Writer/Director Adam Anders

Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:02):
And look, the difference between me and
probably somebody else sittingsitting at home is I have an
idea and I tried to go make it.
You know, so many of us haveideas and we don't pursue them
and we're afraid to fail.
And my uh I think my firsttalent, maybe, is my honesty.
My second probably greatest giftum is that I'm okay with
failure.
And man, have I failed a lottrying to make this movie.

(00:24):
17 years of failure, and nowit's coming out.

James Duke (00:35):
This is the Act One podcast.
I'm your host, James Duke.
Thanks for listening.
Do us a favor, and if you likewhat you hear, please subscribe
to the podcast and leave areview.
My guest today is writer anddirector, Adam Anders.
Adam is the director andco-writer of the new film
Journey to Bethlehem, a musicaladventure about the birth of
Christ, which is being releasedexclusively in theaters by Tony

(00:57):
Pictures on November 10th.
Check it out.
Adam is a four-time Grammynominee and two-time People's
Choice Award winner.
For many years, he served as theexecutive music producer of Glee
and recently re-teamed with Gleeco-creator Ryan Murphy to
produce Netflix's feature film.
His company, Anders Media,produces film and television

(01:18):
content for global audiences.
He has sold more than a hundredmillion records and worked with
artists ranging from the JonasBrothers and Miley Tyrus to Andy
Grammer and Celo Green.
His music has been heard in suchfilm productions as High School
Musical, The Wedding Planner,Captain Underpants, and Rock the
Vegas.
His many other credits includeexecutive producing the

(01:38):
television show's PerfectHarmony for NBC and the
international hit team musicalHolly's Mash Up, which he
created based on his own life.
His credits also includeexecutive producing the
faith-based Fox Live televisionevent The Passion, starring
Tyler Perry, which generated thenumber one soundtrack on
Billboard.
Adam is a very talented guy, andwe had a great discussion about

(01:58):
his career in music and film andtelevision.
I hope you enjoy.
Adam Anders, welcome to the ActOne podcast.
It's great to have you.
Thanks for having me, James.
I have been looking forward tohaving this conversation with
you because I uh we were justtalking briefly.
Uh we've got a lot of uh mutualfriends in common, and they have

(02:22):
been bragging to me about you.
And I'm like, who is this guy?
I want to get to know him too.

SPEAKER_00 (02:27):
Let's be honest.
There's two friends, and thoseare my only two friends.
You just got lucky.
The only two people I know inHollywood.
You happen to have them.

James Duke (02:36):
So we both have the only two, we both only have two
friends, and they're the samepeople.

SPEAKER_00 (02:40):
The weirdest thing.
Yeah.
I've heard a lot of good thingsabout you too.
So thank you for having me on.

James Duke (02:45):
Well, I I'm excited to talk to you because you've
had a fantastic career and uhvery varied, and and I
definitely want to spend sometime getting into that.
And um I want to save uh alittle bit of the conversation
for your your your big filmthat's coming out.
Uh I believe November 10thcalled A Journey to Bethlehem.
We'll we'll save that towardsyeah, and we'll save that
towards.

SPEAKER_00 (03:03):
I don't know when this is airing, but November
10th, yeah.

James Duke (03:06):
Yeah, whenever they listen to it, hopefully it's in
November, they can go see it.

SPEAKER_00 (03:09):
But uh my state of mind is it's in two weeks.
So if I sound stressed out, uhthat's why everybody.
Two weeks from now, my lifeeither ends or starts again.
We'll see.

James Duke (03:20):
No pressure, no pressure, no pressure.
Um so I I would love for peoplejust to get to know you a little
bit.
You where did your creative kindof juices get flowing?
Was it at a very early age athome?
Were you inspired by a teacher?
Was it are were you a childprodigy?
Like I'm just curious because uhobviously you're a very gifted,

(03:43):
talented musician who is kind ofsegued into not only now just
doing music, but now you do filmand television.
And so I'm just curious, wheredid it all start?

