Gladiator star. "I used that to give him a couple of little extra quirks that you wouldn't necessarily see with a priest. He wears red socks under his cassock and he has a Ferrari sticker on his Lambretta motor scooter. From what I gathered biographically, at the age of 17 he goes to Rome, he believes he's had a calling to work for God, and the priest that he talked to said, 'Look, you're just too young, you have no life experience, you should just go away and learn a little bit about life.' This is 1942, he returns to Modena, the world is at war, he ends up joining the resistance and fights with the partisans against the fascists. This young man who had this calling to God, now he finds himself with a gun in his hand and he's shooting to kill, and being shot at. He comes out of his war years, completes law school, and ends up working as a journalist. Returns to Rome, to the same priest, and says, 'I still have this calling,' and that time, the father says, 'Perfect, because you have all the experience, you know all these things.'"

Vandeville Eric/ABACA/Shutterstock Father Gabriele Amorth

"He joined an order which is about communication, so he produced radio shows, he produced television, he wrote hundreds and hundreds of articles," Crowe continues. "Thirtysomething years he worked as a journalist and then he got tapped on the shoulder by Father Candido [who] said, 'I'm choosing you as my successor.' I think it was a bit of a surprise to him because he hadn't worked in that area of the Church before, but that led to him [to] the job of Chief Exorcist to the Vatican."

Amorth routinely told those asking for an exorcism that they should first explore medicinal or psychiatric treatments. "Out of a hundred people who seek my help, one or two at most may be possessed," Exorcist filmmaker Friedkin would recall the priest telling him in an article the filmmaker wrote for Vanity Fair. Still, Amorth's accounts of his exorcisms, which included him alleging that he saw some demonic victims levitating, were regarded with skepticism, even by many other priests.

The events depicted in The Pope's Exorcist seem even less believable with Crowe's version of Amorth encountering all manner of wild phantasmagoria as he and another priest, played by Daniel Zovatto, attempt to help an American family who has inherited a spooky Spanish castle. But Crowe insists, much as Amorth did, that there is genuine evil abroad in the world.

"Obviously the way things are portrayed in the movie are specific to the art of filmmaking and are designed to be a piece of entertainment," says the actor. "It's very easy to make fun of people who believe they've seen ghosts or what have you. [But] you look at the nightly news, and you look back through historical records, and some pretty horrific things have been done by our species on this planet. It does make you fundamentally wonder where that source is from. Have I been in situations where I've experienced things that are just inexplicable? Yeah, I actually have. Have I walked into a place and felt a change in energy and suddenly I'm not comfortable in the place that I've walked into? Yeah, I have. So I stay open to those sort of things. Because, you know, anything's possible."

The Pope's Exorcist hits theaters April 14. Watch the film's trailer above.

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