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As Bowen speaks, Castle-Hughes is sitting sideways on a donkey a couple hundred yards away, a pillow under her clothing to make her look quite pregnant. Isaac, playing Joseph, is leading the donkey down a hill as sheep walk across the path in front of them; an old shepherd looks on.

Bowen watches the scene unfold, and then he breaks into a mischievous grin: "As for me, I get Mary in a headlock every once in a while and tell her not to drink so many Cokes in a day."

Castle-Hughes, who just turned 16 before filming began, might have a thing for Cokes, but she's also got a thing for this role. "She's taking it incredibly seriously," says Rich. "She's quiet, reserved, and mature beyond her years. She's not the type to run off to the mall, like other teenagers."

"At some points," adds Bowen, "she seems like a regular teenager. But at other points, she seems like a mature young woman. The gravity of what she's doing is coming to her more and more every day."

The young Kiwi says she feels the weight of responsibility in playing this role.

Keisha Castle-Hughes plays Mary

"When I got the part, it didn't hit me at first," says Castle-Hughes, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress at age 12 for her role in Whale Rider, one of 2003's best films. "But on the plane over here, I was writing in my diary, and then it hit me: Ohhh! I'm playing Mary!

"The biggest thing, you never think that she was just 14 and carrying a child. She was just a girl, and then the next day, she's a woman and married, and the next she becomes like the mother of the world."

Castle-Hughes, who says she adheres to "no particular religion," says she has received some good tips from her mother about what it's like to carry a child within.

"My mum's 8½ months pregnant right now," she says, "so she's going through exactly what my character is going through. She's giving me great advice." Castle-Hughes, who'd endured 90-plus-degree heat for that day's filming, laughs and adds, "All I know is that after this, I'm never having a child!"

Still, she says she likes "the way the story is told from a human point of view." Her co-star, the 26-year-old Oscar Isaac, agrees.

"In past films," he says, "the story has felt very 'representational'—they were walking icons. For me, it was very important to learn as much as possible about what these people were like and how they lived, so that when we played the parts, the characters would be as authentic as possible."

To capture that authenticity, New Line contracted several workers from Nazareth Village—a tourist attraction ("the Nazareth Jesus knew," according to its website)—to teach the cast how Nazarenes might have lived 2,000 years ago. They were taught how to use certain tools, how to build homes, how to press olives and grapes, how to make bread, how to make cheese, how to milk goats.

"Keisha is one of the very best goat milkers out here," says Bowen with a wink. "I think it's all in the looseness of the wrist."

Castle-Hughes says her friends back home in New Zealand would get a kick out of that, "because I'm not a huge animal fan."

So, she rides a whale in her first film, and rides a donkey—and milks a goat—in this one. Perhaps she might become an animal fan after all.

That is, as long as she doesn't run into any five-foot black snakes.

Keep watching Christianity Today Movies for more coverage of The Nativity Story—including interviews with screenwriter Mike Rich, plus various cast and filmmakers—in the months ahead.

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A Rich Retelling	Printer view
Screenwriter Mike Rich faced a daunting task in bringing Joseph and Mary—and Christ's birth—to cinematic life, but he felt led to do it anyway. The result, The Nativity Story, hits theaters in December.