SPEAKER_00 (03:54):
Uh good question.
You know, all of the above.
Um, I grew up in a musicalfamily.
My parents are both um classicalmusicians.
Actually, they they went to theRoyal Academy of Music in
Stockholm, that's where theymet.
And uh mom's a concert pianist,dad's an opera singer.
They left that for gospel musicand missions work.
Um so I kind of grew up in theministry, hence the movie, you

(04:18):
know, is a movie about thenativity story.
So that comes from my roots, youknow, growing up um with them.
And they brought us along.
They they wanted to bring theirkids with them uh when they
traveled the world.
They didn't want to leave usbehind.
So we grew up on the road and ina musical family.
Wow.

James Duke (04:34):
You were the part were you the partridges?

SPEAKER_00 (04:36):
The Swedish parters family.
And you know, one of the actorsin the movie is Joel Smallbone
from Fricking and Country, andhe is has basically the same
story.
Uh immigrant from Australia,we're from Sweden, traveled with
the family and all this stuff.
We have a lot in common, uh,which made us really have a
great bond on set.
But um, yeah, I grew up in thatmusical family traveling the

(04:57):
world.
As we came along, we would joinin the singing and playing.
And by the time I was I think10, my brother and sister and I
was the youngest of three.
We uh got a record deal, thethree of us, and started
touring, did a 40 city tour inEurope by ourselves without our
parents when I was 10.
Um so by the time I was 13, uhit was obvious I was pretty good

(05:17):
at uh playing bass.
That was my my instrument that Iplayed in the family band.
So, yes, a little bit of aprodigy as a bass player,
because at 13 I started studyingjazz bass at the University of
South Florida in Tampa.
And so I started going tocollege at 13 there while doing
my regular school, myhomeschool.
I'm like the OG homeschooler.

(05:38):
Um and uh yes, I did highschool, elementary school, high
school, or middle school, highschool, and college at the same
time.
Um the time I was 16, I'dfinished my my jazz-based
studies with, by the way, yousaid a teacher who inspired you,
my the professor there who tookme in because he saw, you know,
saw my potential.

(05:58):
Um, he was amazing, and I didn'tknow what to do with that.
I'd finished my studies with himat 16.
I'm like, what do I do now?
And should I go keep going tocollege?
And he's like, Well, you'velearned everything that I can
teach you.
So do you want to be a teacher?
Then you need a degree.
And I'm like, I don't want to bea music teacher.
And he's like, well, then justgo work, just go gig.
So I was 16.
I moved out.

(06:19):
I moved to Nashville.
And my brother was going toBelmont University there, and I
moved in with him as hisroommate.
And started uh temp jobs uh bynight and by day.
I would play for anyone forfree.
Uh really get going, yeah.
And that took about six monthsbefore I was full-time a
musician, and I've never lookedback.

(06:40):
Um and uh yeah, so I didn't haveto crawl back to my mom and dad,
thankfully.
And I knew I had it was nice,you know, if it bombed, I would
go back home.
But um yeah, I just uh keptgoing.
And by the time I was 18, I wasum touring with Stephen Chris
Chapman.
Um became his bass player, andthat's kind of where I got my
start in Christian music, met mywife in Nashville.

(07:02):
But I never um you know, itbecame very clear to me, even
though I grew up in the ministryand and in Christian music and
all this, that wasn't my thing.
It wasn't my calling.
And I had many discussions withStephen in the back of the bus.
Like, this is not the thing forme, there's something else for
me.
And uh ultimately, um, you know,I came to Hollywood, came to LA
to work in mainstream.

James Duke (07:23):
I just and I I'm assuming that that's unusual.
Like I'm assuming you were theonly 18-year-old bass player,
professional bass player touringuh right, like that that's
that's the thing.

SPEAKER_00 (07:36):
I'm huge, like I'm a big dude, so I got away with uh
they thought I was older than Iwas, but um I think at 19 Steven
discovered how old I was, youknow.
Uh so um yeah, it was legalthough, it was all legal.
Maybe the jobs between 16 and18, not so much, but um uh you
know I had to make a living.
So yeah, I started touring withhim and touring, and then uh he

(07:58):
actually heard my songs.
Um, Steven did.
I ended up doing the speechlessalbum with him, which became a
huge success.
And at the same time, my wifeNikki, who was in Avalon, she
was the founding member ofAvalon, got signed to a record
deal with Columbia with TommyMatola uh to be the next Brian
Harry.
Yeah.
So I ended up uh our first datewas actually writing a song

(08:19):
together, and here we are uh 20some years later, 26 years
later, still writing songstogether.

