EWTN Live - Thérèse - the Movie - Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. with Leonardo Defilippis - 12-08-2010

he's an actor a playwright and a director and producer of future films who was inspired to bring the life of st. Torres of this year and other Saints to the big screen we'll talk to him about life on both sides of the camera tonight so please stay with us thank you and welcome I'm father Mitch Pacwa welcome to EWTN live our chance to bring you guests from all over the world before we get to tonight's guest just want to mention that today is the holy day of obligation the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary this means that Mary was conceived without sin and even in the second century already the fathers of the church were starting to call Mary the new Eve and we remember that Eve was also created without original sin just like Adam was and it's there was reason I mentioned that a friend of mine was on the internet last night and somebody was complaining about the Immaculate Conception she's the lady said that she left a church because she couldn't believe that Mary was without sin because that would make her God and we have to say no it doesn't and make sure human being without original sin just like Adam and Eve were Adam and Eve weren't God as a matter of fact they became sinners when they tried to act like God and know what God knows but they were conceived without original sin and that's what it means to be truly human and the Blessed Virgin Mary was the most truly human since Adam and Eve but she never fell into sin and the Lord used her filled her with grace because she was saved from Raziel sin by the grace of God and by being filled with grace there was no room for sin in her life so that she could be the proper one to raise our Lord Jesus Christ to give birth to him and bring him up in this world so we celebrate this great Feast of the Immaculate Conception today now our guest tonight knows the blessings and the trials of sainthood in a unique way he formed st. Luke productions in order to bring the lives of great Catholic saints to people around the country and through his stage and film productions so please welcome tonight's guest Leonardo de Filippis welcome well good to have you back yeah it's good to be back here on EWTN yeah it's been a little while since we had you and when we were you were last here Torres was just coming out dressed we've just come out in the movie theaters right now tonight we're going to be doing something very special which is to show Torres right after this show is over it's gonna be that the whole feature length is going to be shown on the wtn tonight and this is a good opportunity to talk to you again about what's you know the film and all this first of all just to remind our audience why did you choose to do this feature film on Terez well we've chose to do the feature film on st. - rez first of all because the Carmelites approached me the Carmelite nuns in the country wanted me to do the film to honor her her life so I undertook that challenge but really underneath it all it was because I have a great devotion to her as does my wife and we thought we felt that this was a worthy project to do and so we we wanted to really spread devotion to st. dres and I think what inspired me really or were two things once I met this priest and I asked him should we do this movie or not because I knew if I did it was gonna be so much work so much risk so much obstacles and so he said to me Leonardo do not be afraid cast your net into the deep and so I did and then that recode what pope john paul ii always used to say do not be afraid open wide the doors to Christ and so I thought this is an opportunity let's bring st. Therese the most popular Saint in modern times bring the create a feature film that could spread devotion to her throughout the whole world well there's nothing like having some nuns ask you to do something is them it's hard to refuse the nuns I have to admit that and probably everybody at EWTN understands that one day Yes Mother Mother Angelica so which I've had the pleasure to even she's seen the movie privately and I've been able to perform for her privately so it's been a great honor so but that's one reason we really did do it out of the sincerity of the love of her family so to speak the the Carmelite nuns so that we could bring her to the world in a special way in this way a unique way to have a more living encounter with the actual person of Saint us what is it that is such an attraction to Terez you know she's obviously an attraction to you person it's not just the nuns who asking to do this you yourself have a devotion to her what is it about Saint Terez that is so attractive well I think with one thing that's so attractive about her I think is that she seems so accessible to others in that she is you know a middle class person she had the same problems she was fragile emotional she was weak she felt like she could never accomplish a lot of a lot of things and and I think a lot of us really feel that way we feel you know we what we have a facade that we want to put on to you know get the job or get the part or get whatever it is in this life but she somehow felt that she couldn't do that particularly her journey to God and I think a lot of us feel that way and so she basically really surrendered to God and I think that's ultimately for me that's one of the great attractions that she opens the door to surrender to God so that God she gives us the confidence that God will take care of us and I think it comes back to a great hope of Saint rest as a sign I think of really the the future coming in that she has an unshakable once she gets to her conversion everything she has an unshakable faith in the church that Jesus truly will accomplish everything through the person who surrenders to him and I think a lot of us are just wanting that to happen and I think the other side of