Cary Elwes

Trivia

• Played a number of villainous roles. His first role as a villain was in Leather Jackets (1992).
• Prepares intensely for most of his acting roles. (For example, for Days of Thunder (1990), he had to rely on practical research to meet the physical demands of playing a race car driver. For his role as Air Force Colonel James Burton in The Pentagon Wars (1998) (TV), he spent a few days in Burton's home interviewing him and poring over his BFV files, and even filing boxes of Burton's Bradley documents and giving every page back to Burton.).
• Is an accomplished horseman.
• Raised as a Catholic. He was an altar boy at Brompton Oratory in London. His mother, father, and paternal grandfather were also Catholics.
• Is a distant relative of the famous Archaeologist Lord Carnarvon, and a distant nephew of Henry VIII Tudor, King of England, as well as he is a distant nephew of his third wife, Jane Seymour.
• His paternal grandfather was the famous portrait-painter Simon Elwes.
• His very devout Catholic mother took him to meet Pope John Paul II in the Vatican when Cary was 22 years old. Cary portrayed the young pontiff in the docudrama Pope John Paul II (2005) (TV).
• For the video game The Bard's Tale (2004) (VG), he spent at least 20 hours in Los Angeles and London recording studios to bring his title character to life. In order for his character to converse with nonplayable characters in either a 'snarky' or 'nice' tone, both leavened with comic relief, Cary had to record two responses for every interaction - a total of 1,200 lines and a lot of his own script improvising.
• As a student in Sarah Lawrence College in 1980, he studied acting, philosophy and history. He also studied German Expressionist Film in college. Despite his parents' wealth, Elwes supplemented his income by working his way through school.
• Was a projectionist at school.

Quotes

• "I met him at the read-through at the Dorchester Hotel in London. I saw his hand first, through the door. And there was a collective gasp from everyone in the room. The only people who had met him were Rob (Reiner) and [screenwriter] Bill Goldman. This huge smile came in, and everyone got up to meet him. He was huge in Japan, you know. They offered to fly him out there any time, because giants are considered lucky. People would run across the street just to touch him."
• "It was a wonderfully supportive set, and that's a great atmosphere for being creative. An atmosphere of fun, is an atmosphere where the mind is more likely to come up with great stuff."
• "I'll tell you something right now. There's a myth about actors saying, 'Oh no, that's not me on screen at all. I'm just acting.' OK, if I were to say to you that's not me, that's fine. And I would tell you that I don't behave like a villain everyday, and that's true, I don't. But to say there's absolutely none of me in there is ridiculous, because it's me playing the part, you know? I wanted to do it because I figured if I kept a part like that inside me too long, I might explode. Dobbs, the gu
• "I was blessed enough to meet Pope John Paul when I was 22 years old in the Vatican; I had that privilege. My mother took me to visit him, and I remember distinctly his incredible charisma and personal charm and his warmth and compassion. You felt it immediately the minute you met him, and that spirit I came away with, having met the man, is something that I've been constantly working on to infuse the character with. My mother is a very devout Catholic. Her criticism will be the one I pay the mo
• "I like historical pieces. History was my favorite subject in school, it was the only subject I excelled in. I love the idea of history and the idea that we may have the opportunity to learn from our past mistakes."
• "She's very headstrong. I think she can fight her image all she wants, but ultimately when she reaches full womanhood, I think she'll be quite happy to be called a sex kitten".
• "I take away something from every role. I'm still learning and that's what life is about."