Latest / Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews / Why “All Is Merry and Bright” Might Be the Christmas Movie We All Need This Year

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Why “All Is Merry and Bright” Might Be the Christmas Movie We All Need This Year · Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Life audio.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Hey Eric, thanks for joining me.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Thanks Michael, it's good to see you.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Good to see you. Eric Close actor in the new
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  Speaker 2: film All is Mary and Bright. It comes out November
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: the seventh in theaters. It's a faith based Christmas comedy drama.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Let me reader. Plot summary before we started to hear
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  Speaker 2: Eric plot Sumary says, when nothing goes as planned and
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: peace turns into mayhem, a wife discovers that the true
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: joy of Christmas comes not from perfection buffrom being surrounded
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  Speaker 2: by loved ones. The website is Mary and Bright dot movie.
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  Speaker 2: Emily Rose portrays the wife. Of course you portray the husband.
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  Speaker 2: What drew you to this project, to Eric and what
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  Speaker 2: appealed to you, especially in comparison to other movies in
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  Speaker 2: this genre.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it was the story and just the description you
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  Speaker 1: just read about the movie. What a great like life
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  Speaker 1: message is that is, you know, to sort of hang
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  Speaker 1: your ad on it. It's so true and that's what
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  Speaker 1: I loved about the movie. I love the message of
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  Speaker 1: the film. It's a feel good movie. You know, there's
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  Speaker 1: a bit of a redemption story and you know, God's
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  Speaker 1: definitely glorified in the movie, which I love it. It's
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  Speaker 1: done in a really natural, believable, real authentic way, which
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  Speaker 1: I that really resonated with me as well. And again
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  Speaker 1: what I got the privilege to work with a really
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  Speaker 1: cool cast, and that was fun. And we got the
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  Speaker 1: work down in Atlanta, which is a great place that
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  Speaker 1: I always enjoy shut For some reason, the last few
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: years I've worked a lot in Atlanta, so that's been
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  Speaker 1: pretty cool. And again it was I love the story,
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  Speaker 1: I love the journey of all the characters. Emily Rose
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  Speaker 1: did a fantastic job playing Jessica, and you know, she
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  Speaker 1: really carries the film and does an amazing job, and
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  Speaker 1: so I was privileged to be a part of it.
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  Speaker 2: Incredible cast. You mentioned that as well. John O'Hurley, who
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  Speaker 2: portrays mister Peterman and Seinfeld in this movie, Doug Jones
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  Speaker 2: from the Shape of the Water Shap of Water sharing
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  Speaker 2: Me from Seven Movies, Frank Oakley, the IID from Tulsa King,
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  Speaker 2: Vanessa Benavente, I believe that's they pronounce her name from
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  Speaker 2: the chosen She's in here is wrong. And Nancy Stafford
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  Speaker 2: from Matt Locke. Did you get John to do any
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  Speaker 2: mister Peterman impersonations on set?
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  Speaker 1: Ord just opened his mouth and he's mister Peterman. You know,
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  Speaker 1: he's great. I've known John for a long time and Lisa,
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  Speaker 1: they're just great people. I run into him at different
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  Speaker 1: events and we had never worked together. So when I
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  Speaker 1: found out he was playing my father in law, I
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  Speaker 1: was super excited. And of course getting to work with
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  Speaker 1: Sally Struthers when I grew up watching All the Family
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  Speaker 1: is one of my all time favorite shows. And she's
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  Speaker 1: brilliant and she just makes you laugh. She's hilarious and
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  Speaker 1: absolute sweetheart, So that was fun to get a chance
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  Speaker 1: to work with both of them.
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  Speaker 2: You've worked across multiple genres in your career. I mean
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  Speaker 2: just about every kind of genre there is. I guess
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  Speaker 2: I don't know if you ever been in a science
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  Speaker 2: fiction film, but you've been in an action film, a
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  Speaker 2: gritty film like American Sniper, dramas like Nashville, family movies
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  Speaker 2: like This One, faith movies, average Joe Mulligan at Christmas
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  Speaker 2: Lie Love Story. How do you approach shifting between different
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  Speaker 2: genres such as these and is there one that you
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  Speaker 2: like more than others?
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  Speaker 1: No, you know, as far as the sci fi, the
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  Speaker 1: sci fi stuff goes, I was, you know, I think
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  Speaker 1: it was ninety six, I did a show called Dark
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  Speaker 1: Skies for NBC and that was We're an amazing show.
