{"id":54270,"date":"2016-12-16T00:39:31","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T08:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=54270"},"modified":"2016-12-16T00:51:06","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T08:51:06","slug":"mary-magdalene-director-garth-davis-says-rooney-maras-version-character-will-not-prostitute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2016\/12\/mary-magdalene-director-garth-davis-says-rooney-maras-version-character-will-not-prostitute.html","title":{"rendered":"Mary Magdalene<\/i> director Garth Davis says Rooney Mara’s version of the character will not be a prostitute"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"lion-garthdavis\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Garth Davis is making the rounds to promote his first feature film Lion<\/a><\/i>, which tells the true story of an Indian boy who was adopted by an Australian couple and then, as an adult, used Google Earth to find the village of his birth.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Davis has also revealed one or two tidbits about his next film Mary Magdalene<\/a><\/i>, which recently finished shooting in Italy.<\/p>\n

In a video interview with Collider<\/a>, for example, Davis confirmed that Mary Magdalene will not<\/i> be a prostitute in his film, and he talked about why he tackled the project:<\/p>\n

Well in a similar way to Lion<\/i>, it\u2019s just deeply moving. I just found it a deeply moving human story, so I just had to do it. . . .<\/p>\n

When I read the script, it was the first time that story made sense to me. I go, \u201cThis makes sense, I trust this.\u201d And we\u2019re not telling the story of Mary as a prostitute, because that was an invention. So we\u2019re basically just telling Mary\u2019s story as it should have been told, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He also talked about casting Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus:<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t think of anyone else who could play Jesus, really. There was no one else on the planet, for me. I just got Joaquin in my mind and couldn\u2019t get it out, and I just trusted that he was the right person.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Asked if he had consulted with priests and other religious experts, Davis replied:<\/p>\n

The script was developed by See Saw as well, and they had a lot of experts in the field to assess the script as it went along, so they\u2019ve had all their advice from people as well, so it\u2019s been carefully managed in that way. . . .<\/p>\n

I think everyone has a point of view, and all the points of view are valid, and I trust this story. I believe I can tell the story I want to tell, I can be myself in this story, and I believe it to be true, so I\u2019m going to do it that way.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Finally, he also addressed the fact that he started working on Mary Magdalene<\/i> while he was still deep into post-production on Lion<\/i>:<\/p>\n

I desperately wanted a break. It was not my choice, except Emile Sherman said, \u201cHey Garth, I\u2019ve got a project for you.\u201d . . . And he told me about it, and I read it, and I went, \u201cOh man, I\u2019m going to do this.\u201d Because it\u2019s so beautiful, and he said, \u201cWe\u2019ve got an opportunity, we can do it now,\u201d so it was just like, here we go.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Davis was also interviewed by David Poland, and he said even less about Mary Magdalene<\/i> in this interview than he did in his interview with Collider, but at the very beginning he says, \u201cI see it as a humanistic portrayal of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n