SXSW 2023: The Cast and Director of Hail Mary Talk About the Importance of Chosen Family, Giving a Voice to the Voiceless, and More

Prolific director Rosemary Rodriguez and stars Natalia del Riego, Angela Sarafyan, and Benny Emmanuel were at this year’s SXSW for the world premiere of their emotionally-poignant feature Hail Mary.

Hail Mary is a genre-bending retelling of the Mary and Joseph story that begs the question – who are the real monsters? Maria (Natalia del Riego), a seventeen-year-old girl from Belize finds herself mysteriously pregnant. We find her walking, following the north star to safety across the US/Mexican border. She’s escaping a deadly virus and being chased by the right-hand man of the devil – Baal (Jack Huston). She meets Jose (Benny Emmanuel), a mediocre carpenter who helped build a tunnel under the Rio Grande. They join forces with Gabrielle (Angela Sarafyan) and face off against Baal, the cartels, and US Border Patrol. This subversive monster movie might find unexpected fans cheering for an undocumented migrant making it safely across the border.

This ensemble-driven piece is led by the incredible Natalia del Riego who is making her debut as a lead in a major feature film, taking audiences on a journey of resilience, perseverance, and grit as a soon-to-be mother who risks it all to provide a better life for her unborn child. Natalia’s performance is one to marvel at as she paints a canvas on the screen with the many different shades and colors of her character. She’s supported by the extraordinary Angela Sarafyan and Benny Emmanuel who bring so much nuance and depth to Gabrielle (the Angel Gabriel) and Jose. Angela masterfully encompasses the grace and groundedness necessary to play a spiritual guide who is there to help Maria on her quest. While Benny’s vulnerability stands out as he plays a young man who for the first time has the opportunity to show the world (and himself) that he’s more than what society expects of him.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with director Rosemary Rodriguez and stars Natalia del Riego, Angela Sarafyan, and Benny Emmanuel about Hail Mary, the importance of chosen family, and giving a voice to the voiceless!

PC: Natalia, you have such a deep connection to this story because your father immigrated here to the States on foot. How much did you use him as a resource and channel his experiences into your own performance, especially during those more vulnerable moments? Did it bring a different sense of responsibility just given how close to home it hit?
Natalia: I love that question. Thank you for asking that. It makes me emotional. My dad did come here on foot. He fled the war. Our journey was very, very difficult. We didn’t have car insurance. We didn’t have health insurance. I relied on nonprofits and Planned Parenthood. It costs a lot to dream big. I connect with Maria in a lot of ways because she also comes from nothing. Sometimes when you come from nothing or you’re poor, it takes a lot of work to believe that you can be more and you can do more.

I love that the film shows that poverty isn’t pretty. I don’t think we tried to portray her in a way that glamorizes anything. She’s somebody that you might not think something of. I have absolutely felt that way in my life, so I loved really getting to tap into that and seeing this girl rise above from where she started. That’s what resonated with me the most. I drew from everything.

PC: Rosemary, this script requires so much vulnerability from the cast. As a director, how did you create the space for them to dive into that?
Rosemary: I’m a very collaborative spirit. If an actor’s open to it, Karina Miller (producer) and I can create that environment. We allow the space to just be. Nobody’s yelling, screaming, or controlling. We create an environment where anything goes. You can have conversations. You can feel like nobody is going to judge or criticize you. I like to think that’s why it ends up being more relaxed and fun, because we bring whatever. Then when they’re open, the actors bring what they bring, and I watch that first. I don’t come in with a notion. Then, I see where we can go in and do this and that and we pick out the little moments together.

PC: This project defies genres. There’s drama, comedy, and fantasy. Angela, you brought so much depth to your character. How were you able to keep her grounded when you’re playing an angel? Was that something that you were mindful of?
Angela: Thank you for your kind words. I love what Rosemary just said. It was quite collaborative. We just did another interview where Rosemary said that when you read the script, it turns everything upside down. I think we did that. So many times in this movie, we break stereotypes. We cast a story that has a woman that is so grounded and real, yet the movie is quite joyous. It was a lot of fun. You will sit down, and you’ll watch it from beginning to end and not want to blink an eye. You don’t want to look away; you’re in it. We were so grounded in the work that we were doing. There’s truth to it. There’s humor to it.

