What happens when a kid from the Netherlands grows up to write the origin story of America's first president?
In this episode, screenwriter Diederik Hoogstraten joins Ben to talk about Young Washington — the Wonder Project film releasing July 3rd to mark America's 250th — and why an immigrant might be uniquely positioned to remind us what this country actually is.
We get into:
- Growing up progressive in 1980s Holland and how Family Ties (yes, really) planted the seeds
- Becoming a U.S. citizen in 2019 and what most Americans miss about their own country
- The Wonder Project, House of David, and building a studio for the audience Hollywood forgot
- Writing George Washington from age 11 to 22 — the failures, the loss, the overbearing mother
- Why failure shaped Washington's character (and what that means for the rest of us)
- A Native American chief, a battlefield, and the moment Washington's purpose became clear
A conversation about country, craft, and the kind of leader formed in the quiet years.
Young Washington hits theaters July 3rd.
CHAPTERS:
00:48 Welcome & guest intro
02:18 Why an immigrant celebrates America 250
03:51 Family Ties and discovering America
06:28 World Cup as a unifying moment
12:48 What the Wonder Project is
17:15 Faith-based or family-friendly?
22:19 The loneliness of screenwriting
27:10 Why focus on young Washington
30:34 Balancing history with creative license
36:36 How failure shapes leaders
43:05 What viewers should take away
48:09 How the project changed him
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I highlights so much in this film of George Washington's failures,
(00:03):
because I think as a young kid, you're failing and
learning and moving forward and building your character.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You know, of course, it would take an immigrant to
make us realize how special this place is. That's the
first time anyone's asked me that question. And thank you
for that. Good No, Ben, what I found here the people,
the hospitality, the friendliness, the openness of the people, and
then I started learning about its history. I hope, I
(00:31):
still really hope that July fourth, this summer can bring
us together in some way. The very first thing I
hope that happens is that you go, all of us,
go to a movie theater, big theater, big screen, great sound,
big popcorn, and sit next to people you don't know,
who you might not agree with.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Welcome to if you can hear me a space where
culture meets the soul.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I'm Ben Higgins.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
You may know me from The Bachelor, and you may
know my guests from Culture, Headlines and Entertainment. This podcast
is about going beyond the surface into something deeper. Each
week we sit down for open conversations about identity, faith,
and the realities underneath it all. At its heart, this
podcast is about creating space for people to slow down
(01:15):
and speak freely. Not polished interviews are perfect answers, just
real discussions that are unfiltered. I invite you to lean
in and enjoy the conversation.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
We're here if you can hear me with a very
special guest, and I want to dive, if you don't mind,
dedric into so many different elements of what you're up
to now, some really exciting projects, and then also the
industry in general.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I would love to thanks so good to be here,
and wherever you want to take this, I'll go there. Awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Well, I think a main focus of our conversation today
is going to be around a couple things. One Young Washington,
which is a project that you've been working diligently on,
you know, I'm excited about that I love. And then
also America two fifteen, and that's kind of where I
want to start. Obviously, we're very We're in an incredible year,
(02:10):
we're celebrating two hundred and fifty years of this country,
and I know it's something you're passionate about specifically, yes,
and I want to know why. I think that's the
most interesting piece for me is, why is that something
that you're so passionate about people celebrating that you celebrating specifically.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Right, My wife always says, you know, of course it
would take an immigrant to make us realize how special
this place is. And I do think there's truth to that.
You know, it goes back to Alexis Detarqueville, the French
philosopher who in the eighteen thirties visited this country. When
you read this book now, I highly recommend it. It's
actually a beautiful read. It's really a love letter to America.
(02:51):
And I remember reading it in college when I started
to develop my interest in this place, and it just
ran true to me. If I came back up a
little bit more. You know, I grew up in the Netherlands,
Holland back in the nineteen eighties, and I don't want
to get too political, but it was a very very
progressive family in a very very sort of socialist progressive country.
(03:14):
I kind of felt like a fish out of the
water for most of my childhood for many many reasons,
including sort of the culture and the cultural and the
political and thank goodness for family ties. I bring up
this show. Michael P. Keaton, Sorry, Alex pe Keaton. Of course,
Michael J. Fox, the character who liked me, was sort
(03:36):
of out of place in his own progressive family. I
started to watch that show as a teenager over in Europe,
and Alex pe Keaton told me something about capitalism, about freedom,
about America, about love of country. Those were real seeds
that were planted. Shows you something tells you something about
the power of entertainment, television, film. I think about that often,
(03:59):
and that's kind of how it started. I fast forward,
you know. I had an opportunity to be an exchange
student in Upstate New York back in the nineties, and
essentially I haven't looked back, you know, Ben What I
found here the people, the hospitality, the friendliness, the openness
of the people. And then I started learning about its history,
(04:22):
sort of the Constitution itself, the Revolution, everything that happened
in American history that I hadn't really been taught as
a kid. I started sort of inhale it, if you will,
and as a guy in my twenties, and I just
felt at home. And I think there's many immigrants who
feel this when they arrive in the United States. It's
(04:44):
becoming harder and harder to explain to some of my
friends in New York and la particularly, But I feel
like a true patriot. You know, I finally became a
citizen in twenty nineteen, one of the greatest days of
my life for me. Feel very, very grateful and blessed
to be here. And as I say now, I'm usually
often the most patriotic, patriotic person in any room, whether
(05:07):
that's whether that's work, whether that's school, whether that's with friends,
and again, coming from a place that doesn't have what
you guys have and what you're born with and what
you might not always appreciate, I'm sure you do, but
many don't. I think that it makes a lot of
sense for a newcomer to see it a little more clearly,
(05:29):
and you know, to be here at this moment two
and fifty years later, to realize that you're the only
country in the world to have a continuous form of
republican government, a constitution that holds up. I mean, it's incredible.
You know, It's never been done in human history, and
I think for people to just just realize that part.
We can talk about the movie, the role of George Washington.
(05:51):
I want to talk about that, but I love your
first question, because it does speak to me on a
deeply personal level. And I bring up my wife, Kelly.
She is a proud patriotic Texan.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
We live in Austin, Texas now, but we met in
Los Angeles, and of course people there, you know, sometimes
speak and think about the flag and the country in
a way that was difficult for me on hard to understand.
To this day, I might intellectually be able to understand it.
And I don't think America is without its flaws, obviously.
(06:23):
I just think it's if you've lived anywhere else, you
realize it's the best place to be.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
If I'm finding it interesting right now, one of my
favorite evening hobbies is seeing all the videos of people
coming over for the World Cup and traveling from city
to city in the United States and kind of their
reaction to it. It's funny. I'm originally from a small
town in Indiana, and I love that town. It's a
(06:48):
great town, but there's not a lot going on. It's
nothing impressive. It's a small little town. And recently there
is a video that went viral of somebody going to
a town right next to where I grew up, and
it's very similar in its nature, and they were shocked
at the beauty and the people and the little like
cafes and diners and then the local like bar that
(07:09):
people like of all ages were just sitting around like
talking about life with and they found it fascinating. And
I think that's a good perspective for us, and I
do agree with you where it would take somebody like
you who knows something else to come here and say, hey,
this is great. You you've mentioned this. You know, you
kind of made a reference to New York and LA
(07:31):
and I know, you know that's a little tongue in
cheek and it's you know, people understand what you're saying there.
But as somebody who wants others to be able to celebrate,
and we are going to talk about how your movie
kind of propels that celebration and pushes that to you know,
the eyes across America. But as for somebody like you
who became a citizen in twenty nineteen and in an
(07:52):
environment this isn't that new. It's been politically divisive for
a long time. You know, people have different opinions. I
think that's beautiful and wonderful in its own unique way,
but it does kind of feel like one side right
now is like really enjoying to the America two fifteen.
The other side feels like, hey, we can't be celebrating
(08:14):
this at least, you know, the loud voices in the
public sphere. Where do you think we have common ground
to all celebrate together? As we move into close, you know,
close to July fourth, how can we all come at
this together and just enjoy the celebration. That is an
amazing place.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
So well said, such a great question. I'm tying it
into the World Cup if I can, because I love
those videos. I feel vindicated by these. Has a guy
called Freddie I think from Germany posting these incredible observations
that are probably like so common sense to someone like
yourself from Indiana and I'm from my wife from Texas.
(08:58):
But for me, it feels like, guys, I've been trying
to say this for so many years, and I love
that people from all over the world are seeing this.
Last Sunday, I was in Dallas for a World Cup
game with my family, the kids, first time ever. It
was brilliant, It was beautiful, and there were whatever thirty
thousand Japanese people and twenty thousand Dutch people, and we
(09:20):
were all mixed in with a lot of Americans with
allegiance to all sorts of different teams. Mostly us say
we were connected, we were together, and so I love
that this World Cup is doing that for all of us,
for Americans to see how we are all seeing displays
and you, guys, I agree with you. I lived in
(09:41):
New York for about fifteen years, so I have many
friends there. I understand it deeply. I lived in la
for about ten That's where I met my wife. They're different,
but of course they're similar sort of culturally and politically.
And as you say that the division has got progressively
and quickly deeper and deeper. That happens while I live there,
(10:02):
and especially happened since I left. I hope, I still
really hope that July fourth, this summer can bring us together.
In some ways, I realized for some folks on the fringes,
it might not happen, that there's too much for them
to hate, frankly, specifically in the White House in Washington.
(10:23):
But I also think there is this vast middle of
the country, and that's really you know, that's what I
want to write film and television for. That's what wonder
project that we could talk about later is trying to
that's the audience we're trying to serve. And people can
be Democrats and Republicans or purple and red and blue
and ethnicity, whatever it is, orientation, identity. Regardless of all
(10:47):
of that, I think there is a vast majority still
that wants to celebrate a moment like this, that wants
to see movies like ours. It can be very difficult
to realize that when you pay too much attention to
these loud voices. As you rightly say, it's funny. This
weekend we were traveling to Dallas, and then we're also
moving homes, and so I haven't looked at my phone
(11:09):
a lot. I haven't been on social media, and I
feel better. I also feel clear headed, And as I
now talk to you, I realize, well, no, I do
have faith that even though this is I see, it's
a very fraud moment. I realize that certainly compared to
you know, let's say twenty twenty five years ago when
I started started living here. But when you start when
(11:33):
you sort of try to ignore those those voices and
focus on what's around you and what you can sort
of see and feel and pick up on It's actually
not as bad, is what I would argue for. And
hopefully our movie and this moment can sort of be
a unifying factor. That's what I would say.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, that's a good segue. And I really wanted to
touch on America two fifty because I know it is
everybody's invited, right, everybody's invited to be able to celebrate,
and when you have traveled around the world or you've
lived other places, there is an appreciation and a gratitude
for what we have here and who we have here.
(12:18):
And my hope is the same as yours, is that
this summer, maybe even for a couple hours, we can
just say, hey, I feel some gratitude for the place
that I live and the people that have fought for
me to be able to live in the way I
do here. Now, you mentioned the Wonder Project, and I
do want to touch a little bit on this. The
(12:38):
Wonder Project, which is an incredible, incredible company that your wife,
I believe, is still the CEO of, and that you
do work for as a screenwriter. If you're unfamiliar with
the Wonder Project, I would love for you, maybe Diedrich,
to give a little bit of background on know, be
(13:00):
their spokesperson for a second, on who they are, what
they're trying to accomplish, maybe some projects that are noteworthy
that stand out to most people. Now give us a
little background on the Wonder Project before we dive into
Young Washington.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Absolutely, thank you for the opportunity to do that, because
I do think it's a pretty special place. John Irwin,
I think would be known by many of your listeners
visionary filmmaker. You know, he made American Underdog and Jesus Revolution.
He was a very successful guy. He's been there for
a long time. But he had some big projects in
(13:36):
mind for specifically for this vast middle of America that
we've been talking about, and when he would shop those
around in Hollywood, I think he would be told quite often,
John terrific, we can't wait to see it, but you know,
maybe do it somewhere else, or find another way to
do it. And at some point I believe John got
tired of it and decided to start a studio, an
(13:58):
entertainment studio or production studio that's no more feet. In
the twenty twenties, there's very very few startups in entertainment
that succeed at all, especially now. He teamed up with Kelly,
my wife, a brilliant business leader in her own right,
also a wonderful mom and wife. But she and John
(14:18):
started the company together about four years ago. And the
two big stories that John wanted to tell are both
origin stories. He loves telling these coming of age tales
of great, great men. The first was about King David,
the biblical David, and that's the House of David, the
show that people may have seen on Amazon and on
Wonder Project. There's a Wonder Project channel on Amazon Prime,
(14:42):
as you mentioned that, so that's where people can watch
a House of David. And then Jong Washington is the
big movie. Sarah's Oil was another noteworthy, beautiful film that
folks can catch very unknown story about an African American
girl was the first black female millionaire in American history.
It's a great story. So those are some of the stories,
(15:02):
and you know, their mission is pretty simple. They want
to sort of restore hope in things worth believing and
like they want stories to encourage, to inspire, and they,
by the way, they also want to be real. They
don't shy away from the truth, the hard truths of life,
especially in biblical times. Life could be very very violent,
(15:23):
very very dark, and that's all going to be on
the screen. However, it will never be gratuitous violence and sex,
and it will often or if not always, have a
redemption element of redemption toward the end. Kelly sometimes says,
you know, Disney used to do this thirty forty years ago.
It's just what they did. It's just that that present
(15:45):
day Hollywood is not quite there anymore. As we all know,
it's taking a turn. And for us as parents, it
can be extremely difficult to find, you know, find stories
you want to watch with your family, even if it
might be PG. Thirteen, Like what if you could watch
those with you You know, the movie I just wrote,
my daughter is almost nine. I'm gonna watch it with
(16:07):
her because I feel it's an important story that she
can handle as long as i'm you know, right neck
right there. And so this is what Wonder Project is
aiming to do, being an HBO quality production studio, good
stuff that you want to watch for the Faith and
Values audience. And Kelly will always say faith and Values
(16:27):
is not a genre, it's an audience. It is many
tens of millions of people in America and around the world. Frankly,
you know, I'm from Western Europe. There's many many people,
including my own father, who craves this content. And so
that's what Wonder Project has been, has been doing, and
is doing, and will continue to do hopefully.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
The I think as you continue to be the Wonder
Project spokesperson here for just a second for me, I
think a lot of people maybe aren't confused, but they're curious,
is this any faith based studio? Is faith the foundation
of this studio? Or are is it more the family
(17:08):
friendly content based on what you know Hollywood is being
put in there.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
That's a fair question, and I think that like Angel,
so Wonder Project and Angel Studios have collaborated on numerous projects,
including Young Washington. Like Angel, you know, faith doesn't have
to be in every story, but it will end up
being in most of them at least an element. You know.
Sometimes I've heard this around the offices, like it used
(17:37):
to be okay for movies, Hollywood movies to show a
blessing before a meal. So we're not going to call
that a faith based movie because of that, just simply
because there's that scene. But it is telling that in
most Hollywood movies that will not be shown anymore. Wonder
projects will want to bring that back, say it's okay.
Most people actually do say a blessing, or read the Bible,
(17:59):
or go to church, pray together, believe in God, whatever
it might be. We what what what I think Wonder
would say is we are We will not shy away
from that. And so ultimately, perhaps it's about the values
that we hold dear, whether that's family, country, god, dreams,
(18:20):
you know, ideas like redemption, hope, courage, the virtues if
you will, are going to be in every single story.
And I but I will reiterate too that they're that
they're real stories, and that they're compelling, and that they
can be sometimes tough, as as Young Washington shows. You know,
his life was certainly not very pretty in their earliers,
(18:42):
it was extremely difficult. But that's the reason, I think,
all the more reason to tell the story, because he
makes it through the failures. We'll get to that later.
But to say, these are not, you know, cheesy, sugary,
feel good movies, not not at all. They are real.
They have high production value. They're extremely difficult and expensive
(19:04):
to make. I can attest to that, but they do
hopefully as I say here restore, really restore hope and
faith and encourage that that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Final question on the Wonder Project here, and you just
kind of touched on it in an industry right now
that is so hard to navigate and to find success,
and has the Wonder Project found success? And then kind
of the how or you know why to that either
direction it hasn't or if it has, how has it
(19:38):
found or how has it not found its place in
this world right now?
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, I would say two examples of how the studio
has really worked. One is a surprise to me was
the collaboration with Amazon Studios. There is a very tight
connection that Kelly john are when built with the folks
inside of Amazon, who were very very keenly aware and
(20:05):
interested in this audience that we're talking about. Amazon obviously
is a global company that wants to serve everybody. They're
not for one political party, They're not for one group
of people, they never will be, I think, and so
within their studio they recognized the need to serve the
audience better and so their collaboration with Wander has been
(20:28):
wonderful for everybody, and I think has been a sign
that there are folks even in Hollywood, who are keenly,
keenly aware and really really sort of in tune and
interested in a studio taking the risk as Wander is doing.
The second data point is that House of David, you know,
was a tough, big show to make. John Irwin went
(20:51):
to Greece to film that with hundreds and hundreds of people, actors,
extras crew. It was incredible. We got to visit the set.
It was epic. I don't think Greece had ever seen
anything of that scale in modern times. And you know,
that was a big, big leap leap of faith, a
big risk was taken by the investors, by Amazon, by
(21:11):
everybody at Wonder and I don't know what the last
count is, but at least fifty million people have watched
that show. There's two seasons now. It is one of
the biggest hits anywhere on streaming. So as an indication
of the of the tremendous hunger for great inspirational content,
in this case rooted in the Bible. Obviously a lot
(21:32):
of Jewish viewers, folks in Israel and elsewhere who find
it deeply moving to see their King David portrayed this
way again it's a coming of age story. It's about
the early seasons are about his early life. But so
I would point to that as well to say the
hunger is there, the need is there. I think Kelly
and John recognized it. Amazon is on board. That's not
(21:52):
to say it's still it's still difficult. You know, it's
still outside of the ordinary in Hollywood. We all know
that we know what you know where Netflix and others
are leaning. It's clear. I mean that's not me speaking.
You just look at the lineup on their streaming platforms
that you can see it. But hopefully, I think Kelly
would say, like hopefully we can we can show the competitors,
(22:13):
the colleagues, like this can be done, this is worth it.
There that audience is waiting for you.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Well, it's a good transition to you as a screenwriter.
We've kind of teased throughout this Young Washington, which is
a project that you've been working so hard on. You
are a screen writer by trade.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
In an interview, I believe, and I don't want to
misquote you, but the the way that you explain being
a screenwriter, you said it can often be a lonely experience.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Yes, And I also.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Read that you had been, you know, studying George Washington
for a long time leading up to this project coming
to fruition. Yeah, what made you as a screenwriter keep going?
I mean, so many people listening, I think can relate
with this idea where, Hey, my job or the thing
I'm passionate about is oftentimes lonely. It's not it's a
(23:12):
lot of nights in the quiet. It's a lot of
moments sitting, you know, pulling my hair out, trying to
figure out what's next. And so what kept you going
believing that hey, one day this project could be worth it.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
That's the first time anyone's asked me that question, And
thank you for that. Good I sometimes I think about
my late mother, who was a bit of an amateur
sculpture sculptor, and when I would visit she was in
her seventies eighties. I would visit her the back in Holland,
and she might spend hours an hour staring at a
(23:49):
block of stone, and I do believe she would see
in there what she was, what she was excavating, what
was hiding in there, what she was going to expose.
And maybe I've never sculpted, and I don't think I
ever will. It's not one of my talents, but I
do think there might be a parallel there that, especially
this particular project. I can talk about it how it
(24:12):
came to fruition, But to stick with your question, I
think there was something so important in there. It was
so it felt like a great and grave responsibility to
do this right that I think that's what drove me.
It was simply the sense of sort of being on
a mission with John Irwin and with my co writer
(24:33):
and dear friend Tom Provos, a wonderful screenwriter and professor
of screenwriting and dear friend of ours. He still lives
in Los Angeles. The three of us took this very
very seriously, spent several months really yeah, trying to see
the character in the stone, if you will, chipping away
at the story. And I do stand by what I said, Yeah,
(24:57):
it can be very lonely. It's quiet time with your
thoughts and the screen. I know many many of your
listeners will recognize that I do have a terrific wife,
three wonderful children, good friends. There's a busy life out there,
but many many times when I think, when you're on
a project like this, you're driven and passionate. You have
(25:19):
to have to choose the quiet, the solitude, even when
the inspiration or maybe especially when the inspiration isn't quite
coming to you. The screen's there and your thoughts are there,
and you stick with it. It's this one was a challenge,
but a wonderful challenge because I could share it with again,
someone who to me is a visionary filmmaker, and then
(25:41):
John and then with Tom by my side. So yeah,
it's funny. It's been almost three years since we wrote it,
so it's been interesting to talk about the film and
sort of go back to the time when you have children,
you know that in three years it feels like they're
a totally different person. Like that was that was so
long ago. But as I talk about it more, I realized, like, no,
(26:04):
I do remember very very clearly how it felt and
what it meant, and that it landed at the two
and fiftieth anniversary, as you've pointed out, it just makes
it more gratifying.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah, it was that strategic or just random happenstance.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Not quite When we wrote it, I wasn't sure when
it would come out. Frankly, we just this was about
three years ago, I guess you know, it makes total sense.
It takes a few years to make a movie, a
big movie like this, and I think at Wonder Project
and John Owin himself fairly quickly realized that we were
looking at potentially at twenty twenty six and that was
(26:40):
going to be a very special year. So then July fourth,
you know, or we're premiering on We're launching the movie
on July third, because that's the right day. But it
made a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Yeah, let's dive into it. So much of my life
and so much of what I've watched and read focuses
on the legend of George Washington, and kind of we
get this, you know, when you think of George Washington,
even when we say right now, I think most people
think of the portrait of George Washington, and that's kind
(27:11):
of how they know him, remember him, and think about him.
But you did something different with this. You focused on
George Washington kind of early on in leading up. A
large part of this film is when he's around like
twenty two. He's ambitious, but he's an experienced he's making
mistakes along the way. Why was that the version of
(27:34):
Washington that you wanted to focus on for this.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
You are so right. I think Washington, like the out
of founding photos, can be an enigma, can be feel
very distant. There's a terrific biography that I highly recommend
to anyone wanting to read more, Joseph Ellis. It's called
His Excellency. And Ellis makes this point that if if
(28:00):
we see George Washington as the father of the country,
a true father figure, he said, you know, both Freud
and Shakespeare have made the clear point that it can
be very difficult to see your father clearly, to get
to know him, to actually understand him, to fully see
him in all of his humanity. That's just tough. I
(28:23):
can relate to that as a son of my dad.
I think many of us can, and so and since
Washington plays that role right in the American psyche, in
the imagination and in its history, he is the father
father of the country, if you will. And to me too,
he was a statue and a portrait at best, like
I just didn't know much. Now. I think that John
(28:47):
would say and has said, that the idea of going
way back to what formed and shaped him was to
actually understand him better and therefore respect him even more.
Admire him even more. I think the more we the
more clearly we see somebody, the more the more authentic
they are, the easier it is for us to hopefully
(29:10):
love them, respect them, want to spend time with them.
And that's really what this movie is trying to do,
to say, hey, look at this kid. Frankly, we start
when he's eleven and his father passes away, and it's
obviously a traumatic event in his life, and any any
boy's life that would be. Let's see what he went through,
(29:32):
how he handled himself, who he grew up to be.
So we you're right, we start at eleven, we end
around age twenty two to twenty three, and by trying
to really bring up, bring up sort of create a
picture of him, a sense of who he was, we
hope and think that we can all love Washington even
(29:56):
more and bring him, bring him closer to us. That's
ultimately what we want to do. Like, yes, he'll always
be that monument and that portrait. That's good. He's on
the dollar bill. He is that important. He also was
just a kid with a lot of love problems when
he was young. And to me, it has worked. You know,
I spent so much time with the character that you
(30:17):
know now, Tom and I joke we sow us call
him George little George, and that's never out of disrespect.
We realize it's President Washington. It's just that we said
so much time with the character. He just became a friend.
He became a boy who we cared for, and that's
what we hope the audience will walk away with as well.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
As you as you and Tom wrote this, did your
views of Washington changed?
Speaker 3 (30:39):
In?
Speaker 1 (30:39):
I mean, you'd mentioned that so many of us have
this kind of idea of who George Washington was. You
dove in. You also dove into an area where it's
young Washington right eleven to twenty three, where there's not
a lot of like historical information on what was going
on in his life. So you kind of, I'm guessing,
(31:01):
had to. It's not dissimilar to the Bible, really, right,
we get like a picture of Jesus as a baby,
and then we get a picture of Jesus a little
bit in his teens, and then we get Jesus at
you know, thirty. So, yeah, how did you I don't
want to overquestion you here, but did your views of
him change? And then also how did you like, bind
(31:22):
the creative gap to keep historical accuracy while at the
same time having to kind of fill gaps.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Those questions are actually perfectly connected. I think we had to.
So we worked with the facts that we know. In
the biographies that you can read about Washington, there's a
very short section in every single one of them with
very similar facts about his early life. That's just all
we know. He was a deeply private person. A lot
of his papers and letters didn't survive. It was also
(31:51):
the seventeen forties and seventeen fifties. It's just a lot
we don't know. And so you're so correct. There's these facts,
these truths that we are all aware of that are
just correct. The historians supporting this film will testify to that.
We then quickly realized, we just knew we had to
take a lot of creative license to fill those gaps,
to make it into a story and to a hero's journey. Frankly,
(32:15):
you know it's it's It is a classical structure to
this movie, because we see him sort of emerge very raw,
very rough, and we we then develop him into I
think that the final scene shows the first real glimpse
of the Washington. We will know later, So that that's
a journey and arc that we that we created, that
(32:37):
we built. We're very honest about that. There are many
scenes and bits of dialogue in the film that you
will not find evidence in historical records. That's a creative
liberty we had to take in doing so. I think
Tom and John and I all truly became really enamored
with him as a young man. We all know how
(33:00):
brilliant he was during the Revolutionary War, during the Constitutional Convention,
drafting that, becoming the first presidents and accepting away from
the presidency, that's all magnificent and extremely important in world history.
What we started to realize is that he was a
kid like all of us, and then he became a
(33:21):
young man unlike most of us. Because he managed to
deal with the challenges and the setbacks and the failures
that came to him innovated very few of us ever
can or will, and that also there are challenges that
most of us will never face, thankfully, but we could
(33:42):
talk about them more So, to your question, the more
we learned, and then the more we imagined based on
what we learned, the more we we just embraced him
and realized this was a very very special person, even
at age eleven. Again we know how specially was at
age sixty into his seventies. We just we just fell
(34:07):
in love with the story of him coming of age.
That's how we put it. And I do like the comparison,
you know, you brought in Jesus or King David for
that matter. Like it's just a wonderful exercise. And I
think as writers that's what we should be doing, like
what would life have been like back then? Based on
what we know? What can we imagine? Always trying to
(34:30):
be respectful to the historical record, to the truth, never
injecting our present politics, ideology, conceptions. I mean, I'm sure
we do this a little bit sort of by definition,
but we really try to be aware and be so
neutral and respectful of the story and the character and
the time. And it's been no, it was a remarkable
(34:54):
project for us, and I can only hope, you know,
it's exciting people are starting to watch the movie, people
like yourself. We can only hope that it reaches sort
of through the screen to people's hearts, because that's the
goal here.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Yeah, I mean, just from my own personal viewing experience,
this is a film that it is not politically offensive
to either side, right, It's a story being told, and
I think that's what makes this project, along with all
the others, so exciting. Is I mean goodness. We talked
about how can we come together and toast or celebrate
(35:31):
America two fifty. I think sitting in a theater, sitting
and watching this film is one that can also bring
us together in so many ways. You highlight so much
in this film of George Washington's failures because I think
as a young kid, you're failing and learning and moving
forward and building your character. I'm more curious on a
(35:56):
leadership front after watching this, how do you think great
leaders are formed through failure?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Or are they?
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Maybe have we have haven't gotten too comfortable with the
concept of that great leaders are formed through failure. I
think it was a moment in this where it's a
little uncomfortable. Didri to see this leader in George Washington? Yea,
you know struggle and you're like, wait, oh yeah, he
was human too, he does he was trying to figure
(36:27):
this thing out. Also. It was uncomfortable but also relatable
in a little bit of a hey, I you know
what I'm called to something greater too, You're called this greater.
So back to the question, have we gotten too comfortable
with the idea of failure forming leaders? And what did
you learn about George Washington as he became a leader
through some of these failures?
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Right, Maybe maybe failure isn't a necessary ingredient for great leadership.
I you know, it's hard to say. My wife is
a terrific business leader. You know, she stumbled, yes, but
she she didn't have massive failures like George Washington, who started,
you know, a global conflict and a war, got his
(37:09):
best friend killed. I'm not giving anything really away. It's
all part of the historical record, and then had to
resign his hard fought commission the under the British government
of the Virginia at the time. We don't all have
to struggle through failures like that to become good leaders, know,
I do think in his specific case, and that's you know,
(37:31):
I always bring it back to the case study, to
the man who we've studied so deeply. In his case,
I do think it was central to his character formation
to see sort of the evolution of if his character
through the challenges, and it wasn't just failure. It just
happened to be. It just happened to be a lot
(37:51):
of loss and disappointment in that early life, and that's
what we want to show, and perhaps this is something
that younger viewers of the film, listeners to your your
amazing podcast can realize. George Washington, like all of us,
you know, he lost his father and his brother and
his best friend all before he was twenty two. That's
a very tall order of loss and misery and probably
(38:15):
depression and just anger and sadness to handle at that age.
He also, like I said, didn't quite succeed in his
early military career, something we might be very surprised by
because he became such a brilliant general and is known
for it. I mean, he defeated the greatest army in
the history of the world at that point, the British Empire.
(38:39):
What's interesting is that he learned lessons about guerrilla warfare
fighting for the British. Incidentally, just as a side note,
I think that's always a beautiful irony. But so I
would say it's a combination of loss, disappointment and also,
by the way, he had an overbearing mom like many
(38:59):
of us, So his mother was on the one hand
the one to say, you're not going to school in England,
even though George Washington really wanted to be part of
the British elite, whether that was in Virginia or back
in London. You're not even going to go to school
at all, which happened to lean heavily on George Washington
in his whole life that he didn't get a formal education.
She needed him to work on the farm because his
(39:21):
father and his brother were not able. But thankfully his
mother was also the one once George had sort of
thrown away his military gear and said I'm not fit
to lead. I can't do this, She's also the one
to say, if this is what you want, then perhaps
(39:42):
it's the path that God has chosen for you, and
go follow that path with purpose, with everything you have.
So I bring that up to say, it's not that
a miraculous hand of God you sort of guided George Washington.
Maybe it did, who knows, It's not for me to say.
It was also simply a mother who was very tough
(40:03):
on him, who then apologizes for being hard on him,
who then helps him to get back up and and stay.
Of course, it's his friends in the military who he
kind of betrays their trust, he really disappoints them. Ultimately,
he through a friend of mine, calls it a drop
(40:23):
of grace. You know, they are able to forgive him,
he's able to apologize to them, and they are reconnecting.
And I don't want to give away the epic final
battle scene that people might enjoy, but it is powerful
to see that he leans into serving men instead of
and not just leading them, And so it becomes this
idea of servant leadership. And you know, if I sum
(40:45):
it up, it's resilience that he's showing as a kid,
and then it's integrity that he's building through dealing with
hardship and failure and disappointing and his tremendous mistakes that
he makes, accepting the responsibility for that. That's if a
great form of integrity, and then ultimately that bleeding into
this idea of serving others. Because as you've said, he
(41:06):
was always ambitious and driven. I think what we found
is that early on that was simply a function of
ego and real sort of raw ambition coming from the inside.
And I think that shifted in his late teens and
early twenties into a sense that something greater was happening,
and that he needed to serve others in order to succeed.
(41:27):
Ultimately that became serving Virginia and then later the colonies,
and ultimately the country itself it was when it was
born and as its first president. So yeah, it's your
Your question is excellent. I think in this specific case,
the answer is what I tried to lay out. I
can't really speak to others as much except for my
(41:48):
wife to say she's a brilliant leader leader as well.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
It's, you know, the one aspect that this movie doesn't
get to. I mean it does in some level, but
it really happens later in life is the criticisms. You know,
we we don't always see the lens of the criticisms
that this great leader received and how you know, people
were not only critical, but they're publicly writing about, you know,
(42:16):
his issues or what they disagreed with. I think there's
a little bit of that where we say, okay, not
dissimilar to the times we live in, right, People have
their opinions. Again, I think that's a beautiful thing. But leaders,
you know, through I think the character that's built for washing,
at least at a young age, through watching his film.
It gave me this perspective of Okay, I get how
he continued. It was hard on him right as later
(42:39):
in life, but I understand now how he continued forward
in the path that he felt like he was called to,
And it helps make your film help make sense to
me on you know, how he could do that, How
he couldn't just you know, throw in the towel and
say nope, never going to do this, never going to
carry the burdens that are and n C. You know
(43:01):
requires thank you for saying me.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
As we finish up here, viewers are going to start
watching this film. As you said on July third, celebrate
by watching this film for you know, years to come.
If you're a viewer of this film, what do you
hope the takeaway is? Is it more about learning about
George Washington? Or is it takeaway maybe learning more about
(43:28):
themselves as the viewer.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
First, I want to reiterate what you said. The very
first thing I hope that happens is that you go,
all of us go to a movie theater, big theater,
big screen, great sound, big popcorn, and sit next to
people you don't know, who you might not agree with,
and cheer on this kid who becomes ultimately the father
(43:53):
and the ultimate founder of this country. Do that like
let's And I don't only say that because I hope
that the movie does really well in its opening weekend.
I genuinely hope that that's a shared communal experience that
rises way above any differences we might be having at
this movie. That's what I am not trying to be
(44:17):
a clip here when I say we wrote this movie
for everybody. We hope it's a story that we can
all sort of find ourselves in, that we can celebrate,
that we can cheer on. There might be some tears
because some of it is hard to watch. Frankly, then
I think first you'll learn things about George Washington that
(44:37):
you likely just didn't know. So it's you know, I've
always been a lover and a student of history, but
when you're younger, it can be tough to dive into
historical texts, and even books by great historians are not
always as accessible. We all know that that when we're younger, especially,
we love to watch cool battle scenes and love scenes
(44:58):
and good stories on the screen. That's what we love
to do, and so hopefully we do learn about this
this young man. And also, as I say, he is
the it's the origin story of the origin story, the
original American, the great, the first grade American. This is
how he became that. So hopefully there's something there that
(45:18):
that sort of inspires and leads us back to a
true appreciation, especially for the early days of this country.
I mean, those guys. George Washington was a land surveying
going into the wild West, which at the time was
the Ohio Territory. You know, western Pennsylvania. But it was
a wild place. And as as the the governor no
d sorry, the Lord Fairfax says when he when George
(45:42):
asks him to be sent there, Fairfax says, you know,
most men don't come back from there, right. George says, yep,
let me go, let me see, let me try. So
you know it. It it took a lot. You refer
to the people who fought for freedom throughout the history,
and that includes me. My country in Holland, my parents'
hometown was liberated by American soldiers in nineteen forty five.
(46:05):
I will never forget that. But it starts back there
with George and his friends, and then ultimately I do
think there's something about this incredible resilience that he shows
that we can maybe apply to our own lives. To me,
learning about him applying himself in that way was very inspiring. Frankly,
(46:29):
it took me months and months of research and writing
to sort of put it all together. You guys, hopefully
just watch it for two hours and get that. You know,
at the end of the film, I will, yeah, I'll
say that his mother I thought, I'm trying to think
of the quote. You know, you write things and then
a few years later you're asked to quote your own work.
(46:50):
It can be difficult. She says, something to the extent
of failure is a tutor sent by God. So as
she says, if you if you don't listen, you'll feel twice.
You don't. If you don't listen and learn, learn the lesson,
you'll feel twice. If you do listen and learn, you
you've gained wisdom. And that's over and over. I think
(47:11):
sort of a model in his in his development. Whether
he kept thinking about his mother's words, we don't know,
but it's I think it's a powerful sentiment expressed by
her and sort of ingested by him, and that becomes
part of his character at that point.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
What a beautiful quote for us to live by his
day as well is to allow the people around us
to make mistakes and when they grow from there them
wisdom comes. Final question for you, Ddrich. You spent years
studying one of the most consequential leaders that this world
has ever seen, and then you spent a long time
(47:49):
creating this beautiful story, this wonderful story of this leader.
Has going through this project in this kind of path
changed you at all, as kind of one of the
two three people carrying the burden of putting this into
the screens in front of us.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
Man, another question that I haven't heard before. So you're
you're challenging me in the best way, I do think.
I think my wife would say, as my as my
closest confidant, I think she would say, I am changed
by this learning, and that by the way that goes
also for a House of David watching up close the
(48:31):
making of that project again John Irwin learning sort of
by their side what they were learning about that figure
in history, another consequential leader. Obviously, Yeah, it's changed me.
I felt very privileged and grateful to have sort of
that front row seat, if you will, that we ourselves
(48:52):
just pulled up because we wanted to tell the story.
I think I felt inspired too, to tell more stories
like this. People have asked, people have seen the movie,
have asked where when is? When is the sequel coming out? And,
as John Irvin says, we don't know yet, but if
there is one, we will it will be us making it.
(49:14):
You know. We we love that, We love it so much.
We have to see how the movie does. But it
was just such a tremendous privilege. It was so inspiring
to learn what we could about where he came from,
how he managed through all the hardship to become that person.
I think there's yeah, I think I was. I was
(49:35):
actually changed. I have become also even more appreciative of
the early days of the Republic and even even right
before then, and that I didn't maybe didn't know that
it was possible. But I certainly feel just so grateful
to be a part of this, of this country. Frankly,
(49:57):
it's it's it bring it back to our earlier or
maybe our opening, the opening of the conversation that let's
all remember where we came from as a country, what
people had to go through and do and decide to
choose to do over and over and over again. I
will finally if I can just add this bend. There
(50:17):
is a there's a Native American chief who fought Washington,
and this is all true. There is a record of
this who who tried everything to kill him on the battlefield,
who ultimately speaks to him and says, my warriors never
miss they missed you. You're here. What is your name?
I must remember this name because there is a divine
(50:39):
hand here at work. There is a there is a protector.
The Creator is protecting you, and there is a much
greater purpose to your life. That was said to Washington.
In reality later we've brought it into this early time.
It was one of the creative liberties we took. I
want to bring it up because I think there's such
a powerful truth and watching this movie, learning everything I could,
(51:01):
that was a sense that I personally walked away from
there is it's hard for me now, full disclosure, I
believe in God. I'm a Christian. Even if you aren't,
I believe it would be hard to see this story
as not having that sort of that sense of divinity
and purpose around it and providence. That's a word that
Washington himself liked to use.
Speaker 1 (51:23):
Absolutely beautiful. De Derek, thanks for joining us, Thanks are
coming on. Thanks was right in this film, and thanks
for representing the Wonder Project and encouraging all of us
to celebrate two hundred and fifty years of this great country.
