The next movie that Anne Hathaway is going to make Mother Mary is an unknown field, and this is a role that she has to take that goes against her instincts as an artist and her comfort zone. Hathaway has used versatility to build a career, known as iconic performances in the Devil Wears Prada, Les Misérables, and The Princess Diaries. However, with this new project, she finds herself in a shocking departure, entering into the complicated realm of pop star and performance, persona, and vulnerability collide in surprising ways. The key component of this change is a surprising and yet strong force: The Reputation era of Taylor Swift.
The movie introduces Hathaway as an international pop star caught in an emotionally-charged and psychosexual affair with a fashion designer, portrayed by Michaela Coel. It is a stratified story, which discusses identity, fame, emotional price of being under the microscope of the general public. In order to make this world alive, director David Lowery resorted to the contemporary cultural reference point that transformed the ways artists make their appearance on the stage. The Reputation concert film by Swift turned to be more than inspirational; it turned into a structural and visual model to the most ambitious sequences in the film.
Lowery was not afraid to admit how influential this was, saying, “Her Reputation concert film is one of the best concert films ever. It is truly phenomenal. And in our concert scenes we watched that a couple of times. You would not believe how much time we spent discussing Taylor. His admiration was converted into a painstaking creative work, in which whole portions of performances by Swift were studied to the last detail. This was not a simple issue of aesthetic imitation but rather the learning of how to work the mechanics of spectacle, emotion and narrative in the context of live performance.
He also elaborated the practical aspect of such method, by stating, “We stole three songs of Reputation and dissecting it, shot by shot, and looking at it like: ‘Ok, in case we were doing these, how much would these shots cost us to do in visual effects? That was our budgeting device, since we were not aware of how we could wrap our minds around pulling off a stadium concert-show with a meager budget. We were literally just following Reputation as our guide. I can go on about Reputation all day. This observation shows that the film balances creativity and constraint with an existing cultural phenomenon to traverse the logistical hurdles of re-creating massive performances with minimal resources.
It permeated more than just technical planning and entered into the emotional center of the character itself. Lowery talked about how the persona of Swift aided in his conception of Mother Mary, providing a relatable but aspirational model. He shared, “When we wrapped, Annie gave me a Taylor Swift style beaded bracelet with ‘Anti-Hero’ on it. 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 10 or 15 years,’ that’s sort of who this character could be.” This analogy hints at a character that is not merely an actor but rather an embodiment of a developing fame, maturity, and self-awareness.
In the case of Hathaway, more than observational learning was needed to play such a part. It required a total transformation of attitude. Mother Mary was an unusual challenge unlike in the traditional theatrical acting where one would have to be well acquainted with scripts and the rehearsed content. A lot of the music in the film was not complete at the time of shooting and Hathaway had to act without the security of rehearsal. Such uncertainty compelled her to be vulnerable in a manner that she had never felt before.
Considering this process, Hathaway confessed, “I had to accept being a beginner. The humility of that, showing up each day and knowing you are going to suck. And it must be okay. You are not bad, you are just a beginner. It was hard to get to that place, but it was welcome. Her lines embody the nature of artistic development, when unrest is a mandatory friend of authenticity.
She also missed the preparation of music that she normally did during performance. It was so confusing, she explained, that I had to learn it, because had I only had the music a year earlier than we in any sense turned on a camera, I should have tattooed all the notes on my soul, and it would have been a whole thing, very particular. And that I could not do. Although this was a bit disturbing at first, it enabled Hathaway to be spontaneous and open-hearted in the role, which has been known to create more authentic performances.
The most interesting thing about Mother Mary is the way it combines two different creative journeys. On the one hand, we can speak about the personal development of Hathaway as an actor who is ready to lose control and to live in this world without any orders. On the other is the conscious impact of an international pop culture that has re-established the contemporary performance culture. All these combine to make this film feel both grounded and yet uplifted by artistic ambitions.
Of particular importance is the choice of the Reputation period of Swift. It was a period of reinvention, radical imagery, and an intricate dynamic with popular opinion, and it defined that phase of Swift career. It provides the film with a reference point, exploiting an already known narrative on a cultural level, but putting it through the prism of fiction. It gives a new dimension to the character of Mother Mary, it makes her both recognizable and completely new.
With the hype surrounding the film, there is one question left open. Will viewers interpret this as an experimental art or as a comment on an industry that is becoming more and more influenced by already established icons? Inspiration and imitation are the thin veil and Mother Mary seems to be walking on it. What has become evident though is that the movie is not merely the life of a pop star. It is of change, indecision, and the boldness to venture into the unknown.
