Latest / Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews / From Combat Pilot to Hollywood Icon, the Untold Story of Jimmy Stewart

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From Combat Pilot to Hollywood Icon, the Untold Story of Jimmy Stewart · Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews

0:02
Speaker 1: Life Audio hey Eron, Thanks for joining me.
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Speaker 2: It's great to be back with you. Michael.
0:08
Speaker 1: Aaron Burns is our guest. Aaron, of course, you are
0:11
Speaker 1: the director of the upcoming movie Jimmy, a film about
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Speaker 1: legendary actor Jimmy Stewart starring Kane j Appa in the
0:19
Speaker 1: lead role. Schedule for release November the sixth. Jimmy Themovie
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Speaker 1: dot Com is the website. You're also working on a
0:26
Speaker 1: film about missionaries Hudson and Maria Taylor. We'll talk about that.
0:30
Speaker 1: I'm just teasing that for the back end. First, though,
0:33
Speaker 1: let's chat about the movie Jimmy. Of course, he was
0:35
Speaker 1: the lead actor for It's a Wonderful Life. I don't
0:37
Speaker 1: want to assume everybody knows that. Why didn't you want
0:40
Speaker 1: to make a film about Jimmy Stewart? What attract you
0:43
Speaker 1: do to his story?
0:45
Speaker 2: Well, as a kid, grown up, I watch a bunch
0:47
Speaker 2: of his movies. Yeah, he's this Western's the man who
0:51
Speaker 2: shot Liberty Valance. I loved mister Smith goes to Washington,
0:55
Speaker 2: the political drama. And then, of course It's a Wonderful
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Speaker 2: Life every Chris, It's so inspirational, But honestly, there's kind
1:05
Speaker 2: of that old saying, don't get too close to your
1:07
Speaker 2: heroes because you'll be probably be disappointed. And you know
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Speaker 2: most Hollywood types and movie stars, and you know they're
1:14
Speaker 2: pretending to be something that they aren't, you know, off
1:17
Speaker 2: screen don screen. But I read an article a few
1:20
Speaker 2: years ago that Jimmy wrote, actually for Guidepost magazine, telling
1:25
Speaker 2: the story of the making of Its Wonderful Life. And
1:28
Speaker 2: I was shocked when he revealed that it was the
1:33
Speaker 2: first film he made after he came back from serving
1:35
Speaker 2: in World War Two. And I said, wait, Jimmy served
1:38
Speaker 2: in World War Two. That's interesting. Was he probably just
1:41
Speaker 2: doing you know, publicity or something. But actually he was
1:44
Speaker 2: a combat pilot, serving in the front lines and wound
1:47
Speaker 2: up flying twenty missions against the Nazis, And he had
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Speaker 2: chosen to leave his Hollywood career behind for three years
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Speaker 2: and go over to serve his country. And in that
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Speaker 2: article he unp acts how the making of Its Wonderful
2:02
Speaker 2: Life was transformative for him, and that prayer in Martini's
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Speaker 2: bar on the set of Its Wonderful Life became a
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Speaker 2: real prayer and was kind of the beginning then of
2:13
Speaker 2: his own spiritual jurity and transformation. And I had always
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Speaker 2: loved the film, but had no idea that there was
2:18
Speaker 2: more richness of those layers behind it. So we started
2:22
Speaker 2: on the adventure of connecting with his daughter, Kelly and
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Speaker 2: their family and exploring if they'd be interested in having
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Speaker 2: this part of Jimmy's life told, and that's where I'll begin.
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Speaker 1: And she was, of course, that's I forget her name.
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Speaker 1: I'm looking on my notes here. Kelly, Kelly Stewart Harcourt.
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Speaker 1: I believe is her name. She's an executive prien you, sir,
2:41
Speaker 1: I hope I got her name right. Yeah, So what
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Speaker 1: role did the family play in this movie in terms
2:45
Speaker 1: of just making sure it's authentic. I'm assuming they had
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Speaker 1: a role in this.
