Over the years I have had the opportunity to interview and
meet many celebrities, sometimes athletes, actors, musicians and I have to
admit, there are times I get a little giddy. I heard about an opportunity with
Kirk Cameron and to be honest about it, it was at first a so so moment. I have
never really been a fan of Cameron’s, never seen an episode of Growing Pains
and haven’t been the biggest fan of The Way of the Master. Unfortunately, the
movies I had seen him in with Christian themes were disappointing. I was among
the throngs of people looking forward to the release of The Left Behind movies
and was extremely disappointed with the overall quality of the movies once they
were released. While Cameron did a fair job in his biggest hit, Fireproof, I
was still disappointed with other components of the film including the many in
the supporting cast. It was watchable though which was more than I could say
about The Left Behind movies. Despite my own feelings about Cameron’s work
which I had seen what I soon learned when releasing the news of my upcoming
interview with him was that he had a huge following. It wasn’t that I didn’t
like him; I just wasn’t a fan.
His new project Unstoppable was something that looked
interesting to me; it is to be a one night only theatrical event which focuses
on the question of when bad things happen to good people in a documentary style.
In my own experiences in sharing my faith it is without a doubt one of the most
asked questions of people who are going through tough times, or seeking to
question the reality of God. The trailers for this project look promising and
Cameron is intriguing in the small bits of the film I have seen. So I begin my
efforts to prepare for the Cameron interview. I asked my friends what they
would ask, complied some of their questions with mine and proceeded to talk to
him. While the interview started off a little rough, (I felt his answer to the
question regarding his evangelical techniques with Way of the Master was
scripted and came off as if he were reading it) the interview shortly moved
into more of a positive place, including laughter and what I felt was a sincere
Kirk Cameron, a guy I could like and enjoy spending some time with. What follows is a part of that interview that
starts off with Kirk giving me a phone call.
Kirk Cameron (KC): Hi Mike Kirk Cameron here.
Mike Furches (MF): Hi Kirk, how are you doing?
KC: Doing great, how about you?
MF: Doing good, real good in fact.
KC: I’m out here on the West Coast, where are you at?
MF: I’m in Wichita Kansas.
KC: Oh My!
MY: Yeah, I write for 3 web sites, The Virtual Pew,
Spirituality in Film and of course the biggie and granddaddy of them all,
Hollywood Jesus.
I’m looking forward to the interview, some of the folks and friends at Facebook and other places have indicated that they think I am a good choice to speak to you because I tend to be blunt and to the point. I’ve also seen enough interviews with you to know that you can handle it. (Laughter from me and Kirk)
I’m looking forward to the interview, some of the folks and friends at Facebook and other places have indicated that they think I am a good choice to speak to you because I tend to be blunt and to the point. I’ve also seen enough interviews with you to know that you can handle it. (Laughter from me and Kirk)
KC: Well that’s good
and I’ll try not to go out to be too rough on you either.
MF: You don’t have to
go rough on me; you don’t have much of a reason to be that rough. (Again laughter from the two of us)
Anyway, I do have a
few questions and I certainly want to respect your time, so I’ll jump right in
if that is okay.
KC: Certainly, I appreciate you taking the time to talk to
me.
MF: I’m glad to do
it.
This is a question I have had from another individual to ask
you. It seems that a lot of your methods from WOTM are controversial, even
among strong evangelicals, some say they are manipulative at times and are
disrespectful, your thoughts as you are a great person to answer this question
or thought?
KC: (laughter) Well, let’s see, I can tell you that my goal
is to always be kind and to be gracious to always be willing to speak in
kindness of what I believe to be the
truth, again, in a loving and gracious manner. So obviously I had a major
change of heart and a major change of in my life when someone shared the Gospel
with me. Today, I am a recovering Atheist and I am so grateful today that
someone took the time to expose my sin and point me to the cross and my need
for a Savior. Now some might say that the person who did that with me may have been
disrespectful toward my lifestyle or intolerant of my previous beliefs, but I look
at that persona as a hero. They were somebody who helped me to pull my head out
of the sand and to smell the coffee so to speak. They helped me lift my eyes to
Heaven and to begin to live my life saying ‘Thank you God for being so kind to
me. Thank you for pulling me off this path that was leading no where good and
for putting my feet on higher ground.’ Today I am so thankful; you look at most
of my contemporaries that I grew up with and tragically I can’t even hang out
with some of them anymore because their dead or they’re in a lock down
facility. Why? Because they continued down a path that seemed right in their
own eyes and it’s that Hollywood path that often leads to shame, guilt, fear,
destruction and tragedy. I’m so thankful that I’m not there and it started with
someone sharing the Gospel with me in a way that I attempt to share with others
in my life.
