Carol Mendelsohn, a TV maven know for her work on “CSI,” thinks that the new Fox show, “The Faithful: Women of the Bible,” may just exist because of the spirit of her great-grandfather, a Canadian rabbi whom she never met.
It was his voice she was channeling when, despite her producing partner Julie Weitz’s prior objections, she decided to mention their dream show — a TV drama about the biblical matriarchs — to the President of Fox in a meeting.
Weitz, who was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home in Los Angeles, “kicked me under the proverbial table,” Mendelsohn recalls in an interview with Kveller.
She thought the show would be a non-starter, but as it turns out, it’s been nothing but a dream to make — everyone, from writers to actors to DPs, were completely enchanted by the project, which premiered on Fox on March 22 and stars Minnie Driver as Sarah, the first biblical matriarch, a fiercely opinionated woman devoted to her husband while struggling with infertility.
“The Faithful: Women of the Bible” is a three-part biblical TV “event” that explores the lives of Sarah and her handmaid, Hagar; Rebecca, Isaac’s wife, and her relationship with her sons; and the complex relationship of sisters Rachel and Leah, the wives of Jacob.
It brings deeply felt performances from Driver and the rest of the cast. It’s a historical and biblical drama with a fantasy feel that at times harkens the melodrama and dark magic of “Game of Thrones.” And unlike so many recent shows and movies about the bible, from “House of David” to “Testament: The Story of Moses,” its beating heart is the stories of women.
Weitz and Mendelsohn talked to Kveller about how this show came to be, their approach to recreating biblical times, and who they’re hoping to portray in upcoming seasons.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What made you want to tell the stories of the biblical matriarchs? What place did these women have in your lives?
Weitz: I was raised [Orthodox] in Los Angeles. I grew up with these women through my education. This was the beginning of all of our learning. Personally, it was a dream to be able to bring this to life, to do this as a real drama, to dimension-alize them and make them relatable, real people.
Mendelsohn: I grew up in Chicago and attended a very Reform temple, and I didn’t know much about them — we didn’t have Bible studies. The truth is, before I even knew Julie, I was influenced by Julie because she ran Turner TNT, and they did a series about the women…
Weitz: Not the women, the men — the Moses and the Abrahams.
Mendelsohn: Julie really introduced me to the Bible stories. And I love them, and always regretted that I really didn’t read them when I was younger. So many men are named in the [Hebrew] Bible by name, around 1,700, and I think 93 to 137 women are given a name in the Bible. Things like that, now that I’m much older, fascinate me. Who are these women? As a woman, I lean in because I want to know about these women. I want to know about Sarah. I want to know about Hagar, who I’d never really heard of before we started the project. And Rebecca and Leah and Rachel.
When working on a series like this, there’s a lot to consider: real history, the biblical stories and, obviously, making good TV. How do you balance all these things?
Weitz: We have kind of an adage on how we approach this, which is, “If it’s written in the Torah, we keep to it.” Yes, there are spaces. If there is not information, we give ourselves some room to invent. But thematically, all of this was already there.
I don’t want to get too personal for Carol, but [while] Carol came from a Jewish family, Buddhism is a passion for her. I came from a very Orthodox family. My people were survivors, and [showrunner] René [Echevarria] came from a Cuban Catholic background, and then became Christian in both the intellectual practice as well as the faith practice. So the three of us were the sounding board. We had all these boxes we had to check off, right? And we invited a lot more people into the tent, experts, to keep us on track. So we had Jewish experts, we had Christian experts.
Then, the writers sit around and they talk about what the story needs. It has to be a good story. It has to have meat, and it has to have incident, has to have sacrifice, to have all that good juicy stuff that people want to see.
Each of these women had themes and journeys. Sarah’s was from faithless to faithful, and Hagar’s was a journey of freedom. Rebecca’s journey is about her family, her destiny and how they came crashing. And Leah and Rachel are about sisters who adore each other and become rivals. So each of these had this human roadmap. And that’s what became really intriguing to the writers.
I love the choice of lifting Hagar — Sarah’s handmaid and the mother of Ismail — to the status of the matriarchs. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Weitz: The show is not just about intimate stories, but also the grander story — where are we going to go in the future? How does this giant family tree evolve?
Not only are [Sarah and Hagar] attached because of what happened to them, but they also are attached because they’re the beginning of the bigger story of Judaism, the story of Christianity, the story of Islam. We didn’t want to become political; we wanted to be balanced, but you cannot start at the beginning without starting with these two women.
Minnie Driver is really stunning as Sarah. How was casting approached for this project?
Mendelson: Everyone knows Minnie Driver, and when the name came up, everyone just got on board — and then we had to get Minnie on board. She is an incredible actor, so smart. Just to watch her do her work and become Sarah, she’s a very giving actor, and her relationship with Jeffrey Donovan’s Abram/Abraham — it was just beautiful.
How did you approach recreating biblical times on screen?
Weitz: René was a great match for us; he’s a world builder. He started on “Star Trek” — what he’s drawn to is world-building and creating an environment that you think you know, but you don’t really know. What is the world that they were living in at the time? What was the magic in the world that they were living in at that time — a balance of history and fantasy.
The woman that did all of our set design had been an architect, and her sister was an archaeologist, and she leaned heavily on her.
Shooting in Rome offered us an incredible opportunity, because you’re next to the ancient world. So you were constantly reminded of ancient culture and the way people had to exist. It’s a modern city, but it was also a character; we were rarely on a sound stage. We were mostly in remote locations. So it really added to the reality of what we were building.
When the actors come to the set and put on their costumes and their makeup and their hair, and then walk out to Haran — this little Bedouin village that we built — they are instantly [transported]. And the animals…
Mendelson: Camels! I’d never touched a camel before.
Are there any other women whose specific stories touched you that you’re hoping to focus on in future seasons?
Weitz: All three of us agree wholeheartedly on a handful of names. Obviously, Esther, Deborah. There’s the fantastic story of Rahab, not a Jewish woman, except she converted. It’s the story of the invisible woman, who’s a prostitute in a tyrannical city, who finds her mojo. I mean, this is a woman who has no love for the powers that be, who are dictating people’s lives and throwing people out of a city and walling that city up. We see it as a biblical “Casablanca.” Her little inn is Rick’s Cafe, and she’s Humphrey Bogart.
We’re pushing pretty hard on Esther. We also love the women surrounding Moses. We love Miriam and Zipporah.
What do you want people to take away from this show?
Weitz: We just hope that this entertains people. We hope that who wants to watch a show like this and engage with a show like this is a broad audience. We don’t want to step on any toes for the faithful, either Christians, Jews or Muslims. But we just think that the stories are so compelling and personal and universal. We just hope we get people who love period dramas, who love women’s stories. We want everybody to come in and experience it, because we think there’s something so universal in what we were able to create.
Mendelson: I hope whole families watch it. They’re wonderful stories to be shared.
“The Faithful” is airing on Fox and streaming on Hulu/Disney+.
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