[0:00] Hello, friends. Welcome to another episode of Tell Us a Good Story. Today, we get to talk to someone you may have seen acting in faith-based films, such as Facing the Giants, Fireproof, Courageous, and War Room. He’s also the co-writer and director of the new movie titled The Forge, which is out in theaters on August 23rd. Friends, meet Mr. Alex Kendrick. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. You guys, this man had so many good stories to share, such as all the people who tried to replicate the death crawl scene from their second movie called Facing the Giants, and then stories about what it was like to work with Kirk Cameron in the movie Fireproof. Now, Fireproof is a movie about marriage. However, while Alex was off making this movie, he talks about how behind the scenes in his own marriage at home, it was falling apart and what he learned through that process. Plus, we get to hear about the Kendrick Brothers’ new movie called The Forge. Yes, we have not seen a preview of this yet, but the trailer looks awesome and it’s a sequel of their prior movie called War Room. Oh, you guys, we can’t wait to see this movie and we can’t wait for you to hear the conversation with Mr. Alex Kendrick.

[1:03] I’m Kevin. And I’m Stephanie. And during our marriage, we have dealt with an electrocution, a brain tumor, brain surgery. Then doctors telling us that children were not in our future, followed by miscarriage, and then Kevin’s cancer diagnosis. However, today we live a life completely healed and restored with three healthy children who doctors said were not possible. And we’re here to tell stories that inspire, give hope, and brighten your day. Welcome to Tell Us a Good Story.

[1:31] Okay, friends, before we get to this episode, just a friendly reminder to please hit the subscribe button on YouTube and Apple podcast or give us a review. Five stars, please. In our world, this is super, super important because it will help with the algorithm to make it easier for people to find us. And thank you for sharing our post across your social media. That really helps with engagement and with us getting guests. Yes. So, hey, if you want us to keep working our way up to talking to Chip and Joanna, please share us with your friends. But regardless, thank you for listening to tell us a good story.

[2:04] All right, Steph. I’m so excited. Oh, Kevin, I know I get excited, but I am so excited about him. We have so been looking forward to having this conversation. Oh, and he said yes. He did say yes. This is going to be great. Oh, I’m so excited. Well, friends, aren’t we? Well, hey, do y’all want to say a prayer and jump in? we prayed before you came on but we can, Yeah, Lord, I thank you for this time, this conversation. Lord, we ask that you would guide this conversation, that you would be pleased and honored. And we thank and praise you for your goodness. And may you get glory in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. Love it. Thank you. Thank you. All right. This is episode 229. Alex, that’s the first time we’ve had a guest pray with us. Pray. Yay. That was excellent. I love it. Well, friends, our next guest, as you can tell, is a pastor, a film writer, producer, director, and actor. He is best known for directing and starring in faith-based films, including Facing the Giants, War Room, Overcomer, Courageous, and Fireproof. And his newest film, The Forge, opens in theaters August 23rd. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to Tell Us a Good Story, Mr. Alex Kendrick. Alex Kendrick!

[3:11] Oh, we’re so excited. That was very kind, guys. Thank you so much. Thank you for saying yes to us. Yes. And the first thing, Alex, I’m not joking when I say this. One of my all-time favorite scenes in a movie as you can imagine is the death crawl from the movie facing the giants okay steph and i here of course we’re married yes we have coached our kids little league teams t-ball teams and i so want to reenact that death crawl scene however.

[3:40] Steph has made it very made it very real to me that it would not be appropriate to have six-year-olds doing a death crawl out in the outfield. Yes. So once that movie dropped, Alex, what were some of the crazier stories you heard of people reenacting the death crawl to motivate their team or their business organization? Because you had to have some crazy stories from that. Well, if I talk just about the death crawl, we were startled by the response. We had high school teams doing it, some college teams, and even the Green Bay Packers. Oh my gosh. Yeah, doing the death crawl for a while. I don’t know if they’re still doing it today, but for a while, that was part of their training camp. And so grateful for that. And then we were really taken back by how many organizations were using the death crawl kind of as a motivation for their team. Okay. And I’m talking about from business corporations to Mary Kay Cosmetics. What? And we were all like, what? Really? And so they were like, yeah, we’re talking about just stirring up our sales team. So we’d show them the death crawl. And I was like, oh, well, okay.