James Duke (08:26):
Wow.
Now I am now I am not a I'm notmusically inclined at all, but I
have been told that you know tostart a band, you need a drummer
and you need a bass player.
Those are kind of like thefoundations, right?
I don't know, I don't know ifthat's true or not, but um I'm
curious.

(08:46):
Oh as a bass player, um whatwhat what about playing bass do
you think helps you with writingmusic, knowing music, performing
music, composing music?
What was it as a uh what what isit about do you think about bass
that that kind of core rhythm?

(09:07):
How has that served you as amusician overall?

SPEAKER_00 (09:10):
It's a really good question.
Um, I think it has a lot to dowith it.
I I think bass players, youknow, guitar players are known
as the flashy ones who want allthe attention, right?
All my guitar playing friends,you know it's true.
I want another solo, look howcool I am.
You know, bass players are justlaying it down in the back.
We don't want any attention.
We just want to groove and jam.
And you can't do anythingwithout us, the rhythm section,

(09:30):
right?

James Duke (09:31):
Um, but the the the other guys, they just learned to
play guitars to get to pick upchicks, right?
To get bait.

SPEAKER_00 (09:37):
Yeah, and uh I didn't.
I I literally just loved playingbass.
And um for some reason I sawAbraham Leboreal Um in Sweden,
and it was a band calledKoinania, and I saw him, and I
was playing bass and I was 10,and I saw him, and I told my
dad, I'm gonna be better thanhim one day.
I'm gonna be the best bassplayer in the world.
And then I set off in thisthing, and I literally practiced

(09:58):
like four six four to six hoursevery day from that point out.
I was completely obsessed.
And so by the time I got to youknow, Nashville at 16, I was
really good.
And but that wasn't the thingthat got me gigs.
It was I was I could sing,right?
So growing up in the familyband, we had to sing.
We had to sing and play.
And that's a weird thing, yougot to split your brain in half
and like sing the lyrics in adifferent rhythm there that your

(10:20):
fingers are doing, whatever.
It's a really difficult thingthat many people can't do.
Um, and I just did it naturallybecause I grew up doing it.
And um so that was my callingcard.
So I got so much work because Icould sing.
Um, and uh yeah, so I got in,you know, into the business that
way, and um, it is definitelyunusual, um, especially at that

(10:42):
age, uh, to do that.
But um I don't know, it was justuh it's part of the whole plan.
You know, it's funny.
Um, one of the themes of mymovie is you know, God has much
bigger plans for us than we do.
You know, if we just don't evenknow what he has in store for
us, and I'm living proof, man.
I just wanted to be a good bassplayer, and I'm directing
musicals in Hollywood, you know,feature films.

(11:03):
Um, I couldn't think that farahead.

James Duke (11:06):
So you do you feel like do you do you feel like
there's something fundamentalabout being a bass player that
has kind of helped youthroughout your career as a
musician?

SPEAKER_00 (11:15):
Yeah.
Yeah, um, you'll see that you'llhave to bring me back into the
question.
I go off in these littletangents.
Uh no, I what I was gonna say isum I don't like the spotlight.
I like being behind the scenes,and I think that is so much
because a lot of bass playersare producers for that reason.
Um probably the first bassplayer to be a director, but
it's the same thing.
I just want to support everyoneelse.

(11:37):
I want you to look good.
I want you to be your best.
Um, I want to lay a foundationfor you uh to shine, and and
that's really what bass playersdo.
They're they don't need theattention.
I much, much prefer you notknowing who I am.
If you follow me on socialmedia, I'm very sorry because
I'm the worst follow.
Because you will not know whoI'm with, what I'm doing, where

(11:57):
I'm doing it, when I'm doing it.
You know nothing.
Uh I'm a terrible follower, butfollow me anyway if you'd like.
Um but uh yeah, because I just Iprefer to be behind the camera,
um behind the scenes, and I loveit.
I I love getting out of the wayand letting other people shine.