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  Speaker 1: The writers just a brilliant concept. Sadly it didn't go
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  Speaker 1: but it you know, it went for a year, and
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  Speaker 1: you know, that was a fun show to work on.
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  Speaker 1: But as far as like the different genres go, really
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  Speaker 1: it's about story and story. You can take a story
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  Speaker 1: that fits in a Western, it'll fit in a sci Fi,
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  Speaker 1: it can fit in you know, early England, are you whatever,
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  Speaker 1: whatever you want to do. It's really it comes down
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  Speaker 1: to how good the story is and then you kind
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  Speaker 1: of just you just color it up with the different
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  Speaker 1: genre that you're putting it in. So it really starts
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  Speaker 1: with story.
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  Speaker 2: How did you get into acting? Eric? Did you grow
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  Speaker 2: up with a desire to be in this film?
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  Speaker 1: Did I did? I had done some theater when I
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  Speaker 1: was a kid, and I loved it. I didn't really
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  Speaker 1: know that you could make a living doing it. I
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: grew up in San Diego and my dad was a doctor,
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  Speaker 1: so I thought I was going to be a surgeon.
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  Speaker 1: I was sort of I had my sight set on that,
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  Speaker 1: and when I got into college, I was really trying
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  Speaker 1: to figure out I wasn't really geared towards the sciences.
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  Speaker 1: I thought I was, and I wasn't, and definitely more
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  Speaker 1: toward the creative side of things. And I had a
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  Speaker 1: friend who was going into the entertainment business, and I thought, well,
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  Speaker 1: I think i'll give that a try. So I started
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: taking classes and was really leaning towards production and wanting
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  Speaker 1: to direct. And then people started asking me if I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to be in their student films, and I started
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  Speaker 1: doing that and I really enjoyed it. And at that point,
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  Speaker 1: I felt I had to make a choice because I
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  Speaker 1: was getting ready to graduate and why I had graduated,
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  Speaker 1: and I had to make a choice, like what am
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  Speaker 1: I going to do? And because things keep seemed to
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  Speaker 1: keep pointing me towards acting, And at that point I
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  Speaker 1: just said, Okay, God, I think that's what you're calling
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  Speaker 1: me to. I'm going to surrender to that and went
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  Speaker 1: that way and it worked out great, and I ended
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  Speaker 1: up getting to direct later on, and you know, achieved
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  Speaker 1: that goal as well. But acting's been an amazing gift
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  Speaker 1: to me and my family.
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  Speaker 2: What was your breakout moment in your career. Do you
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  Speaker 2: remember the moment where you thought, Okay, this is.
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  Speaker 1: Going to get out. So there's a there's different things.
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  Speaker 1: I find that every project you get is a break.
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  Speaker 1: I think, you know, if you're a big movie star,
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  Speaker 1: it may not be like a break, but it may
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  Speaker 1: be a break in a different direction. Because even movie
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  Speaker 1: stars get pigeonholed and they can be sort of like, oh,
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  Speaker 1: that's that's the lane that they stay in. So let's
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: say they're in Action hero, they you know, or I
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  Speaker 1: heard Matthew McConaughey talk about how he was the romantic
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  Speaker 1: comedy king and he wanted to break out of that
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  Speaker 1: and get taken more serious and he did, you know,
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  Speaker 1: he had to kind of suffer for a little bit
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  Speaker 1: in a way that he had to say no to
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  Speaker 1: a lot of things, but then he ended up getting
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Dallas Buyer's Club in Want an Oscars. So that's that's
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  Speaker 1: that kind of break. As far as for me, it
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: was you know, my first like just getting that first
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  Speaker 1: role that you get and then you're like, okay, well
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  Speaker 1: I got I got a job. This is cool. But
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: what really came full circle to me was when I
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: was I was on a project and someone came up
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: to me and said, hey, Eric, I'm so and so
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  Speaker 1: we worked together a year ago on this other project,
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  Speaker 1: and when that happened, I went, I think I'm in.
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  Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm in because it had kind of come
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  Speaker 1: full circle because people had always said, oh, you might
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: work with somebody and never work with them again. You know,
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  Speaker 1: there's so many different productions going on, and the fact
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  Speaker 1: that I had worked with the same person, I felt like,
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  Speaker 1: I think I'm in this business. I think it's it's working.
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  Speaker 1: And of course, you know, when I got Santa Barbara
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  Speaker 1: the soap opera back in ninety two, that was huge
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  Speaker 1: because it was a full time job. So I was
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: in the grind working having to you know, learn a
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  Speaker 1: lot of dialogue and learning. You know, it's you're learning
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  Speaker 1: on your feet as you go. And then obviously mckinna
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  Speaker 1: with ABC opened a lot of doors in the series
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  Speaker 1: Television World, and you just went from there. And so
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  Speaker 1: I feel like every job I've gotten has been a
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  Speaker 1: great break.
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  Speaker 2: You're a person of faith. Did you grow up with
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  Speaker 2: that faith or did that come later in life.
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  Speaker 1: I grew up in a family that went to church.
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  Speaker 1: We weren't like overly religious. I mean, you know, we
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  Speaker 1: celebrated you know, Eastern Christmas, but what my parents weren't
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  Speaker 1: heavy handed about it, I would say, but they definitely
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  Speaker 1: was important to them. My dad was an elder in
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  Speaker 1: the Presbyterian Church and when he was younger, and so
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  Speaker 1: I think it was important to both my parents that
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  Speaker 1: me and my two brothers were exposed to that, but
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  Speaker 1: they didn't really force it, honest and so for a while,
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  Speaker 1: I it wasn't important to me. But when I was thirteen,
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  Speaker 1: it was when I first received Christ as my savior,
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  Speaker 1: when I was at school, and I responded to that message,
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  Speaker 1: the gospel message and the invitation. But then there was
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  Speaker 1: about a ten year period where it wasn't really important
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  Speaker 1: to me. I wasn't you know. I was kind of
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  Speaker 1: running wiled a bit. And when I graduated college and
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  Speaker 1: I was now pursuing a career, I remember having a
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: pivotal moment just sitting in my apartment in downtown Los Angeles,
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  Speaker 1: and I felt pretty empty and kind of lost, and
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  Speaker 1: I I just remember just saying a simple prayer. I
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  Speaker 1: just say, God, I don't know if you want to
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  Speaker 1: have anything to do with me, but I miss you,
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  Speaker 1: It's all I said. And everything changed from that point forward,
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  Speaker 1: and it was an incredible It's been an incredible journey
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  Speaker 1: and I mean just amazing. Maybe I'll write a book
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  Speaker 1: about it sometime, but that's really been and it's and
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  Speaker 1: you know, the thing is, Michael, it became real to
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  Speaker 1: me as an adult. You know, when you're younger, you're
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  Speaker 1: you know, you're still under your parents' house and influence,
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  Speaker 1: and when you go out in the real world and
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  Speaker 1: suddenly you're making decisions for yourself, you have to make
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  Speaker 1: that choice. And I made that choice to say to God, hey,
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  Speaker 1: I want you in my life as myself doing it,
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  Speaker 1: and that was very powerful.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: I was going to ask a follow about how has
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  Speaker 2: been being a Christian in Hollywood? How has that maybe
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  Speaker 2: impacted what roles you accept or decline over the years.
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  Speaker 2: I'm sure there are some that you wouldn't take, and.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, but you know, listen, I think that
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  Speaker 1: even goes for people that may not profess a Christian faith.
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  Speaker 1: And you know that our actors, I think, you know,
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  Speaker 1: we there's I've met many people in our industry from
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  Speaker 1: all different walks of life, different faiths that have certain
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to say, you know, maybe a moral
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  Speaker 1: compass or something that they just that they try to
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  Speaker 1: stay true to and every actor asks a look at
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  Speaker 1: a role and decide is why do I want to
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  Speaker 1: tell this story? What is it about this story that
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  Speaker 1: I find important? And the other thing I had to
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  Speaker 1: remind myself is that you can't please everybody. And really,
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  Speaker 1: at the end of the day, odd matters to me,
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  Speaker 1: what God thinks, and my family is important, how they
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  Speaker 1: and so because there are going to be times where
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  Speaker 1: I'll do a role where some people will say why
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  Speaker 1: do you do that role? And other people will and
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  Speaker 1: you know, it's it's tricky. I will tell you, Michael
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  Speaker 1: that I pray about every role I do with my wife.
