Catherine Hardwicke has done well with teenage stories like Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown. Those worlds may seem downright tame compared with the religious expectations of her latest, The Nativity Story. But the filmmaker just saw it as another relatable story of teenage angst, regardless of its influence on the world 2000 years later.
"When I had done a little research and found out that Mary was 13 or 14 years old, I immediately thought of my girls at 13, like Nikki and Eva," she said. "What if they were in this circumstance or what if any of my nieces or anyone that I know was put into the circumstance where everybody else scorned them, nobody believed them? It just started drawing me in. I just wanted to explore that like what would it feel like to be going through this journey, this amazing journey, and how do you find that inner faith to continue?"
Hardwicke is not necessarily a religious woman, though she has always had church in her life. "I grew up in the Presbyterian church and I went to church every Sunday. My parents dragged the kids. That’s where I learned to draw on the church bulletins to try to get myself through the sermons, but I actually did love it. I mean, I read the bible from beginning to end when I was 13, Old Testament and New Testament, surprised by the contrast all through the amazing difference when Jesus came to earth. It seemed like everything changed and got a little bit happier at that moment. So it’s always really been a part of my life since I’ve been a child."
A director's biggest job is working with actors, and the roles of Mary and Joseph could be daunting for any thespian. Hardwicke strove to keep her cast thinking historically. "We tried to actually just be in the moment, in the actual physical moment, not let people think of Jesus or Mary or Joseph 2000 years later, what churches wrote about it many years later. Let’s just try to be there right now and anytime we’d start to second guess, let’s just go back to the moment. What are you doing physically? You’re building a house. This is a girl you love. This is an angel visiting you. What would you think? Just be right there in the moment."
That meant letting some of the actors be a little funny, as they surely did have humor in Joseph's day. "I thought it was kind of natural too, you know, after he had been scorned and looked down upon by all these people, he’s finally getting out of there. He says, ‘They’re going to miss us.’"
Joseph gets more play in the Nativity Story film than he does in the bible, as Hardwicke wanted to open the story up for all the characters. "I think [screenwriter] Mike Rich, his idea from the very beginning was to try to understand the relationship between these two people and to understand Mary and Joseph and so he laid the groundwork in the script and then I thought he should have friends, at least people he works with, so I’ve added that. I thought he should actually see Mary. You know, that scene when she comes back and she’s pregnant. That was something that I thought was important to see it visually so that was something that I brought Oscar Isaac and did an incredible amount of research and he had a great feeling for this character. You just start enriching the story as soon as you work on it and try to make it better."
The film premieres at The Vatican, and as of press time, Hardwicke was overwhelmed by the prospect. "I don’t know if it’s even really sunk in yet because I knew there was the possibility but I really didn’t want to believe that it was going to [happen]. I just couldn’t even dare to dream about it. So, yeah, just to see the movie with 7,000 people. I’ve never seen a movie with 7,000 people. There’s going to be Italian actors. It’s still an incredible honor just… I don’t know. What do you wear to the Vatican?"
The Nativity Story opens December 1.