James Duke (12:13):
Do you see um this might be a weird question, but
uh because music has been somuch of who you are growing up
over the years, um do you seethe musicality in almost
everything now?
Like a part, even like film andtelevision, uh not not the music
part itself, but the actual art,the the the art of it.

(12:37):
Is it does it almost flow withto you musically?
Is there a is there a rhythmthat you kind of um kind of look
for in in art in the stuff thatyou're creating that um because
it just seems like music umisn't just something you do,
right?
It just seems like it's deeply apart of who you are.

SPEAKER_00 (12:58):
Music's who you are, yeah.
Uh I I believe that.
I think music music's a very ummagical spiritual thing, right?
You're you sit down and youstart pulling stuff out of thin
air, you know, notes and ideasand things, and it wasn't there
before, and then it now you'vecreated something that's
tangible.
It's a very special thing.
And I think it's you know, uhGod inspired.

(13:18):
I think it's a divine thing.
And you think of the artistthrough history, whether it's
painting or the arts in general,it's just there's something
really spiritual about it.
Um, but it is who you are morethan what you do, and it has to
be because it's really hard.
Um, I think you'll quit if it'snot who you are.
You have to be willing to keepgoing even when there's nothing

(13:38):
good happening, you know.
Um, but we joke, my wife and I,our life is a musical.
I mean, it's just it's uh mypoor kids, man.
Uh it's a horrible place to livewhen you everything's a musical,
uh, dishes, like trash, dogs.
We sing everything.
Um it's just been the fabric ofour lives.
But uh you're kind of in thatflow, you know, so because

(13:59):
you're you're always thinkingcreatively and rhythmically, and
um, I do see music andeverything.
And you know, I've been asked todirect for a while, and I've
been asked to do I want to donon-musicals, and I don't know.
I don't know that that's who Iam, you know.
Maybe one day, never say never,but there's something amazing.
I was just doing anotherinterview, and we were talking

(14:21):
about this.
You know, on set, you dodialogue all day, every day.
It becomes a grind.
It it's really like to be quiet,quiet, and quiet on set.
It's an amazing thing to be on afilm set when it's time to do
the song.
And then you crank it up,everybody's dancing, singing.
It doesn't matter because themusic's playing, you don't have
to be quiet anymore, and it'ssuch a relief and and such an

(14:42):
encouragement and life-giving toeveryone on set when it's you
know good music starts playing.
Um, it's just a very joyousexperience for crews who are
kind of always beat up and tiredand depressed.
Schlag, man.
Making a movie is a schlag.
It's just this never-endinggroundhog day experience.
But when they don't know whatsong we're doing tomorrow and

(15:03):
then they haven't heard itbefore, and then they get to
discover the song as we'reshooting, and it's just really
fun.
Um, and I couldn't wait to shootthe songs all the time.

James Duke (15:11):
Um, one of the things that I think is so
fascinating about the connectionbetween film and music is uh,
you know, film is thecollaborative art form.
But what you're describing interms of most people experience
music communally.
Um, I mean, obviously weexperience it individually, but

(15:32):
the one of the greatest joysabout music is when you
experience it communally.
And so here's a here's an artform in film that is
collaborative by nature.
And when you combine that withthe process of music and
creating music, and uh like Ijust think about, you know, just
a typical set on a regular filmfor you uh or kind of

(15:57):
orchestrating all that and theexperiences that you've had, do
you feel a sense of almost umpastoral care with people in
terms of like, hey, I get tolead you guys into this kind of
moment of joy where we'resinging together, we're
celebrating together, we'redoing something together.
Does do you feel a sense of um Idon't know, like responsibility

(16:21):
or uh in terms of leading peoplein that way?

SPEAKER_00 (16:24):
I think you do 100%, especially as a director.
I mean, um, we've all been onsets that weren't fun, that
working for people who aren'tnice people.
It's not a joy to go to work.
Um, and I I tried to set thetone very early.
We we had our big you know crewkind of kickoff meeting, safety,
and I do a speech, you know.