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  Speaker 1: I ever read the script and just to kind of
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  Speaker 1: get her feedback. And I feel I feel pretty good
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  Speaker 1: about the journey that I've been on in the and
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  Speaker 1: the roles that I've taken on. Yes, there's been a
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  Speaker 1: couple of times where, looking back, you know, I would say, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I probably shouldn't have taken that. I took it for
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  Speaker 1: the wrong reason, you know, And usually the wrong reason
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  Speaker 1: is like, oh I could I could use the money,
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  Speaker 1: or I want to get you know, maybe this will
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  Speaker 1: open a different door for me. And really what that
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  Speaker 1: is is it's a lack of trust you know and
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  Speaker 1: what you know. And this is sometimes when people can compromise,
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  Speaker 1: is when they're not trusting, they can make decisions that
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: they might look back on and say, ah, shouldn't have
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  Speaker 1: done that. But for the most part, I think in
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: this again, this is a big question. I appreciate you
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  Speaker 1: asking it because my job, you know, is different than
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: everybody else on set. They're behind the camera. I'm in
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: front of the camera. And a lot of times people
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  Speaker 1: when they see you play a role, they associate you
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  Speaker 1: with that role. So I've played some pretty nefarious characters,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: you know, and people will meet me and they'll go, guy,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: you're not anything like your character that you play on
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: that such and such show. And I go, yeah, because
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  Speaker 1: I'm acting. That's that's what I do. You know, I'm
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  Speaker 1: not that guy, but I really had fun playing that character.
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  Speaker 1: So I just think, for me, at the end of
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  Speaker 1: the day, what's most important is I want to tell
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  Speaker 1: a story, a good story, because as an actor, I'm
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  Speaker 1: a part of that story. I'm not. You know, you
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  Speaker 1: can't make a movie or do a television story, or
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  Speaker 1: a good stage player or anything just with one person.
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  Speaker 1: You need everybody to come together. The directors, the crew,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: the actors, the writers, and you know, this whole team
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  Speaker 1: comes together as a co us have viewed it and
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  Speaker 1: they for one common thing, and that's to tell a
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  Speaker 1: great story. And so some things I will look at
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  Speaker 1: and go, this I think is important for this story.
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  Speaker 1: And sometimes I'll look at it and I'll go, this
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: is pretty gratuitous. I don't think this is necessary. I'll
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: go and talk to the director maybe or the writer
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  Speaker 1: and say, is there a way we can do this
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: where it's not so just in your face and we
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: can still get across the message that you're trying to
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: get across, and then we'll have a dialogue about it.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, you know, it's but at the
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  Speaker 1: end of the day, I'm still called to my job,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: which I believe God gave me this ability to do.
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  Speaker 1: What I do is to go do the best job
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  Speaker 1: I can with the story that's put in front of
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  Speaker 1: me and the character and the script that's put in
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: front of me. And once I make that decision and
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: I say I'm going to do this, then I'm all in. Yeah.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: You were mentioning earlier, how you know there might have
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: been something some roles that you wish you at and done.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Most of us aren't following around in life on our
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: job with cameras, and so we would all we would
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: all say that, you know something that we would have
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  Speaker 2: done differently in life. Let's circle back to all is
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  Speaker 2: Mary and Bright, which is in theaters no remember the seventh.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Give me just to take away that you want audiences,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: audiences to think about maybe and maybe how we can
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: impact them this holiday season.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, we always need stories that uplift us,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: bring us hope, bring us joy. And I think it's
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: really needed right now just in our current climate. You know,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: it seems to be a lot of tension and as
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: we approach, you know, get into this holiday season as
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: people come together. I hope that this it just encourages.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I hope it's encouraging and it inspires people, brings them
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: a lot of joy and laughter. It's a fun movie.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: It doesn't take itself overly serious or too serious. And
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: you know, Corey Edwards did a great job directing this film,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: and you know there's some wonderful messages in it about
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: just love and faith and family coming together and you know,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: also learning that not everything in life we can control.
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  Speaker 1: I mean there are things that are out of our control,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: and sometimes we try so hard to control things we
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: end up burning ourselves out. And it also reminds me
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: that you just can't go it alone. There's a great
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: message in this movie about we need each other. We
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: really do need each other in this life. And you know,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: sometimes you hear that there's an epidemic of loneliness in
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: the world, and you know and go ahead, just you know,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: it breaks my heart when you know that someone might
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: be lowly. And I think that this movie reminds us
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: that we need each other, we need to be come
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: together and lift each other up.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: So often Christmas is a stressful time of the year,
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: and it should be the opposite, should be just the opposite.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: And so I think this is a good reminder of that. Hey,
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: you Rick always can talk it to you things so
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: much to man.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Thanks Michael.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: If you enjoy today's interview, please make sure to subscribe
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: and share the episode with a friend. A big thanks
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: to the team that Life Audio for their partnership with
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: us on the podcast. If you go to life audio
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: dot com, you will find dozens of other faith centered
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: podcasts in their network. See you next time.