"Keeping the Faith" filmed in New York, mainly on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where Stuart Blumberg’s screenplay about two young clerics and a beautiful businesswoman was set.
"I think New York is at the vanguard in terms of confronting the kinds of questions that are getting asked in the movie," says Norton. "Because you have everybody living together in New York and everybody is in essence a mutt."
In order to satisfy the filmmakers’ desire to present New York in all its summer glory, moreover, "Keeping the Faith" had almost twice as many locations as the average film of the same shooting schedule. "We wanted it to be real and celebrate as many of the textures of New York as possible," explains Norton.
"We’re shooting New York in a way that the city is as major a character as anybody else," adds producer Hawk Koch. While a few years ago, many films only shot their exteriors in New York with studio work filmed elsewhere, "Keeping the Faith" shot exclusively in the city and close by.
"New York is much more flexible and facilitative to filmmaking than in the past," says executive producer Gary Barber.
For the look of the film, production designer Wynn P. Thomas’ goal was to present a world that reflected the two main characters who inhabited it: Ben Stiller’s Rabbi Jacob Schram and Edward Norton’s Father Brian Finn. "Edward Norton’s major concern was that the film have a contemporary look because the two religious men are still very vibrant and alive young people," says Thomas, who has designed many films shot in New York.
As part of their research into the two religions, the production team solicited the aid of two technical advisors, one from each faith, themselves representative of the modern cleric: Rabbi Hillel Norry and Father John Duffell.
While the rabbi helped the production team in their research, he was especially helpful to actor Ben Stiller as, like the character of Jake Schram, Rabbi Norry is himself an Upper West Side bachelor. Stiller, who grew up on the Upper West Side, spent some time with the rabbi at the synagogue to research his role.
"It’s interesting, because I had no idea what a day in a rabbi’s life is like," says Stiller. "Can he go out with a non-Jewish girl? Can he go out with a girl in his congregation? Does he have to be Kosher?"
Similarly, Edward Norton spent time with Father John Duffell, attending his masses and learning about the priest’s life as a community activist.
While New York affords hundreds of beautiful churches and synagogues, the production team stuck to the script for their locations.
"This film is an Upper West Side story," says production designer Wynn P. Thomas. "We intentionally picked churches and synagogues in that neighborhood so that they would be true to the spirit of the Upper West Side," an area known for its rich culture and ethnic mix.
The sanctuary and exterior of Jake’s temple, for example, was filmed at B’nai Jeshurun on West 88th, where Thomas and Edward Norton attended Friday night services early in pre-production. The exotic Byzantine/Romanesque style of the interior, fashionable for well-to-do temples when it was built in 1918, impressed the director, as did the lively services he witnessed that night.
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