With Upcoming 20-Year Anniversary of HBO/BBC’s “Rome” Series, Let’s Celebrate Ray Stevenson & His Indelible Portrayal of Pullo
“Me, I have simpler tastes. I like to kill my enemies, take their gold and enjoy their women.” — roguish Titus Pullo
The first battle scene in the Rome TV series, which stunningly comes across like a movie, sets the tone of a rocky but true buddy relationship between two career Roman soldiers — the charming anti-hero Titus Pullo (played by Ray Stevenson) and his officious pal Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd). By-the-book centurion Vorenus excoriates rabble-rouser legionary Pullo to “get back in formation you drunken fool” during the battle with the Gauls.
The Romans win the battle but Pullo is flogged for his insubordination, even though he single-handedly took down several Gallic warriors. After he gets his due punishment, Pullo, who knows how to drink, brawl, kill a lot of enemy combatants, and make love, continues to show his anti-heroic ways, chiding his torturers:
“Is that it? I was just beginning to enjoy myself…”
During the two seasons and 22 episodes of Rome, there were many more “Pullo-isms” — wisecracking, but sometimes surprisingly insightful quips by the brutal but lovably giant character that he was.
“Juno’s a c•nt, but you’re salty! And I was worried about bringing you!” Pullo to young Octavian, emperor to be
Englishman Stevenson and his onscreen creation Pullo were larger-than-life-characters. Pullo was described as a “devil-may-care soldier with the morals of a pirate, the appetites of a hedonist…”
When visiting Hollywood, where I live, actor Stevenson once told me: “Playing Pullo on Rome turned my life around. It got me agent representation in the States and effectively started my movie career, which led to my lead roles in the Punisher franchise, and another feature movie, Kill the Irishman, and much more. So much happened because of that portrayal of Pullo in Rome.”
Octavian: “We’ve given you up for dead.” Pullo: “Nah. One of these days maybe. But not yet.”
But Pullo the character survived the series and essentially outlasted the man who portrayed him. Stevenson was filming Star Wars: Ahsoka in Italy in 2023 when he suddenly and sadly passed away.
“I’ve never actually tortured anyone. I don’t know how… They have specialists!” — Pullo to Octavian
I knew Ray personally, as a journalist who hung out with him several times, met his family, and sipped scotch malt whisky with Ray, while interviewing him for Playboy and other magazines.
Once, I and entertainment lawyer Angela Jackson also listened to him play surprisingly well on his Dobro guitar in his hotel room off LA’s famous Sunset Strip — while sipping several glasses of The Macallan in some fine crystal. He told us of sipping scotch at The Scotch Malt Whisky Society in London. Oh, to be a fly on the wall there.
“Calm down, love. It’s not for me, it’s the young master we’re here for.” — Pullo to madam on taking Octavian to a brothel
Ray and I had an idea of writing up a book on the best Pullo-isms, and explaining the context. He immediately warmed to the idea, rhyming off some of his favorite sayings by Pullo.
“No one’s a traitor until they are.”
“Forculus, if you be the right god for the business here, I call on you to help me. If you will open this door, then I will kill for you a fine white lamb, or, failing that, if I couldn’t get a good one at a decent price, then six pigeons.”
Vorenus: “You… talk too much.” Pullo: “We all have our faults.”
Indeed, Stevenson said getting into the shoes of Pullo, helped him become the actor and person he was to become: “As an actor, playing Pullo, I feel I learned to get out of my own way in that series. I stopped having a stupid projected view about if I did this then maybe I could then know this or that thing about actors. It really made me sit down in my own skin and just turn up and do the job — the job’s enough.”
When we got to the impact of playing Pullo on his personal life, he added, “That period, shooting Rome mostly at the Cinecittà studios, was one of the major periods in my personal life, as well. I basically found my partner who was my landlady. And, that led to us having three boys together.”
The final scene of the second season of Rome, which set up the possibility of a third season which unfortunately never came off, involves Octavian with the returning Pullo, who “fibs” a little telling Octavian that young Caesarion is dead. Octavian is on his way to ascending as Caesar Augustus, Rome’s first emperor.
When Pullo leaves Octavian’s palace, he meets up with the still-quite-alive Caesarion, the son of Cleopatra and supposedly Julius Caesar. The young lad swears vengeance, saying, “By my blood, I’ll not rest until I have avenged my mother and redeemed my father’s name.”
Stevenson and I couldn’t help but crack up when we recalled that final scene with Pullo and Caesarion, and the final Pullo-ism of the series, a final line of dialog that encapsulates the mischief that underscored Stevenson’s portrayal of Pullo. The underlying context in this somewhat fictionalized version of the historical story, is that Pullo had done his soldier’s duty by “getting it on” with Cleopatra and afterwards exclaiming in his inimitable fashion: “That Gyppo princess, now that’s good c•nny.”
So, immediately after Caesarion’s little boy vow to avenge his mother, Pullo plainly but mischievously responds:
“Listen, about your father…” — Pullo to Caesarion
Rome debuted in summer of 2005, the first series on which HBO and the BBC worked together as co-producers. So, next year in 2025 would be the 20-year anniversary of Rome the series. For fans of the show and of Ray Stevenson (RIP, sir knight), wouldn’t it be a fine bow to have some celebration and/or memorial for both next year? So, let’s do something…
Check out the first and final scenes of “Rome” on YouTube. And, also drop in on Ray Stevenson’s IMDb Pro page with contacts.
