First film to premiere at Vatican Ruben V. Nepales Inquirer
November 26, 2006
LOS ANGELES—“WHAT DO YOU wear to the Vatican?”
It was our first time to hear someone express this dilemma in all our years of covering Hollywood. But that was a wonderful dilemma for director Catherine Hardwicke. She was laughing, but her question was actually serious. “The Nativity Story” will be the first film ever to premiere at the Vatican.
The movie which focuses on the journey and relationship of Mary and Joseph—including the matter of the immaculate conception and how it affects both of them—leading to the epochal birth of Jesus makes history today before 7,000 guests at the Pope Paul VI Hall.
“Black? Okay, cover the shoulders,” Catherine tried to remember our colleagues’ suggestions by repeating them. “No strapless outfits. I am not planning to wear a halter.”
Everyone but the girl
The entire cast, key behind-the-camera talents and executives, will be at the Vatican to revel in the moment—except the film’s star, Keisha Castle-Hughes, who essays the important role of Mary. The official explanation is that the actress who, at 13 made history as the youngest Oscar Best Actress nominee (for “Whale Rider” in 2002), is busy making a film in Australia. Some folks, though, are speculating that Keisha, 16, simply wanted to avoid the glare of media scrutiny because she is pregnant.
In what could be construed as life imitating art, Keisha became a mother-to-be after filming her role as the pregnant Mary. The father, Bradley Hull, is her boyfriend of three years. Catherine told us that, by coincidence, Bradley, who is 19, is a carpenter just like Mary’s husband, Joseph.
When Catherine (who quipped, “I’m Keisha’s spokesperson”) was asked by a reporter why Keisha was not participating in the press interviews for the movie, she also gave the actress’ filming commitment in Australia as the reason. But Catherine added with a laugh, “Keisha is also not that big of a fan of traveling and facing all these questions.” The actress, who was born in Australia, lives in New Zealand.
Well, Catherine and Oscar Isaac, who plays a soulful Joseph (more about him Friday), more than made up for the absence of Keisha whose mother, Desrae Hughes, in another coincidental twist, just gave birth.
Filmed on location in Italy and Morocco (Jerusalem was deemed too modernized by Catherine), “The Nativity Story” also stars Academy Award-nominated actress Shohreh Aghdashloo (“Sand and Fog”) as Elizabeth, who gave birth to John the Baptist late in her life. For a change, the lives of Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth and others are highlighted.
The first major biblical film to come out of Hollywood since Mel Gibson’s controversial blockbuster, “The Passion of the Christ,” “Nativity” is a product of Hollywood folks successful in their respective fields who, again by coincidence, found themselves bonding for a project in their individual quest for something deeper.
They are writer Mike Rich (who wrote “The Rookie” and “Miracle”) and producers Wyck Godfrey (a talent agent) and Marty Bowen (a film executive). “All these evil Hollywood types,” Catherine jokingly referred to these men and to herself in answering a question about how they came to work together for a movie that invigorated their faith.
Catherine was quoted as saying in Los Angeles’ Daily News that her mother and a minister cousin think “Nativity” is God’s answer to their prayers for a “spiritual and inspiring” movie to come her way. Funny and cheerful, Catherine, at first seemed an unlikely choice to direct, especially with her past two credits, which are about teen rebellion—“Thirteen” and “Lords of Dogtown,” both critically praised.
Perfect choice
But when you consider that Mary was widely believed to be 14 at the time of her miraculous pregnancy, Catherine is the perfect choice to direct what is essentially a coming-of-age story of one of history’s most beloved women.
Read on to enjoy Catherine’s hilarious account of how difficult it was to direct the animals in the pivotal nativity scene.
How excited are you that your film is the first feature to premiere at the Vatican? It’s exciting for us. I’ll be fascinated to see the movie with 7,000 people. Just that is going to be an interesting, intense experience—although the movie is going to be dubbed in Italian. I’m going to hear Keisha and everybody talking in Italian (laughing).
It will be held in this beautiful great hall. A black-tie affair, and it’s for the benefit of a school in Israel that has people from Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities. So it’s for unity and tolerance, which is exciting.
How did the movie end up having this premiere? The Italian distributor, Eagle Pictures, had the idea that maybe this would be something the Vatican would support. The distributor had other movies, like “The Da Vinci Code,” that could have no such prospect. Maybe the Vatican also thought this could be a positive thing.
What made you want to do this movie? I grew up in the Presbyterian Church in South Texas. At Christmas, we would have this cool little nativity scene with the figurines, and sing Christmas carols. I loved Christmas but I didn’t really think any deeper than that. When I read the script, it made Mary and Joseph feel like they were real people who were going through real struggles. That’s what inspired me—to see if I could bring that to life.
It’s a story that’s had resonance and power for over 2,000 years. Even if you don’t believe, you could see it as a beautiful magic realism kind of story with the star. Even if it’s not your religion, you could see it as mythology or a spiritual journey.
The story makes you go deeper and try to understand better. Melchior, the wisest of the wise men says, “The greatest of kings born in the most humble of places.” It strikes you as a revolutionary idea—that instead of coming upon a palace with all the riches and trappings, Jesus was born in a very humble place. A baby lying on the straw in a manger is a powerful idea—that God would send His Son for everybody, rich or poor.