MF: I’ll stray from some of my questions and you gave me a
good follow up here. Have you seen the
video of Penn Jillette getting the gift of a bible?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhG-tkQ_Q2w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhG-tkQ_Q2w
KC: I sure have.
MF: So what you are
saying is in some ways, the same thing Penn is saying in the video? That if we
really
believe in our faith, in a Heaven or a Hell, then it becomes critical and important to share our faith without compromise?
believe in our faith, in a Heaven or a Hell, then it becomes critical and important to share our faith without compromise?
KC: Yes, and Penn went even further than that by saying and
trying to convict people of faith to say, ‘If your not sharing your faith with
someone that you believe is in danger, then how much do you really have to hate
someone to not share that which you believe can help them?’ That would be the
most unloving thing that you could do in other words, that is, to not share
your faith with them. I can tell you right now that Penn the Atheist really
convicted me and Ray Comfort saw his video. It made us feel like, you know
what? We need to do this even more in life!
MF: So the conviction of an Atheist to do even more when it
comes to spreading the Gospel?
KC: (Enthusiastically) YES! (Laughing now) that is the irony
of that we agree, he is right.
MF: One of the things I have always tried to do is to
respect my friends and readers, so this one is another question that comes
directly from Facebook. What are your thoughts on Christian film and the
criticism that there normally put out there including there isn’t much of a
story, poor acting, poor special effects etc...
Do you think the future looks better for Christian film, and can you
give some examples that give indication of that?
KC: That’s a really
good question and I have to think about it. (About 15 seconds of silence before
he responds) Let me tell you something; first are you recording or writing?
MF: I learned a long
time ago to record.
KC: That’s great, so
let me tell you something about Christian film. You know, film is film. It is a
very interesting discussion to talk about what makes something a “Christian”
film. I’m looking at your web site, Hollywood Jesus right now and I see “Man of
Steel, Jesus in Chains.” You can also look at The Chronicles of Narnia, The
Passion of the Christ and a thousand different movies about heroes and damsels
in distress, killing the dragon, rescuing the woman, stories about war and
redemption, betrayal and sacrifice, death and resurrection, good overcoming
evil and these are all universal story themes that make for exciting
experiences in books, in movie theaters, music on stage, and all the best
stories really come out of ancient themes that are best told in the scriptures
themselves. So there is an argument that could be made that every great movie
is a “Christian” movie at heart because when good overcomes evil or someone
kills the dragon and wins the beautiful woman and restores her back to safety,
or a man is providing and protecting those who trusted him, these are Biblical
themes, not really revolutionary ideas. These aren’t pagan ideas! Pagan ideas
are stories about how the guy rolls into town, kills everyone, throws the woman
on his back and rides off into the sunset to enjoy all of the spoils of war for
himself. Those are the anti heroes, so “Christian” films, I think, are the best
kinds of film because they are faithful to the story and people are doing their
job of being good story tellers. I’m getting a little philosophical there so
I’ll try to be more direct in what I’m saying.
With technology today, those who understand how to tell
great stories are able to make them look better. We’ve got red camera’s we all have our DSR’s, our Final Cut programs, and we can all make movies, even if you’re 15 years old you can make a great movie. So, I think all films will be getting better in terms of the visuals, the effects and the way things look and sound, but storytelling is going to be good and bad everywhere you look. The best stories will always be the ones that resonate in the hearts of people, where those things are always rooted in the ultimate story, which is the story of God and His creation and creations rebellion against Him and of Him sacrificing in order to restore that which He loves back to Himself. There are also the stories of God putting the beast under His foot and beautifying the bride. Those are always going to be the best stories and movies and that’s why you see movies with those themes always do the best at the box office.
MF: There are a few
other areas I want to make sure I touch on. What about the controversy of
Facebook and Youtube, in your words, what happened and was their a conspiracy
or effort to stop the promotion of your work? Some are especially wondering
this when it seems as if it was presented as an effort of these groups to stop
your work, when in reality, both mediums contain a great deal of conservative
Christian views. Why the Kirk Cameron effort and not the others who speak with
a conservative voice?