the coin is that people connect with her on a relationship that they have a one-on-one relationship with her so that they asked for her help her intercession because her story is so enchanting in the sense that she really promises to help others to give her life and especially her great promise of spending to do good on in heaven you know on earth and so I think that that attraction of sending down a shower roses really people are drawn to ask for her help and she certainly responds now one of the things that I think is very important is you know that a lot of people don't even know about that when you say she sends down a shower of roses tell us a little bit more about that because a lot for a lot of folks they don't know her background well enough to understand it right well that's up in the in the story when she wrote the story of a soul her autobiography she talks about roses were important in her family first of all her father had a rose garden and roses are one of the more beautiful you know rose flowers in the world but also it is a kind of a symbol of Mary it's a symbol of the church in a sense the purity beauty and so she uses that symbol the Rose that when she's dying on her deathbed she promises to her sisters on their deathbed Pauline and Selene that she will send down a shower of roses from heaven and to to give us a sign that God loves us that he'll take care of us and so I think that's and that's what's happened so people now will pray to her and I say please Torres I'm having trouble with my marriage or please you know I can't go through my studies or I'm in a foxhole in war please protect me from from death or my comrades and please send me a sign show me that you're with me and a lot of times people ask for a sign of roses and she sends them and even if you don't ask some sometimes she sends them anyway yeah and that's happened to countless you know thousands and thousands of people throughout history so it's it's just a little bit another thing but not a very long history because she's only been dead just over a hundred and ten years that's right yeah she died in 1897 so you're right so she's a she really is a modern saint but it is remarkable the the popularity that she holds throughout the whole world she's almost like saint francis of assisi used to be you know universally the the most attractive saint but it's almost like he is the courteous young man saying okay young lady you come in open there's the door I open the door for you and you see her just blossom throughout the whole world and almost every country every language in the world I remember back some years ago in the 90s when her relics made a tour around the world and they came to Dallas Texas where I lived at the time and the line was just huge I I wouldn't have been able to see if I weren't a priest because we had mass so I got into the mass to celebrate Mass with the other priests but if it weren't for that I probably wouldn't been able to see the relics because the line went you know it was so long it's unbelievable the response and then when she went around the world and be at Russia or Lebanon or Iraq or all the places she's been in the world he's the most traveled see Saint in the world she's even been in outer space her relics we didn't mean to notice well she wanted to remember her as she wrote that she would like to preach the gospel on all continents at the same time so an astronaut went to the Carmelite monastery in Houston Texas and said sisters what can I do for you and they said take the relics of sainte to rest up in the up into space so she zipping around though they'll glow the you know as fast as you can think so it's just the the you know it's amazing really yeah we used to call her relics ooh they called it the rolling bones to her because there was you know they were going everywhere and the response was amazing so sometimes people were just there to stop it because they were right close it down and go to the next place and that's why it really uh it kind of prepared the way particularly for our film when the film came out that it that it kind of opened that door you know one of the things about her is that she had some sisters who already had joined the Carmel right and she had some struggles with her own call to become a Carmelite because you know that was gonna be very difficult for her father her mother was already dead and her father was going to be very much alone and it'd be very much a struggle for him tell us a little bit about her own struggle to enter the Carmelites well I think she she has a she's attracted to the her first sister Pauline the oldest sister of the five girls enters the monastery and she doesn't want to lose her because she becomes the second mother as you mentioned the mother dies when she's four years old and so that really creates an insecurity in her as it would any child who loses a mother at that age so she's clingy and very fragile emotional cries at the drop of a hat and she's attracted to going to Carmel and wanting to go where Pauline's going so she has this in her heart but she doesn't know how to go there and so as time goes on she's she becomes more and more depressed more and more self-centered in her in a sense he's being tempted by the devil to focus on herself and her problems and then when she goes to see her sister at the monastery she gets more attracted then ultimately what happens is really on Christmas Eve when she's 14 years old she has a conversion a complete conversion where then she now is completely open to God and she realizes she's being called to the Carmelite life even at that age so she has to get special permission to at fifteen to go to the monastery and she has to win over her father to do that it's about a fact we've got a clip of that scene where she's leaving her dad let's take a look at watch this what's the matter my little Queen don't I don't want to hurt you papa tell me don't be afraid papa