If again, if you want to watch Young Washington, it's
(51:45):
coming out July third. I'm assuming the fourth is going
to be busy with parties and celebrations, but there's no
better way to end an evening by sitting back with
your big popcorn, watching a big screen and enjoying Young Washington,
especially this year. Didrich, thanks for joining us and I
(52:06):
cannot wait to have you back on soon when the
sequel is written and getting ready to come out as well.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
Well. Thank you, Ben, it was a real pleasure to
talk to you.
Speaker 1 (52:15):
Hey friends, thanks for listening or watching. Would you take
a second, follow, subscribe, and drop a comment. It really
helps
I highlights so much in this film of George Washington's failures,
(00:03):
because I think as a young kid, you're failing and
learning and moving forward and building your character.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You know, of course, it would take an immigrant to
make us realize how special this place is. That's the
first time anyone's asked me that question. And thank you
for that. Good No, Ben, what I found here the people,
the hospitality, the friendliness, the openness of the people, and
then I started learning about its history. I hope, I
(00:31):
still really hope that July fourth, this summer can bring
us together in some way. The very first thing I
hope that happens is that you go, all of us,
go to a movie theater, big theater, big screen, great sound,
big popcorn, and sit next to people you don't know,
who you might not agree with.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Welcome to if you can hear me a space where
culture meets the soul.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I'm Ben Higgins.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
You may know me from The Bachelor, and you may
know my guests from Culture, Headlines and Entertainment. This podcast
is about going beyond the surface into something deeper. Each
week we sit down for open conversations about identity, faith,
and the realities underneath it all. At its heart, this
podcast is about creating space for people to slow down
(01:15):
and speak freely. Not polished interviews are perfect answers, just
real discussions that are unfiltered. I invite you to lean
in and enjoy the conversation.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
We're here if you can hear me with a very
special guest, and I want to dive, if you don't mind,
dedric into so many different elements of what you're up
to now, some really exciting projects, and then also the
industry in general.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I would love to thanks so good to be here,
and wherever you want to take this, I'll go there. Awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Well, I think a main focus of our conversation today
is going to be around a couple things. One Young Washington,
which is a project that you've been working diligently on,
you know, I'm excited about that I love. And then
also America two fifteen, and that's kind of where I
want to start. Obviously, we're very We're in an incredible year,
(02:10):
we're celebrating two hundred and fifty years of this country,
and I know it's something you're passionate about specifically, yes,
and I want to know why. I think that's the
most interesting piece for me is, why is that something
that you're so passionate about people celebrating that you celebrating specifically.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Right, My wife always says, you know, of course it
would take an immigrant to make us realize how special
this place is. And I do think there's truth to that.
You know, it goes back to Alexis Detarqueville, the French
philosopher who in the eighteen thirties visited this country. When
you read this book now, I highly recommend it. It's
actually a beautiful read. It's really a love letter to America.
(02:51):
And I remember reading it in college when I started
to develop my interest in this place, and it just
ran true to me. If I came back up a
little bit more. You know, I grew up in the Netherlands,
Holland back in the nineteen eighties, and I don't want
to get too political, but it was a very very
progressive family in a very very sort of socialist progressive country.
(03:14):
I kind of felt like a fish out of the
water for most of my childhood for many many reasons,
including sort of the culture and the cultural and the
political and thank goodness for family ties. I bring up
this show. Michael P. Keaton, Sorry, Alex pe Keaton. Of course,
Michael J. Fox, the character who liked me, was sort
(03:36):
of out of place in his own progressive family. I
started to watch that show as a teenager over in Europe,
and Alex pe Keaton told me something about capitalism, about freedom,
about America, about love of country. Those were real seeds
that were planted. Shows you something tells you something about
the power of entertainment, television, film. I think about that often,
(03:59):
and that's kind of how it started. I fast forward,
you know. I had an opportunity to be an exchange
student in Upstate New York back in the nineties, and
essentially I haven't looked back, you know, Ben What I
found here the people, the hospitality, the friendliness, the openness
of the people. And then I started learning about its history,
(04:22):
sort of the Constitution itself, the Revolution, everything that happened
in American history that I hadn't really been taught as
a kid. I started sort of inhale it, if you will,
and as a guy in my twenties, and I just
felt at home. And I think there's many immigrants who
feel this when they arrive in the United States. It's
(04:44):
becoming harder and harder to explain to some of my
friends in New York and la particularly, But I feel
like a true patriot. You know, I finally became a
citizen in twenty nineteen, one of the greatest days of
my life for me. Feel very, very grateful and blessed
to be here. And as I say now, I'm usually
often the most patriotic, patriotic person in any room, whether
(05:07):
that's whether that's work, whether that's school, whether that's with friends,
and again, coming from a place that doesn't have what
you guys have and what you're born with and what
you might not always appreciate, I'm sure you do, but
many don't. I think that it makes a lot of
sense for a newcomer to see it a little more clearly,
(05:29):
and you know, to be here at this moment two
and fifty years later, to realize that you're the only
country in the world to have a continuous form of
republican government, a constitution that holds up. I mean, it's incredible.
You know, It's never been done in human history, and
I think for people to just just realize that part.
We can talk about the movie, the role of George Washington.
(05:51):
I want to talk about that, but I love your
first question, because it does speak to me on a
deeply personal level. And I bring up my wife, Kelly.
She is a proud patriotic Texan.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
We live in Austin, Texas now, but we met in
Los Angeles, and of course people there, you know, sometimes
speak and think about the flag and the country in
a way that was difficult for me on hard to understand.
To this day, I might intellectually be able to understand it.
And I don't think America is without its flaws, obviously.
(06:23):
I just think it's if you've lived anywhere else, you
realize it's the best place to be.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
If I'm finding it interesting right now, one of my
favorite evening hobbies is seeing all the videos of people
coming over for the World Cup and traveling from city
to city in the United States and kind of their
reaction to it. It's funny. I'm originally from a small
town in Indiana, and I love that town. It's a
(06:48):
great town, but there's not a lot going on. It's
nothing impressive. It's a small little town. And recently there
is a video that went viral of somebody going to
a town right next to where I grew up, and
it's very similar in its nature, and they were shocked
at the beauty and the people and the little like
cafes and diners and then the local like bar that
(07:09):
people like of all ages were just sitting around like
talking about life with and they found it fascinating. And
I think that's a good perspective for us, and I
do agree with you where it would take somebody like
you who knows something else to come here and say, hey,
this is great. You you've mentioned this. You know, you
kind of made a reference to New York and LA
(07:31):
and I know, you know that's a little tongue in
cheek and it's you know, people understand what you're saying there.
But as somebody who wants others to be able to celebrate,
and we are going to talk about how your movie
kind of propels that celebration and pushes that to you know,
the eyes across America. But as for somebody like you
who became a citizen in twenty nineteen and in an
(07:52):
environment this isn't that new. It's been politically divisive for
a long time. You know, people have different opinions. I
think that's beautiful and wonderful in its own unique way,
but it does kind of feel like one side right
now is like really enjoying to the America two fifteen.
The other side feels like, hey, we can't be celebrating
(08:14):
this at least, you know, the loud voices in the
public sphere. Where do you think we have common ground
to all celebrate together? As we move into close, you know,
close to July fourth, how can we all come at
this together and just enjoy the celebration. That is an
amazing place.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
So well said, such a great question. I'm tying it
into the World Cup if I can, because I love
those videos. I feel vindicated by these. Has a guy
called Freddie I think from Germany posting these incredible observations
that are probably like so common sense to someone like
yourself from Indiana and I'm from my wife from Texas.
(08:58):
But for me, it feels like, guys, I've been trying
to say this for so many years, and I love
that people from all over the world are seeing this.
Last Sunday, I was in Dallas for a World Cup
game with my family, the kids, first time ever. It
was brilliant, It was beautiful, and there were whatever thirty
thousand Japanese people and twenty thousand Dutch people, and we
(09:20):
were all mixed in with a lot of Americans with
allegiance to all sorts of different teams. Mostly us say
we were connected, we were together, and so I love
that this World Cup is doing that for all of us,
for Americans to see how we are all seeing displays
and you, guys, I agree with you. I lived in
(09:41):
New York for about fifteen years, so I have many
friends there. I understand it deeply. I lived in la
for about ten That's where I met my wife. They're different,
but of course they're similar sort of culturally and politically.
And as you say that the division has got progressively
and quickly deeper and deeper. That happens while I live there,
(10:02):
and especially happened since I left. I hope, I still
really hope that July fourth, this summer can bring us together.
In some ways, I realized for some folks on the fringes,
it might not happen, that there's too much for them
to hate, frankly, specifically in the White House in Washington.
(10:23):
But I also think there is this vast middle of
the country, and that's really you know, that's what I
want to write film and television for. That's what wonder
project that we could talk about later is trying to
that's the audience we're trying to serve. And people can
be Democrats and Republicans or purple and red and blue
and ethnicity, whatever it is, orientation, identity. Regardless of all
(10:47):
of that, I think there is a vast majority still
that wants to celebrate a moment like this, that wants
to see movies like ours. It can be very difficult
to realize that when you pay too much attention to
these loud voices. As you rightly say, it's funny. This
weekend we were traveling to Dallas, and then we're also
moving homes, and so I haven't looked at my phone
(11:09):
a lot. I haven't been on social media, and I
feel better. I also feel clear headed, And as I
now talk to you, I realize, well, no, I do
have faith that even though this is I see, it's
a very fraud moment. I realize that certainly compared to
you know, let's say twenty twenty five years ago when
I started started living here. But when you start when
(11:33):
you sort of try to ignore those those voices and
focus on what's around you and what you can sort
of see and feel and pick up on It's actually
not as bad, is what I would argue for. And
hopefully our movie and this moment can sort of be
a unifying factor. That's what I would say.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, that's a good segue. And I really wanted to
touch on America two fifty because I know it is
everybody's invited, right, everybody's invited to be able to celebrate,
and when you have traveled around the world or you've
lived other places, there is an appreciation and a gratitude
for what we have here and who we have here.
