Father James Martin, SJ, the editor of America magazine, has discussed his role as consultant to Martin Scorsese’s film Silence, which portrays the work of Jesuit missionaries in Japan under persecution during the 17th century.Father Martin said that Scorsese and Jay Cocks, who coauthored the screenplay, sought him out in 2014 to learn more about the Jesuits and that the two were “very open to my suggestions” when the script needed to be corrected.
Father Martin added that agnostic actor Andrew Garfield, who plays a Jesuit priest, decided to undertake St. Ignatius’ spiritual exercises, and “at the end he had a personal relationship with Jesus,” according to a L’Osservatore Romano report.