I have to fly away you're awfully young to be making such a serious decision perhaps in a few years when you're older you could no papa now Jesus is calling me to the monastery now I cannot resist his love any longer all I want in life is what makes you happy and is pleasing to God look at this little flower think how much God must love it to bring it into being and to keep it alive in the moss see it still has its roots maybe it's destined now to live on in another soil more fertile than the moss thank you so this was the scene where he gave her permission to go on ahead and she started get a more official permission to be able to enter it so she had here's a permission but later on it was very difficult for him being alone tell us a bit about that well because you you played the father I played Louise Martin yes it was a great honor to do such a incredible man because saint torres always called him not only the king as he called her the queen but she always looked at the also called him the saint because he was such a saintly father so she looked up to him so much but you're right he gives permission to her and then they have to go to the bishop to get permission there and that still is a little guarded and eventually they have to go all the way to the Holy Father and even there at the Holy Father she's dragged away in her kind of trying to ask the Holy Father get permission to and he doesn't really understand so those Swiss Guards have to take her Oy and so eventually she just prays she starts to do little things surrendering to God and and then what happens then eventually that they do get permission she gets a letter to to give her permission to come and it's just like a heavenly sign from God there's such joy and then eventually but she has to wait three months and that was hard for her to wait three months they asked her to do that and so eventually she goes with her father and it's very touching scene where he should they meet for the last time outside the convent and then he goes in she goes in and so it's um it's a very touching story and for me at the end then louis-martin starts to have a mental illness he has troubles and then probably when the most moving scenes in the in the in the in the movie is that they meet for the last time when he's dying and he can't say anything at all the only he only finally at the end he looks up at her ass in her eyes and says in heaven and then he's wheeled away in his wheelchair so it's a very hidden mysterious relationship that these two have that will really be cemented in heaven and she really understands the Spirit of her father which is up you know who suffered so much as she had to suffer in the convent isn't his cause being advanced as well yes they were beatified right both of them in now but both of them mean the belly the mother's Ellie and Louie yes so that's a it's quite an amazing feat I mean who knows that they may all eventually be beatified in canonized there was such a really you know a beautiful family a model family relate for our times especially right the the the process though is one in which inside the convent she still has a lot of growth to go through a little of that is he she goes through a lot of resistance not every nun likes her you know she has a lot of opposition she's not very good at what she does you got to remember she didn't even know how to use a broom or was she never washed a dish she was spoiled everybody took care of her so all of a sudden now she's in a manual labor cyber situation all the women have to work hard so she's not used to that the rigors of the monastic state so she throws herself into it and and kind of bumbles here and there and so she has to slowly learn to give up her will and she discovers or it kind of her little invention called the little way where she has to now when somebody says something against her she has to use that not respond negatively and then she uses that for to pray for souls and and so it's it's a remarkable journey that she has how the hidden life is so rich you feel like you're watching the explosion of this hidden life trying to journey forward and she's slowly as I mentioned earlier she surrenders she was the type that said well I'm not doing very well I'm never not very good at anything matter of fact I probably can't even go up the first step and there's the father he's up there so the only way I can get up those steps is the father comes down he picks me up and he carries me right up the steps so she's still kind of spoiled breath yeah she's spoiled but she has this sense that God the Father that Christ will take care of everything right and that there's something touching about that like every father you know has a precious daughter always even to whatever age they are you always have that special relationship with them right it's one of those things where she's she was a spoiled child and in a certain sense she never she loses that in a way and another way she never loses that because she just says okay Lord I just had to let you do this right exactly and then she goes into a period of great darkness where almost for three years there is no contact with God in her life meaning in other words and she feels no presence of God and she calls this her fog or it's a dark night of the soul and so she she but she has to persevere by pure faith as she says and to go forward and even on her deathbed she feels she's just so weak she gonna even make it through death will she be a but she realizes that God will take care of Anna and then her moving death God gives her the grace of actually seeing they meet face to face before she dies right and so it's very touching as a matter of fact as I recall from her biography that she was strongly tempted during death during the process of when she was sick she had tuberculosis I recall right and a common killer back in those days and you know she was strongly tempted during that to give up but she didn't