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<\/a><\/p>\nMary Magdalene<\/a><\/i> is finally coming to North American theatres this week. Yesterday I rounded up some interviews that director Garth Davis did when the film played overseas last year. Today I\u2019m rounding up some interviews with the film\u2019s lead actors.<\/p>\n First up, there is Rooney Mara<\/b>, who plays the title character.<\/p>\n I linked to a number of interviews that Mara did about this film in previous posts of mine \u2014 in 2016<\/a>, 2017<\/a> (again<\/a>) and 2018<\/a> \u2014 and she also appeared in a number of articles and videos that I posted yesterday as part of my Garth Davis interview round-up<\/a>.<\/p>\n On her own, she spoke to Harper\u2019s Bazaar<\/a><\/i> about Mary Magdalene\u2019s \u201cfeminism\u201d:<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s incredibly radical for her time,\u201d Mara told us. \u201cIt would have been totally shocking and unheard of for a woman to go off with a load of men, leaving her family. She really was a profound feminist figure way ahead of her time. I couldn\u2019t believe her story hadn\u2019t been told before.\u201d . . .<\/p>\n When researching the role, Mara discarded everything she had been taught about Magdalene and started anew based on Davis\u2019 script and the Gospel of Mary, which offered a very different view. The film also explores the relationship between Magdalene and Jesus, played by Joaquin Phoenix \u2013 who Mara is also dating in real life.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have a really beautiful relationship,\u201d says Mara. \u201cShe really loved him and they have this understanding of one another. When he comes along, he\u2019s the first person in her life to really see her for who she is and understand that, appreciate it and make her feel that she can follow that thing that she feels inside her. I think the same goes for him. She sees and understands him in a way that no one else has. They\u2019re kindred spirits.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n She spoke to the Malaya Business Insight<\/a><\/i> about the film\u2019s exorcism scene:<\/p>\n One of the toughest scenes for Mara was the exorcism scene. Before leaving Magdala to follow Jesus, Mary\u2019s family calls on an exorcist to perform an exorcism on her. It is an act of love, the family believes. Davis explains: \u201cThey can\u2019t understand Mary\u2019s personality or her choices \u2013 they just see it as the demon\u2026.\u201c<\/p>\n \u201cThat scene was really brutal, especially because of the way Garth chose to portray the family,\u201c says Mara. \u201cHe\u2019d created a very loving environment and family. They all care deeply about each other so when the exorcism comes, it\u2019s that much more heartbreaking. It doesn\u2019t feel like a cliched version of the bad guys versus the good guys. They really love her, they think they\u2019re doing what\u2019s best for her.\u201d<\/p>\n While the scene was being shot, the cast and crew underwent a bizarre and unsettling experience. \u201cWe all had a copy of one of the ancient texts as we were preparing for the scene,\u201d says Davis, \u201cand almost the minute we started walking into the water, the wind just stopped. Completely. There was no movement. And then lightning started breaking all around us. It freaked everyone out! An interesting moment of life mirroring art.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mara and possibly other members of the cast also spoke to the Independent<\/i> in Ireland \u2014 in articles here<\/a> and here<\/a> \u2014 that are currently being hidden behind a paywall.<\/p>\n Also behind a paywall: an interview with Mara, and possibly others, in The Times<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n Next up, Joaquin Phoenix<\/b>, who plays Jesus in the movie.<\/p>\n I linked to a couple of interviews that Phoenix did about this film in 2017<\/a> and 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since then, he has spoken to Will Ferrell for Interview<\/a><\/i> magazine:<\/p>\n FERRELL: [laughs<\/i>] You have another movie coming out where you\u2019re going to be playing Jesus Christ. You and I have both played Jesus in major pictures.<\/p>\n PHOENIX: Is that right?<\/p>\n FERRELL: Yes. In the movie Superstar<\/i> [1999], starring Molly Shannon as her Mary Katherine Gallagher character, I come to her as Jesus in a vision.<\/p>\n PHOENIX: What drew you to that role? How did you prepare for it?<\/p>\n FERRELL: You know what, it was all about blue contact lenses. That was it. I was the hunky heartthrob that she loved, and she was dreaming about me. Of course, I was playing a high school kid, at age 32. I come to her, and I appear as that character, but now I\u2019m Jesus as well, in a vision.<\/p>\n PHOENIX: That sounds beautiful.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He spoke to Anne Thompson<\/a> @ IndieWire:<\/p>\n \u201cLuckily not a lot of people are familiar with the character, so I had a lot of freedom,\u201d he joked. \u201cThere always has to be a moment where you have to say, \u2018This is mine, my interpretation.\u2019 It\u2019s something I have to do with every movie. \u2018Fuck, I hate that they have this expectation of what this scene is supposed to be, like I\u2019m supposed to achieve something.