At 67 with a major career behind him, John Hurt doesn’t have much to lose by speaking frankly. And while he doesn’t quite rag on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in his new interview with Premiere.com, he certainly doesn’t come across like an overscripted publicitybot like so many actors with new projects to flog. It seems that Hurt mostly took the gig as Abner Ravenwood, Marian’s father and Indy’s one-time mentor who has was thought dead since the first film, because he wanted to go to Peru and all his friends told him he would be daft to turn it down. It turns out that they didn’t go to Peru after all, but he did have a nice time on the movie, being directed by Spielberg (who he calls ‘God,’ but I don’t think in a worshipful way!)
Says Hurt: ‘I want to be careful here, because I don’t want to make it sound as if I’m anti- the film — I’m not at all. But if I was asked what I would choose to do, it would be lightweight for me, at least for that sort of time commitment. But having accepted it, I enjoyed working with Steven hugely, and we had a great cast. I just wish we’d had something of fabulous interest between each other to act!’
He’s not allowed to say much of anything about the film due to NDAs he signed, and he couldn’t even confirm the name of his character. He does say that he’s in the whole second half of the movie, right in the action, and he mentions that Ray Winstone’s character is a bit ‘dodgy’ – I imagine we don’t know whose side he’s on until the end.
Hurt also had some insight into George Lucas: ‘George is a bit socially crippled really. Not good with people. So I just left him alone.’
For more, including how Hurt may have been the only cast member to read the whole script and how Spielberg tried to shoot as practically as possible, click here to visit Premiere.com.