Noomi Rapace Teases ‘Punk Rock’ Portrayal of Mother Teresa in Upcoming Film ‘Mother’: ‘She Was No Saint’ (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comChristopher Vourlias Noomi Rapace is teasing her portrayal of Mother Teresa in the upcoming film “Mother,” in which the multi-faceted Swedish talent tackles the role of the Catholic saint when she was just an ordinary woman.
Speaking at the Sarajevo Film Festival this week, where she’s part of a competition jury headed by Paul Schrader, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and “Prometheus” star said she was drawn to the offbeat portrait of Teresa because she wasn’t interested in doing a conventional biopic. “She was no saint,” Rapace said. “She’s a quite complex character.” “Mother,” which marks the English-language debut of North Macedonian filmmaker Teona Strugar Mitevska (“God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya”), will follow seven days during a pivotal moment in the life of the revered saint, when she decides to leave the Loreto Entally convent in Calcutta and launch her own order. “She’s waiting for permission from the Vatican to go out on her calling, her mission, to leave the convent and start her mission outside,” Rapace explained. “No one has done what she’s asking permission to do.
It hasn’t been done before. She’s a woman in a man’s world.” Rapace, who left her family in Sweden at the age of 15, said she could relate to the story of Teresa, who also left home as a teenager, as she understands the feeling of “leaving the safety behind.” “I’ve felt like I’m against all odds many times and finding my voice and myself in different foreign situations,” she said. “So I think I can relate to her stubbornness and her conviction that she needed to do this, even if it was going to be painful.” Rapace continued, “She talks a lot about darkness and her doubts.
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