"Young Pope" Jude Law reacts to memes about the show that went viral while director Paolo Sorrentino answered back on critics.
Law said that he has seen almost all possible memes on social media about the show. However, he admitted that he was not aware about what a 'meme' us before.
At the Television Critics Association's press tour, the actor said that he is not too worried about what the critics say about the show. He went to say that he hopes the memes will attract interest on the show, People reported.
"I hope [the memes] will prompt interest and intrigue," the actor says. "I don't know if meme trends are reflective of young people's interest but if so I hope [young viewers see the show]," he said.
"The Young Pope" is a miniseries written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino on HBO. The series follows a fictional first American pontiff who is pendantic, doubting, shrewed, ironic, resolute and ruthless.
One critic pointed out that the depiction of a pope in the show is not realistic. To this, Sorrentino responded and said that their version is very much a possibility, Deadline reported.
"It is possible that, after Pope Francis, the next pope could be somebody like the character. This is the thing many experts in the church told me, and so the idea was to do a next pope, the future pope," he said.
In the series' Law plays Lenny Belardo a.k.a Pius XIII, a young and charming New York Archbishop who had been elected as the next pope as a result of a media strategy devised by the College of Cardinals. The character was likened to the rise of strawmen and to several political personalities including Donald Trump, Marcus Aurelius, St. Francis and Dalai Lama.
However, law said that his character is different from all of the above because Pius XIII is not a liar.
"He's full of contradictions...but he doesn't lie. He's a man of conviction from his own standpoint and he's trying to understand his heart and his faith. Imagine getting the top job and having a direct line to the 'person' who has seen him through his lonely existence, which is god, and the line is busy," he said.
Watch "The Young Pope" trailer below: