Previewing 'The Rite' - A Look at the Los Angeles Press Event

Journalists descended upon the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles on a Tuesday afternoon, checking in and renewing acquaintances. That evening we would have an opportunity to preview the film. The following morning we had the opportunity to sit with several of the actors and others connected with the film.

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - On January 28 a new movie, "The Rite," will open in theaters across the country. Starring Anthony Hopkins along with two young actors, Colin O'Donoghue and Alice Braga, this film will turn the spotlight again on the role of the Church in spiritual warfare through exorcism.

The synopsis reads, "Inspired by true events, 'The Rite' follows a skeptical seminary student, Michael Kovak (Colin O'Donoghue), who reluctantly attends exorcism school at the Vatican.  While in Rome, he meets an unorthodox priest, Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins), who introduces him to the darker side of his faith.  'The Rite' is a psychological thriller that uncovers the devil's reach to even one of the holiest places on Earth."

With my review still in the works, I thought Catholic Online readers might like a "behind the scenes" look at our press junket for previewing the movie.

Journalists descended upon the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles on a Tuesday afternoon, checking in and renewing acquaintances. That evening we would have an opportunity to preview the film. Just to whet your appetite, I found the film powerful and very intense. It is definitely not for the faint of heart.

The following morning we had the opportunity to sit with several of the actors and others connected with the film.

We were gathered in a small meeting room at the Hyatt Regency with other print/online writers from the faith-based community. Similar rooms housed broadcast writers, and others. The guests then made their journey from room to room one or two at a time.

Our first guest was Sir Anthony Hopkins, who preferred to be called Tony. Many of our questions focused on the impact the film made upon him personally. Candidly admitting that he had no real background or reference point for such things as demon possession and wasn't sure what he thought. He said that at first he was reluctant to do the part of Father Lucas in "The Rite."

"I'd never played a priest before," Hopkins explained. "Initially, I didn't want to do it. I thought 'I really don't want to do another creepy movie.' I've played enough creepy movies."

After reading the script, at the urging of his agent, and meeting with the director, Mikael Hĺfström, he agreed.

"I nearly missed it, "he told the director. "It's a really good script."

There was a truly refreshing moment in our time with Tony with regard to our questions regarding the theological issues addressed in the movie. While a very well-read individual, Hopkins said at one point, "I'm just an actor... How absurd is acting!"

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We also had a chance to talk with Colin O'Donoghue who made his feature film debut as the skeptical seminarian Michael Kovak and Alice Braga, who played Angeline, a journalist interested in the Church's work of exorcism.

We were at a major advantage in that neither of the actors had seen the movie yet. Colin had actually attended some exorcisms in Rome to prepare for his role, and experience he described as "daunting."

"It was like a doctor's waiting room in a Church," he said, relating that most sessions were not that intense. "You go in, a priest prays over you, then you go home and make an appointment to come again."

Regarding the reality of exorcism, the young Irish Catholic actor stated, "I'm more convinced than I was."

After talking with some of the exorcists, he was amazed that none of them tried to convince him; they just live out their ministry, dealing with it on a daily basis.

Braga added that the film gave all of the actors and crew something to think about. "Even if you're not in the scene or shooting the scene, you are seeing something that could be real; it puts you into the questioning of 'is it real or not?'"

Braga, whose lists acting credits which include "City of God," "I Am Legend," and "Predators," was born in Sao Paolo, Brazil, which she and others felt added another cultural perspective to the film. "I would love for people to feel the same experience as the actors, jumping into something you don't know much about what you think about that subject and leave asking 'could that be real or not?'"

I asked Colin what it was like to speak words that were more than in a script but actual exorcism prayers with historic meaning. "What I wanted to achieve is that this was more than just praying for the sake of praying but these were words used to dispel the demon."

Fr. Gary Thomas, the exorcist who was the focus of the book, "The Rite: The Making of an Exorcist," with which the movie is closely related, and Michael Petroni, the screenwriter visited our small group together. As someone stated, we were sitting with "fact and fiction."

Fr. Gary is a warm and friendly priest who did not look like a stereotypical exorcist. A man in love with the Lord and his calling as a priest, he was nothing like the young skeptical seminarian written for the movie.

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For the past four years he has been fulfilling this role in his local diocese after being trained in Rome. It was there that he was approach by Matt Baglio, a reporter who lived there, about letting him write a book on someone going through this training.

He had just seen the movie the day before for the first time. "I found it very emotional and I kept trying to separate out whether I was emotional because this has elements of me in it or is this because of the movie. I found it very emotionally charging."

Fr. Gary spent time on the set with the actors who wanted to be sure that their portrayals were accurate; and it is accurate. "I found those exorcism themes very authentic," he said, "and if they weren't I would have said so to them as that is what they were looking for from me." These were based on exorcisms he or other exorcists had experienced.

The book proposal ended up in the hands of the producers who found the concept intriguing. Michael Petroni was enlisted to adapt the idea to the screen, so the book and screenplay were developed simultaneously with the two writers.

He indicated that Baglio would constantly call him, relating additional information about exorcisms that he had just uncovered or observed. In some cases he said he actually "ratcheted back" on his portrayal from what had actually taken place in real life.

Like most others, Petroni assumed that an exorcism took place once. "I had the same preconceptions that everyone else who isn't familiar with the subject has. I thought an exorcism was - you did it once and you were free. It was interesting to me that a liberation can take years."

Petroni, who is a committed Catholic, was also one of the screenwriters for "The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader." He told us that he is always drawn to the spiritual side of life and "my Catholicism informs that."

Had there been more time or a lighter atmosphere (exorcism is obviously a heavy subject) I was tempted to ask him whether he had ever thought of writing Reepicheep into some of the scenes.

The director, Mikael Hĺfström, looks a lot younger than his 50 years. Born and raised in Sweden, his credits include "Evil," and "1408."

"There is a universal interest in the rite of exorcism," he stated, but most of his understanding of the subject, before the film, came from popular culture. In addition to reading Matt Baglio's book, he spent time with the author in Rome to become exposed to the world of exorcism.

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"It's not as we've seen in films. in Hollywood movies. It's a very straightforward thing in Rome; people go to the exorcist like they are going to the dentist or the doctor. That was interesting to learn."

Obviously, "The Exorcist," produced in the '70's, is the most famous film on the subject and the one with which this new film will be compared. "It's not a straightforward horror movie," Hĺfström said. "It's a fictional film but within a very real and factual framework. When I read the script, I felt it approached the whole idea of demonic possession from an angle we haven't really seen before, and it draws you into this world in such a suspenseful, powerful and entertaining way."

"The Rite," a Contrafilm production directed by Mikael Hĺfström, is presented by New Line Cinema and distributed by Warner Brothers Pictures. Rated PG-13, the film will open on January 28, 2011.

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Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online and the CEO/Associate Publisher for the Northern Virginia Local Edition of Catholic Online (http://virginia.catholic.org). He is a former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal Church who laid aside that ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

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