Why This THE CHOSEN Actress Wanted to Play Mary Magdalene
Movieguide® Contributor
THE CHOSEN’s Elizabeth Tabish knew she wanted to play Mary Magdalene when she saw the character’s “fully dimensional” humanness.
“I was really impressed with how complicated this character is and how messy she is,” Tabish said of her role as Mary Magdelene. “It’s a historical figure, and we see these saints usually depicted as saints. Just sort of these untouchable and already saintly, and it was the first time I really saw who Mary was before Jesus healed her.”
“And as an actress, I had been really frustrated with the sort of roles I was auditioning for or not auditioning for and felt sort of, just frustrated with the quality of, like, how realistic the depictions of women in general are,” she told Movieguide®. “And so, when I read this, I was really excited about how they made her fully human, fully messy, and also just a fully dimensional person.”
READ MORE: THE CHOSEN STAR’S NEW MOVIE CELEBRATES FAITH, THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
The star believes the role has been the “most fulfilling” of her career. She thinks of it as a “sacred experience” to represent someone who followed Jesus and loved him.
“Being able to portray her the way they have written her in THE CHOSEN has been a dream as an actress because they’ve written a wonderfully in-depth, psychologically complex character that is a privilege to get to play,” she told Catholic Weekly.
THE CHOSEN’s fifth season is expected to be a wave of emotions. It features the Holy Week, the week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. It will premiere in April 2025. Production just finished in September.
“The stakes could not be higher,” said Noah James, who plays Andrew. “They really feel that. Late at night, the disciples are going, ‘What is going on? What is tomorrow going to bring?’ And they can never even imagine the next day and then the next day. There’s plenty of stuff that happens during Holy Week that the disciples never could’ve imagined. It is a tumultuous ride, to say the least.”
READ MORE: THE CHOSEN STAR EXPLORES POWER OF HOPE, FAITH IN UPCOMING MOVIE
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