ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 6, 1996 TAG: 9604090043
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG NYE KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Generations brought up on Charlton Heston's Moses are in for a surprise when they see Ben Kingsley's portrayal of the great Jewish leader.
In Kingsley's hands, Moses becomes less of a superman and more of a ordinary human who reluctantly responded to God's call to lead his people out of slavery.
Kingsley said he used another famous Jewish figure as an inspiration for his Moses.
``I drew on my experiences with Simon Wiesenthal,'' Kingsley said from his office in London during a recent telephone conversation.
Kingsley's ``Moses'' makes its debut Sunday night at 8 on cable's TNT. The two-part, four-hour miniseries concludes Monday night at the same time.
Wiesenthal is the Austrian Jew who survived the German concentration camps during World War II while nearly all of his relatives were murdered. After the war, Wiesenthal dedicated his life to bringing Nazi war criminals to justice.
In 1988, Kingsley played Wiesenthal in the TV-movie ``Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story.''
``He was on the film set almost every day,'' Kinglsey said. ``I felt at times that I was with a prophet of the Old Testament. I said to myself, `Now I know what Moses, Joshua and some of the others must have been like.'
``Simon Wiesenthal was full of kindness and full of anger. You can read all the books in the world and not really understand these people. Simon helped me understand. So I decided that's who my Moses would be like.''
When Kingsley was approached about playing Moses, he didn't hesitate to take on the role. Part of the reason being that he was reunited with director Roger Young and executive producer Gerald Rafshoon, who had worked with Kingsley on TNT's ``Joseph.''
That, he said, had been a pleasant collaboration. And to Kingsley, filmmaking is (or should be) a collaborative effort void of egos. He believes an actor should have as much influence on a project as anyone else.
``I had a conversation with Warren Beatty about that,'' Kingsley said. ``He felt the actors knew more than anybody else. They hang around the set all day and they see everybody and what they do. Actors just soak up so much knowledge observing.''
Kingsley, who won a Best Actor Oscar for ``Ghandi,'' said some producers and directors feel threatened by having actors so involved, but that's not a problem with Young and Rafshoon. They encourage participation.
``The more contributions the better the end product,'' Kingsley said. ``Everyone should be thinking about what's best for the film. So we all made suggestions. It's all very lively when everyone has input. It becomes a very happy debate.''
That approach certainly worked with ``Moses.''
``I'm very gratified with the results,'' Kingsley said. ``And I think it looks splendid. We had Raffaele Mertes on the camera and he did a wonderful job. He also worked on `Joseph.'''
In recent years, Kingsley has had several opportunities to play Jewish characters. He played the title role in ``Joseph'' and was a prominent figure in Steven Spielberg's powerful ``Schindler's List.'' Currently he is working on a movie in which he portrays a member of the Mossad, the Israeli secret service.
``Maybe someone up there is trying to tell me something,'' laughed Kingsley, a non-Jew. ``You feel a level of responsibility to focus your best energy on such roles.''
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: David Suchet (from left), Geraldine McEwan and Benby CNBKingsley star in ``Moses,'' airing Sunday and Monday at 8 p.m. on
TNT.