Hollywood used to love the big biblical epic movie back in the 1950s and 1960s with classics such as “Ben Hur,” “Spartacus” and “The Greatest Story Ever Told.”
Jeymes Samuels, a 34-year-old British musician and producer whose breakthrough film was the 2021 Western “The Harder They Fall,” loved these movies and missed them.
“But even watching those movies, they never resembled the world I grew up in,” said Samuels, during an interview in Atlanta last month at the Four Seasons Hotel. “Bible stories are all about the hood, people from the land of the have nots. I just didn’t know anyone who looked like Charlton Heston or Marlon Brando.”
So Samuels created “The Book of Clarence,” an unusual take on the weeks leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion, featuring an entirely fictional yet complicated character named Clarence. A skeptic of Jesus with a comedic air about him, Clarence is played by Oscar-nominated actor and FX’s “Atlanta” cast member LaKeith Stanfield.
The film, shot in Italy in late 2022, arrives in movie theaters Jan. 12.
Samuels said the film idea had been percolating in his head for many years but only came to fruition when he cast Stanfield on the set of “The Harder They Fall.”
“I knew I had Clarence. He was delivered to me on a golden chariot,” Samuels said. He looked at Stanfield and said, “The movie only became real to me when I found you.”
Stanfield said once he read the script, “it was ride or die. I had a religious upbringing. A lot of the themes in the script were familiar to me. ... Clarence’s story identified directly with me.”
Clarence, to Stanfield, “is a regular guy who happened to be around in the time of Jesus and the apostles. We never hear from the people who were around him and how they looked up to a messiah. I wanted to emulate that and situate a story with Black skin in a story we’re not typically seen in.”
Stanfield said he hopes Clarence’s journey “resonates with people so they can see themselves in him and his brother,” a twin who is an apostle of Jesus, also played by Stanfield. In Clarence, he added, “I hope you want to be better and do better, to bring your family up, find your faith and find your foundation.”
Samuels, while writing the script for “The Book of Clarence,” focused on his own ideas and didn’t worry about what others might think of his take on a classic biblical story, which includes modern-day quips and jokes. “You cannot create truth under scrutiny or judgment,” he said. “You have to eradicate the notion of other eyeballs and stay in your tunnel. It was just a really, really exciting ride from script to screen.”
When he pitched “The Book of Clarence” to studios, all of them said no ― except Legendary Entertainment, which has made films such as “Dune,” “Godzilla vs. Kong” and “BlacKkKlansman.”
Credit: LEGENDA
Credit: LEGENDA
They gave Samuels the budget and creative space to make the film he wanted to make.
“I honestly felt like a spirit was running through me and everyone else on set,” Stanfield said. “This was bigger than us as actors and filmmakers and creators. This was something that God I feel had let us in. We were walking with God the entire time.”
Stanfield returned the favor, lauding Samuels for his boldness and intelligence and as someone who is “as obedient to his crazy.”
Some of the scenes are so wild, they might throw some viewers for a loop. At the same time, Stanfield said, “we would never make a movie to blatantly offend. That’s silly child’s play. We want to sit at the table and have a conversation. I want people to feel inspired. I want them to not just live, but know.”
There is, for instance, a hookah scene where those who smoke literally float into the air. “That scene took a few days,” Stanfield said. “It read to me as normal. When you raise the bar, by understanding the vision, it made perfect sense to me.”
The most revelatory scene for Stanfield was when Clarence attempts to walk on water. “I realize I had to find my balance,” he said. “That wasn’t a camera trick. I had to trust the process. It was not easy getting through that. I didn’t know what was happening beneath me. ... We made one of those most iconic images: a Black man walking on water. It’s beautiful.”
Samuels cast some major A-list stars in smaller roles including Benedict Cumberbatch, Alfre Woodard, James McAvoy and David Oyelowo. “They’re all great artists,” Samuels said. “I believe I’m a great communicator of my art. I’m fortunate to be able to collaborate with people I love.”
Credit: LEGENDARY
Credit: LEGENDARY
The film also took full advantage of Matera, Italy, a stone city that dates back thousands of years and was also the site for Mel Gibson’s 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ.”
“Stone buildings. Horses. Livestock. Beautiful Black skin and robes,” Samuels said. “I’d touch those walls and it felt like a bunch of history surging through me. It felt like a magical environment I knew existed inside of me manifested in front of me. This strangely felt like home.”
MOVIE PREVIEW
“The Book of Clarence”
Starring: LaKeith Stanfield, Omar Sy and Anna Diop. Directed by Jeymes Samuels.
Rated PG-13 for strong violence, drug use, coarse language, some suggestive material and smoking. At metro theaters. 1 hour 46 minutes.
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