How does the director of “Thirteen” and “Lords of Dogtown” suddenly direct “The Nativity Story”? That shocked some people. This is the third in my teenage trilogy (laughter). According to all scholars, Mary was probably 13 or 14 when she conceived Jesus because life expectancy was very short during that time. Back then, when you hit puberty, it’s time to start making babies. When I learned that, I was like, “How would Nikki (the 13-year-old character in “Thirteen”) or Evan (Rachel Wood, who played Nikki) have dealt with this news that you’re going to have to marry this older guy whom you don’t even know and you’re going to bear the son of God?” For a 13-year-old, that’s pretty startling.
Last January, I got a stack of scripts. “The Nativity Story” was on top. I knew the producer, Wyck Godfrey. I started to read it and I thought, I’m probably not going to be interested. But I got fascinated thinking of Mary as a real person. So I kept reading. Then I started researching [and learned] that said Mary was probably 14 years old at the time.
How did you deal with the news that Keisha was pregnant at 16? We had already finished the movie and she had delivered a beautiful performance. What an actor does afterward really isn’t my business. I think it was very brave of her. She knew that the whole world would be talking about her but still she stood up and said, “I want to have this child.” This is the right thing to do. In the movie Keisha as Mary says, “There’s a will for this Child that’s greater than what people will say.” Maybe that gave Keisha the strength.
Do you think playing Mary influenced Keisha’s decision to embrace her pregnancy? I think it did in a way because she did go through this beautiful and difficult birthing scene. And her mother was pregnant and had this baby so I think the combination made her embrace the idea even more. Bradley, the father of Keisha’s baby, is her boyfriend of three years who is actually a carpenter, too.
Some people are making a big fuss about Keisha’s pregnancy. In New Zealand, 16 is the age of consent so it’s legal there. Her mom just had a baby, too, so there are going to be two little babies side by side.
Do you think Keisha’s pregnancy will affect the movie? One of the Judeo-Christian principles is to not judge another person. So I hope people who will see the movie won’t look at it in a judgmental way. That’s what the movie is about, too.
How did Keisha get this important role? I thought, who has beautiful Mediterranean colored skin? I didn’t want a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Mary. She and all the actors had to look Middle Eastern. I thought, which 14-year-old actress has ever done a spiritual movie like this one? Keisha just popped into my head because I loved “Whale Rider.” She was so soulful in that movie. I was in Jerusalem when I called her up. She was in [New Zealand] and had that Kiwi accent. I was like, “Oh my God, can she change her accent?” She worked for an hour with a dialect coach before she came to audition and she got rid of that Kiwi accent. The coach helped her get like a light Israeli accent.
The movie’s locations are breathtaking. Why did you film in Italy and Morocco, instead of Israel? When I first went to a meeting with the producers, I had all these drawings and photographs. I said, “I need to go on a plane to Jerusalem like tomorrow” and they said, “OK.” Within two days, I was on a plane. But Jerusalem was very built up and modernized. I read that (Pier Paolo) Pasolini shot “The Gospel According to St. Matthew” in Matera (Italy). Mel (Gibson) shot part of “The Passion of the Christ” there, too. So when I went to Matera, I was struck by how much it looks like Jerusalem, the stone walls and the streets. It’s an ancient, beautiful city. But this movie also shows Mary and Joseph’s journey so we went to Ourzazate, Morocco for the incredible landscape.
How challenging was it to “direct” all those animals in the all-important nativity scene? Imagine a morning that you wake up and you look at your call sheet and it says, the birth of Jesus. We’re going to film that today and it seems kind of easy, right? Suddenly, you realize that animals do not care about movies. They don’t watch the Golden Globes. They couldn’t care less about hitting their marks or saying their lines. All they want to do is eat and go to the bathroom.
So we go to this location where we built this cave out on this hillside in the middle of nowhere. We have only from 8:30 when it gets dark until midnight to film the scene. So we bring in the momma cow and it takes four Italian guys in short shorts to get momma cow to lie down. Finally momma cow lies down. That’s 25 minutes. Then baby cow does not want to go down. Baby cow is mad and it makes this face (she puts on a mad expression). So four more guys try to get the baby cow to lie down. Finally, the baby cow’s lying down.
Then we bring in the donkey. I go, “Please, I hope the donkey is nice.” The donkey kicks and starts knocking everything over and scrapes its arm. Then the representative of the Humane Society on the set says the donkey can’t work if it’s injured. I go, “But it just scraped its elbow.” Too bad. It’s out. So they bring the back-up donkey in. It lies down and all of a sudden, the Humane Society rep goes, “Cushion!” I grab a cushion and the rep goes, “This donkey has hemorrhoids.” So we put the cushion under the donkey. We cover it with straw.
Okay, the sheep is next. They’re the stupidest animal. Sheep think they can all become one sheep. They like to condense themselves into one sheep. They keep trying to get tighter and tighter. They’re insane. We get the sheep to lie down. So everybody’s lying down, everybody’s happy. We bring in a real baby as Jesus. He’s only seven days old and the parents are worried. The second the baby gets in there, he cries and spits up all over Mary. So we clean Mary.
And then guess who wants to go to the bathroom? Momma cow. She stands up, moos and runs out. The donkey runs out. The sheep also run out and kick over the lights. You start over and that was midnight. We didn’t even get one shot on the first night but it looked so easy when you see the scene in the movie, right?
E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com.
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