Portraying Emma: Experiences two women had as they portrayed the ‘Elect Lady’
Anna Daines, playing Emma Smith, has her hair adjusted between takes while filming at the LDS Motion Picture Studio in Provo on Monday, Sept. 29, 2014. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is producing a film that will be shown at the renovated Priesthood restoration site in Pennsylvania.
Arlene Provstgaard poses for a photo in the "Heritage House" that occupies a room at her Payson home on Friday, March 13, 2015. SPENSER HEAPS, Daily Herald
Arlene Provstgaard poses for a photo in the "Heritage House" that occupies a room at her Payson home on Friday, March 13, 2015.
A piece of driftwood fished from the Mississippi and made into a piece of furniture in Nauvoo holds numerous collectibles in the "Heritage House" that occupies a room at Arlene Provstgaard's Payson home on Friday, March 13, 2015.
For two women who have played the part of Emma Smith on screen or stage, one thing’s for sure. It’s overwhelming to portray a woman you’ve idolized your entire life.
After accepting the role of the prophet’s wife for an upcoming LDS film, Provo actress Anna Daines said she had to lower the pedestal she had always kept Emma on.
“I didn’t want to look at her as a perfect, wise person but as a human being with desires, fears and strengths,” Daines said.
So she studied church history and read books and letters written about and to the esteemed elect lady.
“Something what was fun for me was to learn how spunky she was,” Daines said. “We often think of religious individuals as being very quiet and reverent. But Emma loved canoeing. She was independent, strong and willful but so full of faith.”
In the film, Daines, 25, portrays Emma as a young newlywed in Harmony, Pa. Without makeup and the ringlets the prophet’s wife is usually portrayed wearing, Daines shines a more authentic light on Emma’s everyday life of housework, washing clothes and kneading bread.
“I wanted to bring a human element to her, but I had to acknowledge parts of her that were super human,” Daines said, citing specifically Emma’s self control and grace through long suffering. “I don’t have her strength and faith, but I tried my best to understand her and that was such a privilege.”
One of the most moving experiences came unexpectedly for Daines as she sat in the middle of a crowd while filming the forming of the church.
There were dozens of extras in the room, making it hot and stuffy, she said. One actor was repeatedly going through his lines.
As she sat there, uncomfortable, Daines said, something changed. As she listened, she was overwhelmed with knowledge, faith and gratitude of the beauty and truthfulness of what was being said.
“It made me revise my testimony, revisit my commitment and ultimately reconnect with those in church history,” she said.
The film, which has the working title “Days Never to Be Forgotten,” will be a 22-minute narrative told from the standpoint of Oliver Cowdery, according to lds.org. It’s set to be released in fall of this year.
For Payson’s Arlene Provstgaard, 81, the stage for playing Emma Smith was smaller, the environment a bit more intimate.
During the last two years, she has stood in front of the sisters of her LDS ward’s Relief Society three times and told about the life of Emma Smith in first person.
“Emma was stronger than any woman I know of,” Provstgaard said. “She endured hardships that none of us can even comprehend.”
In her portrayal, Provstgaard said she didn’t want to show Emma as being perfect, but as a strong woman who was feisty and faithful.
“I don’t know if anyone could do her justice,” Provstgaard said. “As I talked about her, a lot of times I would get choked up because I felt like I needed to say the words right on her behalf.”
Having served an LDS mission in Nauvoo, Provstgaard has on hand authentic period clothing and shoes she and her husband Tom wore while volunteering at historical church sites. It was there she gained a deep love for the prophet and his beloved companion.
“To walk where those people walked and tell about their persecutions and love of the gospel was a privilege and it deepened my testimony,” she said. “I never knew I could care that deeply.”
Since then, researching church history paraphernalia and collecting family heirlooms has become her passion. Portraying Emma is just the icing on the cake.
“Being able to talk about Emma in first person made me feel much closer to her. Made me feel like there were things she wanted me to say about her that I didn’t want any misunderstandings about Emma,” Provstgaard said. “I love Emma and I hope I’m good enough to see her some day.”