[4:49] But the thing that blessed me the most, was someone who would say, I was dealing with something in my life, wanting to give up. And I watched that scene. It was like the Holy Spirit was saying, stay with me, stay with me. Don’t give up. Don’t give up. You know, persevere and let’s keep going until I had victory in Jesus name. And so that really was encouraging to me that people were encouraged in that form. So I didn’t know what to expect. You know, I felt like we prayed through the movie and asked the Lord to guide those scenes. And so when we shot it, it was hard to shoot because that guy was really doing it. He was really carrying that kid across the field. And we shot it multiple times. So over about an eight-hour period, he was going across that field over and over to get the different angles. And so we were all exhausted at the end of the day. But the result of it just blew us away. Okay, I have so many questions about the death crawl. Because Kevin and I, on our way here, we were having a debate. Yes. Did he make it the whole 100 yards one time? Because I’m saying no. I’m saying no, that didn’t happen. In multiple shots. And I’m saying, I believe… You think he actually did that. Well, I was motivated by Alex. I would have made it. So I would have known if this kid made it the 100 yards. Yes.

[6:07] So I think you’re going to be impressed with both sides of that answer. So here is what we had. We had one camera and 40 feet of dolly track. I’m sorry, 40 yards of dolly track. So from the time he started we would film it 40 yards and that’s as far as the camera could roll I film it 40 yards then do it again with the tighter lens, Move the dolly track do it two more times with different lenses move the dolly try do it You know two more times and so by the end of the day he crossed that field, equivalent to a number of times.

[6:39] So the answer is impressive in that he did it all day over an eight-hour period and But we didn’t have enough dolly track to do one 100-yard. Right. So we had one camera for the whole movie. And so every time it changes angles, that was a different setup. But we did film these long 40-yard takes. But Jason McLeod, who was the young character Brock, who does the death crawl, he was exhausted. He said the next day he couldn’t feel his arms. My voice was gone from yelling all day long.

[7:11] And it was in the middle of summer. So it was about 98 degrees. So it was very, very warm. So it was a tough shoot. And we all wondered, how is this going to resonate with people, not knowing what the Lord was going to do? So I would love to say we were able to do one 100-yard shoot, but we didn’t have that ability, technically. But, yeah, he did it. He did it all day long, over and over and over. There’s so much of that scene. We watched it earlier today, actually. I still get teary-eyed. I still choke up, just even when the boys are, like, joking around with him. And then they start standing up, and they’re like, he’s going to do this. Like, you could just see the shift in the movie. And you know what happens, because we’ve already watched it multiple times. You know he makes it. I do cry, yes. However, I want to ask you, where did that scene come about in your thinking?

[7:55] Sure. You know, every movie we do, I ask the Lord not only for a theme and a direction that he wants us to go, and he always gives us that, but I ask him for an element that has never been seen in a movie before. So for Facing the Giants, it was the death crawl. Yeah. That did not exist before we shot it in the film, and that was an idea the Lord gave us. And then football teams are using it all over the nation. And then for Fireproof, it was the love dare. Right. That concept for courageous, the resolution for men that they take in war room. It was this concept of having an exclusive prayer area of your house, a prayer closet, if you will. And then the next thing I know, they’re popping up all over the nation. People saying, I started a prayer room. And then for our newest one, The Forge, it’s the same thing, starting these Forge groups. And I don’t know if you guys have seen an early cut of the film or not. If you haven’t, we’ll try to get you one. But, you know, where men get together in groups of six to eight and they’re pouring into the next generation. And the manner in which they do that is a little bit creative. So we’re hoping that in every film we do, there’s an aspect that is fresh and new for people to consider. and from facing the Giants, it was the death crawl.

