LOS ANGELES − Acting legend Al Pacino and "Downton Abbey" star Dan Stevens were bonding over Super Bowl LVIII in Pacino's rented home near the Natchez, Mississippi, set of "The Ritual" when the February skies turned ominous.
"We were basically watching the Super Bowl during a tornado," says Stevens, recalling the "act of God" moment as he sits next to a vigorously nodding Pacino. "And neither of us had been in one before."
Some might see this extreme weather occurrence as a supernatural statement or warning about making "The Ritual" (in theaters June 6), a horror film based on a real-life 1928 exorcism documented in Time magazine. But Stevens, 42, and Pacino, 85, were consumed with scanning weather reports and Googling terms like "What to do in a tornado."
"The instructions were to get in the bathtub," says Pacino. "But it was like, 'I can't see the Super Bowl from there.' "
To summarize the outcome: The Chiefs won the Super Bowl in an overtime thriller, and no tornado materialized, sparing Pacino and Stevens from having to shelter in bathtub. But strange things happen when making movies about Catholic priests expelling demons, as seen in the otherworldly weirdness (fire, injuries) surrounding the granddaddy of them all, 1973's "The Exorcist."