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Speaker 2: Yes, So first we connected with her to talk to
2:54
Speaker 2: her about our take out of the story. And a number
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Speaker 2: of people had approached her over the years about telling
2:59
Speaker 2: stories but her dadd or things. But when I mentioned
3:02
Speaker 2: that the slice of life that we wanted to explore
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Speaker 2: really his most transformative years, from when he won his
3:08
Speaker 2: first oscar in nineteen forty one, through his service in
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Speaker 2: World War Two, coming back in nineteen forty five, and
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Speaker 2: then six making It's a wonderful life, she was delighted
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Speaker 2: because she said her dad's favorite movie was It's a
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Speaker 2: Wonderful Life, the one that met the most to him.
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Speaker 2: And what he was most proud of was his service
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Speaker 2: to his fellow men, to our country in World War Two,
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Speaker 2: and he actually stayed on as a brigadier rose through
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Speaker 2: the ranks of a brigadier general in the Air Force Reserves,
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Speaker 2: was in the military for twenty years. It spent a
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Speaker 2: lot of his time giving back to veterans and honoring
3:42
Speaker 2: and thanking people who had been involved in it. So
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Speaker 2: she was so delighted that that's the portion of the
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Speaker 2: story we wanted to tell. And then she worked through
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Speaker 2: Josh of the script with us and gave us insight
3:53
Speaker 2: to family documents. I remember she told us about journal
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Speaker 2: that her dad had left in the night stamp some
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Speaker 2: of his World War Two stories that had never been
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Speaker 2: told by anyone else, and she shared some of those
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Speaker 2: with us. And then she had a copy of their
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Speaker 2: flight laugbook of the missions that he flew on and
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Speaker 2: in his own handwriting marking the plane of his fallen
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Speaker 2: comrades in the place that didn't come back that he
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Speaker 2: was responsible for. And then just another fun fact, he
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Speaker 2: won two Oscars and his two daughters both had one
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Speaker 2: and we needed them for filming, so she brought them
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Speaker 2: to set and we got to use Jimmy's actual oscars
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Speaker 2: for the filming of the movie. So she contributed to
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Speaker 2: many different ways. It was just a cheerleader and an
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Speaker 2: advocate for the project and just a delightful person.
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Speaker 1: From my memory, he did not win an oscar for
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Speaker 1: it It's a Wonderful Life? Am I correct there?
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Speaker 2: That's correct? So he won for so mister Smith Goes
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Speaker 2: to Washington was what put him on the map in
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Speaker 2: nineteen I think the nineteen thirty nine or forty Oscars,
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Speaker 2: but he didn't win that year. He won the next
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Speaker 2: year for Philadelphia Story. And then just after he won
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Speaker 2: that oscar, he that he's off to World War two
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Speaker 2: and he comes back. It's a Wonderful Life was nominated
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Speaker 2: and in nineteen forty six for a few hosts, but
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Speaker 2: it didn't win anything, and interestingly, it didn't perform at
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Speaker 2: the box office and it fell. It lost money and
5:15
Speaker 2: Frank Kappra, the director's movie company, went out of business.
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Speaker 2: And it wasn't until later that it was discovered when
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Speaker 2: TV started, everyone had TVs in their arms. Now they're
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Speaker 2: looking for content to play. December, It's a Wonderful Life
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Speaker 2: had fallen out of copyright and was free, so streamer,
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Speaker 2: you know, the streamers of the day at Ease TV
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Speaker 2: stations started playing It's a Wonderful Life twenty four hours
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Speaker 2: and people said, whoa, this is a phenomenal film and
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Speaker 2: fell in love with it again and saw I pitted
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Speaker 2: research and become, you know, the double one inspirational film
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Speaker 2: in America.
