DATE: Thursday, September 11, 1997          TAG: 9709110086

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Larry Bonko 
                                            LENGTH:  101 lines

PLAYING MOTHER TERESA IN FILM FOR FAM HAS CHANGED CHAPLIN

LONG BEFORE Mother Teresa took her last breath in Calcutta six days ago, the Virginia Beach-based Family Channel and Hallmark Entertainment came together to produce a film about the early life of the nun who labored among the poorest of the poor.

``Mother Teresa: In the Name of God's Poor,'' in which Geraldine Chaplin plays the title role with much fire and a dash of humor, premieres Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. on The Family Channel. The date was set weeks before Mother Teresa died and will not be advanced, said John Michaeli from the Family Channel's Los Angeles office.

To show respect for the nun many have called a living saint, FAM will stop running on-air promotions for the film, which was shot in Sri Lanka earlier this year. ``Mother Teresa: In the Name of God's Poor'' was completed in time for her to see it, but she never watched a frame, Michaeli said.

However, Mother Teresa did read the script, said Tony Thomopoulos, who is the Family Channel's chief programmer. If she didn't like what she read, Mother Teresa asked for revisions.

``She was involved to the point that if we made changes in dialogue or altered a scene or whatever, the changes had to be cleared with her. We had to go back to her for approval. The characters are portrayed as she wanted them portrayed,'' Thomopoulos said.

One of those characters is a journalist, played by William Katt, who first brings Mother Teresa's story to the world press.

The FAM film, in one haunting scene, shows why Mother Teresa gave up a teaching position at the comfortable upper-class St. Mary's School in Calcutta to live and work in the miserable slums. As she boards a train that will take her on a retreat, the nun born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu sees a beggar reaching out to her.

It is not the man in rags she hears.

``God speaks through the voice of the sick beggar. He wants me to help the poorest of the poor,'' she says.

From that point, director Kevin Connor's film shows how she bucked the church hierarchy, bullish bureaucrats and Hindus who wanted ``this troublesome European white woman'' expelled from their midst. They were sure she had been sent to steal their souls.

It's a daunting role. How did Chaplin play a woman whose life and image is known to millions?

``I saw her as an incredibly stubborn woman. Tenacious. A rebel and a fighter,'' Chaplin said. ``In one scene, she threatens to break into a rage. I wish that I could have met her.''

Because Chaplin never had a face-to-face meeting with Mother Teresa, she got to know her by studying images on film.

Chaplin is much taller than the tiny woman she plays, her face narrower, the fingers she brings together in prayer long and thin. Because it was impossible to present a mirror image of Mother Teresa on the TV screen, Chaplin did the next best thing.

She strove to bring out the essence of the woman, adding an accent that made ``work'' come out sounding like ``vork'' and copying her walk, mannerisms, nervous energy. Mother Teresa was forever sweeping, cleaning, washing - forever in motion.

Chaplin learned to move as fast as the young Mother Teresa in long sari and sandals.

She is fine in this role. A fine performance, indeed. Her famous father, Charlie Chaplin, would have been proud.

``Everything fell into place,'' Chaplin said of the film, which is likely to be among the Family Channel's last projects now that wheels are turning to bring children's programming to FAM around the clock.

There's a brief, light moment in which Chaplin as yet-to-be Mother Teresa selects the blue and white sari she was to wear for almost 50 years with the Missionaries of Charity. That moment in the cloth shop came after the Vatican recognized her new order.

The shopkeeper sells hard, saying: ``This cloth is pure silk. It has threads of gold.''

She isn't interested. ``I want a cheap cotton sari,'' she says.

The sister insisted. Cheap cotton it was.

That blue and white sari is similar to what the sisters in her order wear today all over the world as they tend to the poor, the sick, the dying, refugees and whoever else needs their help. Mother Teresa will be buried in that habit Saturday.

This role has changed her life, said Chaplin, who lives in Madrid. ``It's a city of homeless, a city of some misery,'' she said. ``Once, I walked past the homeless and pretended they do not exist. Since I made this film, I stop and talk to everyone who lives on the streets.

``I learned goodness from Mother Teresa. I hope all who see the film will learn it, too. Goodness is disappearing from our lives.''

Chaplin did not seek the role. In fact, she didn't believe her agent when he told her that producer Robert Halmi Sr. wanted her for ``Mother Teresa: In the Name of God's Poor.''

``Robert told me that he regarded Geraldine as the only person who could play this part,'' Thomopoulos said when he introduced Chaplin to TV writers in Los Angeles not long ago.

Chaplin impressed the locals in Sri Lanka as she impressed her producer and director. During filming, the Sri Lankans assumed that she was one of Mother Teresa's own and that the hospital set was a working medical center.

``They thought it was real,'' Chaplin said. It was the actress's supreme compliment.

When the film wrapped, Halmi made a donation to Mother Teresa's missions, Thomopoulos said. It was huge, he said. The FAM film shows there was a time when Mother Teresa would have been grateful for a few rupees to buy bandages. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo The Family Channel

Geraldine Chaplin...

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu