Rupert Murdoch’s Daughter Says He Approves Guy Pearce in ‘Ink’
Guy Pearce says Elisabeth Murdoch told him her father was “very happy” with the casting in Danny Boyle’s Venice opener. Rupert Murdoch had not seen the finished film when she passed along the message.
Guy Pearce says Rupert Murdoch is happy to see him play the media mogul in Danny Boyle’s “Ink,” though Murdoch had not watched the film when that approval arrived. Pearce shared the detail during the movie’s Venice Film Festival press conference on Sept. 2, 2026, saying he contacted Murdoch’s daughter, Elisabeth Murdoch, instead of speaking to Murdoch himself. For a film about the man who turned a struggling British tabloid into the first brick in a global media empire, the casting news lands before the verdict: the subject approves of the face, if not yet the picture.
Elisabeth Murdoch Delivers the Casting News
Pearce said Elisabeth Murdoch sent him a message: her father was “very happy” that he would play him. The actor also made the limit plain. Murdoch had not seen “Ink” at that point, so his reaction concerned the casting, not the performance or the film’s argument.
That distinction matters. Publicity departments love a phrase like “very happy” because it arrives pre-approved, portable and almost content-free. Here, at least, Pearce supplied the missing wrinkle himself. Murdoch likes the choice. He has not signed off on the movie.
Variety reported the exchange after Pearce, Boyle and screenwriter James Graham faced questions at Venice. The Hollywood Reporter also described Pearce’s message from Elisabeth Murdoch, spelling her name “Elizabeth” in its account. Neither report says Murdoch has endorsed the finished film. The piece does not know what he will think after watching it.
Photo: usbotschaftberlin · Public domain · source
Rupert Murdoch Knows the Story From Graham’s Play
Murdoch is not encountering “Ink” from a distance. Graham said Murdoch saw the original stage play twice, once in London’s West End and once on Broadway. Graham remembered a man who gave little away, which is a neat description for a mogul whose public reactions have rarely needed much help from other people.
Still, Graham recalled one thing Murdoch seemed to enjoy: a sequence centered on the printing press, with its steam, grime and industrial muck. The film follows Murdoch in 1969 as he buys the failing Sun and appoints Larry Lamb, played by Jack O’Connell, as editor. Their task is to overtake the Daily Mirror, then the dominant rival.
The pressroom detail tells you where the film wants its romance to sit. Not in boardrooms. In noise, ink and machinery. Graham said he thought Murdoch would feel flattered by the casting. That is a prediction, not a quote from Murdoch, and it carries less weight than Pearce’s report from his daughter.