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Speaker 1: Let me ask you a random question, Aaron. That kind
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Speaker 1: of comes to mind as you mentioned how It's a
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Speaker 1: Wonderful Life became kind of famous later. Do you think
5:55
Speaker 1: that happens nowadays, that there are movies that we watch
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Speaker 1: and think they're just okay, or that we don't recognize
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Speaker 1: the brilliance of them, and that later on another generation
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Speaker 1: kind of embraces it. It seems like that happens nowadays. Do
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Speaker 1: you have any thoults there? Because I seem to think
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Speaker 1: this is just my own ad libbing here and editorial lying.
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Speaker 1: But it seems like we live in such a critical
6:18
Speaker 1: culture right now that it's it's being critical gets clicks,
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Speaker 1: and so if you applaud a movie, you don't give
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Speaker 1: as many clicks as if you criticize a movie, and
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Speaker 1: a lot of times when these blogbusters come out, a
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Speaker 1: lot of times the first review you see is something
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Speaker 1: just somebody blasting the film, and then you go up
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Speaker 1: watch the movie and you're thinking, that was a pretty
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Speaker 1: good movie. So I don't know, do you do you
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Speaker 1: think that happens nowadays where we kind of just miss classics.
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Speaker 2: I'll tell you what is interesting. There's the craft of
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Speaker 2: a particular film and a craft of a story teller
6:53
Speaker 2: and how they put the put the story together. But
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Speaker 2: then there's also waves of cultural zeitgeist of what comes
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Speaker 2: in and out of vogue at different times. So just
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Speaker 2: a quick story about Frank Capra, who is one of
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Speaker 2: the main characters in our story. He was a Sicilian immigrant.
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Speaker 2: Somebody should make a movie about Capra someday. It grew
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Speaker 2: up in absolute, abject poverty when he came over to America,
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Speaker 2: and he served in World War One, and what observing
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Speaker 2: in World War Two is our film explains. But he
7:26
Speaker 2: really just wanted to make it. He wanted to be successful.
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Speaker 2: He wanted to be rich and famous and important and
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Speaker 2: prove to the world that he had that he was
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Speaker 2: worth it. So he set out his journey to become
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Speaker 2: a filmmaker, and he finally makes it. He wins an
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Speaker 2: oscar and he's rich. And then he says, I'm going
7:45
Speaker 2: to take a few weeks off and I'm going to
7:47
Speaker 2: pretend like I'm sick, so everybody leaves me alone. So
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Speaker 2: he goes to bed, you know, one evening plenty to
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Speaker 2: take a couple weeks of vacation, and he wakes up
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Speaker 2: the next morning sick as a dog, and over the
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Speaker 2: next two weeks has helped rapidly to tear rates so
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Speaker 2: he can barely get out of bed, and the doctor's
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Speaker 2: you know, comment and check on and watch it twice
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Speaker 2: and thinks he's not gonna make it. It's over. And
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Speaker 2: then some guy shows up and visits him, who he
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Speaker 2: doesn't know, and he says, I have something important to
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Speaker 2: tell you. And this is mid thirties, and in the
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Speaker 2: other room, the radio's on and it's Adolf Hitler giving
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Speaker 2: a speech and you can hear, you know, the background,
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Speaker 2: his new segment's playing Hitler. And this guy comes up
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Speaker 2: to Capra and he says, Hitler is viewing his lies
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Speaker 2: and hate to tens of thousands of people around the world,
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Speaker 2: and he has an evil message that he's sharing. But you,
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Speaker 2: mister Capra, are worse off than Hitler because you have
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Speaker 2: a captive audience of millions of people in a darkened
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Speaker 2: theater and you have nothing to say to them. You're
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Speaker 2: wasting the gifts that God has given you and telling
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Speaker 2: stories without a purpose. So I suggest you get your
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Speaker 2: act together. And then he leaves and the next day
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Speaker 2: Capra starts to get better. He gains the weight back
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Speaker 2: that he lost, and he comes out of his room.
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Speaker 2: He says, who was that guy who came and visited me?
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Speaker 2: And they're like, what guy? So, so, who knows what
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Speaker 2: it was? It was his own visitor, Clarence or whatever.
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Speaker 2: But over the next years, Capra says, I'm going to
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Speaker 2: tell stories of the purpose that matters. I'm going to
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Speaker 2: use the gifts that God has given me for good
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Speaker 2: and he tells starts to tell stories like mister Smith
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Speaker 2: goes to Washington talking about corruption and honor and integrity,
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Speaker 2: and then you know, goes to cercing world where two
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Speaker 2: then comes back and makes it a wonderful life. And
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Speaker 2: as you get into the mid forties after the war
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Speaker 2: and into the fifties and sixties, audiences were less interested
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Speaker 2: in those hopeful, positive stories. And when movies started to
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Speaker 2: get darker and grittier and more full of violence and
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Speaker 2: you know, kind of graphic content, and people started to
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Speaker 2: make fun of Crapper because he was stuck making these
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Speaker 2: kind of cheesy films. And it is Wonderflac at the
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Speaker 2: time is even criticized for being overly sentimental and things,
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Speaker 2: and Capra said, well, you call him and corny, I'm
10:01
Speaker 2: going to call them capricorn because that's the kind of
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Speaker 2: movies that I want to make, and I'm going to
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Speaker 2: stand behinde my calling and what I'm supposed to do.
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Speaker 2: So it didn't mean that he didn't have excellence in
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Speaker 2: his craft and work with amazing talented teams and tell
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Speaker 2: great stories. But he knew what he wanted to say,
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Speaker 2: even when it cut against the grain of his time.
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Speaker 2: And so his films fell out of style in some
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Speaker 2: ways because the culture had moved on. And I think
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Speaker 2: as you get back to the darkness of the sixties
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Speaker 2: and seventies, the culture started to realize that we need
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Speaker 2: help and we need truth, and we need inspiration and
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Speaker 2: values and faith and prayer and the things that Capra
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Speaker 2: had packed into its wonderful life. So I think it
10:40
Speaker 2: has to do both. Sorry, very long answer to your question.
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Speaker 2: I think it has both to do with the craft
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Speaker 2: and the quality of story, but also where culture is moving.
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Speaker 2: And it was very inspiring to me to watch Frank
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Speaker 2: take a stand and tell stories that mattered in his
10:54
Speaker 2: day while also looking to be the very best in
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Speaker 2: his craft that he could. So that's something that we
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Speaker 2: we actually took set at our production and my producer
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Speaker 2: David made us all little cups that said, well, capra
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Speaker 2: do And so we think about the kind of stories
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Speaker 2: that would tell as we were working on making Jimmy.
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Speaker 1: That's a powerful story. Some people would have would have
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Speaker 1: considered that an angel who knows what it was. Secondly,
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Speaker 1: you know one thing that I was going to say
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Speaker 1: that I should have said earlier. So we know we
11:20
Speaker 1: live in a information We're saturated with information and projects
11:26
Speaker 1: and movies and TV series and films, so sometimes it
11:28
Speaker 1: just tinks a while for kind of the diamond to
11:31
Speaker 1: be discovered. I think that's something else that should be said.
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Speaker 1: What genre would you put this film in? Would you?
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Speaker 1: Was it faith based, faith adjacent? Simply inspirational, So not to.
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Speaker 2: Dive too far into the weeds on that. When you
11:52
Speaker 2: think of film genres, there's a few different ways to
11:55
Speaker 2: think about them. The labels that you were just labels
11:58
Speaker 2: are helpful, but those are more audience labels, Like who
12:02
Speaker 2: is the audience for this film would be someone who
12:04
Speaker 2: wants a faith a faith film. I think the word
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Speaker 2: that I bristle at is faith based, and I think
12:11
Speaker 2: it was like basted, you like basted faith, like with
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Speaker 2: a turkey squeegee like on top of it or something.
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Speaker 2: So for me the audience of this film, it's a biopic,
12:20
Speaker 2: so it's a true life story. But I am a
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Speaker 2: perse Feith, I'm a Christian. I love Jesus and so
12:26
Speaker 2: all of my stories, all of the stories that inspire me,
12:30
Speaker 2: come from that lens. And so that's infused in the
12:34
Speaker 2: very bones of this movie. So you'll see a believer
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Speaker 2: who watches it, will see the story of redemption played
12:41
Speaker 2: out in Jimmy's life. And we'll see that moment in
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Speaker 2: Martinez bar as the beginning in the in the of
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Speaker 2: his spiritual journey, and how the whole film and story
12:48
Speaker 2: is building up to that moment. What I think is
12:51
Speaker 2: so fun about a movie like Jimmy Is. It really
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Speaker 2: is a movie for everyone because Jimmy, we honor the
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Speaker 2: good parts of old Hollywood and the stories they told
13:01
Speaker 2: in the way they did that. So if you're a
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Speaker 2: person who lives in Hollywood and loves that, you'll find
13:06
Speaker 2: things there. From a military perspective, we honor the sacrifice
13:11
Speaker 2: that our armed services have given to us. So if
13:14
Speaker 2: you're a patriotic American, you're going to enjoy the story.
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Speaker 2: There's a beautiful romance in it, a drama, and the
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Speaker 2: action of war. So it really is There are elements
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Speaker 2: in there that I think appeals to a wide audience,
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Speaker 2: but certainly to people who come who share my perspective
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Speaker 2: and point of view. As you watch it, you'll be
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Speaker 2: moved by the way God and his sob Regine is
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Speaker 2: Love orchestrated the events of Jimmy's life to bring him
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Speaker 2: to this point of brokenness, to bring him to the
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Speaker 2: point of healing so he can look the rest of
13:43
Speaker 2: his journey that way.
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Speaker 1: Amen to that. I like that. Let's switch gears briefly
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Speaker 1: and talk about another project that was recently announced. It's
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Speaker 1: called Hudson and Maria. This is in pre production, so
13:54
Speaker 1: it's while ways away before we watch it, not this year.
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Speaker 1: I guess this is a story of Hudson Maria Taylor,
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Speaker 1: who took the Gospel to China and then in the
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Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds. What drew you to telling a story about missionaries?
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Speaker 1: And how do you how do you do this movie
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Speaker 1: without it coming across as kind of an educational biopic
14:13
Speaker 1: that you would watch, you know in a fifth grade
14:16
Speaker 1: Christian private school class.
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Speaker 2: By brand is a great question, so to you asked
14:24
Speaker 2: a few questions in there, so I actually I think
14:27
Speaker 2: it was fourth grade for me in a homeschool education class.
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Speaker 2: Did a book report of Hudson Taylor that my mom
14:34
Speaker 2: reminded me of recently. This is my first introduction to him,
14:37
Speaker 2: and I read, you know, little biographies of this this guy.
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Speaker 2: He's a fascinating character and a fascinating historical time. And
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Speaker 2: as you look at our world today, our Western world,
14:49
Speaker 2: we're dealing with the reverberations of colonialism and this East
14:55
Speaker 2: versus West conflict. I think our president was in China
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Speaker 2: this week meeting with the authorities over there and negotiating
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Speaker 2: these political landscapes. Well, Hadson was in the middle of
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Speaker 2: the Opium Wars in the middle of Great Britain doing
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Speaker 2: all of these awful things, you know, through its empire,
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Speaker 2: and he felt God's call to go and share the
15:18
Speaker 2: love of Jesus with the people in China. So he
15:21
Speaker 2: jumps right in the middle of that and stands directly
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Speaker 2: opposed to the British, the British Empire, and to the
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Speaker 2: Chinese Empire, and to the empire of darkness that that
15:30
Speaker 2: you know, rules the whole world. And he said, I'm
15:32
Speaker 2: going to carry the Kingdom of God and God's light
15:34
Speaker 2: and love into this place in a very unique way.
15:37
Speaker 2: In moving to China and to bring the Gospel there,
15:41
Speaker 2: he in some ways pioneered or at least popularized a
15:46
Speaker 2: concept that's just become very normal to missionaries today, which
15:50
Speaker 2: is integrating as much as you can with the local
15:53
Speaker 2: people and not not bringing other barriers to the gospel.
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Speaker 2: So at the time, the British missionaries would kind of
16:01
Speaker 2: expect people to convert to Britishism and Westernism along with
16:06
Speaker 2: converting to Christianity. So you need to learn to speak English,
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Speaker 2: need to dress like us, you need to behave like us,
16:11
Speaker 2: and then we can start teaching you. And Hudson found
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Speaker 2: as he you know, went through China. People were calling
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Speaker 2: him a foreign devil, and he said, what's this word?
16:20
Speaker 2: So they're calling you a foreign devil, So, well, that's
16:22
Speaker 2: a big distraction to be sharing the love of Jesus,
16:24
Speaker 2: because I have no interest in sharing Western culture with you.
16:26
Speaker 2: I want to share something that's that transcends culture. So
16:30
Speaker 2: he cut off his hair and grew a queue and
16:33
Speaker 2: with glasses on and contact lenses in and dressed and
16:38
Speaker 2: changed himself into it Chinese and the diligently studied Chinese languages.
16:42
Speaker 2: Think you learned five or six different dialects, so he
16:44
Speaker 2: could become like them in always to share the no
16:46
Speaker 2: with them. And that idea, combined with his radical dependence
16:52
Speaker 2: on the Lord and his radical just reading of the
16:56
Speaker 2: scripture and saying this is what it says, let's just
16:58
Speaker 2: go do it, guys, guarded a missions movement that kind
17:03
Speaker 2: of reverberates through to this day. So I had always
17:06
Speaker 2: loved and found great inspiration from Hudson Taylor. He was
17:09
Speaker 2: friends with George Mueller and the way that they he
17:11
Speaker 2: was mentored by George Mueller, and how he prayed and
17:13
Speaker 2: found guests provision through those things. So when he came
17:18
Speaker 2: back from China. He started a mission organization and then
17:21
Speaker 2: brought a whole group of missionaries over there called China
17:23
Speaker 2: Inland Mission, and he saw his prayers answer of missionaries
17:27
Speaker 2: in every profits of China around the world. That organization
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Speaker 2: still exists today with thousands of missionaries around the globe,
17:34
Speaker 2: and a number of them connected with me and said,
17:37
Speaker 2: we'd love to inspire the church in modern times to
17:42
Speaker 2: see what we could do to share the gospel. What
17:43
Speaker 2: are the big We're just meeting about this a few
17:46
Speaker 2: days ago, what are the big questions in global missions
17:49
Speaker 2: that need to be answered now? And how what can
17:52
Speaker 2: we do to inspire a new generation of a thousand
17:54
Speaker 2: new Hudson tailors and men and women who would say, yeah,
17:58
Speaker 2: I can leave my life behind and I can share
18:01
Speaker 2: God's love with people all over the globe. So that's
18:05
Speaker 2: it's a journey we've been on a number of years
18:07
Speaker 2: working with that organization and actually also with Hudson Taylor's
18:11
Speaker 2: great great great grandson, James Taylor the fifth, I think
18:16
Speaker 2: and to work kind of story in the script and
18:19
Speaker 2: get that where it needs to be. So we're filming
18:21
Speaker 2: that project in Malaysia this August and September. So excited
18:26
Speaker 2: about that one too.
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Speaker 1: This seems to be a project that has a million
18:29
Speaker 1: positive themes. Aaron, what are two or three that you
18:33
Speaker 1: think could really stand out and our society might need
18:37
Speaker 1: to hear self sacrifice, courage, a focus on the eternal
18:41
Speaker 1: and not the present. Are there and those and many more?
18:45
Speaker 1: What would you say there? Yeah?
18:46
Speaker 2: For sure, those and many more. And I think courage
18:50
Speaker 2: to go where God calls you to go and do
18:53
Speaker 2: what he calls you to do, knowing that He will
18:55
Speaker 2: provide coupled with the humility to know that you don't
18:59
Speaker 2: have to go alone and you don't have to do
19:01
Speaker 2: it in your olmstring. And that's the lesson that Hudson
19:05
Speaker 2: learns across this portion of his life. And to watch
19:08
Speaker 2: him learn from his wife Maria and learn from the
19:12
Speaker 2: Chinese believers who around him to take the passion that
19:15
Speaker 2: God has given him and turn it into into fuel
19:20
Speaker 2: for ministry. And again, the coupling of courage with humility
19:24
Speaker 2: and community, I think is something that we could all
19:27
Speaker 2: learn from. I look at our current cultural climate and
19:33
Speaker 2: just like you're pointing out with with with movie critics
19:35
Speaker 2: or it's so much easier to be negative and so
19:37
Speaker 2: much easier to point out why things shouldn't be done,
19:39
Speaker 2: why things are bad, why things are a problem, And
19:43
Speaker 2: those things tend to divide us. Negativity and labels and
19:46
Speaker 2: categories tend to divide us. And that's exactly the opposite
19:51
Speaker 2: of the way Jesus wants us to live, which is
19:54
Speaker 2: in love and unity and faith that we can do
19:57
Speaker 2: what He's calls to do. In moving forward and watching how
20:00
Speaker 2: Hudson thrives in a very divided world that is shockingly
20:06
Speaker 2: similar to our world today, is I think will be
20:08
Speaker 2: pretty inspirational informative. Yes, you'll learn about Hessinto's life like
20:12
Speaker 2: if you do a fourth grade book report, but I
20:14
Speaker 2: think very inspirational and inspire us to live the way
20:18
Speaker 2: Jesus chollers too.
20:20
Speaker 1: I actually enjoy those fifth grade documentary of biobics. By
20:22
Speaker 1: the way, said I shouldn't have criticized that my my,
20:25
Speaker 1: I have a fifth I have a fifth grade son.
20:27
Speaker 1: It was just the first thing that popped in my head.
20:30
Speaker 1: Let's close by talking about your career. You've done, You've
20:33
Speaker 1: directed your legacy, Peak Breath right Outlaw, You've been a
20:36
Speaker 1: producer on the Forge and overcomer all of those, of
20:39
Speaker 1: course have a have a thread through them. What world
20:41
Speaker 1: do you think movies can play to shape a culture?
20:45
Speaker 1: And I'm asking them because I'm assuming that's one reason
20:47
Speaker 1: you're in this and what is your hope for the
20:50
Speaker 1: films that you make? Broadly speaking?
20:53
Speaker 2: Is such a fun question, Michael, So I think about
20:58
Speaker 2: through time the role of the storyteller and culture, and
21:03
Speaker 2: it was particularly I'll share one moment with you. I
21:08
Speaker 2: think it was in two thousand and six. I got
21:11
Speaker 2: a chance to go to London tour a week and
21:16
Speaker 2: I guess to the t uk for a week, and
21:18
Speaker 2: I remember going into this big church in London as
21:23
Speaker 2: a I think goes eighteen eighteen years old, never been
21:27
Speaker 2: to Europe before. You walk into this church and it's
21:31
Speaker 2: full of sculptures, and you see this giant horse, you know,
21:35
Speaker 2: ten times large than the life and this guy with
21:37
Speaker 2: a huge sword and shield over his head, and you think, wow,
21:40
Speaker 2: it's the second Duke of something other. He must have
21:43
Speaker 2: been important back in the day. What a cool guy.
21:46
Speaker 2: And then you keep going through a bunch of people
21:48
Speaker 2: you've never heard of who had political power. But then
21:52
Speaker 2: you walk you it back around the corner and all
21:54
Speaker 2: of a sudden you find in the back of this
21:56
Speaker 2: church there's a place called Poet's Corner. It has the
22:01
Speaker 2: graves of Jeffrey Chaucer and C. S. Lewis and Charles Dickens,
22:07
Speaker 2: And you start to say, I have no idea who
22:10
Speaker 2: all these politicians were. But Scrooge speaks to me every year.
22:16
Speaker 2: As Land is a book that I'm reading to my kids,
22:19
Speaker 2: and it inspires me with hope and joy. And I
22:23
Speaker 2: look at the role that storytellers, that the timeless power
22:28
Speaker 2: that effective storytellers can wield, and their generation and the
22:33
Speaker 2: generations to come, and find I just find that so moving,
22:39
Speaker 2: the thought that we can change culture, we can change people,
22:43
Speaker 2: we can have an influence far outsize to our power.
22:46
Speaker 2: You know, there's the saying that the pen is mightier
22:49
Speaker 2: than the sword, And I look at It's a wonderful
22:50
Speaker 2: life as a wonderful example of that that eighty years on,
22:54
Speaker 2: people are still watching it. People are still trying their
22:57
Speaker 2: eyeballs dry every Christmas Eve over a silly story that
23:01
Speaker 2: Kapra and Jimmy made eighty years ago. So I have
23:04
Speaker 2: great hope that God would use our efforts to tell
23:09
Speaker 2: stories to inspire our generation in generations to come. And
23:14
Speaker 2: as we look at the kind of stories that our
23:15
Speaker 2: team is developing, one of our core words is timeless,
23:18
Speaker 2: And so we ask what makes a timeless movie? Why
23:22
Speaker 2: is it's a wonderful life watched today? And many other
23:26
Speaker 2: movies from the thirties and forties aren't much today. And
23:30
Speaker 2: there are some, you know, luck or providence or chance
23:33
Speaker 2: that you could say, well, this one had better marketing
23:36
Speaker 2: and a cultural moment and went viral because somebody tweeted
23:38
Speaker 2: it or whatever. But there's also something in the DNA
23:42
Speaker 2: of storytelling that if it has genuine hope and you
23:46
Speaker 2: have characters who are going on a relatable journey with
23:50
Speaker 2: themes that are relevant to you, and you find that
23:54
Speaker 2: that hope and that inspiration that comes back to your
23:56
Speaker 2: heart and mooms you, then those are the kind of
23:59
Speaker 2: stories that people will go back to again and again
24:02
Speaker 2: and again. So our desire is to tell those kinds
24:05
Speaker 2: of time the stories, and to pray that they make
24:08
Speaker 2: a difference and inspiring our generation and the generations to come,
24:12
Speaker 2: just like Jamie and Capra and Lewis and Dickenson and
24:16
Speaker 2: some of the other storytellers through time. So we take
24:19
Speaker 2: the role of storyteller in culture, very seriously and with
24:22
Speaker 2: a great deal of joy, and say, I can't believe
24:25
Speaker 2: that of all the vocations, you have to qualitude that
24:28
Speaker 2: I get to work every day and try to tell
24:32
Speaker 2: these kind of stories and very very umbolding break before.
24:36
Speaker 1: The website for the movie we talked about initially is
24:38
Speaker 1: Jimmythmovie dot com. The movie is Jimmy Aaron.
24:42
Speaker 2: Thanks so much, thank you, Michael Man.
24:46
Speaker 3: If you enjoy today's interview, please make sure to subscribe
24:49
Speaker 3: and share the episode with a friend.
24:51
Speaker 1: A big thanks to the.
24:52
Speaker 3: Team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on
24:54
Speaker 3: the podcast. If you go to lifeaudio dot com you
24:57
Speaker 3: will find dozens of other faith centered podcast and their network.
25:02
Speaker 1: See you next time.