Video:Mikael Hafstrom, Michael Petroni The Rite Interviews

Transcript:Mikael Hafstrom, Michael Petroni The Rite Interviews

Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the World Premiere of New Line Cinema's The Rite.

The Rite Director Mikael Hafstrom

Was this a subject matter that fascinated you to begin with? How did you decide to do a movie called The Rite?

Mikael Hafstrom: "No, not really the subject matter. I felt maybe another film about exorcism wasn't really what I was looking for at the time. But when I read the script I got really drawn to the characters and the other sides of the story, friendship and so on."

It's not necessarily a movie about exorcism as much as it is a movie about faith. Is that how you see it?

Mikael Hafstrom: "It's about faith and it's about discussions that you can have with yourself or your friends or your closest ones throughout life. It takes up for a different and important things, and it's also an entertaining story, obviously, and it's a scary story. But it deals with very important issues."

You cast a young guy who hasn't been in a feature film before [Colin O'Donoghue] opposite Anthony Hopkins. How did that dynamic work out?

Mikael Hafstrom: "Yeah, I thought that was a great thing to do - one of the most famous actors in the world and a complete newcomer. But if you can do that, I think that's a great thing. And I think the audience appreciates a new face, somebody that comes with no baggage if you want, somebody that is completely unknown. And I think Colin did a great job with Anthony. It was not an easy task to do his first film with the great Anthony Hopkins, but Anthony was great. He understood Colin's nervousness and really, really sort of took him in and gave him self-esteem and all the good things."

Aside from the script and the book, is there a lot of research that you did?

Mikael Hafstrom: "We did a lot of research. We spent a lot of time in Rome and we met with the real people. Because it's based on real events - the exorcist school that the Vatican runs - we could do a lot of research in Rome that actually helped us do this film in the right way."

Was there anything in particular that you learned through the research that changed how you did the film?

Mikael Hafstrom: "That always happens when you do a film because a lot of facts come in and you read a lot. It could be little details and it could be new scenes, but yes, in this case like any other movie, it definitely happened - as it should. I think that's important."

The Rite Writer Michael Petroni

The book was being written while you were doing the script. How did that work?

Michael Petroni: "Yeah, I was doing it while Matt was researching the book. I signed on to the project after reading Matt [Baglio's] treatment to the book. It was very intriguing so we started getting in contact with each other almost from the start. Matt had written a few chapters when I had signed on so he was constantly feeding me new research that he was doing, so it was a very interesting way to write a project."

That is a strange process. It's not really a book you can adapt, so it's not based on but more inspired by?

Michael Petroni: "Well, yeah, because I think to actually condense it all into a dramatic story we've have to pick out experiences from different interviews that Matt did with different priests. And so in the end we've cobbled together a dramatic story all based on truth though."

Did you do much research on your own?

Michael Petroni: "Yeah, I actually witnessed a few exorcisms myself."

That's just crazy.

Michael Petroni: "It was a little hair-raising."

Was it what you expected?

Michael Petroni: "No, it wasn't in that I couldn't believe how matter of fact the priests were about what they were doing. It was interesting in that sense. They just treated it as something else they do in their pastoral care."

Did you fear for yourself?

Michael Petroni: "Yeah, especially being left in the room by myself with someone who was apparently possessed. The priest said, 'I'll be back in 5 minutes. I've just got something to do.' And I was like, 'You're leaving me?'"

What would have happened if something happened while he was gone?

Michael Petroni: "It was a little scary."

Had you ever done that much research for a project before where you actually have to get involved in something like that?

Michael Petroni: "In other projects, yeah. Well maybe not such hands-on kind of research. But actually interviewing people who were apparently possessed - that was interesting."

Is it something that you were interested in to begin with? The whole topic of exorcism, was it something you were interested in?

Michael Petroni: "Yeah. I think just being Catholic - or recovering Catholic - it's always been a fascination of mine."

What are you going to work on next?

Michael Petroni: "I can't say."

I hate those projects. Is it going to be big? Is it going to be about exorcisms?

Michael Petroni: "No. It's a very different subject matter in a different time, a different epoch."

More on The Rite:

The Rite Photo Gallery

The Rite Trailer, Clips, Poster and Cast List