[9:13] All right, Steph, I’m going to test you again here. What is your favorite book of all time? Obviously, it’s the Bible, Kevin. Yes. Nailed it. Very good. This time you didn’t say the book we wrote called You Met Her Where. But it’s still a really good book. That is true. And it would make a great gift for friends or relatives on their birthday or for Christmas. Friends, you can order your copy of our book titled You Met Her Where at kevinandsteph.com. And we will make sure to personally sign a copy for you or whoever you want. And as always, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.

[9:44] So can you set the scene here, Alex, where at the time you started doing these films, you were an associate pastor at a church. And can you share about how you actually got into making these movies? Because this is actually, this is a great story because this wasn’t what you started out to do. Right. So I was just in ministry as an associate pastor of our church. Growing up my two brothers and I have an older brother by three years and a younger brother by three years so I’m the middle and we would make silly videos growing up enjoyed doing Alabama Jones instead of Indiana Jones and instead of James Bond we did Savings Bond and we would run around our neighborhood yeah we’d run around our neighborhood with kids doing dorky little stories and then we had praying parents and our and our parents would ask the Lord would you capture the heart of our children that they would honor you with what they do and all of us came to a point in our young 20s or late teens Lord we surrender our lives to you we want to do what you want us to do and so I went to my pastor here at Sherwood Church in Albany Georgia in the early 2000s so this is around 2002 and I said what if we did a movie for the community just our community and that was flywheel our very first movie.

[11:02] And I tell you what, guys, I cannot tell you how humbling it was for me to realize that I don’t know how to make a movie. We were making Flywheel, and I often share this story. I’m directing it one Friday afternoon in this office. Some of our church members were the actors. The sun’s going down, and I realize we can’t finish the scene. So I said, let’s come back Monday and finish the scene. When they came back Monday, they’re wearing different clothes. And I said, guys, I said, hey, your clothes can’t change halfway through a scene. And then I’m looking at one of them and I realize he had gotten a haircut over the weekend. Oh no! I said, what did you do that for? And so if you look at, there’s a scene in Flywheel where his hair just goes whoop, halfway through the scene. And I realized, wow, there’s a lot of continuity issues and things like that to manage an entire movie shoot. And so we cut our teeth on Flywheel. I did not want to release it because I thought this turned out to be way cheesier than I ever imagined. It’s not going to work. My brother, Steven, was the one who encouraged me, put it in God’s hands. He’s answered too many prayers.

[12:05] And when we did, we gave it to the Lord and said, God, you do whatever you want to. 1.3 million DVDs sold to that. Oh my gosh. What? And so it went crazy. And that led to us saying, Lord, what do you want us to do next? And that was Facing the Giants was our second film. So you talk about casting with people in your church. How did that come about? Like, do you have a big church that you can pull from? Did you have volunteers? Did everyone, yeah, did family members come out of the woodwork like, hey, if you need a dead body in the scene, I’m your guy. Like, did every, is everyone calling you up wanting to be in the movie? That’s a great question because initially nobody wanted to help, you know, because there was like, what is this now? What are you doing? And I said, we’re making a movie. And I don’t know if you’ve seen Flywheel. That was the very first one. But it was about a used car salesman. And that doesn’t sound like a very exciting movie. And so when we were shooting it, I just begged people, would you come do a scene or be a part in the movie? And they would usually go, okay, you know, if you can do it on a Saturday or something, I’ll come be in it. Well, later when the movie ministry was exploding, then everybody wants to be in the movie. And so it was funny when Kirk Cameron came to our church and auditioned for Fireproof. And there’s a line of guys wanting to be the lead actor in our church. And so they’re They’re all trying out and one of them turns around and sees Kirk Cameron. He’s like, Oh great. No. And.

