Conclave writer reveals who was in line to play lead role

Conclave writer Robert Harris has named the two actors who were in line to play the film’s protagonist before Ralph Fiennes was cast in the role.

- ANNABEL NUGENT

Fiennes played the lead role of Cardinal Lawrence in last year’s Oscar-winning film, an adaptation of Harris’s 2016 book of the same name, which follows the sequestering of cardinals, ministers and other religious figures at the Vatican as they elect a new pope.

In Edward Berger’s adaptation of the novel, whose script was written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Peter Straughan, the papal conclave is depicted as a gossipy affair, full of infighting and political manoeuvring. Fiennes, 62, was praised for his performance in the movie, for which he received his third Oscar nomination. The actor was previously nominated for Schindler’s List and The English Patient.

Speaking at the Hay Festival on Friday, Harris said that Fiennes had not been the initial choice to play the part. The author, 68, informed the audience that both Robert DeNiro and Javier Bardem had been in line to play Cardinal Lawrence before Fiennes was cast.