If you go on Google and search for ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, the film released in 2005 by Rydley Scott, the first thing you will find is a list of its cast. In it there are some superstar accounts (actors and actresses) that you may remember from the film and one that will not be familiar to you at all. And it is logical. In fact, if it were up to her, her participation in the film would never have been revealed. His goal was to interpret, embody one of the main characters and then take a step back.
It wasn’t difficult if we take into account that, although his character is key to the plot, he filmed all the scenes in a couple of weeks and hidden behind a mask.
21 years are nothing. In Spain ‘The Kingdom of Heaven’ was released in 2005, a whopping 21 years ago, but that does not mean that the work in which Ridley Scott (‘Gladiator’ or ‘Blade Runner’) tried to capture the spirit of the 12th century crusades and the subsequent siege of Jerusalem in 1187 continues to be talked about even today.
The last example is left by the website Film releaseswhich has published an article delving into one of the most unknown curiosities of the film: the identity of the actor who played King Baudouin IV, a fascinating historical character who ascended to the throne while still a child, died when he was just over 20 years old and had to deal with two fearsome rivals: Sultan Saladin and leprosy, an ailment that deformed him and accompanied him for much of his brief existence.
What’s so curious about it? The figure of King Baudouin IV is fascinating. His character in ‘The Kingdom of Heaven’ too. If you have seen the film you will remember that in almost all of his appearances he appears with his face covered by a silver mask. The brief scene in which he is not wearing it, we are shown a face so deformed by leprosy that his features are completely blurred.
It doesn’t matter which actor is behind it. The makeup makes him unrecognizable.
Taking into account that the real Baudouin suffered from the same illness, the use of the mask and makeup is more than understandable. What is less common is that when the film was released, in 2005, the actor did not participate in the promotion and his name was left out of the main credits. If you check them you will see Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Eva Green, Jeremy Irons… mentioned, all with the characters they embody; but no sign of King Baudouin.
Yes, Edward Norton. The most curious thing is that the mysterious performer was a top-level star. Edward Norton, who was 36 years old at the time, was hiding behind Baudouin’s mask. If in 2005 Scott could boast of hits like ‘Gladiator’ or ‘Black Hawk Down’, Norton was not far behind. In the late 90s he had starred in ‘American History X’ and ‘Fight Club’ and just a few years before he had participated in ‘Red Dragon or ‘The Italian Job’.
If Norton did not appear in the main credits and his participation was relegated to the background for the gallery, it was not because the director or producers of the film decided so. It was the actor himself who wanted to take a step back. His goal was to get into the filming of a blockbuster, see how Scott worked… and then discreetly disappear. Furthermore, since his character wore a mask, by doing so he hoped to increase his halo of mystery.
Click on the image to go to the tweet.
How do we know? Because it was Norton himself who told the intrastory of his participation in the film several years later. To be more precise, he did it in February 2007, during an interview with The Guardian. By then his participation in ‘The Kingdom of Heaven’ was already more than known and a reader asked him a question that movie buffs had been asking for some time: “How did you manage to participate in the movie and why didn’t you appear in the credits?”
His answer is very simple: at that time his schedule prevented him from getting involved in the filming, but he wanted to see first-hand how Scott directed a project of such magnitude, so he accepted a role. Of course, not just any one.
“Ridley Scott and I had been talking about making a movie for years, but it never happened. He asked me if I would play another role in ‘Kingdom of Heaven,’ but I was about to shoot ‘Down in the Valley’ and I just didn’t have the time. But I read the script and asked him who would play the man in the mask. He told me he was going to find someone who could imitate James Mason’s voice. I told him I could imitate James Mason pretty well.”
A tempting offer. As if that offer were not attractive enough, Scott assured him that the king’s scenes could be filmed in “just two weeks”, which would hardly interfere with his preparation for ‘Down in the Valley’.
It was the push that Norton needed, who, beyond the nuances of the leper king character, was interested in something else: “I wanted to see how a film of that magnitude was shot.” “I could have just gone to visit him (Scott), but I was curious if the process was different when it’s so busy. He certainly knows how to shoot films of that scale and is comfortable with it.”
“It was worth it”. These are not the only revelations Norton made during the interview. The American actor acknowledges that he fulfilled his goal of seeing up close how Scott performed behind the cameras and recognizes that the effort was “worth it.” However, he believed that his name should not appear in the credits. At least that is what emerges from the response he shared in 2007 with The Guardian: “I didn’t appear in the credits because I think it would have spoiled the surprise.”
“I’ve never seen her”. Did you regret that decision? Norton does not go into such depth, but from his statements it is clear that he is not. In the end he did not seem satisfied with the final result of the work. And not precisely because of Scott’s decisions. When a fan reminded him that the director’s version of ‘The Kingdom of Heaven’ (longer) has just been released, the actor sarcastically responds:
“I’ve never seen it. What do you think? I can only imagine it’s better than what they ended up releasing. I felt really sorry for Ridley and Bill Moanahan, especially. It was a really wonderful script and should have been a three-hour movie.”
“Terrible decisions”. “It was one of those typical Hollywood dynamics in which someone else’s movie lasts three hours and fails, so yours can’t last three hours anymore. They were terrible corporate decisions,” censures the actor: “I have to be honest. I wasn’t very involved. I was just observing it from the outside. But I felt that any hope I had of being a good movie was wiped out.”
The truth is that the premiere did not achieve the expected success in the US and even generated controversy among experts who accused Scott of distorting history.
A unique case? Over time, Norton has gained a reputation for being one of the most complicated superstars in Hollywood, but the truth is that he is not the only actor who has faced the challenge of giving life to a character with a mask involved, using only his body, gestures and voice. Something similar happened to Hugo Waving when he played ‘V for Vendetta’, Tom Hardy when he put on the ‘Bane’ suit in ‘The Dark Knight’, Michael Fassbender in ‘Frank’ or Karl Urban in ‘Dredd’.
There are even more complicated cases, in which the passage of superstars goes (almost) unnoticed, such as the cameo that Daniel Craig made in ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’, Cate Blanch in ‘Hot Fuzz’ or Jacob Elordi in ‘Pirate of the Caribbean 5’. And that among a long etcetera of fleeting and almost covert interventions that give color to the history of celluloid. A prize for the most attentive viewers… and proof that actors don’t always want to see their names in big gold letters.
Via | filmstarts
In | ‘Napoleon’ is Ridley Scott’s most controversial film in years. Not among critics: among historians