I kept thinking if you’re an angel that’s lived on the earth for so many millennia, what do you have? You have the wisdom to understand what matters most to humanity, which is love. Love is timeless. Love gives you strength. With love, you can overcome anything. People think money buys everything. Money’s wonderful, but love makes everything possible. It makes Maria believe there’s hope.

Rosemary said it gave her hope working with someone who’s a first-time lead (Natalia). When you think about life, there are so many existential things here. Love is the throughline. Love is the throughline meeting Karina and going, “I love this human. I want to create something with her.” Then, meeting Rosemary, Natalia, and Benny—it became a dream come true. It was a beautiful experience for me.

PC: Benny, Jose has such a transformative journey throughout this film. He brings a lot of fun and levity into this high-stakes world and risks everything for Maria. You brought so much nuance to that. How did you prepare to tackle that journey?
Benny: Jose’s a carpenter. He’s a bad carpenter, but he wants to be a good person. He’s been making bad decisions. He helps the drug cartel, but when Maria comes into his life, he realizes that he has the opportunity to change for the first time, and he takes it because Maria needs to cross the border. That’s important for him. He understands that problem, which is one of the most important things about the film.

We tackle themes of immigration. We live this journey with the characters. We face the problems that many people face every single day trying to get a better life. It’s important for him to take that opportunity because for the first time, he feels like he can do something good.

PC: The sense of community within this film, especially between the three characters, is a beautiful reminder that we all need people. Who were the people in your own life who shaped the storyteller that you are and have been on this journey?
Angela: For me, it’s my mom and brother. They’re the closest thing I’ve had to mentors. I’ve had so many incredible people that I look up to.

Natalia: My dad. For children that come from broken families, what’s been a big thing for me is finding a chosen family because we’re not all lucky enough to be born into families that love, respect, and support us. I’ve had my dad. I was estranged from my mom for ten years.

One of my mentors has been Rosemary. When we met, we talked about coming from our broken families and being connected with the idea of finding a family outside of blood. It doesn’t always have to be blood. Karina Miller has been so open and supportive with this being my first film and me being able to ask her questions.

Benny: My mom. Every single day, she teaches me what to do. She’s been through so much since she was a kid, but she has so much resilience. It’s amazing. She taught me to approach life with resiliency.

Rosemary: I think that my life experience is one where there hasn’t been a mentor. There have been people that I’ve respected along the way, but the journey is about finding and relying on your inner strength, your voice, and feeling worthy of having a life. The grace that can come if you’re able to embrace that worthiness is really something. You can call it love, nature, the universe, God, or whatever you want to call it. That’s been my driving force more than anything because I haven’t necessarily had that guiding person. Things were happening as we put this movie together, and I could see the things that the universe was doing. That’s what I used to keep going because it does feel good when I can observe it, and I feel more powerful. I keep trying to go towards that.

PC: Rosemary, you shared on social media how valuable this experience has been and the collaboration with the cast in front of and behind the camera. How were you able to build that bond during a pandemic?
Rosemary: It started with Karina and me. I was at a place, like a lot of the world, where you’re shut off. You’re at home. You’re not running out to eat even. If you’re not working, you’re not running out anywhere because everything’s closed. You’re still for the first time in ages. You’re stepping back in your life and you’re like, “Who do I want here?” Because all of a sudden, you have a fear of people, society, and all this stuff. It comes down to that I just wanted to be around people that I care about. I love working. The most precious thing for me is being a director. Being a wife is important, too, [laugh], but being a director is amazing.

That journey of how do I get on set with people that I love and that I want to work with is where it starts. That was the gift of the pandemic in a way. This movie came from that thinking, and I think Karina felt the same way. We just wanted to work with people that we wanted to be around. Then again, the universe bought all the right people and crew to us. The Mexican crews are the most hardworking, most beautiful, and magical people on the planet. To be able to do that gave me hope of what you can create with people that you love. We’re still in touch. I have friends on that crew who are very special to me.