[13:27] And so Kirk, of course he’s talented and he loves the Lord, so we were happy to give him the role. And he’s done a great job representing it. And so that was fun. But today we’re having to turn people away because we have thousands that want to be in the movie. But initially nobody wanted to be in the movie and we were begging people. So it’s been a fun ride. Okay, so then how did Kirk Cameron decide to audition for Fireproof? For the next movie, yeah. Yeah. So he called us. He had seen Facing the Giants when it was in theaters. He calls us and says, if you ever need help making a movie, I’m your man. And I was like, weren’t you in Growing Pains? And he says, yeah. He says, I’m a Christian. I love the kind of movies you’re making. Let me come help. So I said, would you be willing to come to our church and audition? And he said, yes. So he flies from California to Albany, Georgia and comes auditions. And I was amazed. I was like, this guy is humble. Right. To do that. Yeah. Yeah, and so, of course, he got the part and did a wonderful job, and so it was fun. Now, I will say this. This is funny.

[14:30] Hey, remind me where you guys are right now. What location are y’all at? Columbus, Ohio. Okay. Do y’all ever eat boiled peanuts? Oh, no. No. Uh-uh. No, we can’t do that. Are you familiar with boiled peanuts? For sure. Yes. Anytime we drive south, we see lots of signs for selling boiled peanuts. Yes. Okay, so Kirk had never had them, didn’t know what they were. He’s from California. So when he’s in Georgia, in one of our weeks that we had a break in filming, so we go to a local fair, he puts on sunglasses and a cap to be less recognizable. And we are walking around and there was a little stand selling boiled peanuts. That’s very common in the South. So we got some, said, hey, Kirk, you should try these out. He puts his hand in the bag and he says, guys, these things are wet, which is what boiled peanuts are. They’re hot, wet peanuts. And so we just got a kick out of that, but, and then we called him Dale.

[15:22] So he wouldn’t go by Kirk. So if somebody saw him and said, that guy looks like Kirk Hampton, we would say, hey, Dale, come over. But that was fun hanging out with him. We loved hanging out with Kirk, and he really is a great guy. Oh, that’s smart. Like you said, just the humility that he was like, no, no, I’m this amazing Hollywood actor. You should just give me the part. Like, no, I’ll come in. I’ll audition. That’s amazing. That’s impressive. Yeah. He was great. And really is a humble guy. His wife and he have six kids as well, four of them adopted. And so he loves the Lord. Or we went on to do a movie called Life Mark with him as well. I saw that. A couple years ago. But Kirk loves the Lord. He’s such a great father and husband. He’s a good friend. Isn’t it true in that movie, like he made a vow to his wife that he would never kiss another woman? So in your movie, you actually brought his wife in for the kissing scene? Yes, absolutely. And she’s wearing the same dress. We did her hair the same way. And we shot it in silhouette. So when they come together and he kisses her, you can’t quite make out that it’s not the actress playing his wife, but it worked. And it was funny when we were shooting that scene, he was Kirk was so funny. He said, hey, man, I’ll shoot this as many times as you want. And so we shot it three or four times. It was it was fun to have her on set with us. Oh, I love that.

[16:43] Steph, what is one of the most asked questions we get about Tell Us a Good Story? Do I really get that excited? Besides that one. Oh, how do we get all these incredible guests? Correct. And some of our best conversations have been with guests who our listeners have reached out to us and said, you should talk to this person. To name just a few, Nick Vujicic, Coach Tom Ryan, Carol Matico were all recommendations from our listeners. So if there’s someone you would like us to interview and think they might be a great fit for Tell Us a Good Story, please let us know at kevinandsteph.com. You don’t even have to personally know them. True, but do me a favor. Before you submit their names, please make sure they are still alive. That has actually happened, and it is super hard for me to find their contact information. But regardless, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.

[17:30] All right, Alex. So for all of our guests, I like to give a list of fun facts to let listeners know what you’ve done, what you’ve accomplished, and Steph is not going to be aware of really any of these. She has not seen these. So you’re going to see her genuine reaction. Okay. And if I’m wrong on any of these, please correct me. All right, Steph, you ready?