and she her sisters and confessor were all very supportive of her at that time and well they actually devil appears to her frightens her and it's actually what we call the Virgin of the smile they actually when she was a child she was so sick she was gonna die but they brought in the Virgin of the smile and she could hardly talk she was thrashing and everything as you'll see in the movie and then the Blessed Mother actually she lifts up and almost glows and she and the Blessed Mother cures her right there well so it's a good day to be cured on though yes especially this day we're talking especially she had a very close relationship of course with the Blessed Mother yeah you talked a bit about the troubles that she had with the sisters there was one old elderly sister that she was supposed to help take care of that was very difficult for everybody I'll talk a little bit about her well there's an old cranky nun who who is always you know kind of on on her own she's like we have in almost every monastery in every family this cranky old lady and so she she didn't really appreciate saint torres and she'd have her do this or that and over the name is sister st. pierre and so there was a funny scene in the movie where she has to take care of her and it's all again where she's discovered doing this little way and as she's taking this nun she's helping her out of her chair and she's not liking the way she moves her don't pick me up that way no you're doing it wrong type of thing she kind of hears music in her ear it's like there's a there's dancing there's a like a symphony and she sees walking this nun down just a monastery hallway is a great joyful moment in her life and it's one of the humorous scenes and not only in the story of a soul but in the movie itself right and one of the things that was the irony of it after Saint Reza died that same cranky old nun said that young girl was the only one ever took care of me right and she was the only one who who's she she liked her there's another nun to our sisters saying sister Augustine who this actually happened to she was always nicer and sister Agustin never liked her throughout the whole monastery you know throw her monastery experience when Torrez dies is only when she finds out that Torrez had troubles with her that she really was you know was irritated with her cuz it hurt her the things she did to her but she never said anything negative about it and only was later on in the story of a soul where she wrote about it that we even knew anything that she had to sacrifice you know when we were we do something for someone yeah she kept that very much you know to herself as part of her own offering right over union with Jesus suffering that was a very important element of her spirituality was it not very very important I think that's very much the key of the little way that even whatever you do as she said if you pick up a pin on the ground do it for Christ you know to save a soul to do everything that you do you know that that's for love of God and so it took all the littles minut minutiae and I really think what what's so important about her she's kind of like from the Old Testament how God comes as a little whisper doesn't come as a thunderbolt right or lightning you know she comes just as that God comes as a whispering and st. Torres takes that kind of symbolism she lives her life that way in this hidden way she does things just a quiet whisper until she dies and then she's called the hurricane that writings explode well they're in that same passage in first Kings chapter nineteen is there is a hurricane at the first but she's got it reversed instead of exactly the hurricane coming first the the still small voice comes first and then the hurricane right that's that's her symbolism of her life really yeah one of the things I often quote in fact I go to the Holy Land I'll be going next week and one of the things I love quoting when I'm on the Sea of Galilee is will read the story of Jesus asleep in the boat and then the Apostles waking him up and in calming the sea and saying to the disciples are you little faith and I love that the way that she describes it as Jesus saying she says sometimes it feels as if Jesus is asleep and he's not helping me but I don't want to wake him up because I don't want him to tell me are you a little faith that's right well you know in making this movie it was really like it was such a risk to do it because I felt like we were like you know the Jews in the desert of the Old Testament where were we're having just to rely totally in faith in God and going forward but you know that was really in a sense interests helped us to go forward with that vision of staying in the desert so to speak well they're lying on God that is a big risk you know making a feature film and this is not something that you'd you're doing on a little brownie eight you know this is this is a big deal and it's a lot of money involved a lot of people working very hard that's that's a lot of risk that you had to take there there was a huge risk and I think we were one of the smallest organizations ever to undertake it making a feature film and and we had to do it all through donations and in fact we ran out of money kept running out of money as we made it and God would just send the money right at the right time so it was a it was actually a you know a a crazy event or a mad journey that we made but God you know we have to go forward and just believe that it would work well believe me we understand that here at EWTN because that's the way everything worked here we need to take a little break charlie oh if you're interested in finding out more about this whole production you can go to the website which is www.hyken.com and you can find out more about Trez and the other productions that they do we're gonna take a break right now we'll be back in a couple of minutes we want to get your questions and your comments and as well