London — In the papal thriller “Conclave,” Isabella Rossellini’s character, Sister Agnes, is a woman of few words. When she does speak, during a pivotal moment in Edward Berger’s film, it’s from a place of truth, rather than authority or entitlement. But playing a nearly silent woman in a story filled with men was a daunting proposition for Rossellini. Despite her years of acting experience, she admits to being anxious about stepping onto the set.
“We had three or four days of rehearsal, but I was nervous,” says Rossellini, speaking at the Corinthia Hotel after the London Film Festival premiere of “Conclave” in October. “I thought maybe Sister Agnes would be nervous too, so I used that. I didn’t have to repress it. She’s not part of the brawl with the men. She doesn’t get into the opinion of who should be the next pope. When she does speak, she speaks what she knows and goes back to her vow of being silent and invisible and obedient.”
The film, based on Robert Harris’ 2016 novel, follows Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) as he shepherds the conclave at the Vatican during which the next pope will be selected. There’s a lot of in-fighting and manipulation, with several cardinals vying for the position, including Stanley Tucci’s Cardinal Bellini, Sergio Castellitto’s Cardinal Tedesco and John Lithgow’s Cardinal Tremblay. Sister Agnes runs Casa Santa Marta inside the Vatican, where the cardinals are sequestered during the conclave. It’s an intensely thrilling story, despite the fact that it’s almost completely people speaking inside closed rooms.
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“When I read the script I thought it was very interesting and very intellectual,” Rossellini says. “But the film is not that at all. It is that too, but it’s also entertaining. You’re on the edge of your chair. And it doesn’t feel claustrophobic. Maybe that’s because it’s in the Catholic church and the church is so theatrical.”
Rossellini grew up in Rome in a Catholic family, although she isn’t particularly religious now. In Rome in the 1960s, the Vatican loomed large over the city, its streets intermingling with the secular neighborhoods around it. Rossellini remembers her family mailing letters from the Vatican, rather than Rome, because its mail service was notably faster back then. The Vatican also represented a cosmopolitan sensibility, as evidenced by the diversity of the cast in the film.
“Rome was a big capital but very provincial at the time,” Rossellini says. “The Vatican was where you found bishops and nuns from the Philippines, from South America, from Africa. The universities and the Catholic schools were the ones that offered foreign languages and diversity. You had many different backgrounds, many different races, many different cultures. As a Roman, you always looked at the Vatican as a place of great international meeting.”
Rossellini could draw on that background for the film, inherently knowing how to make the sign of the cross correctly and how to carry herself. She also reflected back on her childhood years in a Catholic school run by nuns, where she saw the independence they had despite the church’s patriarchal nature. It’s a trait you see in her performance as Sister Agnes, who composes herself with a quiet power.
“They were not submissive,” Rossellini says of the nuns. “They had an enormous authority. My mom, Ingrid Bergman, was a very famous actress and had a very full career, which is something that was not usual in Italy. It was unusual for a woman to have a big career. She was very independent. There was something that connected her and the nuns when they spoke to each other. The nuns and my mom really followed their passions and followed what they believed and what they needed. My mom even said, ‘Acting is a calling for me. I didn’t choose acting. Acting chose me.’ And it was the same for the nuns.”
To embody Sister Agnes, Rossellini listened intently, even when she was in the background of a scene. The character’s influence lies in her ability to observe and to be “totally alert” to everything happening around her during the conclave, but not in a submissive way. Sister Agnes chooses to voice her thoughts to the gathered cardinals only as an act of faith, calling out one of the papal candidates with evidence of his misbehavior.
“I don’t think she would have spoken up on any other aspect of the church,” Rossellini says. “But where the pope was going to be elected, she was going to be faithful to her vow. She just wants it all done correctly.”
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On set, Berger enlisted numerous consultants from the Catholic church, who helped with small details, including the characters’ physicality. They taught the cast how to sit and hold themselves, how to move and how to do the rituals, which Rossellini says was essential because the “ritual is the frame that holds the mystery” of the church’s beliefs. She loved her costume, mostly because it was like a large caftan, essential in the intense Roman heat. For Rossellini, now based in New York City, shooting in Rome was oddly exciting, especially the days spent in the famed Cinecittà Studios. While the production couldn’t shoot in the actual Vatican, Rossellini, Tucci and Lithgow visited the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican museums together.
“It was important because through the theatricality of the church, as I’ve said, you understand what they want to say,” she says. “Through their representation in the church and the grandeur of the cathedral and the grandeur of St. Peter’s, it’s extraordinary and humbling. So many lives, so much history, all living the same doubts. And the church reminds you of that: Where do we go after death? The Catholic church tries to celebrate the mystery by embracing you in that.”
Collaborating with Berger on “Conclave” ticked two of the boxes Rossellini looks for in a project: that it’s an interesting role and that she gets to work with talented people. At 72, she notes that she feels lucky to be working at all, although she would certainly welcome more characters like Sister Agnes. She’s not obsessed with the idea of an acting career — “I never heard my parents talk about career,” she says of Bergman and Italian director Roberto Rossellini — but she keeps doing it because it hasn’t ceased to be compelling.
“There are a few things that are interesting in acting,” she says. “It’s like a fantastic tourist trip. To descend into another world that is the Vatican and to discover all this ritual that was very present in my life, but I didn’t know it to the detail that the film reconstructs. It’s also wonderful to work with great talents because you have to understand what they want and it’s interesting to explore their minds. It feeds the brain. That’s what I like about acting and it’s what I liked about going back to university. I want to fulfill my curiosity, and if that brings me to an unexpected adventure into the Catholic church, I’ll do it.”
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