Earlier than writer-director Mona Fastvold dove into analysis for her newest historic drama, she, like many immediately, knew the Shakers principally by their earthly contributions to furnishings design.

Whereas their ladder-back chairs and flat panel cupboards have endured the check of time, the unbelievable story of their founder, Ann Lee, one of many few feminine spiritual leaders of her day, has been all however forgotten. That, within the 18th century, hundreds would observe the poor daughter of a blacksmith, believing her to be the feminine reincarnation of Christ, appears far-fetched. That she preached abstinence and racial equality, denounced marriage and conventional gender roles, and led worship by orgiastic outbursts of track and dance, appears much more fantastical (and, certainly, landed her in jail on a number of events).

However these have been simply among the details that fascinated Fastvold as she went down the analysis rabbit gap for what would turn into The Testomony of Ann Lee, which she wrote together with her husband, The Brutalist director Brady Corbet. Born in Manchester, England, in 1736, Lee discovered solace in faith after dropping 4 youngsters at a younger age, and got here to consider that holiness was attainable solely by forgoing “fleshly cohabitation.” Throughout one among her stays in jail, she was beset by visions that led her to consider herself to be God’s consultant on Earth — an epiphany that didn’t enhance her tenuous standing with the Church of England.

Persecuted as a heretic, she and a small group of followers fled to America in 1774. After a harrowing cross-Atlantic journey, they landed in New York Metropolis and finally settled upstate, constructing what Lee promised would turn into a utopian group. Whereas their numbers grew, finally reaching as many as 4,000 (regardless of their views on procreation), the Shakers discovered no scarcity of detractors in revolutionary America. A 12 months after narrowly surviving a violent mob, Lee succumbed to her accidents, dying on the age of 48.

Whereas Fastvold spent years digging into Lee’s historical past, her tribute to the trailblazer’s bygone dream just isn’t overly involved with biographical accuracy — because the movie's admittedly unreliable narrator makes clear.

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"I'm not making a documentary; it's fiction," she tells Leisure Weekly. “Finally, you need to let the characters come alive and begin telling you the place they wanna go."

The movie’s considerate weaving of reality and fiction is maybe finest exemplified by its music. Fastvold reteamed with Oscar-winning composer Daniel Blumberg (The Brutalist) to reimagine 12 hymns from the Shaker archives, creating a extra modern rating for the quasi-musical, which additionally options three authentic songs carried out by Amanda Seyfried, who stars as Lee.

Under, Fastvold breaks down her analysis course of, helps separate reality from fiction, and explains how she infused the movie with a lot historic element regardless of a modest price range.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did you start your analysis into Ann Lee and the Shakers?

MONA FASTVOLD: There aren't loads of books written about Mom Ann Lee, and most are out of print. So, I went as much as the Hancock Shaker Village early on, they usually have been type sufficient to let me into their archives and confirmed me quite a bit. And I additionally went to New Lebanon, the place Ann Lee's buried as properly. Then it was simply actually deep diving into the Massachusetts Public Library, the place there’s various details about the Shakers and a few scanned textual content. One factor will lead you to a different, and one particular person will take you to some extra data.

There's loads of data on the market, however there's additionally loads of misinformation, so you actually should go digging. However I really like that. I discover it's so thrilling that a part of the method, which is simply loads of detective work. Then you need to put it apart whenever you begin writing, as a result of it has to turn into its personal being, and it has to turn into a dialog with that story.

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Roughly how lengthy did you spend within the analysis section?

I began once I was engaged on The World to Come (2020), which is ready in the same space in 1856. I used to be working with Jim Shepard and Ron Hansen on that, they usually're so wonderful with historic element. So, I did be taught quite a bit from that course of and from them as properly. However I feel the analysis course of for that movie is what led me to find the Shakers and Ann Lee. So, I began down the rabbit gap on this once I was within the edit for The World to Come.

After which, once I sit down to write down with Brady [Corbet], it's fairly quick as a result of I've spent a lot time researching, and we spent a lot time speaking concerning the movie earlier than. That's how we work. We discuss and discuss and discuss concerning the story and what it means and what we wanna say and what it’s to us. And it's simply this lengthy dialog for sometimes years earlier than we sit down and write. So then whenever you're writing, you're executing, and it's fairly quick. Then you definitely simply really feel obsessed as a result of I can't sleep till it's carried out.

Throughout your analysis, was there something you discovered about Ann and her story that you just needed to incorporate however weren’t capable of match into the movie?

Sure. There are numerous issues I couldn't embody. I imply, it's a lifetime, and it's two hours and 20 minutes. She suffered a lot extra brutality than what I included within the movie, and the movie's previous moments are fairly brutal.

She was attacked by violent mobs time and again. After she died, they realized that there have been fractures in her cranium from all the assorted beatings that she obtained. So it's heartbreaking and horrible, however actually, that stage of brutality that she and the opposite Shakers skilled, if I have been to incorporate all of that, it might be a narrative solely about that. And I feel the story had much more to supply.

How a lot of the film would you say is historic reality versus what you wanted to fill in between the traces along with your creativeness?