(12:18):
And my hope is the same as yours, is that
this summer, maybe even for a couple hours, we can
just say, hey, I feel some gratitude for the place
that I live and the people that have fought for
me to be able to live in the way I
do here. Now, you mentioned the Wonder Project, and I
do want to touch a little bit on this. The
(12:38):
Wonder Project, which is an incredible, incredible company that your wife,
I believe, is still the CEO of, and that you
do work for as a screenwriter. If you're unfamiliar with
the Wonder Project, I would love for you, maybe Diedrich,
to give a little bit of background on know, be
(13:00):
their spokesperson for a second, on who they are, what
they're trying to accomplish, maybe some projects that are noteworthy
that stand out to most people. Now give us a
little background on the Wonder Project before we dive into
Young Washington.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Absolutely, thank you for the opportunity to do that, because
I do think it's a pretty special place. John Irwin,
I think would be known by many of your listeners
visionary filmmaker. You know, he made American Underdog and Jesus Revolution.
He was a very successful guy. He's been there for
a long time. But he had some big projects in
(13:36):
mind for specifically for this vast middle of America that
we've been talking about, and when he would shop those
around in Hollywood, I think he would be told quite often,
John terrific, we can't wait to see it, but you know,
maybe do it somewhere else, or find another way to
do it. And at some point I believe John got
tired of it and decided to start a studio, an
(13:58):
entertainment studio or production studio that's no more feet. In
the twenty twenties, there's very very few startups in entertainment
that succeed at all, especially now. He teamed up with Kelly,
my wife, a brilliant business leader in her own right,
also a wonderful mom and wife. But she and John
(14:18):
started the company together about four years ago. And the
two big stories that John wanted to tell are both
origin stories. He loves telling these coming of age tales
of great, great men. The first was about King David,
the biblical David, and that's the House of David, the
show that people may have seen on Amazon and on
Wonder Project. There's a Wonder Project channel on Amazon Prime,
(14:42):
as you mentioned that, so that's where people can watch
a House of David. And then Jong Washington is the
big movie. Sarah's Oil was another noteworthy, beautiful film that
folks can catch very unknown story about an African American
girl was the first black female millionaire in American history.
It's a great story. So those are some of the stories,
(15:02):
and you know, their mission is pretty simple. They want
to sort of restore hope in things worth believing and
like they want stories to encourage, to inspire, and they,
by the way, they also want to be real. They
don't shy away from the truth, the hard truths of life,
especially in biblical times. Life could be very very violent,
(15:23):
very very dark, and that's all going to be on
the screen. However, it will never be gratuitous violence and sex,
and it will often or if not always, have a
redemption element of redemption toward the end. Kelly sometimes says,
you know, Disney used to do this thirty forty years ago.
It's just what they did. It's just that that present
(15:45):
day Hollywood is not quite there anymore. As we all know,
it's taking a turn. And for us as parents, it
can be extremely difficult to find, you know, find stories
you want to watch with your family, even if it
might be PG. Thirteen, Like what if you could watch
those with you You know, the movie I just wrote,
my daughter is almost nine. I'm gonna watch it with
(16:07):
her because I feel it's an important story that she
can handle as long as i'm you know, right neck
right there. And so this is what Wonder Project is
aiming to do, being an HBO quality production studio, good
stuff that you want to watch for the Faith and
Values audience. And Kelly will always say faith and Values
(16:27):
is not a genre, it's an audience. It is many
tens of millions of people in America and around the world. Frankly,
you know, I'm from Western Europe. There's many many people,
including my own father, who craves this content. And so
that's what Wonder Project has been, has been doing, and
is doing, and will continue to do hopefully.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
The I think as you continue to be the Wonder
Project spokesperson here for just a second for me, I
think a lot of people maybe aren't confused, but they're curious,
is this any faith based studio? Is faith the foundation
of this studio? Or are is it more the family
(17:08):
friendly content based on what you know Hollywood is being
put in there.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
That's a fair question, and I think that like Angel,
so Wonder Project and Angel Studios have collaborated on numerous projects,
including Young Washington. Like Angel, you know, faith doesn't have
to be in every story, but it will end up
being in most of them at least an element. You know.
Sometimes I've heard this around the offices, like it used
(17:37):
to be okay for movies, Hollywood movies to show a
blessing before a meal. So we're not going to call
that a faith based movie because of that, just simply
because there's that scene. But it is telling that in
most Hollywood movies that will not be shown anymore. Wonder
projects will want to bring that back, say it's okay.
Most people actually do say a blessing, or read the Bible,
(17:59):
or go to church, pray together, believe in God, whatever
it might be. We what what what I think Wonder
would say is we are We will not shy away
from that. And so ultimately, perhaps it's about the values
that we hold dear, whether that's family, country, god, dreams,
(18:20):
you know, ideas like redemption, hope, courage, the virtues if
you will, are going to be in every single story.
And I but I will reiterate too that they're that
they're real stories, and that they're compelling, and that they
can be sometimes tough, as as Young Washington shows. You know,
his life was certainly not very pretty in their earliers,
(18:42):
it was extremely difficult. But that's the reason, I think,
all the more reason to tell the story, because he
makes it through the failures. We'll get to that later.
But to say, these are not, you know, cheesy, sugary,
feel good movies, not not at all. They are real.
They have high production value. They're extremely difficult and expensive
(19:04):
to make. I can attest to that, but they do
hopefully as I say here restore, really restore hope and
faith and encourage that that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Final question on the Wonder Project here, and you just
kind of touched on it in an industry right now
that is so hard to navigate and to find success,
and has the Wonder Project found success? And then kind
of the how or you know why to that either
direction it hasn't or if it has, how has it
(19:38):
found or how has it not found its place in
this world right now?
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, I would say two examples of how the studio
has really worked. One is a surprise to me was
the collaboration with Amazon Studios. There is a very tight
connection that Kelly john are when built with the folks
inside of Amazon, who were very very keenly aware and
(20:05):
interested in this audience that we're talking about. Amazon obviously
is a global company that wants to serve everybody. They're
not for one political party, They're not for one group
of people, they never will be, I think, and so
within their studio they recognized the need to serve the
audience better and so their collaboration with Wander has been
(20:28):
wonderful for everybody, and I think has been a sign
that there are folks even in Hollywood, who are keenly,
keenly aware and really really sort of in tune and
interested in a studio taking the risk as Wander is doing.
The second data point is that House of David, you know,
was a tough, big show to make. John Irwin went
(20:51):
to Greece to film that with hundreds and hundreds of people, actors,
extras crew. It was incredible. We got to visit the set.
It was epic. I don't think Greece had ever seen
anything of that scale in modern times. And you know,
that was a big, big leap leap of faith, a
big risk was taken by the investors, by Amazon, by
(21:11):
everybody at Wonder and I don't know what the last
count is, but at least fifty million people have watched
that show. There's two seasons now. It is one of
the biggest hits anywhere on streaming. So as an indication
of the of the tremendous hunger for great inspirational content,
in this case rooted in the Bible. Obviously a lot
(21:32):
of Jewish viewers, folks in Israel and elsewhere who find
it deeply moving to see their King David portrayed this
way again it's a coming of age story. It's about
the early seasons are about his early life. But so
I would point to that as well to say the
hunger is there, the need is there. I think Kelly
and John recognized it. Amazon is on board. That's not
(21:52):
to say it's still it's still difficult. You know, it's
still outside of the ordinary in Hollywood. We all know
that we know what you know where Netflix and others
are leaning. It's clear. I mean that's not me speaking.
You just look at the lineup on their streaming platforms
that you can see it. But hopefully, I think Kelly
would say, like hopefully we can we can show the competitors,
(22:13):
the colleagues, like this can be done, this is worth it.
There that audience is waiting for you.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Well, it's a good transition to you as a screenwriter.
We've kind of teased throughout this Young Washington, which is
a project that you've been working so hard on. You
are a screen writer by trade.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
In an interview, I believe, and I don't want to
misquote you, but the the way that you explain being
a screenwriter, you said it can often be a lonely experience.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Yes, And I also.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Read that you had been, you know, studying George Washington
for a long time leading up to this project coming
to fruition. Yeah, what made you as a screenwriter keep going?
I mean, so many people listening, I think can relate
with this idea where, Hey, my job or the thing
I'm passionate about is oftentimes lonely. It's not it's a
(23:12):
lot of nights in the quiet. It's a lot of
moments sitting, you know, pulling my hair out, trying to
figure out what's next. And so what kept you going
believing that hey, one day this project could be worth it.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
That's the first time anyone's asked me that question, And
thank you for that. Good I sometimes I think about
my late mother, who was a bit of an amateur
sculpture sculptor, and when I would visit she was in
her seventies eighties. I would visit her the back in Holland,
and she might spend hours an hour staring at a
(23:49):
block of stone, and I do believe she would see
in there what she was, what she was excavating, what
was hiding in there, what she was going to expose.
And maybe I've never sculpted, and I don't think I
ever will. It's not one of my talents, but I
do think there might be a parallel there that, especially
this particular project. I can talk about it how it
(24:12):
came to fruition, But to stick with your question, I
think there was something so important in there. It was
so it felt like a great and grave responsibility to
do this right that I think that's what drove me.
