By Gill Pringle & Jeremy Nigro
When the original Charlton Heston-starring Ben-Hur film was released in 1959, it became a cultural phenomenon with its massive number of extras, extraordinary sets, and epic action sequences. At the time, it was the second highest grossing film of all time behind Gone With The Wind; it had the highest budget of all time; it held the record for most Academy Awards for a single picture for 38 years; its key chariot race sequence remains an essential slab of on-screen action; and it is generally considered one of the greatest films of all time. Director, Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch, Wanted), and his cast and crew certainly have their work cut out for them if they hope to replicate the success of the 1959 epic. Rather than adopting the remake strategy, however, this new take on the material is more closely aligned with Lew Wallace’s original 1880 novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ. Rather than focusing on revenge and miracles, the new adaptation explores the themes of forgiveness and love, more in keeping with the original novel. English actor, Toby Kebbell (Warcraft, RocknRolla, Fantastic Four, Dead Man’s Shoes, Control), plays Messala, Judah Ben-Hur’s adoptive brother and a high ranking Roman Officer. Messala’s betrayal of his brother early on in the film establishes him as the antagonist, and sets Jack Huston’s Ben-Hur on his path of vengeance.
How different is your Messala from the original movie? “I have the same hair as in the original [laughs], which means that we have the same hair as Jim Carrey in Dumb And Dumber. The thing that truly convinced me and pulled me in was that we’re using real horses. We’re really racing on a track, and we’re actually doing that. It was also a story of forgiveness, and in order to do that, we needed to see them as younger men. At the point where Messala breaks out of the house of Hur, we didn’t need a montage of them as kids, getting up to mischief. We didn’t need to see them as young boys. We just need to see that separation, and how they became brothers. Of course it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s the chariot movie! Love that stuff!’ And it is that, there’s no doubt. But in the retelling, it was important for us to have Messala have a journey.”
It feels like there was a certain spirituality on this set, with people going off to mass, and Rodrigo Santoro, who plays Jesus, being blessed by The Pope. Did you have a religious background? “I’m Catholic, and I used to be an altar boy, but I’m a terrible Catholic! I was an altar boy because you used to get given a pound coin for weddings, and also funerals…I’m going to let it all out here! So I was an altar boy for that reason. I lived across the road from Holy Trinity RC Primary School, which had a church attached. Father O’Sullivan was my priest, and he was a great dude. I used to steal the communion…it’s not good that I’m telling you, but I used to do it with my sister because she wasn’t allowed communion. I thought, ‘It’s the Body of Christ, you can have it!’ We weren’t drinking wine; we were eating wafers! [Laughs] So I wasn’t a very good Catholic, that’s the truth of it. I hope that isn’t detrimental to the film, but that wasn’t what drew me to it. I felt a sense of spirituality, and I know it sounds goofy, with the horses. It’s very difficult taking your horses on the slow track. You’ve got to have this conversation with the horse, and you’ve got to talk to them constantly. You feel like The Horse Whisperer, you know what I mean? I watched the film, Buck [the doco about real life horse whisperer, Buck Brannaman] because it’s important. I worked with Robert Redford [on the period drama, The Conspirator] and he talked about horses in that way. There is a conversation that you can have with animals. It sounds crazy, but that was my spiritual moment in the film.”
Didn’t you work with horses on Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes? Was that the first time? “Prince Of Persia was the very first time. I learned to ride a horse on that film. Several people who worked on that did Wrath Of The Titans and Warhorse and this, so it was like going back to family. The people who taught me to ride are now teaching me to do chariot work.”
So that’s how you pick up a role? ‘Oh, do they have horses? Then yes.’ “Yeah, horribly. And I know that’s not bright, but I walked into all of these and they were like, ‘So what were your thoughts, because this movie won like 55 Oscars?’ and I was like, ‘Fuck, I did not think of that. Stupidly I didn’t think of that!’”
But they have horses! “But we’re riding real horses, and I tell you what, there’s nothing worse when you’ve got this beautiful thoroughbred right there, and you’re standing on a hill in Pinewood with a green screen going,‘Yaaaa!’ [Laughs] But being pulled by horses is hard work. It was us riding, and there aren’t stunt doubles. We have stunt doubles, mainly to use their horses, but we did the work. We were going 38-40 miles an hour around a small track, and it was very chaotic, very exhilarating, and probably the most exciting thing I’ve ever done.”
With a group of Brits in period costume, were there any Monty Python moments? “There were a lot of split bottoms in leather trousers! When you’re pulling horses, you’ve got to squat. You’ve got to stand and move, so we lost pieces of armour, but nothing really slapstick. Jack let go of his whip and it hit me in the face though.”
Did you get injured doing any of these things? “I got trigger finger. When you’re pulling horses all day, you’ve got a clenched fist, so I got trigger finger, which meant that my finger wouldn’t go back up. So they stuck a cortisone injection into the tendon. There’s no getting around it. They just stick a needle into the thing, and he goes, ‘If it gets bad again, come back for another injection’ and I’m like, ‘Nah, I’m alright, mate. I’m alright, thanks, I’ll just stay home.’ You’ve got to get on with work unfortunately.”
Ben-Hur is released in cinemas on August 25.