It’s attention-grabbing, so lots of the scenes are primarily based on or impressed by anecdotes and issues advised about her. That is additionally why we now have this type of unreliable narrator who says, "It may have occurred this fashion, or it may have occurred that method." But it surely did occur a method or one other, and this was the consequence. She was illiterate; she by no means wrote something down. There are issues we find out about her. We all know when she was born, we all know the place she was born, we all know she was married, we all know she was the daughter of a blacksmith; these are primarily based on data. We all know she misplaced these youngsters. We all know that she immigrated to America and based this group.

There are issues she supposedly mentioned and did; some are from first-person accounts, and a few are from third-, fourth-, and fifth-person accounts. So, what’s the story of somebody's life? Even should you're writing your personal biography, you don’t bear in mind what you had for breakfast the primary Tuesday of the month of the 12 months you turned 8, you recognize? You're saying roughly, I feel that is what occurred. And typically you misremember the previous as properly.

So I don't know. I imply, there are books and issues you could possibly learn to fact-check, however it's additionally a narrative that incorporates miracles and extraordinary issues, they usually're introduced as fact by these narrators. So I don't know should you belief them or not. We've been as truthful as we may about what we've discovered concerning the story.

I learn that you just primarily based the dancing sequences on drawings made on the time. Have been there additionally written accounts that described what it appeared like? [See an exclusive clip of one of the dancing sequences above.]

Oh, sure. There are these drawings I needed to recreate in direction of the very finish of the movie, of spiral actions, however there's loads of writing concerning the actions, right down to particular gestures. There's a phenomenal second of their testomony that describes Brother Hocknell and different believers placing their palms up and supporting this large invisible object and saying, "That is our altar of affection. We will construct upon this altar."

That second of worship within the woods is described fantastically of their texts: the Shakers dancing and transferring and shaking, throwing themselves to the bottom, hitting their our bodies, scratching, making wild sounds. That's described by individuals who have been very annoyed with them in courtroom transcripts, and that’s additionally described of their textual content, however another way, as one thing joyful and great. They might say, "After which we’d sing and dance for days," you recognize? So it's impressed by these varied accounts.

Talking of individuals being aggravated with them, I really like the sequence on the ship to America when their singing and dancing begins to grate on the opposite passengers. However by the top, the Shakers’ resolve and religion within the face of such hardship earn their respect.

It's such a beautiful anecdote from their testomony. It's described there very briefly, however I discovered one other account of the captain that apparently additionally mentioned they have been instrumental in bringing the ship safely to America.

However creating that sequence was extremely troublesome. I couldn't construct a ship, clearly. I couldn't afford that in our price range. We needed to discover a actual tall ship. It's very exhausting to discover a tall ship that's traditionally correct. There are only a few of them on this planet, they usually all go on a joint regatta within the summers, which was after we have been taking pictures. Apparently, that's when all of the tall ships go on a visit collectively. [Laughs]

So we have been trying to find this one ship all around the world, and eventually we discovered one in Sweden, in order that's the place we needed to go and shoot, and fortunately they have been type sufficient to allow us to shoot on it. It's virtually like a museum now. It's a fantastically handcrafted piece of artwork, this ship with these unbelievable hand-stitched sails. However there have been solely so many angles you could possibly shoot it as a result of it needed to keep docked, as a result of we couldn't afford one other ship following our ship.

How did you make all of it work?

We needed to put the whole lot on the dock, like our rain towers and snow and the whole lot, and fortunately, I discovered these specialists who have been keen to come back and put up the sails for us, in order that might be in our background. And we mixed that with one other smaller interval ship that we may take out to the open sea and produce our solid out, which was additionally very exhausting as a result of the ocean was fairly tough. Everybody was getting very ailing.

After which we constructed this small, tiny little inside set in Hungary that we may utterly flood. However then, as a result of we couldn't construct a ship, it wasn't transferring the way in which the ocean was. So each single performer needed to mimic the motion of the ocean to my rely of left, proper, left, till we ended, after which the digicam would counter that motion. So it's a mix of those stunning sequences shot on this unbelievable actual ship, however there's additionally a person standing off to the aspect, throwing buckets of water at my solid. [Laughs]

I additionally needed to ask you about Ann’s brother, William (performed by Lewis Pullman), who’s queer within the movie. What did you discover in your analysis that led you to painting him that method?

There are issues about William that I didn't embody within the story. The true William left his spouse and youngsters when he joined the faith. And we all know that he had very lengthy hair and that he was very elegant and beloved stunning [things]. It was an actual sacrifice for him to surrender all these stunning objects, apparently.

We all know they have been extremely shut, and that was actually the guts of the story for me: this sibling relationship and the love that they had for one another. At the moment, this was pre-Victorian, so there weren't these labels about sexuality. There was a bit extra freedom round sexuality and fewer stigma. In my interpretation of the previous, there have been much less labels, and there was much less disgrace linked to something that was not regular, cis-relationships.

However on the similar time, there was no place for that in society in any respect. So I assumed that the Shaker group, with the celibacy and the totally different interpretations of issues that they provided by way of gender roles and the way to stay collectively, I assumed that it should have attracted loads of queer individuals who wanted a spot to be secure and never be in a straight relationship. So regardless that celibacy just isn’t a terrific resolution to that, I feel it should have carried out that a lot. So I needed to symbolize that.

I additionally preferred representing his relationship as mild and ethereal and delightful as a result of, particularly in interval items, there's all the time a lot disgrace and guilt of their tales. I needed there to be much less of that.

This interview has been edited for readability and size.

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