John Rhys-Davies was born on 5 May 1944 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England and was brought up there, in Tanganyika and in Ammanford, Wales. The result is that he has a wonderful rounded accent which, combined with his acting skills, has landed him several key roles in major movies – both live action and animated.
Best known for playing the dwarf Gimli in the Lord of the Rings, and Salah in the Indiana Jones films, John’s latest film is a new animated version of John Bunyan’s classic Pilgrims Progress. John plays the role of Evangelist, a character who points the way to ‘the Celestial City’ to the hero of the story Christian. It’s a joy to have him on the phone, speaking from the set of his next film in Malta. I began by asking John what attracted him to role.
‘I knew Pilgrims progress as a child” he explains. ‘For me Bunyan’s work is the third most important work of English literature, behind the Bible and Shakespeare’. He goes on “It’s a story that has universal appeal, is touching and powerful and I hope that one of the results of the film will be that people will return to the book’. ‘There is a simplicity and a strength in Bunyan that is very compelling’.
‘We are all pilgrims in this world and Bunyan’s message is that God will be with us. God is a racing certainty”. ‘The universe is a complicated place and God is more complete and complex than we can imagine’. ‘I believe God believes in us’ he adds. John then pauses for a moment before going on to tell me a story from his child hood. ‘I was out in the bush in Tanganyika and I got lost. In that moment I remembered Bunyan’s hymn “He who would valiant be gainst all disaster”, singing that song kept me going – it made me feel brave’
Returning to the role of Evangelist, defined as one who announces, ‘Good news’, John comments that ‘a Christian is one will be able to look into the face of Jesus and follow him’. Sadly, our time is up and as he signs off John expresses the hope that we will meet face to face one day, and he quotes a verse from the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:12, “now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face”. ‘A verse that reminds us, as Bunyan does that those who walk with God will see him one day’.
PILGRIMS PROGRESS was released in U.K. Cinemas in October 2019 and will be available to buy on Region 2 Blu Ray and DVD from February 2020.