[17:49] The Kendrick Brothers productions includes Alex and his two brothers I mentioned, Stephen and Shannon. Like the two of us, Alex is the middle child. They all live in Albany, Georgia. Alex has six children. Stephen has six children. Shannon has seven children. Yes. So Alex, is there some type of internal competition going on in your family about increasing the population? How does that work? Like, do you just concede to Shannon at this point with seven kids? Like, okay, you win. How does that work? Now, at this point, I think the answer is that it’s going to stay 19 total kids between us but we’ve wondered who was gonna have the 20th for our parents but but no there was no competition we we love big families and it has been just a joy to watch our kids and all of our kids are tight together yeah so these 19 kids between all of us they help each other then they’re in the movies in different places or they’re behind the scenes in the art department or prop department things like that helping out so we love doing it as a family. It’s been just a blessing to have the kids with us, but they’re a hoot and they’re all different personalities and temperaments. So it’s a blast to be around them. Oh, that’s awesome. All right, Steph. Next one fact. Alex is another PK, as am I, pastor’s kid.

[19:12] His father was an ordained minister, his mother a schoolteacher. Growing up, their family did not have a television. Oh. As preteens, their parents bought Alex and his brothers a video camera, which led to them frequently being reprimanded for, quote, pushing the boundaries of safe judgment.

[19:34] That’s true. That’s true. Okay, so Alex, what falls under the title of Pushing the Boundaries of Safe Judgment? Because I can only imagine how many times you completely freaked out your parents. Okay, so I’m going to share this with you, but whoever’s listening to this, if you’re young, this is not permission to do this. Do not do this. So we were after great shots, and like you said, for about eight years, didn’t have a television. So when we would get to go to the movie to see mostly Disney films We just were like we got to do this one day. We got to make these movies So we ran around our neighborhood and we did things like oh, this is so bad We would I jumped off my friend’s two-story house into their swimming pool to get a cool shot. Oh, right Okay, and our parents didn’t know until later We would take pipes and make put bottle rockets in them and fire bottle on inside each other right or we would blow up entire entire bottle rock you know bottle rocket packs all at once because it looked like a cannon going off and we were filming it and we’d say how close can i be to the explosion and things like that and then the the food the most foolish thing we ever did i still can’t believe we did this my brother the front bumper of his car he put a two by four that stuck out we mounted the camera on his car and then he’s chasing me as i’m running in the car i trip then the camera rolls right over me, right next to the tire.

[21:00] Now, I didn’t get hurt, but when my parents saw this incredible shot, because the camera goes right over me, she says, my parents said, I remember they sat me down and they said, how did you film this?

[21:12] And I said, oh, I was so safe because the board’s sticking out three feet from the front of the car. And my dad said, so the tire went a foot next to you. And I said, yeah, but there was inches between me and the tire, you know. And so we got in a lot of trouble. And so we did stunts like that. So the shots looked great. But, yeah, very dangerous. So I would not allow my kids to do that. Steph, can you imagine the parents seeing the rough cut of this video? No. Oh, my gosh. Like, how did they do this? And how, like, your boys are grounded forever, right? Like, give me the camera. Give me the camera. We’re locking it up. For sure.

[21:50] Yeah, we were grounded a few times for doing stunts like that. We were always looking for what is cinematic, what is an unbelievable stunt. And we just, oh, you know, we would, you know, jump on our bike and have people laying in the road and try to clear them with the bike. And I just, when I think about the number of ways we could have gotten terribly hurt, I praise God. I was just thinking the hedge of protection surrounded you and your brothers ever since you were young. But they’re filming the evidence as well, right? So it’s not like they can deny, like, no, I didn’t do that. Because it’s on video. For sure. That’s right. That’s right. So, next fun fact. The Kendrick Brothers’ first film, Flywheel, as he mentioned, was released on April 9, 2003. So remember this date, April 9, 2003. As Alex mentioned, they quickly realized that shooting a full-length movie was much more complicated than they originally expected.

[22:45] Flywheel’s first rendering was finished at 6 a.m. on April 9, 2003.

