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Religion
always embarks on controversy. Such
behavior cannot be escaped with The
Nativity Story; a cinematic view of the
Bible’ story of Mary and Joseph told
from the gospel of Luke and Matthew.
Working
on films such as Thirteen, Tombstone and
Lords of Dogtown; Catherine’ experience
behind the camera electrifies would be
writers and filmmakers at her mastering
the ordinary to extraordinary. With a
background such as Hardwicke’, its no
wonder she can craft a story with Jesus
as the star on to the silver screen.
As
creative as storylines go, director
Catherine Hardwicke discusses the
challenges both physically and mentally
with the telling of this mythical story.
No one
touches the gap in between the story of
Mary and Joseph and Jesus as an adult.
Will there be a sequel that fills in
those gaps depicting his fruition? And
if you do a sequel at what point does it
become make-believe since there is no
indication in the Bible of when he is
more than just a child?
Catherine Hardwicke:
I guess you could come up with those day
to day details from that kind of thing.
But dramatic moments you would have to
invent them.
How did
you get on to this project? And why did
you choose to do it?
Catherine Hardwicke:
I didn’t get the script until the middle
of January this year. I opened the
script and a stack came to me from my
agent and I saw the word Nativity and I
didn’t realize that it was that Nativity
and I realized that this wasn’t for me …
you know? But I didn’t stop reading and
I suddenly started to feel drawn in.
I’ve thought of the Nativity scene like
everyone else has but I never thought of
Mary as someone with these real
challenges; like no one would believe
her.
What was
it like going out to Italy to film like
that?
Catherine Hardwicke:
Just working with an international crew,
I didn’t speak the language as much as
other people. I had 7 people I had to
translate too. But people were kind of
in love with the project. Even if people
had a different religion, which many
people did, they felt some kind of a
spiritual connection.
What
were the key points you felt as a
director were?
Catherine Hardwicke:
The text is really the Gospel of Matthew
and Luke. All we had was specific source
material. So I wanted to have all those
points in the film. In the way that was
an outline. And then from there you’d
have to just try to interpret and
fill-in. Make it richer and fuller and
more personal. I tried not to think
about all the writings about it and the
many ways people have interpreted it.
Are you
ready for the critical views of this
project? How will you handle the
comments in regards to interpretation?
Catherine Hardwicke:
I think of the painters, the artists and
sculptures who have done their version
of this over the last 2000 years; I
started to think I’m going to be one of
those artists in a different medium. I
can’t freak out if somebody doesn’t feel
the same way I do.
We’re
approaching Christmas; what do you think
is important to this story for right
now?
Catherine Hardwicke:
I think right now there is a lot of talk
about religion and wars being fought in
this name. I think that it made me try
to understand a little bit more.
Understanding faith and the meaning of
faith and why people have that need and
that connection to something. Especially
going to Jerusalem and religions
consider this more of a holy and sacred
place where their still in the middle of
strife and fighting, there could be a
message of tolerance. I hope people can
see that, talk about it and question it
and try to understand it.
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