In the middle of the night, Matti Leshem jolted awake with a fully formed idea.
He nudged his wife of 23 years awake to pitch the fresh idea for his next project. Leshem, a film and TV producer, would make a television series about the Catholic saints — with Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese.
“You don’t know Martin Scorsese,” she responded, irritated at being woken up.
“Well, how hard could that be?” Leshem said.
It was a challenge. Leshem tried for a year to get a meeting with Scorsese.
Then, on a random morning, one of Scorsese’s assistants called Leshem. If he could immediately head over to a nearby hotel, the assistant said he could get Leshem a 30-minute meeting with the director.
In an effort to make the most of his limited time, Leshem briefly introduced himself to Scorsese before launching into his presentation for the TV series. At the end of the half-hour, the assistant came back to announce the next meeting had arrived. Scorsese waved him off. He continued his meeting with Leshem for 2½ hours.
The two men shared a “deep conversation about the saints,” Leshem said. He shared stories about saints who Scorsese, a devout Catholic, had never heard of. At the end of their meeting, Scorsese shook Leshem’s hand.
“We’re partners now,” Scorsese said.
That meeting was eight years ago. Their Fox Nation series, “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints,” is currently rolling out its second season, sharing the stories of saints such as St. Patrick and the first millennial saint, St. Carlo Acutis.
Leshem, who serves as the executive producer of the show, said Scorsese is very involved in the production of the show and his “incredible eye is on the whole series.”
Through their collaboration, the show takes a “very dramatic approach,” Leshem explained. It is also, in its own way, interfaith. “(Scorsese) is very Catholic ... I’m very Jewish,” Leshem said. Together, they are telling these stories with a “Judeo-Christian ethic.”
For Leshem, living in a shared space between faith traditions is familiar. Born in Congo while his father served as Israel’s ambassador, Leshem spent his childhood moving from country to country. He grew up in a family of atheists, but Leshem describes himself as coming “out of the womb believing.”
His father insisted his son attend the best schools in each place — which often meant religious ones. While living in New York, he attended Ramaz, a Modern Orthodox Jewish school. Later, when his father was Israel’s ambassador to Denmark, Leshem attended a Catholic school in Copenhagen.
It was during Catholic school that Leshem was first introduced to the story of Jesus, which he recalled being “incredibly interested” in. It is also where his fascination with the Catholic saints began.
“The exposure to all these different religions, I was always interested in how people connect to their faith,” Leshem said.
He added that his global, interfaith upbringing shaped the way he approaches the saints in the series — with respect, curiosity and a desire to make them feel human.
“I am always interested in, what is it that a human being can believe in so strongly that in most cases, they’re actually willing to die for it?” Leshem said. “I think if you ask yourself that question honestly ... you quickly come to a pretty short list.”
He added, “When we see these stories, and you humanize the stories, you understand that these are real people, and that they’re going through actual events. To me, that is incredibly inspiring.”
Leshem feels privileged to be contributing to what he considers “the most important conversation we could be having in this country right now” — the conversation about faith.
There is a lot of media available for viewers to consume, but much of it, particularly on social media, is not uplifting or constructive.
“I think our culture is thirsting for faith. I think our culture is thirsting for stories that inspire,” he said. He believes the second season of “The Saints” has content that can quench that thirst, for both believers and non-believers.
“I hope that if you’re already a believer, it shores up your faith. If you’re not a believer, it could open you up and you could perhaps be inspired in a religious way or nonreligious way,” Leshem said. “We’re not proselytizing anything. We’re not here to preach Catholicism, but we are here to inspire everyone and to inspire them with the idea of people of faith.”