It was simply the sense of sort of being on
a mission with John Irwin and with my co writer
(24:33):
and dear friend Tom Provos, a wonderful screenwriter and professor
of screenwriting and dear friend of ours. He still lives
in Los Angeles. The three of us took this very
very seriously, spent several months really yeah, trying to see
the character in the stone, if you will, chipping away
at the story. And I do stand by what I said, Yeah,
(24:57):
it can be very lonely. It's quiet time with your
thoughts and the screen. I know many many of your
listeners will recognize that I do have a terrific wife,
three wonderful children, good friends. There's a busy life out there,
but many many times when I think, when you're on
a project like this, you're driven and passionate. You have
(25:19):
to have to choose the quiet, the solitude, even when
the inspiration or maybe especially when the inspiration isn't quite
coming to you. The screen's there and your thoughts are there,
and you stick with it. It's this one was a challenge,
but a wonderful challenge because I could share it with again,
someone who to me is a visionary filmmaker, and then
(25:41):
John and then with Tom by my side. So yeah,
it's funny. It's been almost three years since we wrote it,
so it's been interesting to talk about the film and
sort of go back to the time when you have children,
you know that in three years it feels like they're
a totally different person. Like that was that was so
long ago. But as I talk about it more, I realized, like, no,
(26:04):
I do remember very very clearly how it felt and
what it meant, and that it landed at the two
and fiftieth anniversary, as you've pointed out, it just makes
it more gratifying.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah, it was that strategic or just random happenstance.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Not quite When we wrote it, I wasn't sure when
it would come out. Frankly, we just this was about
three years ago, I guess you know, it makes total sense.
It takes a few years to make a movie, a
big movie like this, and I think at Wonder Project
and John Owin himself fairly quickly realized that we were
looking at potentially at twenty twenty six and that was
(26:40):
going to be a very special year. So then July fourth,
you know, or we're premiering on We're launching the movie
on July third, because that's the right day. But it
made a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Yeah, let's dive into it. So much of my life
and so much of what I've watched and read focuses
on the legend of George Washington, and kind of we
get this, you know, when you think of George Washington,
even when we say right now, I think most people
think of the portrait of George Washington, and that's kind
(27:11):
of how they know him, remember him, and think about him.
But you did something different with this. You focused on
George Washington kind of early on in leading up. A
large part of this film is when he's around like
twenty two. He's ambitious, but he's an experienced he's making
mistakes along the way. Why was that the version of
(27:34):
Washington that you wanted to focus on for this.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
You are so right. I think Washington, like the out
of founding photos, can be an enigma, can be feel
very distant. There's a terrific biography that I highly recommend
to anyone wanting to read more, Joseph Ellis. It's called
His Excellency. And Ellis makes this point that if if
(28:00):
we see George Washington as the father of the country,
a true father figure, he said, you know, both Freud
and Shakespeare have made the clear point that it can
be very difficult to see your father clearly, to get
to know him, to actually understand him, to fully see
him in all of his humanity. That's just tough. I
(28:23):
can relate to that as a son of my dad.
I think many of us can, and so and since
Washington plays that role right in the American psyche, in
the imagination and in its history, he is the father
father of the country, if you will. And to me too,
he was a statue and a portrait at best, like
I just didn't know much. Now. I think that John
(28:47):
would say and has said, that the idea of going
way back to what formed and shaped him was to
actually understand him better and therefore respect him even more.
Admire him even more. I think the more we the
more clearly we see somebody, the more the more authentic
they are, the easier it is for us to hopefully
(29:10):
love them, respect them, want to spend time with them.
And that's really what this movie is trying to do,
to say, hey, look at this kid. Frankly, we start
when he's eleven and his father passes away, and it's
obviously a traumatic event in his life, and any any
boy's life that would be. Let's see what he went through,
(29:32):
how he handled himself, who he grew up to be.
So we you're right, we start at eleven, we end
around age twenty two to twenty three, and by trying
to really bring up, bring up sort of create a
picture of him, a sense of who he was, we
hope and think that we can all love Washington even
(29:56):
more and bring him, bring him closer to us. That's
ultimately what we want to do. Like, yes, he'll always
be that monument and that portrait. That's good. He's on
the dollar bill. He is that important. He also was
just a kid with a lot of love problems when
he was young. And to me, it has worked. You know,
I spent so much time with the character that you
(30:17):
know now, Tom and I joke we sow us call
him George little George, and that's never out of disrespect.
We realize it's President Washington. It's just that we said
so much time with the character. He just became a friend.
He became a boy who we cared for, and that's
what we hope the audience will walk away with as well.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
As you as you and Tom wrote this, did your
views of Washington changed?
Speaker 3 (30:39):
In?
Speaker 1 (30:39):
I mean, you'd mentioned that so many of us have
this kind of idea of who George Washington was. You
dove in. You also dove into an area where it's
young Washington right eleven to twenty three, where there's not
a lot of like historical information on what was going
on in his life. So you kind of, I'm guessing,
(31:01):
had to. It's not dissimilar to the Bible, really, right,
we get like a picture of Jesus as a baby,
and then we get a picture of Jesus a little
bit in his teens, and then we get Jesus at
you know, thirty. So, yeah, how did you I don't
want to overquestion you here, but did your views of
him change? And then also how did you like, bind
(31:22):
the creative gap to keep historical accuracy while at the
same time having to kind of fill gaps.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Those questions are actually perfectly connected. I think we had to.
So we worked with the facts that we know. In
the biographies that you can read about Washington, there's a
very short section in every single one of them with
very similar facts about his early life. That's just all
we know. He was a deeply private person. A lot
of his papers and letters didn't survive. It was also
(31:51):
the seventeen forties and seventeen fifties. It's just a lot
we don't know. And so you're so correct. There's these facts,
these truths that we are all aware of that are
just correct. The historians supporting this film will testify to that.
We then quickly realized, we just knew we had to
take a lot of creative license to fill those gaps,
to make it into a story and to a hero's journey. Frankly,
(32:15):
you know it's it's It is a classical structure to
this movie, because we see him sort of emerge very raw,
very rough, and we we then develop him into I
think that the final scene shows the first real glimpse
of the Washington. We will know later, So that that's
a journey and arc that we that we created, that
(32:37):
we built. We're very honest about that. There are many
scenes and bits of dialogue in the film that you
will not find evidence in historical records. That's a creative
liberty we had to take in doing so. I think
Tom and John and I all truly became really enamored
with him as a young man. We all know how
(33:00):
brilliant he was during the Revolutionary War, during the Constitutional Convention,
drafting that, becoming the first presidents and accepting away from
the presidency, that's all magnificent and extremely important in world history.
What we started to realize is that he was a
kid like all of us, and then he became a
(33:21):
young man unlike most of us. Because he managed to
deal with the challenges and the setbacks and the failures
that came to him innovated very few of us ever
can or will, and that also there are challenges that
most of us will never face, thankfully, but we could
(33:42):
talk about them more So, to your question, the more
we learned, and then the more we imagined based on
what we learned, the more we we just embraced him
and realized this was a very very special person, even
at age eleven. Again we know how specially was at
age sixty into his seventies. We just we just fell
(34:07):
in love with the story of him coming of age.
That's how we put it. And I do like the comparison,
you know, you brought in Jesus or King David for
that matter. Like it's just a wonderful exercise. And I
think as writers that's what we should be doing, like
what would life have been like back then? Based on
what we know? What can we imagine? Always trying to
(34:30):
be respectful to the historical record, to the truth, never
injecting our present politics, ideology, conceptions. I mean, I'm sure
we do this a little bit sort of by definition,
but we really try to be aware and be so
neutral and respectful of the story and the character and
the time. And it's been no, it was a remarkable
(34:54):
project for us, and I can only hope, you know,
it's exciting people are starting to watch the movie, people
like yourself. We can only hope that it reaches sort
of through the screen to people's hearts, because that's the
goal here.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Yeah, I mean, just from my own personal viewing experience,
this is a film that it is not politically offensive
to either side, right, It's a story being told, and
I think that's what makes this project, along with all
the others, so exciting. Is I mean goodness. We talked
about how can we come together and toast or celebrate
(35:31):
America two fifty. I think sitting in a theater, sitting
and watching this film is one that can also bring
us together in so many ways. You highlight so much
in this film of George Washington's failures because I think
as a young kid, you're failing and learning and moving
forward and building your character. I'm more curious on a
(35:56):
leadership front after watching this, how do you think great
leaders are formed through failure?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Or are they?
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Maybe have we have haven't gotten too comfortable with the
concept of that great leaders are formed through failure. I
think it was a moment in this where it's a
little uncomfortable. Didri to see this leader in George Washington? Yea,
you know struggle and you're like, wait, oh yeah, he
was human too, he does he was trying to figure
(36:27):
this thing out. Also. It was uncomfortable but also relatable
in a little bit of a hey, I you know
what I'm called to something greater too, You're called this greater.
So back to the question, have we gotten too comfortable
with the idea of failure forming leaders? And what did
you learn about George Washington as he became a leader
through some of these failures?
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Right, Maybe maybe failure isn't a necessary ingredient for great leadership.
I you know, it's hard to say. My wife is
a terrific business leader. You know, she stumbled, yes, but
she she didn't have massive failures like George Washington, who started,
you know, a global conflict and a war, got his
(37:09):
best friend killed. I'm not giving anything really away. It's
all part of the historical record, and then had to
resign his hard fought commission the under the British government
of the Virginia at the time. We don't all have
to struggle through failures like that to become good leaders, know,
I do think in his specific case, and that's you know,
(37:31):
I always bring it back to the case study, to
the man who we've studied so deeply. In his case,
I do think it was central to his character formation
to see sort of the evolution of if his character
through the challenges, and it wasn't just failure. It just
happened to be. It just happened to be a lot
(37:51):
of loss and disappointment in that early life, and that's
what we want to show, and perhaps this is something
that younger viewers of the film, listeners to your your
amazing podcast can realize. George Washington, like all of us,
you know, he lost his father and his brother and
his best friend all before he was twenty two. That's
a very tall order of loss and misery and probably
(38:15):
depression and just anger and sadness to handle at that age.
He also, like I said, didn't quite succeed in his
early military career, something we might be very surprised by
because he became such a brilliant general and is known
for it. I mean, he defeated the greatest army in
the history of the world at that point, the British Empire.