(16:45):
This I hate speaking in public,so I hate it so much.
But I had to do it.
So I get up there in front of a373 crew where we had, and um
the main thing I just wanted totell them is this is a musical,
it's supposed to be fun.
And I said, if anyone next toyou in the crew is not having
fun, remind them they'resupposed to have fun.

(17:06):
If I'm not having fun one day,remind me because it's a
musical, people.
Um, so let's have a great timedoing this, and we get to do
this for a living.
This is an amazing gift.
Um, so let's just enjoy it, evenwhen it gets hard.
Let's remember uh how lucky weare, and and then you try to
lead from that.
Um, you know, and there werehard days, but encouraging

(17:28):
people and and you know, liftingthem up, even when I feel like
crap and I'm dying, but that'smy job.
You know, I set the tone, and uhit was so rewarding to hear the
feedback from crew and and castjust what a great experience it
was making the movie.
And I think partially it wasbecause it's a musical and it's
fun, and partially is the toneyou set as a director.
You know, you're at the top andit has it trickles down.

(17:49):
You know, if I'm going aroundyelling at people and I'm a jerk
with everybody and I'm uhdemanding and not forgiving and
all this stuff, you know,because everybody makes mistakes
on movies, things go wrong.
It is what it is, it's how yourespond to those things that
show your character as adirector.
And it was very important to meevery morning to to check myself
before I went on set and makesure I was in the right frame of

(18:11):
mind to lead that way.
That's good.

James Duke (18:14):
Uh, so let's get back into your story a little
bit.
You so you got to you got toHollywood, you you left the kind
of the the touring business inthe Christian music world, and
you said you came out here.
Uh what was your what was yourfirst professional gig here in
um Los Angeles?

SPEAKER_00 (18:30):
Well, it kind of started in in Nashville.
You know, it's funny, I I I'mnot a malcontent at all.
Uh I'm I feel very blessed foreverything I've done, but every
stage of my career I felt like,eh, this isn't it.
I kind of tried something else.
So first I kind of conquered thebass playing thing.
I'm like, okay, I'm like doingthese huge arena tours in the
stadium.
Oh, this is cool, but all right,I'm kind of over this.

(18:50):
Um, people thought I was crazywhen I left because I was like,
you know, really doing great asa bass player, and I just quit
cold turkey.
I'm like, I'm out of here.
And that's because I discovereda love for songwriting and
producing.
And I'm like, well, if I want tobe a songwriter and producer,
why am I still playing bass?
Like, I can play bass and get myfix on all the records I produce

(19:12):
and all the songs I write, whichI still do to this day, but I
just don't want to be a bassplayer when I'm 50.
You know, I was like, I need to,I've done this, I got out of my
system, I loved it.
It was an amazing ride, and Ihave some amazing friends.
And I mean, Stephen Curtis, Imean, he's in this movie, you
know.
That's full circle from thebeginning of my career.
It's so fun.
But um, you know, I don't didn'twant to still be on tour with

(19:34):
Stephen Curtis when I'm StephenCurtis's age, you know.
So, um, because it's not mysongs, it's not my story.
And I felt the real drive totell stories, and I thought that
was in songs first, and it was.
So uh I started writing songs,um, did the speeches album with
Steven, which was huge, and thenwrote songs with Nikki, uh my
wife, and and Tommy Matola heardthose songs, and he goes, Who's

(19:57):
this guy?
You know, he's really good.
So that was my first breakoutside of Stevens World.
Wow.
And Sony Music signed me, and Imoved to LA.
And I ended up producing half ofNikki's record.
Patrick Leonard did the otherhalf.
That was a whole situation wewon't get into.
But what happened was Nikki andI became writing partners.

(20:18):
And then obviously we ended upgetting married.
And we've married 20 gosh,almost 23 years now.
Which is a miracle in Hollywood,by the way.
So we started writing songstogether, and then I started
finding success as asongwriter-producer from
Backstreet Boys and Ace of Bassand Nick Clache and all kinds of

(20:39):
stuff.
And it was really going great.
We moved to New York Citybecause again I was like, eh,
you know, whatever.
Well, let's go to New Yorkbecause we're young, we don't
have kids, and Nikki'd alwayswanted to live there.
And I'm like, let's try that.
So then found success as aproducer songwriter there.
Um, but then these stories keptyou know creeping in.
I'm like, I want to tell morethan a three-minute song.

