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Transcript

[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]

Diving deep into these stories has strengthened my testimony. The opportunity to see these characters come to life as Lehi and Nephi and Sariah and the brothers--it's just an amazing thing. Every day there is a spiritual experience on set. Can you say the [INAUDIBLE]? [GENTLE MUSIC]

This does not replace reading the Book of Mormon. But this helps to just bring to life some of those thoughts and feelings and interpersonal relationships between Nephi and Lehi and Laman and Lemuel and Sam and Sariah. All right. OK. So you approach.

The whole thing has been incredible. And the most fun, I think, is just working with the people here. As the audience sits down to watch some of these stories, I hope they experience the humanity that is in these characters. They were real people. Because of our brother's strength and the Lord's curse upon us, we are without food. [GENTLE MUSIC] How?

Where shall we go for food now, great leader?

I've really gained more of an insight into the dynamics within this family and what they must have endured. And I think a lot of contemporary families will relate to the family members on different and diverging faith journeys. These stories will speak very strongly to that. Jackie Newell is our costume designer. One thing that I love that she's been able to do is figure out not just how the costumes look on day one, but how to really make them evolve through the journey that Lehi and his family take. We want to get the viewer as close to reality as possible. And if they had been out in the wilderness for eight years and they come out in brand-new, clean clothes that aren't torn and ripped, it says, "This is a movie. You're watching a movie."

For right now, I'm dipping everything in tea, first of all. I dip sometimes just the hems in a different, like a darker brown dye so it looks like it's been walked on for a very long time. We have really talented professionals who are consecrating their efforts and their time and their talents, really, to bringing this story to life. Before you can have a story, you've got to have a stage. This area of Utah, in the middle of Utah, is very similar to the Holy Land. [GENTLE MUSIC]

It's been outrageously hot some days. But yes, it's very realistic. It's been long days. We've been out in the desert. It's been 100 degrees. The last couple days and tomorrow are incredible. They're overwhelmingly incredible. I mean, you can see behind me just how many people and machines and wires and--

Well, I walked on set, and I felt, I'm like, "Oh, my gosh. Like, this is a movie, you know? This is real, and we're making a movie." I keep yelling it to everyone. Laman, Lemuel! Stop, please! [YELLING]

Interacting with one another where you--you realize, like, "Wow. These people were real." I've had this text my entire life. And there are parts of that now that I can never read again without feeling just an outpouring of empathy of what they experienced. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]

Women are such a huge part of the story of the Book of Mormon. Coming up from that side, you'll be towards that end. We're filming this upstairs. It's upstairs. We really wanted to make sure that the females came across as very strong and very confident and very--"If you're going to kill Nephi, you're going to go through us first."

Do not do this. Laman, stop, please! I beg of you, no more. He is your brother. And they had real lives and real concerns and fears. And also Nephi, you know. He's this guy that we hold up here. He's this strong and stalwart and always faithful, but he was just a kid. You know, he's a teenager. Our Nephi is 17 years old. So a project this big takes so many moving parts. We have six different directors, and we have an incredible crew.

He pushes you [INAUDIBLE]. All the directors here were just such amazing people. They would come in and have this idea. And it would just open up a whole new light for me. And then we'd talk it out and say, "OK. Well, I love that. Now, how can we make a path from what I did in the last scene to this scene and have it flow?" So it was really an educational experience for me to see just how much more you can learn from different people.

I hope that it causes people who haven't read the Book of Mormon to, obviously, read it. I hope that they just feel the spirit of what actually happened. [PENSIVE MUSIC]

You were right on the money. I'm just going to get those focused in and then-- I just felt that everybody is trying to give 100 percent. So, possibly yes.

Tiny things have happened, I would say, hourly. It's just been such a spiritual experience. We built Lehi's house. I saw the drawings; I saw the model; I saw it being built. I know they're actors. I know it's a movie. Nobody knows this more than me. But yet I feel myself, you know, being overcome by what it represents, you know? [GENTLE MUSIC] It's truly an opportunity that I didn't want to pass up and I'm not going to pass up. Well, the Book of Mormon is something that I've grown up with my whole life, from a young child reading with my parents and my family every day since the day I was born, pretty much. And so to see it come to life in a film project is really a special experience for me. This has never been done before. This is new. They can read it, and now they can see pieces of it. And I can't put any price on how precious and important that is to me.

[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]

Book of Mormon Videos, Behind the Scenes: 1 Nephi

Description
A behind-the-scenes look at the film production of the episodes of the Book of Mormon videos associated with 1 Nephi.
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