[22:52] The same day, only hours before its premiere at Albany’s Carmike Cinema. What? Yes. Oh, I just got goosebumps. So how nervous were you, Alex, about trying to get this across the finish line? Oh, so first, I did not know how to calculate how long it would take. And so we thought, oh, we could do it in this many weeks, which was not true. And so the last three nights we were sleeping at our church in the editing room trying to finish this movie. And we finished the last cut. And I’m going to tell you something that maybe is not on your paper. We finished the last cut, immediately started rendering it and putting it on a DVD to take to the movie theater. When we showed it in the movie theater the first time, it was the first time we had watched it all the way through. Oh, no. Really? We had not even watched it all the way through because it was that tight. And the theater the day before was like, we still don’t have your movie. If we don’t have it tomorrow morning, we’re not showing it. And so we worked all night and got it done by 6 a.m. the day it came out in our local theater. Rushed it over to the theater. They tried it, saw that it was working. So when I sat in the movie theater that afternoon for the matinee, it was the first time I had seen it all the way through. What was your reaction when you saw it? Like, hey, this is pretty good. This is going to win some awards.

[24:13] No. Actually, in my mind, it was so much bigger than I – our mind can imagine quite a bit. Yeah. And it looked very small to me. And, of course, it was low budget, but the story worked. And so many people kept talking about the story and how it grabbed their heart. Audiences, the word spread like crazy. Even the local news was picking up on it. And we ended up selling out many shows. And it stayed for six weeks at our local theater. So very grateful for that. That’s something the Lord did because we were flying by the seat of our pants. Man. All right, Steph, to continue this fun fact, many moviegoers admitted they expected to see an embarrassing production. But actually left inspired by the story. As he just mentioned, Flywheel unexpectedly sold out multiple showtimes and was the week’s second highest grossing movie of the cinema’s 16 screens. The movie theater had only planned to screen Flywheel for one weekend, but extended the movie to show for six weeks. So how do you find out, Alex, that many moviegoers expected to see an embarrassing film? Is this after the fact and they come to you like, listen, that was actually a lot better than what we were expecting, right? We had some pretty low expectations here. How do you even find out about that?

[25:27] Well, first, hearing that it was sold out, and we were at a few of those, but hearing that it was sold out was startling to us. Because I was thinking, this movie’s not going to work. But the story did work, and this was the main testimony we heard. Because people started coming to our church on Wednesdays and Sundays. And when they would come in, especially men, they would say a version of this. They would say, hey, out of sheer curiosity, went to see your movie? Because it was shot here locally. Right. and I sat there thinking this is going to be a joke, and the more I got into it, I saw a version of myself on the screen.

[26:00] Like, that’s how I treat my wife. That’s what kind of father I am. That’s what kind of corners that I cut, and I watched this guy and realized I need to do what this guy’s doing and give my heart and my soul to the Lord and depend on the Lord to guide me, and so many men were impacted by the story of Flywheel. They were coming to our church like crazy, and we were stunned with, wow, this response was way beyond anything we expected. And so that’s how we found out that people were resonating with it. Wow. So when you started hearing that, when did God start downloading the idea of Facing the Giants?

[26:36] Yeah. So soon afterwards, because I talked to my pastor and I mean, people are making decisions for Christ. And he was like, well, Alex, do you have any more movie ideas? And so I went to my office and prayed. I said, God, do we do another movie? And this whole concept of faith over fear, which became Facing the Giants, started coming to mind. And I would share it with my brother, steven we started developing it and then we looked around our community and found true stories that had happened in high schoolers lives and parents lives the couple that couldn’t have children all that kind of stuff and we put those real elements together to fill out the story of facing the giants so most of the individual elements in facing the giants were true based on true events the whole story uh is not true like it happened one season right of a team so it was over a period of years but all the individual elements did happen and so we put that together to make facing the Giants okay so speaking of facing the Giants next fun fact here after completing the edit for that movie in April 2005.

