Sir Ben Kingsley on The Last Legion
by: Edward Douglas
- comingsoon.net
Sir Ben Kingsley, clearly the definition of an "actor's actor," has been keeping very busy, appearing in two to three movies a year in a variety of roles.
In the upcoming crime drama Lucky Number Slevin, he plays a Jewish mob boss known as "The Rabbi," but he's been keeping very busy since making that movie, including a return to period pieces with his first movie not set in modern times in quite a while, The Last Legion. He spoke to ComingSoon.net about the film and what drew him to it.
"It may be retitled, but it's about the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of the Arthurian Court," he said with a twinkle in his eye as he gave away a major spoiler about his character (which won't be revealed).
"We were a group of warriors... Colin Firth, Rupert Friend, Owen Tiel, and Aishwarya Rai was also a warrior in the film, and we get Caesar from Capri to Britain. At the end of the film, I gave each member of the group silver dog tags with the name of the film, their cast number, their character's name and their own name. What I learned was not so much about ancient history, but what it's like to be a warrior amongst men, and that was a beautiful thing to learn."
"I have a great affection for the military," he went on. "I don't know where it comes from, maybe a genetic memory, but I feel extremely comfortable with soldiers. I just spent a lot of time with General Farouk in Pakistan, going to the earthquake district, because he's in charge of earthquake relief, and I felt really at home with those men in the uniform. I also felt very at home with Behrani [from "House of Sand and Fog"] as a man in uniform."
He also told ComingSoon.net that it may come out around Christmas, distributed by the Weinstein Company, which makes it a safe bet to be one of the Weinsteins' big Oscar movies at the end of the year.
Next up for Sir Ben is the crime drama Lucky Number Slevin, which pits him against Morgan Freeman, and opens on April 7.
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