Guest Bio
Kevin Sorbo’s New Movie Argues God’s Existence
Produced by Randy Rudder
Interview by Scott Ross
The 700 Club
CBN.com
–He’s done Shakespeare. He’s played super heroes. But today Kevin Sorbo is more comfortable playing preachers and college professors in Christian movies.
Scott Ross, 700 Club Senior Correspondent, sat down with Kevin recently to talk about his 30-year career on the stage and screen, and about his new film, God’s Not Dead, which opens March 21st.
Scott: How did you gravitate toward acting, and movies and all of that?
Kevin: At a young age. My mom loved movies with Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy, and all those guys—so as a kid I would watch all of these old black and white movies and I just fell in love with them. For me, it was Robert Redford and Paul Newman and watching their movies, too. I knew that’s what I wanted to do.
Scott: So was it the audition route, the modeling route? What did you do to get into your first role?
Kevin: Minneapolis is home to so many big corporations, from Honeywell to 3 M to Cargill, Pillsbury, General Mills, Target, Dairy Queen—so a lot of commercials were shot there. So I got that all important Screen Actors Guild card during those years.
After college and short stints acting in Europe and New Zealand, Kevin moved to Los Angeles. He didn’t waste any time pursuing his dreams.
Kevin: I think the best advice I ever got was from a good friend of mine that I’ve known forever in Minnesota. He said, ‘Remember it’s called show business.’ And so I treated it like a business, and I worked my butt off. I got into the toughest acting classes I could get into. They would say, ‘Oh she’s tough,’ or ‘He’s tough,’ and I would go audition and go through the process to get into those classes.
Kevin eventually landed the lead role in the television series Hercules, which became one of the top syndicated TV shows in the world in the 90s. He also met and married his leading lady Sam Jenkins.
With all the changes in Sorbo’s life, there was one constant – his faith. He was in seventh grade when he and a friend accepted Jesus as their Savior at a Billy Graham crusade in Minnesota.
Kevin: I remember hearing him speak. I was at the age where I could sort of make up my own mind and it sort of clicked for me.
Scott: Did that faith sustain you throughout the years? Did you stay with the Lord?”
Kevin: Yeah, I’m not perfect. There’s no question about that. But I never stopped believing.
In his latest film, God’s Not Dead, Kevin plays an atheist college professor bent on converting his students.
Scott: How did you identify with this guy?
Kevin: I have friends who are atheists and I don’t mind having those conversations without having the whole anger thing entering into it. I find it very strange that so many atheists spend so much time and hatred toward people who want to believe in God and believe in Jesus. It’s just weird to me.
Scott: Was it difficult for you to speak some of those lines you had to speak as an atheist?
Kevin: You know, I just figured this was something that God wanted me to do. I’ve known college professors like this. I talked to many people—my nieces and nephews are in college, and they’ve met professor like this. So it exists. And at the end of the movie, you’ll see a lot of credits, a lot of places where their sources are where they’ve found where this is going on at universities all across this country.”
The movie was inspired by the book God’s Not Dead by author Rice Broocks. It also features the popular song of the same name by the Newsboys.
Scott: How do you, or don’t you, convince people there is a God?
Kevin: Something started all of this. It’s all just too amazingly perfect to just have happened. I always tell my atheist friends, “If I’m wrong, I’ve lost nothing. But if I’m right, I’ve gained everything.”
Kevin says this movie isn’t just for Christians.
Kevin: I don’t want to preach to the choir. I want the choir to come. I want all the Christians to see
God’s Not Dead. But I want those pole sitters, those ‘independent voters’ those guys who haven’t made up their mind which way they want to go with this. They are agnostic, and they can’t quite figure it out, “Maybe there’s something I don’t know.” I want
God’s Not Dead to provoke conversation with people to look at it and think, “Maybe...” To me, if you can just get people to think just a little bit, then we’ve done our jobs.
CBN IS HERE FOR YOU!
Are you seeking answers in life? Are you hurting?
Are you facing a difficult situation?
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
