Actress Margaret Qualley and Filmmaker Maggie Betts on a Girl’s First Initiation With Love and Faith for NOVITIATE Movie
Film Courage: Margaret, what is something about nuns, faith, anything relevant to the film NOVITIATE that you didn’t know previously?
Margaret Qualley: Good question. I’m not really religious. I’m not religious in life. I think I’m spiritual, but I’m not Christian by any means and so it gave me an opportunity to learn about Catholicism and read the Bible for the first time. And then there was a lot about being a nun that I just had no idea about as far as abiding by all of the rules in place to limit any sort of extraneous stimulation. Like custody of the eyes and not being able to touch anybody and not being able to talk freely ever and ideally communicating through sign language and not talking at all during Grand Silence. All of these things were foreign to me and much more extreme than I anticipated.
Film Courage: Maggie for you?
Maggie Betts: What was something I learned that I didn’t know previously (through the process)?
