Anne Hathaway opened up in a new Vogue cover story about the making of “Mother Mary,” the upcoming A24 music drama from director David Lowery. Co-starring Michaela Coel, the film stars Hathaway as pop diva who flees her tour during an existential crisis and seeks out the old friend who helped craft her public persona. Not much else is known about the movie, although Lowery said “it felt like shooting ‘Apocalypse Now.’”
“At one point Annie broke down and said, ‘I have to apologize, because I think what’s going to come out of me will hurt you.’ And Michaela took her hands and said, ‘I love you, I trust you,’ ” Lowery remembered about shooting a climactic scene. “We were in various stages of that for about a week, shooting that scene.”
Coel said “David’s writing is so vivid” that “we were forced into an intensity.” The “I May Destroy You” Emmy winner found relief from set by going to techno clubs to blow off steam, which she recruited Hathaway to join her at.
“It’s very brave work that she’s done,” Coel added about her co-star. “The physicality she had to learn in preparation for this job—and it’s not just us in [that scene], it’s the crew, it’s the producers, and so of course this day was terrifying, a little monster on her shoulder, but no one realized until after the first take. And then to keep doing it—take after take. That requires a lot of strength. Gallons and tons.”
“Mother Mary” plot specifics are remaining under wraps for now, although Hathaway signed up for vocal and dance training in order to transform herself into the title character.
“What struck me right away, reading the script, is that you can’t ‘perform’ Mother Mary,” Hathaway told Vogue. “If I got the part, I would have to become material David could craft with… I had to submit to being a beginner. The humility of that—showing up every day knowing you’re going to suck. And it has to be okay. You’re not ‘bad.’ You’re just a beginner. Getting to that mindset—I had to shed some things that were hard to shed. It was welcome. But it was hard, the way transformational experiences can be hard.”
“Mother Mary” features original songs written by music heavyweights Jack Antonoff and Charli XCX, but none of them were actually written before Hathaway started filming. Hathaway has been recording songs with Antonoff while Lowery has been in post-production on the movie.
“It was so confusing,” the Oscar winner said. “I had to learn…. Because if I’d had the music a year before we ever turned a camera on, I would have tattooed every note of it on my soul, and there would have been a whole process, very specific. And that was not available to me. In the end, I am very grateful I could not take control.”
“Mother Mary” does not yet have a release date from A24. Head over to Vogue’s website to read Hathaway’s latest cover story in its entirety.
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