Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Religious Music & Entertainment
Mary Magdalene: the producers and screenwriters interview round-up

Mary Magdalene: the producers and screenwriters interview round-up

Last updated on: April 23, 2019 at 10:34 am by Peter T. Chattaway

Mary Magdalene: the producers and screenwriters interview round-up 2019-04-23T10:34:05-07:00 Peter T. Chattaway

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Mary Magdalene is finally coming to North American theatres this week, and I have one last round-up of interviews that were done for the film’s release overseas last year.

On Monday I rounded up some interviews with director Garth Davis, and on Tuesday I rounded up some interviews with the film’s lead actors. Today I’m rounding up a few interviews with the producers, screenwriters, and others who worked on the film.

Co-writers Helen Edmundson and Philippa Goslett, who worked on the script for a few years before director Davis and the actors got involved, spoke to the Independent:

“There are lots of Marys in the Bible,” [Edmundson] explains, “and they’ve become conflated. The big blow was Pope Saint Gregory the Great in the 6th century, who wrote quite extensively that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. What grates is the way the Catholic Church in particular felt it necessary to create these polar opposite models of women: they had the Virgin Mary, and therefore by necessity they needed the opposite. It’s permeated and been problematic for centuries.”

“What I find really interesting,” says Edmundson’s co-writer Philippa Goslett, “is that since 1969, when the Catholic church formally separates these women out, the idea of Jesus’s bloodline has been prevalent. If Mary Magdalene’s not a prostitute, she must have been his lover. I hope that this film goes some way to restoring her spiritual authority, which is there within the Gospels, and has been so denigrated over the centuries.”

The biblical Mary Magdalene only exists in five New Testament lines, which nevertheless make her a key female witness to Christ: among the disciples when he arrives in Jerusalem, watching his crucifixion then keeping watch over his tomb, the first person he meets on his resurrection, and his messenger of this marvel to the disciples.

“Everything else is conjecture,” says Edmundson, who also consulted the non-biblical Gnostic Gospel of Mary in order to write a woman who’s more than just an observer. “We felt that if this Mary was strong enough to leave her home and everything she’d ever known with no going back, to join this group of men who had no idea of what their fate was going to be, then we could make her strong enough to point out to Jesus that if only men can be preached to and baptised, then that’s cutting out half the population. And to be a Mary who can actively baptise and minister in the same way men did. Those things felt fundamental.” Goslett felt the same. “Telling it from a fresh, female perspective, might our understanding of that journey – and Jesus’s message – be different?”

Lynne Ramsay, Joaquin Phoenix’s director in his other current film, You Were Never Really Here, sees his tortured character there as a Lazarus figure, reborn after sinking into watery depths. In Mary Magdalene, he resurrects Lazarus, and doesn’t feel much better. “There’s a wonderful mischief that comes through with Joaquin,” Edmundson considers. “A sort of acknowledgement of how extraordinary the whole thing is. I love just after he’s resurrected Lazarus, when he’s trembling all over, and profoundly terrified because of what he’s understood in that moment [that he must die for mankind]. Joaquin has that ability to look almost childlike in his frailty and distress. We did want him to be human. We wanted to feel that he had warmth and fragility. Partly to make room for Mary. I enjoyed imagining the human side of Christ – the fear and grief of leaving life and people who loved him, and the exhaustion of working miracles. Of everybody looking to you, and expecting.” Adds Goslett: “It was really important for us that Jesus is fully human and divine, and spontaneous. There was never a sense of, ‘Here’s a sermon I prepared earlier.’”

Time magazine spoke to two of the film’s advisors:

Mary Magdalene’s special understanding of Jesus’ message, and Peter’s hostility towards her, as portrayed in Mary Magdalene, will likely split opinion, according to [Professor Joan Taylor of King’s College, London] and her colleague, Professor Helen Bond of The University of Edinburgh, Scotland, with whom Taylor is presenting a U.K. television series on women disciples this Easter, titled Jesus’ Female Disciples: the New Evidence.

“[In the film] she’s really close to Jesus, not because of some kind of love affair, but just because she…gets Jesus in a way that the other disciples don’t,” Bond says.

