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JENA MALONE:
“I wanted to play Mary because she had the strength to question this foundation of belief that she was brought up with since she was four years old. And as a young person I think it’s quite commendable, particularly because the idea of spirituality is not really something that’s indorsed when you’re young.”
MANDY MOORE:
“I don’t think that this film is controversial. I think that these people really exist. There’s nothing wrong with them. They’re not bad people by any means. My character is a little over zealous, but she means well at the end of the day. She’s just a little misguided.”
MACAULAY CULKIN:
“I’m someone who loves rehearsal and research. Thankfully, Brian Dannelly is a big research guy, almost to a silly extent. He sent us stacks of things, like him in an Internet chatroom with other Christians, talking about Christianity. We went to Christian rallies and rock concerts, I went to a big one at Edison Field, there were 40,000 born again Christians, and I looked over the crowd and they were all blondes.”
MOORE:
“Maybe why I was so attracted to the role is, it’s always much more fun to play the bitch than a nice girl. It was great because she’s sort of teetering on the edge. You could read the script and see her as this over the top caricature. I didn’t want her to be like that. There had to be a reason why people liked her and why she was popular, because if she was just mean there’s no way that she’d be in that position.”
CULKIN:
“There were a couple of these Goth Christians at the rally too, it was crazy, with black hair, dark eyeliner and ‘God Rocks’ tattooed on the back of their hands. I read the script about all this New Age-like Christian stuff and I laughed, but when you actually see it first-hand, you want to stay true to who they are and what they believe in.”
MALONE:
“I didn’t know that this world really existed. The first thing that hit me when I walked into this youth rally was that half of them were 14-year olds. And seeing these 14-year olds so passionate about anything else beside Britney Spears, to be passionate about their spiritual beliefs was really eye-opening, beautiful and it made me have an instant respect for this world, and I really wanted to portray it accurately and honestly, with humor and heart, exposing the negative aspects of it as well.”
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THE CONCEPT:
