If you got to this page without having read Part 1 of the Caligula saga, you need to click here

Click here to return to the main Tinto Brass page

What Did They Have to Say for Themselves?

Typically, when a movie is released, actors are contractually obligated to promote it. I remember watching Dick Cavett interview Sir John Gielgud in late 1980 or early 1981. They never mentioned Caligula by name, and Cavett explained that he didn’t want to give it any publicity. Gielgud said that he had turned down a larger part (Tiberius), because he found it too “obscene,” but finally agreed to play a much smaller rôle (Nerva), who simply disapproves of all he sees. A few weeks later, when interviewing someone else, Caligula came up in conversation, and Cavett mentioned that a recent guest who had appeared in the film had instructed him not to mention the title. So much for a producer getting his stars to promote a film.

Peter O’Toole was more blunt:

I’m amused really; it’s just so soggy and daft, isn’t it? You know, on a Friday we were all in a rather good movie by Gore Vidal, who can write history, you know. I can see it now: his little crocodile shoes tapping — something was up. And on Monday, everything had changed: director, script, whatever. My role had been cut to six days, and “Would I improvise Tiberius?” “Certainly.” We didn’t know to what extent we were in a blue movie. John [Gielgud] did three days and I did [six]. Poor Malcolm was floundering around for months.
I’m not ashamed of my Tiberius. Not ashamed at all. He’s all right. He’s dead in the first reel, isn’t he? What I did was immediately practice as much as I could on Tiberius. It’s quixotic, I suppose, but I had a demand on me to be as professional as possible and protect Tiberius, who fascinated me. I’d love to play him from about my age now till his death. He ran the entire Roman empire — and that spread everywhere — from the Isle of Capri; he didn’t move from there. [Joseph McBride, “O’Tooel Ascending,” Film Comment, March/April 1981, p 53]

Here is Helen Mirren’s ringing endorsement:

I’m not going to say it was all a terrible mistake. People were paid well. If they’re honest, that’s why they did it. I take responsibility for everything I’ve ever done.

And lead player Malcolm McDowell wasn’t all too happy. Here’s a little item from a regular column called “People” in The Albuquerque Tribune (Monday, 7 April 1980, p B-8):

It didn’t take Malcolm McDowell and Penthouse publishing czar Bob Guccione long to meet in the arena. McDowell has the title role in Guccione’s controversial X-rated Caligula — but Guccione, branding McDowell a cheapskate, refused to let him see the finished produce for free. McDowell finally anted up at the boxoffice, and didn’t like what he saw. Says he, “I thought it was too long. I won’t be making any more pornographic movies.”

And another paragraph, this time from People magazine:

McDowell needed all the psychological armor he could muster for his role as the crazed emperor in Robert Guccione’s X-rated Caligula. During the filming in 1977 [sic], Malcolm’s father visited the set. “In one scene, I had to pee up against a marble pillar and say something like: ‘I am Rome. Wherever I am Rome is. Let’s go to Cairo.’ Dad was bowled over. ‘That’s what I call bloody fantastic acting,’ he pronounced. ‘They say “Action!” and you pee.’” McDowell otherwise calls Caligula “an outrageous betrayal. I was paid handsomely,” he adds, “but Guccione cut 20 minutes of hard-core porn into the film. It looks like we were in a conspiracy.” [Andrea Chambers, “Malcolm McDowell’s Romance with Mary Steenburgen Has Gone Just Like Clockwork,” People, September 1980, pp 65–151]

In Variety:

On the release version of Caligula, which he caught in L.A., McDowell opines “I don’t mind a bit of pornography. People can do whatever they want. But the biggest crime on this earth to any actor or anybody who deals in entertainment of people is boredom.” [Lawrence Cohn, “Malcolm McDowell’s Viewpoints,” Variety, Wednesday, 23 July 1980, p 29]

And finally in Esquire

It was never going to be something for my mother to see. It was pagan Rome, after all. But at the start it had some substance, historical backbone. Then Guccione betrayed us all. Everything that I wanted to do, that the director wanted to do, got buried under all this ridiculous, boring pornography. So now I’m in a dilemma: I’m in a movie that is grossing huge amounts, that is good for me — for my price — and that I loathe, that I feel is awful. It’s a strange thing to feel. But then, it’s a strange business, isn’t it? [Laurence Shames, “Malcolm McDowell Thinks Before He Acts,” Esquire, April 1981, 47]

Click here to read Stuart Urban’s reminiscences about being an assistant editor to Tinto Brass for Caligula

Click here to read about the legendary 210-minute version of Caligula

Click here to read excerpts from critical reviews of Caligula

Click here to read about the various video editions of Caligula

Click here for the cast and other credits

Click here to see our Caligula bibliography

Click here to see our continue to the next chapter (post-Caligula)

Click here to return to the main Tinto Brass page