[27:40] Alex screened the movie for several distributors, but received zero interest for a theatrical release. They sat on the movie for a year and a half until it was released on September 29th, 2006. So can you share the story of what happened between the time you finished filming the movie to the time it actually released? Because when I saw this, I was thinking like, oh my gosh, the kids are going to look completely different, right? Like almost two years later from when you filmed it to when you start promoting it. So can you share the story of what happened? Because that’s an incredible story.

[28:14] Yeah. So I had prayed my way through making Facing the Giants and God showed up in so many ways, but I did a mistake when we were done making it. After the Lord had been faithful to us, I did what I would call jump ahead of God. And I have learned, don’t jump ahead of him. Don’t lag behind him, track with him. And so I rushed out to California, showed an early cut of Facing the Giants to every studio that would look at it. They all said a version of the same thing. We don’t recognize any of these actors. You can tell it’s not a big budget, has too much religious stuff in it. We need to pass. And so I came back to Georgia angry. I was like, God, what are you doing? You helped us make the movie. Now you’re not doing anything. And I’m sitting in my office, and it’s one of those moments I could tell what the Lord was saying to me. and basically it was, Alex, what do you say in the movie? You’re the coach. What do you say in the movie? And the answer is, we praise God when we win, but we also praise him when we lose. And he said, what are you doing? And I’m sulking and whining is what I’m doing. And so I was so convicted and I said, God, I’m sorry. I’m not even living what I’m saying in the movie. And so I asked God to forgive me. And I said, God, it’s your movie. We got in touch with Provident Music Group in Nashville for permission to use some of the music in the movie, when they saw it, they said, hey, we’re sending it to our parent company, this needs to be in theaters. And we were like, what? Who’s your parent company? And they said Sony.

[29:37] And we didn’t have any contact with Sony. So Sony calls us and says, we want your movie. So this is what’s so interesting to me. When I jump ahead of God, I beat my head against the wall and nothing happened. When I surrendered and relied on him, he brings Sony to us. And so Face of the Giants comes out in theaters in 2006. And they were thinking it’s a small movie. It’ll do a few million. And it did over 10 million and then sold a crazy number of DVDs. And so we were astonished again. So when the Lord is guiding your work and guiding your train, it goes way better than when we try to take over ourselves. I love that. So Steph, Facing the Giants, as you just mentioned, it opened on 441 screens in the U.S., went on to gross over $10.2 million worldwide, which was nearly 100 times the production budget. Yeah. But I’m curious, Alex, what was the reaction in the community, Christian community? When the movie received a PG rating instead of G. What was the reaction to that?

[30:44] Yeah, we thought Facing the Giants. I mean, there’s no language. There’s no immorality. We were thinking this is going to be an easy G movie. So initially when it came back PG for religious elements, we were like, whoa, wow. Now I wasn’t offended or anything, but there were people saying, wait a minute, the Motion Picture Association is using a double standard in how they rate movies. And so people started making an issue of it. And the next thing I know, we’re in the middle of this ratings controversy and news media were calling us saying, what were you aiming for? And we thought it would be G. And they said, well, it’s PG. Do you have anything to say about that? And I said, not so much that we’re offended, but that they should use a consistent standard for how they rate movies. But that attention ended up giving us a whole lot more promotion than we expected and was one of the reasons that so many people initially went to see it.

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[32:14] Two more fun facts here. So the next movie the Kendrick brothers made was Fireproof, which is a movie about marriage this movie became the highest grossing independent movie of 2008 earning over 33 million dollars at the box office alongside the film though staff they released the books love dare yes and fireproof novel okay both would land on the new york times bestseller list the love dare was number one for 14 weeks and remained on the bestseller list for four years okay the fireproof dvd would sell over 3.5 million units in 75 countries however according to alex when the movie was released, his own marriage was falling apart behind the scenes. He and his wife were in the middle of some intense marriage counseling to save their marriage. So, Alex, I am so impressed, sir, how transparent you’ve been about that time period of your life, right? Like, you were doing something really good behind the scenes, making these faith-based films. However, you’re struggling to balance professionally making these movies and dealing with your family and your wife. So can you show the story of like what happened right during that time period because I again, I appreciate how honest you’ve been about that struggle.

