IAR was recently invited to the Sony lot in Los Angeles, along with several other members of the press, to speak with Maggie Q about the new film. The actress spoke candidly about her role, the audition process, the make-up, vampire movies and working with Paul Bettany. Here is what she had to say:
To begin with, are you the only female Priest in the film?
Q: I am the only one you see in the film. Well, you see some others in a flashback. They’ve sacrificed a lot. They’re soldiers and its interesting because people always ask how there are female priests? I’m like, in this world there are.
Can you talk about auditioning for this film?
Q: It was interesting. Everyone had heels and big hair, and smoky eye make-up happening. I thought I was at the wrong place because, last time I checked, the role was for a Priest. So why would you do up your hair and wear heels? I was mortified. I was like, “What is happening right now?”
What was the process of putting the cross make-up on your face every day like for you?
Q: What was really fun were the hair and make-up tests and deciding on the cross. It was funny because Paul (Bettany) and I would get it put on and (director) Scott (Stewart) would be like, “It looks different on him than it does on you. What’s happening?” The make-up artist was like, “They have different faces. Their noses are a different size.”
Are you a fan of vampire films?
Q: I’m not a vampire movie fan, per say. That’s not to say that I haven’t enjoyed movies with vampires in them. I know there are vampires in our film, but when I think about Priest, the word vampire was never in my head. It was never about that. There’s a lot of symbolism in this and a lot of parallels that we draw. There are creatures instead of people with teeth, which made it a lot cooler. But, it’s always story first, for me. Scott is such a great storyteller. He will sell you on visuals, but the visuals were just one of those things. It was after we had talked about what this film meant, that’s where I came from. It was about the relationships and the inter-connectivity of these people. What they’ve sacrificed, how awful that is and, ultimately, what you do in that situation and where you go from there. How do people forgive and forget and move forward, and what’s left for them? That was exciting for me. It’s weird. I only see Priest as what I experienced, and I experienced some really solid storytelling, a great cast, and a director who is incredibly deep, specific and had a vision for every single character, every moment, every breath and every line. That’s my experience. I don’t view this as an action film or a vampire film. I see it as a drama, but then you get all that other stuff too, which is great.
Can you talk about the relationship between Priest and Priestess?
Q: They do have history together. Priestess has been a Priest for longer than Paul’s character. She was found much younger, when she was a child. He was found much later. Because of the vows that they take, and the females take the same vows that men do, she’s got this weird thing happening where she’s taken her vows to the Church. But she is this person who loves this man who had a love that wasn’t her, at one time, and that doesn’t exist anymore. I don’t even know that Priestess wants to be with him, as much as she wants to just be loved by him, the way that she’s always imagined it to be, whether it just be an emotion or an energy. She’s always wanted to be close to him. He was that person. He was her comrade, and when you fight a war together, something happens. You’re connected in a different way than other people are, and that connection got to another level, in her mind and in her heart. Had his situation been different, would they have been different? Maybe, but that’s the big question mark. We really will never know, not in this film, how he really feels about it. We certainly know what his loyalties are to his great love, and it’s very beautiful and poetic. At the end of the day, Priestess is still a woman. She still feels things and wants things in her life. There are things that she will never, ever have, things that were taken away, and things that she’s never experienced, that she wants. It’s sad because, will that ever happen? We don’t know.
Finally, can you talk about your experience working with Paul Bettany?
Q: It’s interesting how different certain actor’s processes can be. If the character is as hard as Paul’s is, some actors come to set and they bring the severity and they live it, and you have to live in that moment all the time. It can be very exhausting. Whereas, I felt like every time we had finished a scene, Scott could hear us laughing from all the way across the stage. This movie, and a lot of things that I do, are the heavier, more stoic characters, and it’s really nice to be able to work with a person who brings that and understands that for the film. But then, once we cut, we could still have a good time and make a film that we believe in and feel strongly about. We just enjoyed the process. Sometimes, with certain actors, you’re not enjoying the process and it’s this miserable thing. You’re like, “Why are we doing this?” But, I get that people’s focuses are different. People are only capable of certain things and they bring it a certain way. We were really fortunate, not just with Paul, but with Scott and our entire crew of amazing people.
Priest opens in theaters on May13th.