KC: Well, do a search yourself. You can look on Facebook or
YouTube and you can find videos of extremist cutting the heads off of live
people, I would say that might rightly be categorized as unsafe or abusive. You
can find pages about killing someone, say killing police officers, and maybe
even another one that says the Virgin Mary ought to have aborted. Those things
aren’t shut down. Why my movie about Faith, Hope and Love and finding God in
the face of tragedy would be blocked from having people being able to post the
trailer or link to the content? I have no idea who would do something like that
or why they would do it. My guess is that there is enough people who don’t like
that message that perhaps they just clicked that report a problem button that
you can click, and if enough people do it that it would shut it down. I imagine
it was not someone inside of Facebook or YouTube but probably groups of people
on the outside who wanted to cause trouble, that would be my guess and that is
a good safety mechanism that Facebook has in place. I’m thankful for that,
nonetheless, there are millions of people who want to see my movie because they
love God and they want to know where He is in the midst of their tragedy and
suffering. I’m glad they spoke up and I’m grateful that YouTube and Facebook reinstated
us rather quickly.
MF: Regarding your new film, Unstoppable, it looks
promising, tell us some about it and why you are using a one night only concept
for the showing of the film in theaters? Also, for those that want to see
Unstoppable, will DVD options be available in the future?
KC: First, the premise of the film, from where I sit, I have
been volunteering at a camp that my wife and I started 23 years ago for terminally ill children.
MF: That’s Camp
Firefly?
KC: That’s right, and for 23 years we have been bringing
families to a one week all-expense paid vacation. You can look that up at
campfirefly.com. We’ve had over 160 families come and we got to be very close
with them and when these children pass a way and die, the question always comes
up and in fact is one of the top 5 questions in the world, it’s the question
that wrecks peoples faith quicker than anything else, “Where is God? If God is
good where is He in the midst of my tragedy? Where is He, why does He allow
evil in the world?” This is the type of questions that skeptics love to throw,
my God, my God like a fiery Molotov into faith communities to scatter God’s
people to leave their churches. So, I want to face it head on, not only for
those reasons but my own personal reasons. This is personal to me, one of my
friends died and I was praying that God would heal him. I would like to know
the answer to that question. So that’s why I did Unstoppable. I know God is
there and I have the desire to know why He’s not doing, and doing the things
that He is.
As far as a one night release: This is a very unique release
of a film and I did the same thing with my last film called Monumental. It was
terrific, fun and tens of thousands of fans and families gathering in movie
theaters all over the country, all on the same day at the same time and we all
watched the film simultaneously as its being broadcast live as a part of an
event from Liberty University. Liberty University is the largest, private, non
profit university in the country. It’s the largest Christian university in the
world, and we are going to have 10,000 students, live and in attendance
listening to musical artists like Mandisa and Warren Barfield and some other
special guests. Part of that evening will be the Unstoppable movie which will
be watched live via satellite. That gives us the opportunity to watch together
and then start the conversation together.
As to the third part of the question, as to when can people
see it afterwards, to tell you the truth, there will be opportunities 3 months
later where people will be able to get it on DVD. There may be some other
opportunities in between that but that’s not something I can really talk
about.
KC: Whoever is saying
that better take a picture because my face is changing constantly (both of us
laughing here) I’m getting older by the day. (Lots of laughter) Every grey hair
and every wrinkle is proof to me that time is marching on.
MF: I think the Miami
Vice look with the beard stubble is quite fetching, (Both laughing) the stubble
and all.
KC: (both still laughing) That’s too much, too much. Yeah,
well take a picture now because I’m not going to look like this for long. You
know, I’m just thankful to be alive. I’m still alive and kicking and I want to
do everything I can to present a cutting edge, fresh perspective, offering hope
and strength, faith, joy, and perseverance in a world and in a life that is
very challenging. The good news is that I believe we have victory written all
over us through the Gospel. The Gospel doesn’t loose. The Gospel wins and is
winning. I want people to understand, there is victory in the midst of
temporary tragedy. I want to show them where it is.
MF: As one who believes they are called into the gift of
evangelism, specific to plant seeds, it is nice to know there are those who are
called to close the deal and be a part of the process. So from that
perspective, keep up the good work of telling others about Jesus.
KC: Thank you Mike, and you as well, I look forward to
reading the story on Hollywood Jesus when it is done.
MF: Thanks to you
Kirk, God bless you.
KC: Thanks to you
again as well Mike, and God bless you.
To see the trailer for the new project, Unstoppable, click on the video below, if the video doesn't appear, click on the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzKijw7v6AM&noredirect=1
To see the trailer for the new project, Unstoppable, click on the video below, if the video doesn't appear, click on the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzKijw7v6AM&noredirect=1
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