.....what did you, Prod, think of Maya Morgenstern's portrayal of Mary in The Passion of the Christ? A very human Mary she was, and heartbreaking.
...She was superb. Being Jewish helped her immensely in her stunning portrayal of Mary, the sinless blessed mother of Our Lord. As I understand it, Maya Morgenstern had a seminal creative impact on Gibson and his company in the creation of the Passion of the Christ, e.g., the incredible scene where the Theotokos gathers the Precious Blood of Christ with her hair, while Jesus is imprisoned below. It is a foreshadowing of Mary's role as intercessor for all mankind - "die Vrouwe van aller Volkerung" after the famous Dutch painting of that name. Christians owe massive respect to Maya Morgenstern for all this. I'm sure that Mel does.
I have heard (though I don't know if it's true) that it was Ms. Morgenstern who proposed the line "Why is this night different from all other nights?" near the beginning of the film. The tie-in to the Passover seder is ecclesiastically correct, artistically elegant, and emotionally resonant.
You hear the voices of generations of Jewish children echo the line as she says it...and all those years of remembrance of the past and anticipation of the future are about to come alive.