as those of our studio audience so please stay with us thank you and welcome back I just want to let you know that Terez the movie and the soundtrack to the movie are both available through ewtn religious catalogue you can go to religious catalogue to get those as well as all of our other great products at one eight hundred eight five four six three one six that's one eight hundred eighty six and you can also go to the website WWWE just cataloging and they'll they'll help you find all that material and also we have a nice little audience here from different parts of the country from Texas and Colorado and Louisiana and Philadelphia all sorts of places that we have represented here and we'd love to have you come and join us too if you have a chance to come be part of our pilgrimage audience oh we did we'd love it you can contact our pilgrimage department at two zero five two seven one two nine six six that's two zero five two seven one two nine six six or go to the website WWE wtae.com they'll help you with scheduling about when we're gonna have programs we can be in the studio audience they'll give you the schedule for the masses both here and at the shrine map start to get up to the shrine and also they'll help you with accommodations and good places to eat we have a lot of good places here to eat you know some of our restaurants have a religious theme yes true you've got hamburger heaven that's religious we've got Golden Rule barbecue and that's religious you know so we've got all kinds of things you need to do and we love to have you come and join us here in beautiful Irondale Alabama are you ready for some questions yes I am alright let's go to a caller we have Kathy on the line hello Kathy hello our father Mitch in Leonardo I thought were you from Kathy I'm calling from New Jersey great and what yes I saw to read seven times and brought it into my local theater but I'd like to have Leonardo comment on maybe some little incidents and miracles that happened during the taping or the filming of the show on the movie and also to elaborate on these musical score which is so unbelievably beautiful and thank you oh thank you very much both great question that's great I came I'm so honored that the first question comes from New Jersey because that's where my wife's from so I'm honored that's good well to answer your question a number of things have happened first of all when it was in the movie theaters oftentimes the fragrance of roses would happen in secular theaters this was a common occurrence and we heard about it from all over the country but on a more touching note how it affected certain situations where Torres worked so well I remember very well we a man in a wheelchair he was a young man he he got paralyzed he was bitter against God for having this tragedy in his life and his mother was with him and they came to the movie she brought him he didn't want to come to the movie because he was it was still angry with God he had become to a of all things a religious movie you know and it had to be a religious movie on a saint so what happened was during the course of the movie he slowly breaks down and surrenders to God and he starts he's crying and the mother of course is watching him seeing her son being in engaged with Saint Torres and she starts to weep so of this there was this real conversion for this young man or another time I was sitting in Puerto Rico I was next to the classmate who went with tulle with Albert Einstein he was a scientist and it was during this moment he saw the movie there I happen to be there for the premiere and he really had a revelation he could never respect or understand st. Trez and the little way finally clicked with him and God took away all the intellectual allottee that he had and he would see the essence of the purity pure relationship with God or another time it was shown by a Presbyterian chaplain before they took the DVD of all things and and brought it to all these young girls that have been sexually abused and so they showed it to them and they and they had him there it was a terrible thing because I'd have to do with with family etc and so but they all were so engaged that it was a huge healing moment for each every one of them because they saw in st. tourists this girl this pure person who could help them and so they all kind of had it became to have a devotion to st. Torrez deeper and there was countless stories like this when she went into the prisons when it's we showed it in the prisons how to touch prisoners and even this was one of the last movies that pope john paul ii saw when he was at Castel Gandolfo before he died so there's many stories countless stories of many people becoming priests and nuns so it's just been overwhelming really just as her book was but it just shows you that that's God's work we just made we were just pure instruments and making the movie for saint torres also she asked about the music tell about the score the music well the music is very unusual it's the first musical score of a movie written by a nun by a religious nun who happened to be a Carmelite nun and she has a great talent and she went in and this is the first thing she ever did she got permission to write the music and and she wrote one I believe one of the most beautiful movie scores very touching in fact the person was helping with the movie in Hollywood he had worked on movies like Spider Man and all these other type of movies he was so touched by it that he made us presented to the Academy Award during that that year when it was out just so we could at least get it in there in the in that you know of course huge competition and nobody knew who is saying Torrez was that much but it is really a touching and I really encourage all your listeners at EWTN to to really reach out and get that soundtrack which says it'll make you weep if you listen to it okay great we have a question from our studio audience ma'am where are you from