The Turtle Was the Most Difficult Actor in Conclave
One of this year’s best film performances undoubtedly came from the turtle in Conclave, who not only served as a symbol of spiritual independence in the film but also got to be carried across the Vatican gardens by Ralph Fiennes. But the film’s director, Edward Berger, says the turtle wasn’t necessarily an easy actor to work with. “It didn’t do what I wanted!” Berger told Vulture at the National Board of Review Awards Gala on January 7, “So I was shouting at it and trying to push it and finally we got it,” he said with a laugh. It’s unclear if the same tactics work on Stanley Tucci. “It came about because I went to the Vatican gardens, I took a stroll there and I actually saw a fountain with turtles inside. A gift, I believe, from Angola, and that’s why we put it in the movie. We thought, That’s a good symbol,” Berger explained.
The turtle’s star turn comes at the end of the film, when, after the election of a new pope, Fiennes’s Cardinal Lawrence spots the trailblazing reptile in the building, and picks it up to return it to the garden where it belongs. Despite being such a strong symbol, the turtle was not present to accept the National Board of Review Award for Best Ensemble alongside its cast-mates John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini, and the demure Fiennes.
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