Latest / Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews / The Faith and True Story Behind Soul on Fire: A Conversation with Joel Courtney and Masey McLain

Transcript

The Faith and True Story Behind Soul on Fire: A Conversation with Joel Courtney and Masey McLain · Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Life Audio Joel and Macy, great job on the film.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Joel, of course you portray John and Macy you portray
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Beth in the movie.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: Why did you guys.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Want to be a part of this film?
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: This film is just so special. Not only I love
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: getting to tell true stories, There's something really beautiful and.
• 0:19
  Speaker 4: Special about that, but especially when it's such a just
• 0:23
  Speaker 4: joyful story regardless of whatever hurt or like scarring or.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Battles that people are going through. The overcoming is really
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: important to tell. I think in stories nowadays, I think
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: hope is important nowadays, and this is just saturated with
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: those two things.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Macey, Yeah, I would say, my goodness when I got
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: this script, I was so excited to tell a story.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: I mean, like what he's saying of overcoming of I
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: just think, especially today, is so important to know that
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: you have a choice no matter what your circumstance is,
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: that hope is always there and you are not a victim.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: You can be a victor, like you can go from
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: the pit completely to a life of freedom and joy.
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: And a lot of it comes down to choices that
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: you make once Sometimes there are massive choices, like you know, John,
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: Whenie's little makes the choice of I want to live
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: and then sometimes it's every day after that when it
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: gets just the mundane and it's the hard stuff and
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: the things no one sees. But no one can make
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: those choices for you. You have to be the one.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: And I'm excited to give audiences agency for them to
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: leave the theater and know like, oh, I have agency
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: in my story. I can make a choice to live
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: to the fullest extent of that word.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Eh be are people of faith? How did working on
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: this story impact your own perspective on faith and resilience.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Well, resiliency is such a such a tough thing. I
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: immediately think of job, you know, everyone around him telling
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: him like you've sen you know, curse God and move on,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: you know, that kind of thing. But his resiliency to
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: hold to his faith, it's a position that you never
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: want to be in. And John was in that.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: He could have taken his circumstances into account and said, uh,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: you know, why me in the the wrong way? You know,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: but he he flipped that around through life. He found
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: through death's help, through his parents' help, through his friends
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: in college, people who loved him despite his brokenness, and
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: whatever emotional trauma that he was still hiding and covering
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: with his drinking and partying, you know that kind of stuff.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Like his faith blossomed and flourished by saying yes and
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: you know, having what was there years was an a agency.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say autonomy. I was like, that's not
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: it agency, the agency, But like he said yes to
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: speaking and sharing his story, and you know, faith just
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: plays such a huge part of his role. So as
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: a Christian, it is always a special time for me
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: to get to play someone of faith. And this has
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: been a career highlight film for me.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: In that Masie, yeah, I would say to me, this
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: film is from being a person of faith. To me
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: is a display of the Gospel. I think you know
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: all the people in John's life, you know, especially the character.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: I always feel words sing character because she's a real person.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: But Beth, you know, just to be fully known or
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: to be fully loved, you have to be fully known.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: And in order to be fully known, there takes like
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: a level of intense vulnerability to show someone the darkest
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: parts of you, the parts with the most shame, and
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: the things that you don't want people to see, the
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: things that we quote unquote like wear a turtleneck to hide,
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: kind of like John did. And and to me, it's
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: a picture of the Gospel because God looked at us
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: in our most brokenness and as non of terr most
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: brokenness and are and are the worst of the worst
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: and just the worst parts of us, no matter what
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: you've done, no matter who you are, and says like
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: I choose you. I love you so much that I
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: set my son to die for you, and like I
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  Speaker 3: choose you in your worst And I just think this
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  Speaker 3: film is a beautiful display of what the gospel is
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: in just a subtle way. But it's a picture of
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: it to me.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the two of your preaching right there, a great
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: job with those answers. Did you guys get the chance
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: to meet the real life John and Beth And if so,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: how did that impact your performances and your roles?
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean John and I met on Zoom well
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: before filming. He gave me his phone number. He said,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: if you ever want to talk, if you ever have
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: any questions, feel free to reach out day or night.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: I did quite often. He was on set, probably every
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: ninety plus percent, but sure most days, and he was
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: always available. We were always accessible. You know, he was
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: just helping out on set, you know, like the scene
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: where we're shooting pool at the bar. I was like, John,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: how do you hold a pool cue? And He's like,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: this is how I do it. I was like, all right,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: that's what I'm going to do it, you know that
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. He showed me how he bowls.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: He was just accessible and since then he's become a
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: friend for sure.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Macy, do you have any thoughts there?
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was the same. I mean the second you
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: meet John and the second we met John, I immediately
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: felt like family in a way. I felt like I belonged.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: I felt like I felt so inspired. And also he
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: just gave me so much confidence to do this role.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: And Beth, oh my goodness. I zoomed with her immediately,
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: and she, I mean we were on zoom for hours,
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: and she was just willing to tell me any stories,
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: any thoughts, Like she was willing to be vulnerable. And
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: they both it's hard to explain, but they both just
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: like make you feel like you're a part of You're
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: already ingrained into his story and it's hard to but
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: I told him, I was like, you're never going to
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: get rid of me. Like you say that you know
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: I love you and there's nothing you can do about it.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: Like he said that to us all the time, And
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: will you say up back to him, We're We're not
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: going anywhere.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: There are a thousand lessons from the story from this film.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: What are the lessons that ATV want audiences to take
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: away from this film?
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I something I really want audiences to take away.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: I think all of us can relate to. Well, there's
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: a verse in scripture that says the enemy has come
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: to kill, steal, and destroy, but I have come to
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: give you life and life abundantly. And I think every
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: single one of us can say that things have been
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: stolen in our lives, whether that's dreams, whether it's opportunities,
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: whether it's relationships or just really horrific things that have happened.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: Things have been killed in our lives. Again, that can
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: be a slew of things, and things have been destroyed.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: But I hope people leave knowing whatever has been stolen,
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: God can replenish, and whatever's been He can resurrect. Whatever
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: has been destroyed, he can rebuild. And I think you
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: know a big part of that is training to him
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: of he offers the life abundantly, and he has an
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: abundant life for us. I think there's a big part
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: that we need. We have to choose that, because we
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: can stay in the rubble of our destruction and the
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: things that have happened to us, or we can choose that, No,
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: there is more.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: And I do have hope, Joel in the final second
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  Speaker 2: here or do you have any thoughts?
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Hate to follow that up?
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: Sounds perfect.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: I think that one thing that I would love to
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: see people take away that I take away is just
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: a life of hope in that just hope and joy abundant.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: It is possible, but you have to choose it. And
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: kind of what you were saying earlier, like you can
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: decide to focus on the negative, you can decide to
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  Speaker 1: focus on what's been stolen, but you can also choose
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: to take from the past circumstances that have happened and
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: learn from them and grow through them like John did.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: And what came out of that was beautiful. His speaking engagements,
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  Speaker 1: his encouragements to audiences of like twenty eight thousand people
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: you know, live inspired and share your story to help
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: people through whatever their fire was. I think is something
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: that I would love for people to take away.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: If you like today's episode, please subscribe and leave a
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: five star review. That's how we help more people just
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: like you find the show.
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: A big thanks to the team at life Audio.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: For their partnership with us on the podcast.
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: If you go to lifeaudio dot com, you will find
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network. See
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: you next time.