(38:39):
What's interesting is that he learned lessons about guerrilla warfare
fighting for the British. Incidentally, just as a side note,
I think that's always a beautiful irony. But so I
would say it's a combination of loss, disappointment and also,
by the way, he had an overbearing mom like many
(38:59):
of us, So his mother was on the one hand
the one to say, you're not going to school in England,
even though George Washington really wanted to be part of
the British elite, whether that was in Virginia or back
in London. You're not even going to go to school
at all, which happened to lean heavily on George Washington
in his whole life that he didn't get a formal education.
She needed him to work on the farm because his
(39:21):
father and his brother were not able. But thankfully his
mother was also the one once George had sort of
thrown away his military gear and said I'm not fit
to lead. I can't do this, She's also the one
to say, if this is what you want, then perhaps
(39:42):
it's the path that God has chosen for you, and
go follow that path with purpose, with everything you have.
So I bring that up to say, it's not that
a miraculous hand of God you sort of guided George Washington.
Maybe it did, who knows, It's not for me to say.
It was also simply a mother who was very tough
(40:03):
on him, who then apologizes for being hard on him,
who then helps him to get back up and and stay.
Of course, it's his friends in the military who he
kind of betrays their trust, he really disappoints them. Ultimately,
he through a friend of mine, calls it a drop
(40:23):
of grace. You know, they are able to forgive him,
he's able to apologize to them, and they are reconnecting.
And I don't want to give away the epic final
battle scene that people might enjoy, but it is powerful
to see that he leans into serving men instead of
and not just leading them, And so it becomes this
idea of servant leadership. And you know, if I sum
(40:45):
it up, it's resilience that he's showing as a kid,
and then it's integrity that he's building through dealing with
hardship and failure and disappointing and his tremendous mistakes that
he makes, accepting the responsibility for that. That's if a
great form of integrity, and then ultimately that bleeding into
this idea of serving others. Because as you've said, he
(41:06):
was always ambitious and driven. I think what we found
is that early on that was simply a function of
ego and real sort of raw ambition coming from the inside.
And I think that shifted in his late teens and
early twenties into a sense that something greater was happening,
and that he needed to serve others in order to succeed.
(41:27):
Ultimately that became serving Virginia and then later the colonies,
and ultimately the country itself it was when it was
born and as its first president. So yeah, it's your
Your question is excellent. I think in this specific case,
the answer is what I tried to lay out. I
can't really speak to others as much except for my
(41:48):
wife to say she's a brilliant leader leader as well.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
It's, you know, the one aspect that this movie doesn't
get to. I mean it does in some level, but
it really happens later in life is the criticisms. You know,
we we don't always see the lens of the criticisms
that this great leader received and how you know, people
were not only critical, but they're publicly writing about, you know,
(42:16):
his issues or what they disagreed with. I think there's
a little bit of that where we say, okay, not
dissimilar to the times we live in, right, People have
their opinions. Again, I think that's a beautiful thing. But leaders,
you know, through I think the character that's built for washing,
at least at a young age, through watching his film.
It gave me this perspective of Okay, I get how
he continued. It was hard on him right as later
(42:39):
in life, but I understand now how he continued forward
in the path that he felt like he was called to,
And it helps make your film help make sense to
me on you know, how he could do that, How
he couldn't just you know, throw in the towel and
say nope, never going to do this, never going to
carry the burdens that are and n C. You know
(43:01):
requires thank you for saying me.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
As we finish up here, viewers are going to start
watching this film. As you said on July third, celebrate
by watching this film for you know, years to come.
If you're a viewer of this film, what do you
hope the takeaway is? Is it more about learning about
George Washington? Or is it takeaway maybe learning more about
(43:28):
themselves as the viewer.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
First, I want to reiterate what you said. The very
first thing I hope that happens is that you go,
all of us go to a movie theater, big theater,
big screen, great sound, big popcorn, and sit next to
people you don't know, who you might not agree with,
and cheer on this kid who becomes ultimately the father
(43:53):
and the ultimate founder of this country. Do that like
let's And I don't only say that because I hope
that the movie does really well in its opening weekend.
I genuinely hope that that's a shared communal experience that
rises way above any differences we might be having at
this movie. That's what I am not trying to be
(44:17):
a clip here when I say we wrote this movie
for everybody. We hope it's a story that we can
all sort of find ourselves in, that we can celebrate,
that we can cheer on. There might be some tears
because some of it is hard to watch. Frankly, then
I think first you'll learn things about George Washington that
(44:37):
you likely just didn't know. So it's you know, I've
always been a lover and a student of history, but
when you're younger, it can be tough to dive into
historical texts, and even books by great historians are not
always as accessible. We all know that that when we're younger, especially,
we love to watch cool battle scenes and love scenes
(44:58):
and good stories on the screen. That's what we love
to do, and so hopefully we do learn about this
this young man. And also, as I say, he is
the it's the origin story of the origin story, the
original American, the great, the first grade American. This is
how he became that. So hopefully there's something there that
(45:18):
that sort of inspires and leads us back to a
true appreciation, especially for the early days of this country.
I mean, those guys. George Washington was a land surveying
going into the wild West, which at the time was
the Ohio Territory. You know, western Pennsylvania. But it was
a wild place. And as as the the governor no
d sorry, the Lord Fairfax says when he when George
(45:42):
asks him to be sent there, Fairfax says, you know,
most men don't come back from there, right. George says, yep,
let me go, let me see, let me try. So
you know it. It it took a lot. You refer
to the people who fought for freedom throughout the history,
and that includes me. My country in Holland, my parents'
hometown was liberated by American soldiers in nineteen forty five.
(46:05):
I will never forget that. But it starts back there
with George and his friends, and then ultimately I do
think there's something about this incredible resilience that he shows
that we can maybe apply to our own lives. To me,
learning about him applying himself in that way was very inspiring. Frankly,
(46:29):
it took me months and months of research and writing
to sort of put it all together. You guys, hopefully
just watch it for two hours and get that. You know,
at the end of the film, I will, yeah, I'll
say that his mother I thought, I'm trying to think
of the quote. You know, you write things and then
a few years later you're asked to quote your own work.
(46:50):
It can be difficult. She says, something to the extent
of failure is a tutor sent by God. So as
she says, if you if you don't listen, you'll feel twice.
You don't. If you don't listen and learn, learn the lesson,
you'll feel twice. If you do listen and learn, you
you've gained wisdom. And that's over and over. I think
(47:11):
sort of a model in his in his development. Whether
he kept thinking about his mother's words, we don't know,
but it's I think it's a powerful sentiment expressed by
her and sort of ingested by him, and that becomes
part of his character at that point.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
What a beautiful quote for us to live by his
day as well is to allow the people around us
to make mistakes and when they grow from there them
wisdom comes. Final question for you, Ddrich. You spent years
studying one of the most consequential leaders that this world
has ever seen, and then you spent a long time
(47:49):
creating this beautiful story, this wonderful story of this leader.
Has going through this project in this kind of path
changed you at all, as kind of one of the
two three people carrying the burden of putting this into
the screens in front of us.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
Man, another question that I haven't heard before. So you're
you're challenging me in the best way, I do think.
I think my wife would say, as my as my
closest confidant, I think she would say, I am changed
by this learning, and that by the way that goes
also for a House of David watching up close the
(48:31):
making of that project again John Irwin learning sort of
by their side what they were learning about that figure
in history, another consequential leader. Obviously, Yeah, it's changed me.
I felt very privileged and grateful to have sort of
that front row seat, if you will, that we ourselves
(48:52):
just pulled up because we wanted to tell the story.
I think I felt inspired too, to tell more stories
like this. People have asked, people have seen the movie,
have asked where when is? When is the sequel coming out? And,
as John Irvin says, we don't know yet, but if
there is one, we will it will be us making it.
(49:14):
You know. We we love that, We love it so much.
We have to see how the movie does. But it
was just such a tremendous privilege. It was so inspiring
to learn what we could about where he came from,
how he managed through all the hardship to become that person.
I think there's yeah, I think I was. I was
(49:35):
actually changed. I have become also even more appreciative of
the early days of the Republic and even even right
before then, and that I didn't maybe didn't know that
it was possible. But I certainly feel just so grateful
to be a part of this, of this country. Frankly,
(49:57):
it's it's it bring it back to our earlier or
maybe our opening, the opening of the conversation that let's
all remember where we came from as a country, what
people had to go through and do and decide to
choose to do over and over and over again. I
will finally if I can just add this bend. There
(50:17):
is a there's a Native American chief who fought Washington,
and this is all true. There is a record of
this who who tried everything to kill him on the battlefield,
who ultimately speaks to him and says, my warriors never
miss they missed you. You're here. What is your name?
I must remember this name because there is a divine
(50:39):
hand here at work. There is a there is a protector.
The Creator is protecting you, and there is a much
greater purpose to your life. That was said to Washington.
In reality later we've brought it into this early time.
It was one of the creative liberties we took. I
want to bring it up because I think there's such
a powerful truth and watching this movie, learning everything I could,
(51:01):
that was a sense that I personally walked away from
there is it's hard for me now, full disclosure, I
believe in God. I'm a Christian. Even if you aren't,
I believe it would be hard to see this story
as not having that sort of that sense of divinity
and purpose around it and providence. That's a word that
Washington himself liked to use.
Speaker 1 (51:23):
Absolutely beautiful. De Derek, thanks for joining us, Thanks are
coming on. Thanks was right in this film, and thanks
for representing the Wonder Project and encouraging all of us
to celebrate two hundred and fifty years of this great country.
If again, if you want to watch Young Washington, it's
(51:45):
coming out July third. I'm assuming the fourth is going
to be busy with parties and celebrations, but there's no
better way to end an evening by sitting back with
your big popcorn, watching a big screen and enjoying Young Washington,
especially this year. Didrich, thanks for joining us and I
(52:06):
cannot wait to have you back on soon when the
sequel is written and getting ready to come out as well.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
Well. Thank you, Ben, it was a real pleasure to
talk to you.
Speaker 1 (52:15):
Hey friends, thanks for listening or watching. Would you take
a second, follow, subscribe, and drop a comment. It really
helps
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