‘Amadeus’ Stars Paul Bettany and Will Sharpe Reveal How They Created a Very Modern Mozart and Salieri: “Two Very Large Characters Being Played By Two Very Over-The-Top Actors”

A bold new version of the film and stage classic Amadeus hit Starz last week, introducing us to ghoulishly evil Salieri (Paul Bettany), a hilariously out-of-touch Mozart (Will Sharpe), and a more formidable Constanze (Gabrielle Creevy) than audiences have ever seen before. The five-part limited series created by Black Doves and Giri/Haji writer Joe Barton pulls elements from Peter Shaffer’s beloved stage play as well as real historic events to create a modern interpretation of the classic rivalry.

When Amadeus stars Paul Bettany and Will Sharpe visited DECIDER’s studio last week, they gushed about what a fun opportunity the show offered up to them as actors.

“It’s an iconic bad guy,” Bettany said. “I love him.”

“I think he is very relatable as a bad guy. I think it’s a sort of wish-fulfillment thing for audiences in that we all have venal, terrible thoughts, but hopefully don’t act out on them. And it was a lot of fun to just have all of these thoughts and then do them and make life very hard for my compadre here,” he said, pointing at Sharpe.

Sharpe revealed that his favorite part of playing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was depicting the moments he finally becomes suspicious of his so-called friend and colleague, Salieri.

“Because most for most of the series, it is a very one-sided rivalry,” Sharpe said. “Salieri is obsessed with Amadeus, but Amadeus doesn’t really have a sense that that’s going on.”

“But as he starts to become suspicious, and we get sort of circle in on each other, that end of the series was also quite, quite enjoyable to film, even though it was probably the most challenging.”

Amadeus delves into the purported rivalry that developed between successful court composer Antonio Salieri and the ground-breaking genius, Mozart. Salieri was one of the most politically powerful composers in 18th century Vienna, a hotbed of progressive politics and cultural movements. However, when Mozart arrives in town, he not only earns the Holy Roman Emperor’s (Rory Kinnear) favor, but vast amounts of fame. Realizing the gulf in their talents drives the ambitious Salieri to develop an obsessive hatred of Mozart.

When DECIDER asked the stars of Amadeus about the scene where this one-sided feud begins, the actors revealed that their experiences filming it closely matched the material.

“Well, interestingly, that happened very early in the shooting. I stood there and saw how great Will had got at piano and I was really intimidated,” Bettany said. “It was quite good for the scene, actually. I was like, ‘Oh, god, he’s done a lot of work.’ He was so good.” 

“I’m not aware of what’s happening with Salieri, internally. So I’m just trying to sort of impress everyone and showboat,” Sharpe said. “But I guess that was probably the the bulk of the piano practice that I had done was for that scene. So I was just kind of like trying to get through it unscathed.”

One of the aspects of Mozart’s talent that offends Salieri the most is how it seems that God has given this otherworldly genius to a young man determined to flout convention and live blasphemously. Much has been written about Mozart’s real-life penchant for scatological humor and Amadeus depicts him as someone wholly unbothered by society’s rules. In one Episode 2 scene, he tears into a young student by asking the little boy if he has “flaccid baby-cocks for fingers.” After reassuring DECIDER that the child actor was not on set for this moment, Sharpe explained how this scene gets to the heart of this tension in Mozart’s approach to social behavior.

“A lot has been written speculatively about neurodiversity and trying to retro-diagnose him,” Sharpe said. “I didn’t want to take it too literally, but there’s definitely a sense of how he didn’t really know how to communicate or to read a room. He’s often offending people and he can’t understand why they’re so offended.”

“So I guess that’s just an example of that, really. He sort of genuinely is frustrated and doesn’t understand why this boy hasn’t improved at piano. And it comes out in an unfortunate way.”

The one person who Mozart seems to connect with in Amadeus is his wife, Constanze. The two bond over their shared passion for music and their love of bawdy jokes. Constanze also wields more power in the show, holding the key to Salieri’s ultimate legacy as well as Mozart’s.

Both Sharpe and Bettany praised their co-star Creevy as a “very natural, understated actor” whose presence helped ground the series.

“One of the nice things about this series is that because it’s across five hours, there’s space to explore, first of all, different perspectives, including Amadeus and Constanze’s. But also you get a chance to sort of imagine a little bit what all of our character’s domestic lives might have been like and how that fed into their lives as artists,” Sharpe said. “And so I think the fact that [Creevy is] so kind of real —”

“Really grounds [the show],” Bettany said.

“Keeps the series’ feet on the ground,” Sharpe said.

“[From] two very large characters being played by two very over-the-top actors,” Bettany said, chuckling.

Of course, you can’t tell the story of Mozart and Salieri without highlighting their music. Sharpe said he “really enjoyed all the big musical set pieces” he got to preside over.

“I love doing Don Giovanni,” he said. “And the mass for his son at the end of Episode 2 is very special.”

“It’s so beautiful,” Bettany said, of the mass. “I had purposely never heard [it]. I didn’t listen to the mass for Raimund until I was on camera in this beautiful basilica watching Will. It was so moving and. Yeah, that was that was extraordinary.”

You can catch that extraordinary moment — as well as Bettany and Sharpe’s exhilarating performances — on Amadeus on Starz.