Editing The Apostle (section)

== Production ==

===Development===
Making ''The Apostle'' had been a longtime passion project for Duvall, who first wrote the script in 1984, but could not find a studio willing to produce it.<ref name="NYT"/><ref name="LAT">{{cite news |last1=Goldstein |first1=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Goldstein |title=Gospel Truth |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-mar-18-ca-29945-story.html |access-date=29 November 2022 |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=March 18, 1998 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221120222734/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-mar-18-ca-29945-story.html |archive-date=2022-11-20}}</ref> Duvall's interest in playing a preacher stemmed from an experience he had in the 1960s visiting a small [[Pentecostalism|Pentecostal]] chapel in [[Arkansas]] while doing research for an [[off-Broadway]] play. Said Duvall, "There was a certain simplicity and understanding. And also the feeling of the folklore. Preaching is one of the great American art forms. The rhythm, the cadence. And nobody knows about it except the preachers themselves."<ref name="NYT">{{cite news |last1=Freedman |first1=Samuel G. |title=Duvall's Battle to Confound a Religious Stereotype |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/22/movies/duvall-s-battle-to-confound-a-religious-stereotype.html |access-date=29 November 2022 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=1997-10-22}}</ref> After finding no interest from studios, he eventually decided to direct and finance the film himself.

===Filming===
The film was primarily shot in western Louisiana over a period of seven weeks in the fall of 1996.<ref name="LAT" /><ref name="NYT" /> The fictional town of Bayou Boutte is actually a small town in Louisiana called Sunset. Some members of the supporting cast were actual churchgoers from the area.<ref name=":0" />