Holy smokes.
The world acquired a shock on Might 8 when the white smoke blew on the 2025 papal conclave, bearing the information that the primary ever American pope had been elected.
Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a 69-year-old from Chicago, took on the identify Pope Leo XIV and have become the primary ever American to carry that place.
However there’s one forgotten TV present that predicted this history-making occasion: the 2016 HBO collection “The Young Pope” starring Jude Legislation had an analogous plot line almost a decade in the past.
“I was like, oh wait, hey, that sounds really familiar,” actor Jack McQuaid, 20, solely instructed The Put up, referring to how he felt when the information broke.
“I knew it was bound to happen at some point, but this soon – if you’re thinking in context, 10 years is not that far off. So, that’s pretty cool.”
McQuaid was solely 10 years previous when he appeared in “The Young Pope,” enjoying a younger model of Cardinal Dussolier in a flashback (Scott Shepherd performed the grownup Cardinal Dussolier).
Sebastian Roché, who performed Cardinal Michel Marivaux in “The Young Pope,” posted a throwback picture of himself on the set, with the caption, “conclave was exhausting!”
“I had a little fun posting some of my ‘Young Pope’ pictures,” Roché solely instructed The Put up.
The Emmy-nominated collection (which was a co-production between HBO, Sky Atlantic, and Canal+) was created by Oscar-winning Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino. The plot adopted Lenny Belardo (Legislation), a newly elected American Pope. Not like the actual Pope, who hails from Chicago, Lenny was from New York. Legislation’s character took on the identify Pope Pius XIII.
Diane Keaton co-starred as his confidante, Sister Mary.
“Working with Paolo Sorrentino was kind of a spiritual experience,” Roché instructed The Put up. “I was really so moved by his approach to filmmaking, which is very dreamlike and surrealistic.”
The “Supernatural” actor added, “You’re on an Italian TV set, which usually is quite loud. But his set is very quiet. Everyone speaks in hush tones…..So the experience in itself for me was very deep, in that respect, because we would shoot these big wide shots with wind machines, but you feel the weight of what he’s trying to say.”
The present wasn’t buttoned-up materials that you can talk about in church – it had nudity, a rating full of songs like “Sexy and I Know It” and surreal scenes equivalent to Lenny rising from a pile of bare infants.
The present has additionally spawned numerous memes of Legislation in his papal white outfit and hat, smoking a cigarette and lounging round in sun shades.
“Is “Young Pope” the primary time a SNL sketch has develop into TV collection?” comic Jim Gaffigan tweeted on the time.
Whereas Roché was filming “The Young Pope,” he went to strive on his Cardinal costume at a retailer close to St. Peter’s Basilica. He took a stroll outdoors, “and people stopped and started kissing my hand. They thought I was a real Cardinal,” he recalled.
“Even though I had a three days beard [at the time] and didn’t really look like a total Cardinal. It struck me — the power of the costume. And I thought that was really interesting, as well as comical.”
It was additionally amusing to see actors wearing Cardinal regalia doing mundane issues on set, equivalent to “looking at their phones” and “checking their social media.”
“You always imagine these people as being sort of super human,” he mentioned of Cardinals. “Because we always see them really within the confines of the Church. So that was always amusing to see [actors] wandering about, going to craft service having their little cookies in their cardinal outfits.”
Legislation, for his half, opened up about his position throughout a Might 2017 interview with Selection.
“I always felt like I was playing a man playing a character. I was playing Lenny playing the Pope. It’s no chance in the first episode you see him naked in front of the white outfit. It’s like he takes his skin off and steps into the role of Pope Pius. And it has a great effect, you know, when you walk around in those outfits.”
“The Talented Mr. Ripley” star added that the ritualistic robes that he wore had been “extraordinary pieces.”
“Each piece has to go on in a certain order and each piece is put on in a certain way representing something and a lot of those are very, very heavy and very uncomfortable,” he defined. “But they really add to a performance.”
Legislation scored a Golden Globe nomination for the position.
“[Law] is probably one of the nicest actors I’ve ever worked with,” Roché instructed The Put up. “One of the most talented, and he really is one of these people who is incredibly generous, hard-working, very respectful of the crew — which I think is the case with all great actors.”
Roche, who was most not too long ago within the Taylor Sheridan drama “1923,” added, “I’ve just finished working with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. I’ve worked with Anthony Hopkins. And across the board, these people who are the great masters of our art are incredibly committed, respectful, kind. They love to share their passion. And Jude is one of these princes in our business.”
In 2016, per Selection, Sorrentino instructed Italian newspaper La Repubblica that the Pope in his present was completely different from then-Pope Francis, however “this does not mean that a Pontiff like this cannot happen in the near future.”
Throughout his 2017 interview with Selection, Legislation was requested to weigh in on how the present correlated to the present political local weather.
On the time, he wasn’t referring to the primary American Pope, however his phrases nonetheless apply, as Legislation famous, “We were fortunate in that…the political climate internationally seemed to suddenly demonstrate what Paolo had speculated on through the drama. And you could argue it played to our favor. But I think clever writing and good writers have a finger on the pulse, or have their antennae to the world’s peculiar sort of pendulum swings in social movements anyway.”
“The Holiday” star added, “It was a ‘what if’ and suddenly it became an, ‘Oh, this is it.’”
McQuaid instructed The Put up that Sorrentino was “one of the most artistic people” he’s ever met.
“It was my first big gig, so it taught me a lot of professionalism,” the actor mentioned. “The production of the show was so smooth, it was obvious that Paolo had been there, done that. Not to mention he accidentally predicted the future, too – that was pretty cool!”
