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Last Sunday, CBS premiered “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler,” a true story about the Catholic woman who saved over 2,000 Jewish children during WWII.

Academy Award-winning actress Anna Paquin stars in the titular role, and recently sat down with Catholic Digest to talk about the film. I must admit I’m a big Anna Paquin fan and have been for years.

Some snippets:

You’ve said that doing this film made you feel part of something important. Would you share a little more about that?

I think that telling any story that’s such an important part of history and that is so sad and painful for so many people, and telling a story of someone who was trying to make a difference and did… that’s a really amazing thing to be able to be part of. [Irena] was a very, very incredible, strong, and sort of anonymous figure from that time. It’s kind of amazing to think about how many people like that have just gone unnoticed, and to get to be a part of telling those sorts of stories is really important.

 

How do you think Irena’s Catholic faith influenced her actions, and how did that factor into your interpretation of the role?

She was raised a Catholic, but what she was doing was probably more, I would say, derivative of the basic values of a belief system rather than (from her) being a very religious person herself. She was doing what she believed was the right thing, which was to be helping in any way she could and to be putting herself out there and on the line. 

Sometimes people encountering heroic stories like Irena’s tend to ask themselves, What would I have done? Would I have been as brave? Did you ever find yourself asking those kinds of questions?

Other people have asked me probably more than I’ve asked myself. (laughing) I was more worried about not offending her memory by trying to be as true to her as I could be without ever having met her. I would hope I would be as strong as her, but I hopefully will never have to know.

How did preparing for the role and then being part of the production affect your own life? 

We were in Latvia for two months and it was winter and it was really cold. We worked six days a week and it was pretty grim. The subject matter that you’re dealing with, it’s hard to shake it off at the end of the night. Really all I was doing was preparing for the next day and trying to sleep.

In one interview on the Hallmark site you mentioned something she had said — that she was scared about what she was doing but that she was more angry about what was going on, and that that helped her.

Yeah, her anger sort of helped her overcome her fear. Anyone caught or found out or suspected to be helping in any way in the Jewish community would be killed. There was no middle ground. You’d have to be a pretty determined and strong person to really not care that that was the situation you’re putting yourself in because the situation of the people you’re trying to help was so much worse.

  You can read the rest of Anna’s interview here.