San Antonio Texas great good to have you here and what is your question well I was just wondering where was the movie filmed the movie was filmed in it in in Oregon the state of Oregon and Washington and we chose those areas first of all were there but we were able to find places that look like Normandy France and so that's why we chose that area and also in addition we went to France itself to Normandy and we also went to Rome where we perform there I mean where every film there so we were able to be white we matched the exteriors and then we created a lot of the interiors in the United States okay it was an international filming process it was an international filming project it was it was it was a big undertaking for us and to do so on such a low budget was also an added challenge I'm sure very big challenge particularly because we're doing a period piece you're ruined the Victorian age with the the beautiful dresses that the women had to wear and the men and so you had you had to really be attentive to detail so that you were historically accurate to have the feel of the time of that period right right right so good another caller on the line we have Nabil hello in the Beall hello how are you doing fine thank you I'm calling from Michigan great hello Leonardo i lo there my question is I'd like to see a movie about blessed Miguel Pro do you plan to do any more movies about Saints or about you know blessed Miguel Pro and and father father much is it still blessed big old pro is it saint Miguel Pro all answer that first it's still blessed Miguel Pro he's not been canonized yet so I guess they're still waiting for another miracle but are you planning to do a movie on well it's interesting you ask that because it is one of the movies in our lineup that we'd like to do on the life of blessed Miguel Pro so I I hope in the future that we can there's we are getting requests to do so many different films but it but he would be a fantastic saint to present in in the film world so that we can see him the physical and encounter with him because he it's very dramatic story he was himself an actor yes he was he and he was it was pretty good at protecting himself during the revolution but we're also planning to do a film I'm trying to do one on the Gospel of John on st. Agustin and also our current show on Saint John Vianney the fury of ours that we would like to do an eventual feature film on that also so we've we've still got quite a few Saints - till - till cover and you've already done one on st. Francis is that right you've done st. Francis st. Maximilian Kolbe John the cross so there's there's I think there's a few more Saints left to do yes there are that's one of the great things that we have is there are plenty of Saints yes yes we don't run out of them yes absolutely let's go to the audience question ma'am were you from Omaha Nebraska great and what is your question well first of all I want to say thank you for the movie Saint Trez is a favorite saying our oldest daughters named Teresa rose for that reason but I want to ask I think first st. Trez it was easy to do the the little way because she was cloistered and us in this noisy world how can we practice it can you give me some suggestions well to answer your first part of your question about that it was easier for st. Therese in the monastery not necessarily the monastery there is kind of a misunderstanding in in in about religious life sometimes that we're in the world and we're having to deal with whatever it might be all the different work we have to find a job we got to do this we got to do that it's it's hard it's hard to raise a family but in the monastery it's hard to live in a monastery if you've ever had to live with a number in her case you had to live with I think twenty four nuns twenty four women to live with twenty four women all the time every from elbow to elbow 24/7 is not that easy either no we always think the grass is greener on the other side st. tourists offered a lot in a monastery she was never thought as something a person special or you know that that she was very that she was very good at anything in fact and so she did have a rough time there so it was not really easy plus God tested her there as has happened throughout church history with a lot of religious in monasteries if you think of her patron Saint John of the Cross one of the you know the greatest doctors of the church I mean you're talking about incredible suffering his famous line was love suffering and John and Tate Torres is actually one of the truest daughters of Saint John of the Cross because she had to suffer so much and a lot of people don't see that because it seems like you know when we see the quietness of life it seems regimented etc she had to they have to live without no heat they have to do great penance she had to fast all the time it's very strict they can't ever have meat you know they don't have the goodies of what we have today but the answer the other side of the coin it is difficult in the world and how do we do that we have a million distractions we have every other thing under the Sun to tempt you you can't go to a supermarket or watched hardly television or listen to the radio or whatever media it is be by being bombarded with everything and so I think the application that Torres and the Saints are calling us to do is to stay focused keep your eyes on Christ so that you can you can persevere and I think st. Torres is a good example you have to remember that she one of her first child she when she before she enters the monastery she in a sense tests God and she says she heard about a murderer and he killed all these women his name was frenzied knee and he actually says I'm gonna pray for his complete conversion and at the end he resisted God but and when he went to the guillotine he broke down and kissed the cross and asked forgiveness and so to her knowing that that happened she said you know God