PC: Natalia and Angela, in addition to the incredible work that you’ve done on screen, you both have a strong affinity for the filmmaking process. While the industry has made really slow progress in terms of representation and opportunities, what was it like getting to collaborate with Rosemary, who’s very much paved the way for female filmmakers? What did you learn from her?
Natalia: I can speak from my experience of being the first in my family to come on my own. I didn’t have a financial safety net. It means a lot when you’re coming here with a big dream, and you don’t necessarily have a family supporting you. Whenever I talk about my chosen family, there are so many bits and pieces that build a successful career that are separate from anything about acting. There’s the mental: Are you depressed? You have ADHD, can you afford healthcare? Can you afford car insurance? What is your home life like? If you don’t have that, you need extra grit and resilience to get you through to the other end.

I learned from Rosemary to believe in myself. She had to be the person who believed in herself because she didn’t always have someone there. When you don’t have that, you need extra belief in yourself because you’re not getting it anywhere else. Rosemary has been a mentor, yes, as an actress, but also as a person. I’ve been able to grow into my own and believe in myself. The same with Karina Miller being a woman producer who saw something in me that people maybe didn’t see before. That’s what we’re trying to send the ladder back down to. It’s for broken families. It’s for people who can’t afford car or health insurance. They’re the ones who need affirmative action and people believing in them and bringing them up and giving them changes. That’s what I love about Hail Mary, and I’m excited for the world to see it.

Angela: That’s beautiful. Fortunately, I don’t come from a broken family. I’ve had support from my mother and brother. I’ve lost people I love, like my grandmother and my father, at a very young age. I was nineteen when my dad died. My life started over and I didn’t need anything, actually. What I had in my home was love. We lived in a two-bedroom apartment, and I slept on the couch most of my life, but I was happy because I had them. But that didn’t mean that I was floating because the minute my dad died, I was without a compass. I was like Ophelia and didn’t know which way to go, what to do, and who I was in the world, but what I learned throughout the process is to listen to my gut and instinct.

I search and I seek people. My initial meeting with Rosemary, I was like, “I just want to work with good people. I want to have kindness because the world can be so harsh. We have to fight. We have to be resilient.” Rosemary championed that. She really wanted me, which was a first for me in a lot of ways because we as actors, we’re always auditioning. To be cast from a picture from the work that I had done meant the world to me. Now, I consider everyone my family.

Rosemary leads with love and kindness. I’ve never been on a set where there’s this excitement, and it’s so collaborative. She would listen to my ideas that I had where I was like, “Maybe it’s about love. Maybe that’s what Gabrielle brings.” It was so cool that I had that voice with her and that collaboration. It was so humbling, and I felt so honored.

PC: One of the beautiful things about this film is that each audience member will take something different away because the film touches on so many universal themes. For each of you, was there one in particular that hit home?
Benny: Immigration was one of the most important ones. I also want to say that we couldn’t have had a better captain for this ship. The same with Karina. I wanted to take the opportunity to play a different role and to act in another language and challenge myself, but it was hard. But we were able to do it.

Angela: What was so cool about this process was that Rosemary was leading the film and we were able to also help elevate it. It became this incredible adventure, unpredictable, fun, deep film. I love that. I like that it turns everything upside down from what reality is. I think stories have the ability to heal, inspire, and remind us that we’re not alone. This movie does that. I think it’s something we can all relate to.

Rosemary: There isn’t really one theme for me. It’s a story about an underdog. The two other movies that I’ve made have given a voice to people that don’t have a voice. The first movie was about homeless people. The second was about senior citizens. Now, this movie is about Latinos. I’m a movie lover. I love to be entertained. I’m just like everyone else that went through the pandemic. I want things to wash over me. I want to have fun. I don’t want to be bogged down with more darkness. This script was an opportunity to have fun but also give a voice to people who need to be heard and seen. They need to be seen and acknowledged, and we need to see more of that. We get to show that this is what happens to people. The scene at the border is very documentary-style in the way that we shot it. You want to feel that.

Natalia: I want to say that I hope that people who may have felt like nothing or come from nothing and are carrying a lot of burden and trauma see that they can get through it. I want them to see that in Maria’s story and be like, “I too can do that.”

Make sure to follow Natalia (Instagram), Angela (Twitter/Instagram), Benny (Twitter/Instagram), and Rosemary (Instagram).