Producers Iain Canning and Emile Sherman spoke to Inquirer.net in the Philippines:

“Obviously, the story of Jesus is one that has been told on numerous occasions by different film makers,” says Canning. “The discovery of fragments of parchment in Egypt and Greece which were claiming to be the gospel of Mary Magdalene sparked the idea that it would be interesting to tell the story of a woman within the biblical stories.

“Every generation approaches their own retelling or re-imagining of stories based on the contemporary time,” continues Canning. “If you’re making a film you’ve got to have some sort of contemporary resonance, otherwise it’s not going to find an audience. We felt there was room to tell the story of Mary Magdalene – that the female perspective of this particular story of the life and death of Jesus Christ was a new way in to that story and that it would also shine a light on contemporary issues.”

I previously linked to another interview with Canning in February 2018.

And, finally, The Telegraph has an article on some refugees who worked on the costumes for the film. The article is currently behind a paywall, but the work the refugees did is a subject that has come up at this blog before, so you can read about it here, too.

Mary Magdalene opens in North American theatres this Friday, April 12.

April 13 update: Goslett spoke to Variety magazine:

How did the “Mary Magdalene” film come about?

The project originated with Katherine Bridle, head of development at See-Saw, who very much wanted to tell stories about characters in history who have been marginalized or forgotten or, in Mary’s case, massively misrepresented over the years. There was a very beautiful script by Helen Edmundson and from there I started work – first of all with the producers, Iain [Canning] and Katherine and Liz Watts, and then with Garth [Davis], the director, and eventually with the cast.

What attracted you to the project?

The opportunity to tell the Jesus story from a point of view we have never seen before and to follow that through, [and] if you are telling that story from a female point of view, to ask rigorously would it therefore feel different, what might be different about that story? Might Jesus’ whole message seem different if it is experienced by a woman?

April 23 update: I have now interviewed producer Iain Canning myself.

Canning also spoke to the Religion News Service:

“Mary Magdalene” Director Garth Davis and his filmmaking partners went into their initial stages of research “assuming we would be making a film about a prostitute,” said Producer Iain Canning. “We were just sort of embarrassed and horrified that we’d been part of a mistaken narrative. So that was even more a catalyst and reason to fast-track as much as we possibly could a different interpretation.” . . .

“A lot of Hollywood films that quote from the Bible can be really bombastic,” Canning said. “We really wanted to let the words speak for themselves… and sometimes even no one do the talking and let the experience wash over people.

“We really wanted to create a film that is, at its very core, about love, forgiveness, charity and understanding,” he said.

If I find any more new interviews with the filmmakers, I will add them to this post.

Previous Post

April 9, 2019

Watch: Joaquin Phoenix's Jesus says women should obey God rather than men in a clip from Mary Magdalene

Next Post

April 12, 2019 Watch: Baptisms galore in two new clips from Mary Magdalene

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Anglican Planet Articles BC Christian News BC Report Bible Movies Bible Review Blog Books & Culture Campus Times CBC Radio Christianity Today ChristianWeek Essays Faith Today Festival Cinemas Guide Film Journals Georgia Straight Interviews MB Herald National Catholic Register Salvationist Today's Christian Two Chairs Ubyssey Uncategorized Vancouver Courier Vancouver Sun

Select a Month August 2025 April 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 May 2024 February 2024 December 2023 May 2023 March 2023 November 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 September 2019 July 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 April 2012 January 2012 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 November 2003 October 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 March 2002 January 2002 December 2001 November 2001 September 2001 August 2001 July 2001 June 2001 April 2001 March 2001 February 2001 December 2000 November 2000 October 2000 September 2000 August 2000 July 2000 June 2000 May 2000 April 2000 March 2000 January 2000 October 1999 August 1999 May 1999 April 1999 February 1999 January 1999 December 1998 November 1998 October 1998 August 1998 July 1998 June 1998 April 1998 March 1998 January 1998 November 1997 September 1997 July 1997 June 1997 April 1997 March 1997 February 1997 January 1997 December 1996 October 1996 September 1996 June 1996 March 1996 February 1996 January 1996 April 1995 November 1994 September 1994 September 1991

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Christian group follows the "Three Self Principle" in church governance?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Chinese Protestant Churches Seventh-day Adventists Orthodox Christians Quakers