\u2019 I hate the idea of a set goal.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He spoke to the Independent<\/a><\/i> in the UK:<\/p>\n Coming off the back of You Were Never Really Here<\/i>, in which he plays a monolith of a man \u2013 the type of physique where excess fat obscures the muscles but you can still tell that he could have your head doing 800rpm on your neck if he punched it \u2013 Phoenix was put on a \u201cbrutal\u201d 300-calories-a-day for Mary Magdalene<\/i> so as not to portray the first swole Jesus, and this was in Sicily, \u201cwhere you just wanna roll out and eat some good pasta and have a glass of wine\u201d. . . .<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s just no one like him,\u201d he says of Mary Magdalene<\/i> director Garth Davis. \u201cThere\u2019s such a sensitivity and consideration and appreciation for what everybody does, he reveres acting or at least he makes you feel that way, and so he\u2019s super-perceptive.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember we were doing this scene where I\u2019m talking to Judas who\u2019s saying, \u2018Bring about the Kingdom now\u2019, and he leaves and Mary comes in and washes Jesus\u2019 feet. We were breaking it up into two different scenes for shooting, just me and Judas first \u2013 we were gonna get that and then Mary was gonna come in later. <\/p>\n \u201cThen on this one take, for whatever reason I just really felt Tahar\u2019s [Rahim, Judas] performance, I was really caught up in the moment, and when he left I turned and I wanted Mary to just come in so bad. So I sat there and immediately I heard, off-camera, Garth whispering, \u2018Go to him Mary, go to him,\u2019 and she came in and we just kept running and played the scene out. <\/p>\n \u201cGarth could sense that I was feeling something and wanted to move it forward, and when you work with a filmmaker like that it\u2019s a joy to be on set, you feel like you\u2019re in good hands and it\u2019s inspiring.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He spoke to the Irish Times<\/a><\/i>:<\/p>\n \u201cI think it was most important for me to find the man,\u201d he wheezes. \u201cObviously we think of the icon first. And that is very dangerous as an actor.\u201d<\/p>\n So, he didn\u2019t wrestle with the challenge of playing divinity.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are all spirit and flesh,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was more to do with finding that in myself and other people. I saw that in, for example, Sister Helen Prejean, who sits with death row inmates. I also thought of the Reverend James Lawson, who was very active in the Civil Rights movement.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He spoke to Radio Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cI definitely hesitated,\u201d he says of the decision to portray one of the most widely known figures in history, \u201c[but] the second time I started reading [the script] I found it to be really emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n The film\u2019s feminist through-line was also a significant factor in his decision. Director Garth Davies (Lion) and writers Helen Edmunson and Philippa Goslett reposition Mary Magdalene as the 13th apostle, correcting the myth, still perpetuated today, that she was a prostitute. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unf***ingbelievable that it\u2019s still happening,\u201d Phoenix says of the misconception. \u201cYou know, in the bible you have two options of women, you either have the virgin or you have the prostitute, the sinner.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He spoke to Premier<\/a> in the UK about role models and forgiveness:<\/p>\n And the star notes the significance of how the film shows Mary, arguably one of the most misunderstood spiritual figures in history, in a different light.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t help but think of young girls that are religious and have felt like their two examples of them in the Bible are either the virgin or the whore,\u201d he states.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd even if you\u2019re not conscious of that, subconsciously it has to affect you and the way that you navigate the world and navigate your faith.<\/p>\n \u201cIt made me really excited, the prospect of young girls feeling like they\u2019re represented in a biblical context in such a positive way.\u201d . . .<\/p>\n And making this movie has changed his perception of what forgiveness \u2013 a big theme in Mary Magdalene \u2013 really is.<\/p>\n \u201cI always thought forgiving somebody was like you were absolving them of their sins or their transgressions or whatever it is they did, and I started thinking it has more to do with the person forgiving than it is for the other person, it\u2019s such a difficult task,\u201d he suggests.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s how it changes you that is the power, right? Because obviously you can forgive somebody, but what is that doing? You can\u2019t absolve them of what they did.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it changes how you feel about it, and I really liked that idea. It\u2019s something that really moved me.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n