20 'Mother Mary' Behind-The-Scenes Facts And Secrets

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Described as an "epic pop melodrama" (with a hint of body horror and surrealism), Mother Mary is officially here, making its premiere in select theaters on Friday, April 17. With a cast like this (Anne Hathaway, Michaela Coel, Hunter Schafer, FKA twigs, Kaia Gerber) and the previous work of director David Lowery (The Green Knight, A Ghost Story, Pete's Dragon), the A24 film was simply bound to be as breathtaking as it is star-studded.

@A24 via instagram.com / Eric Zachanowich /© A24 / Courtesy Everett Collection

In case you missed it, the official description of the film reads: "Long-buried wounds rise to the surface when iconic pop star Mother Mary reunites with her estranged best friend and former costume designer, Sam Anselm, on the eve of her comeback performance." And as thrilling as what happens on screen is, the off-screen details are even more surprising.

From the pop star documentaries that inspired the film to actor breakdowns on set, here are 20 behind-the-scenes facts about Mother Mary that will have you dying to rewatch the film through new eyes:

1.

The film's original songs were written by Jack Antonoff, Charli XCX, and FKA twigs. The song "Brutal," the first single from the Mother Mary: Greatest Hits soundtrack album, also features George Daniel (The 1975 drummer and Charli's husband) and Anne herself as co-writers.

John Sciulli / Getty Images, Etienne Laurent / Getty Images

2.

Anne did almost two years of vocal training and daily dance classes in preparation for the role. “Oh God, no! Dancing is not easy for me,” Anne told Vogue. “Dance is the one talent I wish I had. I tried so much growing up. I went to class almost every day after school and I never improved. I sort of made my peace with not being a dancer, and then this part came my way. I had a lot of help from Dani. It was challenging, but I got to pretend to be a dancer; a dream that I wanted to come true since I was a kid.”

A24

In another Vogue interview, Anne explained how her perspective on being a soprano versus an alto changed through her training: "'My whole life, I’ve been up here,' Hathaway continues, tapping a high note on the keyboard. 'Soprano. My mom’s a soprano — a beautiful singer. And I can touch those notes, but…' Hathaway plays the low note again, letting it sustain. 'It turns out, I’m down here. That’s where I like to live.'"

3.

Director David Lowery cited Taylor Swift’s Reputation stadium tour as a key influence on the concert scenes in the film. In an interview with Empire, he said, "We took three songs from Reputation and broke it down, shot by shot, and looked at them like, ‘Okay, if we were doing these, how much would these shots cost to do in visual effects?’ We used that as a budgeting tool because we didn't know how to wrap our heads around actually pulling off a stadium concert-show on a minimal budget. We were literally using Reputation as a guide. I can go on about Reputation all day.”

Jun Sato / Getty Images

“When we wrapped, Annie gave me a Taylor Swift-style beaded bracelet with ‘Anti-Hero’ on it,” David said. “I definitely brought a lot of Taylor Swift to the table in terms of who Mother Mary was. I would often be like, ‘Imagine Taylor Swift in ten or 15 years — that’s sort of who this character could be.’”

4.

Anne opened up about how Mother Mary has been her most challenging role yet, being vastly different from the films she's best known for, such as The Devil Wears Prada and The Princess Diaries. “What struck me right away, reading the script, is that you can’t ‘perform’ Mother Mary,” she 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.”

A24

5.

Michaela cried after she finished reading the script for the first time. "The minute I read the script, I was reading, and then I got to, like, the last page, and I kind of laughed, and then I started sobbing my eyes out," she said. "And I don't know what prompted that reaction, the laugh, and then the breakdown, but it was what made me know that I would at least have to meet David and geek out about what the hell was going on in this witchery. It felt like voodoo."

A24

Michaela continued, saying, "And then we had the read [with] Anne and [me], and again, we were just a blubbering mess. It was like, how are we going to gather ourselves to actually make the film?"

6.

Anne Hathaway watched Beyoncé's tour documentary, Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé, to help her get into character