answered my call and so that is the kind of focus and zeal that we have to have in in daily life that if we sacrifice a not doing something you know be helping others not ourselves all the time that's gonna make a better society a better family life so and and you know the Martin family st. Teresa's family is a model family for that so I I believe that every we should have a real connection with every religious just like mother you think mother Angelica's life is was easy it isn't there's a lot you know or a priest life people get the you know they think it just says Mass and that's it what's he doing back there you know just reading that book over there there's a lot of things that people don't know so I think that we just need to you know to really Torres the saying ask Jesus for help he'll help you yeah I think that's an important point and the little way is something that you know it's not complicated and it doesn't require a lot of and you know academic research or anything like that at all it's it's very simple but that doesn't mean that it's easy exactly I got a call from a Los Angeles I remember same kind of thing with an interview and the woman said it's so wonderful the little way but it's so hard to do right and it really is because it's hard when your husband or your daughter says something to you and you want to you know bite right back with a word it's hard to say no I'm gonna control myself I'm gonna be kind I'm gonna kill her with kindness but I'll kill let's go to another Conan caller we have Tony on the line hello Tony yeah father all right where you from I'm from Napa California great then what is your question well my question for Leonardo is I'm just interested in the actress Lindsay Ounces I thought she was terrific in the movie obviously it was a key role for this film to succeed I was wondering if he could tell us about how he found this young actress and her back and something about Linda young thank you so much Tony Lindsay ounces the actress that I found it's a really it is true what Tony mentioned it's a real miracle story I was looking for an actress for st. Torres and and the movie was going forward in the production and I was getting desperate because we had a time line so I actually was walking by we filmed all these young women and older women I found a woman in LA actually who looked like Torres so we went down there but then when I went down there she was a little older than I thought and so as women you know when they send their photos to us you know so I lost that trail there but what happened with Lindsay I was walking by our our staff who was doing all the videotaping of all the auditioning and I saw this young girl and I watched part of her audition I said I want to see that girl tomorrow find her I have no idea who she was or where she's at get her in here somehow tomorrow and and they in fact did but what happened was I had to go to Mass the next day and we were going to there's a huge traffic jam so we went to a totally different church that I don't always go to I went there and I was praying to Jesus in the during the mass and all of a sudden I looked over in the corner and there was this girl there was the actress she was over in the corner and then all of a sudden I had this overwhelming feeling from God that she was the one and and and I haven't even met her I hadn't even auditioned her and I had an argument with God during the mass in the sense I said God are you sure you are you sure that this is the one you know because there was no confirmation except that the voice said to me she's the one so when I did audition her I knew it right away that my confirmation was true because what she did is she brought a purity to the role and in fact she was a Quaker she wasn't even Catholic but she was becoming interested in Catholicism and a matter of fact I think was four years before we did the movie I know two years before we did the movie she the the relics of torez came and she happened to be driving by this very same church and saw all these people there was just tons of what he called the crowd like you said if you weren't a priest you would never get it really the relevant well she stopped not even knowing what was happening she's not even Catholic she walks into the church you can't even get into the church cuz it's jam-packed even outside and one of those old uh sure's Catholic usher comes up to the young girl and says young lady come here well hold her hand walks her right down to the front row and puts her in front of the relics and she doesn't even know who sing Torres is at this moment so when I find her an audition all of a sudden she discovers Torres and the beauty of this whole story not only did she betray her so beautifully and faithfully but she also becomes a Catholic after the film and it's a very touching story and she's a beautiful young woman and and she has inspired people all over the world now one of the things about the movie is that it did get into the theaters yes it did how did it do what was its run like in the theaters well it ran for 70 weeks in the theater so it was a long run for an independent film and it got into the main you know Regal Cinema AMC century all the different ones and so it had a wonderful run and it was but it was based off of also how the people responded as some of your audience members have mentioned and even your callers that they brought the movie they worked to get the movie to come to their theaters yeah tell us about that because a lot of times this was done by people trying to get the theaters to put it on right because because st. Torres is not well known among Hollywood or that industry what happened is we got the permission to get into the Regal system say or into the movie industry but but it had to be we could only try to bring it to a certain city if the people would get behind it and so what happened is it was amazing what happened and certain you know Detroit