Actor says pope seemed amused that film would tell of his life

Published: 2004-11-18

ROME (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II seemed amused and a little amazed when he met the young Polish actor who will play him in an upcoming movie, the actor said. The pope briefly greeted Piotr Adamczyk at the Vatican in late August. When an aide told him the group was about to begin shooting a film about his own life, the pope raised his index finger to the center of his head in a humorous gesture. "There was a lot of irony in his eyes. He looked at me with a penetrating expression, as if he wanted to tell me: 'You're crazy to make a film about me,'" Adamczyk told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera Nov. 18. "Then the pope shook his head gently, as if to say: 'I'm not that important,'" the actor said. Adamczyk spoke while on the set in Krakow, where filming began in September. The two-part television movie, titled "Karol Wojtyla, The Story of a Man Who Became Pope," will depict the pope's early years in Poland up to the moment of his election in 1978.

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