Mary Magdalene (2018)

Rooney Mara: 'Mary Magdalene was a profound, radical feminist'

The story of Mary Magdalene is finally being retold the way it should be - and it couldn't be more timely


Mary Magdalene might not be the first person you think of when it comes to boundary smashing, free-thinking feminists. And yet, in the eyes of Rooney Mara who plays her in a new film, she’s one of the most progressive women in history.

“She’s incredibly radical for her time,” Mara told us. “It would have been totally shocking and unheard of for a woman to go off with a load of men, leaving her family. She really was a profound feminist figure way ahead of her time. I couldn’t believe her story hadn’t been told before.”



The new retelling of Jesus’ right-hand woman directed by Lion’s Garth Davis sets the record straight – far from the prostitution tag Magdalene was wrongfully branded with in AD591, she was one of Jesus’ most treasured advisors. The Catholic Church admitted as late as 1969 that it had made a mistake and Magdalene had never worked as a prostitute, but – as with many shamed women – the damage was done and the tag remained.

“I don’t why that happened or why that the prostitution thing stuck,” said Mara. “Not many people know that she was such an important figure. I didn’t know that and I went to Catholic school – I thought I knew that stuff.”

When researching the role, Mara discarded everything she had been taught about Magdalene and started anew based on Davis’ script and the Gospel of Mary, which offered a very different view. The film also explores the relationship between Magdalene and Jesus, played by Joaquin Phoenix – who Mara is also dating in real life.


“They have a really beautiful relationship,” says Mara. “She really loved him and they have this understanding of one another. When he comes along, he’s the first person in her life to really see her for who she is and understand that, appreciate it and make her feel that she can follow that thing that she feels inside her. I think the same goes for him. She sees and understands him in a way that no one else has. They’re kindred spirits.”

On screen, the two, who worked together on 2013’s Her, share an intimate on-screen rapport. It’s a quiet form of chemistry - all in the looks exchanged and what’s left unsaid. Mara part credits the “insular, immersive” nature of the filming as one of the reasons the connection between the characters comes across so strongly.

Phoenix brings his signature intensity and worldly eyes to the role, but also adds a humanity to Jesus that offers a different dimension to previous portrayals.

“You can’t really create chemistry,” she says firmly. “It’s either there or it’s not. We’d already worked together before, we were friends and we knew we had a rapport. Joaquin is beyond compelling and unique. He’s one of the finest actors that we have, but also he and Garth showed Jesus for the first time as a human – he’s much more relatable than we’ve ever seen.”


Given recent seismic changes in Hollywood where female voices are finally being heard, Mary Magdalene feels all the more pertinent. Indeed, the film was one of the last Weinstein was involved in before the sexual harassment scandal broke – The Weinstein Company was the movie’s US distributor – a link that has now been severed.


There is an irony in this – that one of Weinstein’s final films was a woman’s story finally being told the way it should be. Contrary to the popular view of Mary Magdalene, that she was a fallen woman redeemed by Jesus, this new film adaptation convincingly tells us that she was an independent, resourceful and emotionally advanced confidant of Jesus on whom he sometimes relied on for spiritual guidance.

She is judged, dismissed and discriminated against by both disciples and then history for no other reason other than her gender – a familiar theme in today’s world.

“We knew the film was timely when we were making it, but we never knew how timely it would really be,” admits Mara. “It’s a great way to further the conversation that’s been happening. The film is a feminist film, but it’s also about humanity, love and compassion, forgiveness and how all those things can effect change in the world.

“And that is the next step in the conversation. How do we make lasting change?” questions Mara. “How do we get to equality? I don’t think it comes from fear. I think it comes from understanding. In order to have understanding, you need forgiveness, compassion and empathy.”

 Even now, circumstances are conspiring to keep Magdalene in her place: the film was produced by the Weinstein Company. "And just because the film is tied up with the Weinsteins means that the film may not get a release in the United States," Mara says. "This film about a woman whose story has been completely tarnished, kept quiet for thousands of years, finally is going to be told and because the man who makes the movie gets exposed for who he is, her story still might not get out there. It's pretty Shakespearean."

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If it hadn't been for Davis, she says, she would never have been persuaded to make a film tangled up with her family's faith. "I have mixed feelings about religion so I was not sure it was something I wanted to delve into," she says. "I think it was a scary thing to take on. The only thing I was certain of was Garth. I knew I wanted to work with him. He's so special; he doesn't make anything that doesn't come from his heart and that doesn't come from a very truthful and authentic place. I knew it was an important story that should be told and that he was the person to tell it and he would do a beautiful job with that, but it took me a while to get there for myself."


She fully accepted her fate, she says, when Davis organised a trip to Israel for her and Joaquin Phoenix, who plays Jesus (and is reputed to be her partner in real life, although she is typically cagey about that). The film was actually shot in Italy, but Davis thought it was important to experience the places familiar from Bible stories. "Then it opened itself up to me in a new way. Magdala was particularly beautiful, where she came from on the Sea of Galilee. It was really extraordinary to get to go there."


Davis will soon direct her again in A House in the Sky, based on a memoir by journalist Amanda Lindhout about the year she was held hostage in Somalia. It will be Mara's first film as a producer.


Elsewhere, she has said she is not all that interested in seeing her own films finished; what she likes is the working process. Every significant film changes you, she says, not just those with overt spiritual content. "You are constantly confronted with things that make you question yourself or push you out of your comfort zone. Or you are forced to do things you don't want to do in front of other people; you are constantly having to push the boundaries and learn about yourself or learn about other humans. You know, to put yourself in other people's shoes. That is always a great teacher."


Quiet she may be, but directors describe her as utterly fearless. She might do anything.