[33:26] Yep i’m gonna look at it from two vantage points because both are important one’s the spiritual vantage point one is the relational vantage point so my wife was patient and carrying the weight at home and even with our six kids and i’m shooting this movie well we had five five kids at the time but still carrying a lot right and i’m shooting this movie i’ve written it i’m directing it i’m i am uh doing the editing and so i was gone so much doing a movie about how to have a healthy marriage, right? And it’s not that the principles in the movie weren’t true. They were true, but I was burning my candle at both ends working on the movie and just going home to sleep. So my wife is waiting one month, two months, three months, four months for me to finish this project. And by the time I do finish it, I am mentally and emotionally exhausted. So I have nothing to give, Right. So I’m coming home basically empty. And so by the time my wife sees this, she’s like, wait a minute, I wait four months. And by the time I get you back, you’re totally empty and still can’t do much around here. And so she was understandably disheartened and frustrated. So when the movie’s coming out, we’re bickering about to what degree can I put a focus on a movie and a book and things like that versus time at home. Well, the answer is there has to be a balance. There has to be a balance.

[34:50] So is the movie true? Yes. Is the book true? Yes. But that’s so much of my focus. I was leaving home life almost depleted. And that is not fair to my wife and my children. And it took a while, six, eight weeks for us to work through that. And so spiritually, when you’re trying to help other people get closer to God, you have a target on you from the enemy spiritually. And so I learned that I have to be careful spiritually as well not to let the enemy you know come after me and try to destroy my own marriage so there there are some good lessons I learned through that process all right final fun fact we’ve talked about a few movies here but the Kendrick Brothers next film The Forge will be their ninth movie and is scheduled to be released on August 23rd so Alex can you please share more about this new movie that’s coming out we’ve we’ve seen the trailer Taylor, we have not watched it yet, but we’re super excited to watch that hair very soon. Yes, we are.

[35:46] So if you saw The War Room, this takes place in the same world. It’s kind of a sequel. So the characters of The War Room are also seen in The Forge, and it gives a focus on mentorship and discipleship. So a single mom raising her son that gets to be 19 just graduates high school, and is not sure what direction he’s going to go. So he’s filling his time with sports and video games and hanging out with his friends, and his mom’s frustrated. She said, she says, I want my son to appropriately step into responsibility in adulthood, either go to college, get a good job. So she’s praying for him and a Christian businessman reaches out, offers this young 19 year old named Isaiah, offers him a job. And as he starts working, he starts mentoring him.

[36:29] And he begins to see his need for a relationship with God. And over the course of the movie, you see what mentorship and discipleship can have in the life of a young man. We use the term in the movie or the phrase, whoever wants the next generation the most will get them. Because the world wants their thoughts, their morals, their political views, everything. The world wants to give them those things. And so as parents, as godly men, we must invest in love and pour into the next generation. So that’s what this movie is about and there’s some surprises along the way but by the end of the film i love that the audiences are stirred up and inspired and our test screenings they’re cheering at the end of the film oh nice a lot of yeah a lot of men especially are saying i need to go be poured into the next generation so we love that about the forge oh that’s good love that well listeners for more information about alex you can go to social media pages on facebook it’s at Kendrick Brothers. On Twitter, it’s at Kendrick Bros. The website, kendrickbrothers.com. And to find out more about the film and to purchase tickets, you can go to the website, theforgemovie.com. And we will put the link in our show notes and on our website, so you can click on it and go right to that website.

[37:43] Well, Alex, you’re fantastic, sir. Oh, this was so fun. I was so excited to talk to you because there’s so many stories here that we can talk about. And our kids are going to be excited when they see you here on TV because they’re going to recognize you from the movie Facing the Giants because we have watched that with our kids. Yes. Thank you for saying yes to us, sir. Well, bless you guys. Great to meet you on camera one day. I hope to shake your hand in person. I will hug you, just FYI. Absolutely. After I hug your wife and ask permission, I’ll totally hug you.

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