There was one thing Francesca Scorsese wasn’t comfortable with when she directed an episode of her father’s Fox Nation series “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints” about Saint Carlo Acutis.
Acutis, an Italian teenager known for being a devout Catholic and promoting his religion on the Internet, was just 15 years old when he died of leukemia in 2006. Known as the first saint of the millennium, he was canonized in 2015.
Francesca had the opportunity to film Acutis’ body, which is buried and displayed in a glass coffin in Assisi, Italy. “It was a little disturbing because he’s a young boy. They put this silicone mask on him and it looks perfectly preserved,” she told me. “He looks like a young boy sleeping, like one of my friends, and he’s wearing a tracksuit and sneakers. … There was a little debate about whether or not we were going to film his body. After I left his body, I was like, ‘No, we can’t. This is so wrong.” So we used a very small amount of stock footage so as not to disturb the peace there.
Courtesy of Fox Nation
Francesca’s childhood was religious. “I had my communion, I had my confirmation. I was going to class to get through all that,” she remembers. “I went to church. I prayed every night. My father sometimes read the Bible to me as a bedtime story.”
But Francesca’s faith began to decline during her teenage years, especially when she witnessed her mother Helen’s battle with Parkinson’s disease. “I’ve often asked myself, ‘Why does God hurt good people, or let bad things happen to good people?’ “, she said. “My mother has been a big area of struggle for me as I’ve gotten older and it’s gotten worse. As it started to become a very prevalent thing in my life, I think that’s a big part of why I kind of drifted away from my beliefs.”
Francesca’s directing credits include three short films. She is also an actress, best known for her work on Luca Guadagnino’s HBO series “We Are Who We Are,” and has served as a creative director on various commercial projects. About two years ago, she and her father became viral hits thanks to their joint videos posted by Francesca on TikTok.
While filming the episode “Saints” — premiering Sunday, Dec. 7, on Fox Nation — she was sending dailies to her father, who is the show’s narrator as well as executive producer. “I’d get a call or a text message, and he’d say, ‘These rushes are great,’” Francesca remembers. “I never really got any notes until I was in post-production. I mean, everything he said was totally valid.”
Francesca admits that she is what they call a “nepo-baby”: “I got that obviously because my father oversaw everything as an executive producer. I’m not going to deny anything. I’m honored to have an opportunity like this, and I’m going to do my best.”
Francesca admits she had “some hesitation” about working on a Fox Nation project due to the politics associated with Fox. “But I know how my father feels about everything,” she says. “I feel pretty much the same way he does in terms of politics and everything, and I admire him, and I definitely follow in his footsteps a lot of the time. But Fox was the only one who supported this project and wanted to bring this project to life. I think there’s something to be said for that.”
Next, Francesca will direct “Adults,” a short black comedy film about her mother’s childhood. “My mother grew up in Paris and her father was there at the American embassy,” she said. “It’s a father-daughter story.”
The Scorsese will spend Christmas Eve at home with family. “We’ll have dinner and open presents,” Francesca said. New Year’s Eve will be held in Martin Scorsese’s office: “We’ll watch a movie and then we’ll watch the fireworks on TV. We’ll have champagne, maybe some Nobu.”
