Grandier Quotes

(on his role as Father Grandier in The Devils (1971)) It was certainly the most difficult and the most strenuous part I have ever played. And I think, quite important.

(on his role as Father Grandier in The Devils (1971)) You would think from the critics` hostility that Ken Russell had tried to pull off some obscene hoax. On the contrary, the film is, I think, an utterly serious attempt to understand the nature of religious and political persecution. It is not in any way exaggerated. If anything, the horrors perpetrated in Loudun in the 17th century were worse than Russell has chosen to show . . . the character of the priest was a marvelous one to act. Ken Russell`s brother-in-law is an historian and he helped me research Grandier`s life, with particular reference to his thesis in celibacy. The people of Loudun loved him. He walked among the plague victims and comforted them. I started to play him as a priest and realized that he was a politician.