ended up becoming the number one city in the country because of two women they galvanized the people in the city and they got her to come and now we you only get one weekend if it doesn't do well on will in one weekend it's gone Hollywood takes it away but I think in that case it stayed almost seven weeks in the movie theater which is for a movie that's remarkable it's a long time and that happened in a lot of cities all over the United States and so it was really a very very touching thing how how in fact in some places I know we're just talking about Louisiana in Shreveport Louisiana one that was there it's not a really Catholic area but the people came for weeks and weeks and then and the managers of theater were so engaged they've never seen so many well-behaved people come to a movie theater and so he was sad to see the movie when it had to finally leave it was always saying goodbye to the all the customers you know so there's been some amazing stories that have happened in that regard so it's and it was all through the efforts of people who believed in her who wanted to honor her who loved her and wanted to spread her devotion now the movie itself then was able to finance itself it was able to by being the theatre you were able to pay back all the right we paid back the production and what we did was we were we're nonprofit so we're not like looking at the end you know like in a normal movie industry you know we got to take the profit and and run you know what we did is we took every bit of profit went back in to making a go to another city and another city in another city and then preparing the way for the DVD release and to do the normal things that you would do with a theater and and to get it into the other areas into French and in Canada and etc and into Mexico etc so it it really has been a very moving and touching journey as we've gone this whole way through well this this brings us something in terms of the movie then truly being an apostolate it's not a business project but an apostolate that you you really see this as part of a mission to be able to bring the this this good news about this great Saint to the modern world well I exactly as one priest said when he he said this grace I mean this movie imparts grace grace flows from it and it was very touching because we were mentioning earlier at a dinner but in when the ten commandments they came to India and and back way back when the priest said to the people in India if you go to this movie you will receive a blessing and I think that's the same thing that happened with Terez that those were open who were searching from from spiritual answer or some consolation god immense blessing from God truly grace from God to be open to His grace and that it transformed their life as one woman I remember she came out of the movie she wrote us right after she came out of the movie she leaned against her car she was kind of overwhelmed by the movie after being so moved and she just she got up and went right back in the movie and watched it again I mean that's how it impacted her and that doesn't happen with movies right you know normally right and so it was a even though it was a movie as you said it was an apostolate and we all we wanted to do is plant the seed and let tourettes do the rest and just in our last couple minutes your staff you know is they also must be affected by this not only the actress converting but tell us a little bit about how the staff is affected oh the staff and the crew the crew on this movie worked so hard they worked harder than most movie can cruise I mean they gave their hearts and souls to it so it wasn't just for works sake it was for a mission to to really get Terez out there and they they sacrifice so much I'm proud of every one of them the the sacrifices they made the lighting crew the camera crew the the art direction I mean that the costumes the music every little bit of it because everything took detail and effort and no one slept some people didn't sleep sometimes for 48 hours straight it was unbelievable how God got got this movie miraculously filmed and not only edited but also into the movie theaters so it was it was a you know how he worked down and edited it in in Los Angeles and Burbank we did showings of Warner Brothers and even we're doing some things at Disney and Sony and and eventually here we here it is it was in the movie theaters and now it's going to be on EWTN as a matter of fact when you say now it's gonna be on EWTN we mean exactly that it's gonna be on now just in another minute and a half or so we're gonna be going over to the movie and so uh it's really is a great thing that you've done and no I was definitely hoping that this will be not the end of what you're doing but bringing this kind of movie that was one of the things I remember about the whole at the outset then bringing this kind of movie to the media and to the culture this is what we need very much I want to thank you for being with us tonight and for bringing the movie to EWTN so we can show it this evening and want to thank you for being with us and Almighty God bless you and keep you and cause his face to shine upon you may he lead you in all of your ways and guide you along his footsteps by his peace mighty God bless you the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit amen and remember we can bring you Leonardo and all the other guests on the programs and we can even bring you this movie tonight because this network is brought to you by you you make this network possible just as you made this movie possible so please keep us in between your gas bill electric bill on cable bill and we'll be able to pay all of our bills thank you you

Channel: EWTN

Views: 6,335

Rating: 4.8947368 out of 5

Keywords: EWTN, Live, Mitch, Pacwa, SJ, Leonardo, Defilippis, Thérèse, Movie, Catholic

Id: S1_58kzrTLU

Length: 56min 31sec (3391 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 10 2010