TORONTO — By anyone's estimation, meeting Conrad Black, the larger-than-life former media mogul with the matching vocabulary, would be an intimidating prospect.

Imagine how Albert Schultz felt, having just finished portraying Black in CTV's eagerly anticipated movie about his fall from grace, "Shades of Black: The Conrad Black Story," airing Monday night at 8 p.m. ET.

"It was a little bit awkward for both of us," Schultz recalls of the meeting, orchestrated by a mutual friend, at the embattled Black's mid-town Toronto estate shortly after the filming wrapped up.

"It was a strange situation. I mean how many times in your life do you meet someone whose mind you've just been inside of, in my case, and in the case of him, meet someone who's just been inside your head? It was very odd."

Thankfully, Schultz says, Black failed to unleash his legendary disdain on the actor and was instead friendly and engaging during their visit.

"I found him nothing but charming and the sort of person who was interesting to spend time with," says Schultz.

But he was even more fun to play, says Schultz, who was joined in the movie by American actress Lara Flynn Boyle. She plays a smouldering - and considerably younger - version of Barbara Amiel Black, revelling in her adoration for Black, Manolo Blahniks and living the high life in equal measure.

"It's quite a story, really, when you think about it," says Schultz, the artistic director and one of the founders of Toronto's Soulpepper Theatre. "I mean it's not fair to say he came from nowhere - he certainly had a nest egg to start with, but it wasn't an extraordinarily large one. Yet he parlayed it into something quite extraordinary. He got awfully close to the sun and then, so quickly, it all seemed to potentially evaporate."

Indeed, the CTV biopic, based loosely on the book by Canadian-born New York Times writer Richard Siklos, by necessity ends in a bit of a cliffhanger. Black goes on trial this spring in Chicago on criminal charges that he and three other former Hollinger executives bilked Hollinger International to the tune of US$80 million. He vehemently denies any wrongdoing.

The movie begins two years ago as Black and Amiel, holed up in their Toronto mansion upon returning in their private jet from London, face the prospect of criminal charges as Black's longtime business partner, David Radler (played by Jason Schombing), is getting increasingly nervous about the couple's "conspicuous" spending.

Through the course of the two-hour film, Black is shown in his younger years plowing through various acquisitions - from the Sherbrooke Record all the way to London's Daily Telegraph. Along the way his parents die, his first marriage breaks up against his wishes, and he meets and falls in love with the alluring Amiel.

The 43-year-old Schultz says his goal in taking on the role - he portrays Black from the age of 28 to 60 - was to get beyond the headlines and the combative personality to discover what Black is really like, what fuelled him and what events shaped him.

He pulls it off. Many times throughout the movie, Black comes off as a truly sympathetic character - as a loving and loyal son determined to avenge his depressed father for perceived betrayals by his business foes, and even as a lonely divorced man, pining for his children and wounded by the end of his first marriage.

"I wanted to get at the flesh and blood of the man," Schultz says. "He had a mother, he had a father; he lost a mother, he lost a father. He had a wife, he lost a wife, he found a new one. He had a brother, he lost a brother. There was a lot of loss, and that's not something the media tends to explore."

It's easy to delight in the downfall of the wealthy and powerful, Schultz adds.

"There's a great deal of schadenfreude that goes on when a man like this falls. We forget the beginnings, and that's my job as an actor, to put some flesh on the bones of our perceptions. I think always with the actor, you're sympathizing with the character that you're playing and trying to get at what motivated him."

If Black proves to be guilty as charged, Schultz points out, the Canadian landscape will be slightly less colourful.

"It would be a more interesting world with Conrad Black's voice being heard, whether we agree with it or not, and whatever side of the political spectrum we're on. If we're on the same side, then we want our point of view articulated as well as that, and if we're on the other side, it's good for us to have that kind of rigour in opposition."