(20:59):
It's just not reporting.
Like, I don't know why I'm nothappy with all the success,
number ones and huge sales andlike all this stuff.
And I'm like, I was still justlike, what is my problem?

James Duke (21:10):
Um did you always did I sorry to interrupt you,
but like, did you so you viewedsongwriting even then as
storytelling?

SPEAKER_00 (21:19):
Oh, 100%.
Yeah.
I've always come at it from uhfrom a storytelling.
And I used to write stories whenI was younger, and I just love
telling stories.
I'm a storyteller, as you cantell, I talk too much.
Uh I've always been told I talktoo much.
Um, but that's what storytellersdo.
They want to talk and they wantto tell their stories.
And um, the song was verylimiting, you know, and it was
formulaic.

(21:40):
And I'm like, I have to, I'm inthis little box, and it was very
frustrating for me.
And then you'd write things uhon spec too as a songwriter.
You write, just sit downrandomly, like, well, let's
write a Britney Spears song.
And I'm like, you know, tell me.
Like, this is so depressingcreatively.
Um, nothing wrong with BritneySpears, and I would have been
thrilled to get a cut withBritney Spears.
But for me, when I got into filmand TV music, then I started

(22:04):
really becoming more alivebecause to see something and put
music to a story and a biggerpicture was so much more
gratifying for me than justwriting uh pop songs for great
artists.
And again, I was very happy forall that success, and it's all
led to other things, but youknow, then I felt again the had
to throw the carrot forward andgo, let's move back to LA and

(22:25):
pursue film and TV.

James Duke (22:26):
So so before that, just so I understand, you had a
you were signed by Sony Music.
So the the the life of someonewho's signed by Sony Music is
you write songs for artists theytell you to write for, or you're
just writing songs and they grabthem and go, you're yeah, I mean
you're writing, you're aprofessional songwriter, like
you gotta wake up tomorrow andwrite a hit, you know, and uh

(22:49):
that can be very soul suckingtoo, uh, because you don't get
any feedback either from people,you're just writing in a vacuum
all the time.

SPEAKER_00 (22:54):
Oh, interesting.
But then they Sony would put youwith Sony artists and write with
those artists for their albums,and you would write songs other
days and pitch them.
Managers would get them and I'mgonna see if my artist wants to
do this.
It's just it's what it is.
You're you're a salesman of yourown music.

James Duke (23:08):
And they own every and they own every song you you
wrote at that time, or you areyou able to write on the side?

SPEAKER_00 (23:15):
No, they yeah, they get a piece of anything you do.
They're your publisher, they'reyour they administer your songs,
and um and then and being aproduct to be a songer.

James Duke (23:25):
And and being a producer, uh so produ so like
you wrote the song, and nowyou're gonna help kind of
produce the song or help makethe album.

SPEAKER_00 (23:33):
So I would always do a demo for the song that I
wrote, and then they would likethe production and hire you to
produce the song.

James Duke (23:38):
Got it, got it.

SPEAKER_00 (23:39):
Yeah, and that's different.
That was not Sony.
So Sony was a publishing deal,and that would sustain you when
you're not doing record, likeyou're writing songs, you're
getting paid by the publisher inadvance um to pay your bills.
And then if you don't get abunch of cuts and make them
their money back, you get cut,you know, you get dropped.
Um, so that was the game.
But I did one deal with Sony,three-year deal, and since then

(24:00):
I've had my own publishing eversince.
Um, I just went out on my ownand I've always just done my own
thing.
Again, because I'm like, I don'twant Sony to determine what I do
creatively in in my life.
Um, and I wanted to pursue otherthings.

James Duke (24:12):
So one one thing I've heard tell me uh is uh
because I've I've I've spoken toa few other people who have kind
of been in similar space, and itthe amount of time it takes to
say uh turn to produce an albumversus say producing a film is
vastly different.
Has there been any kind ofbecause you can you can turn

(24:35):
around an album uh pretty fastor a song?
Like, you know, nowadays somepeople are you know, they're
going into a studio writing thesong the next day it's showing
up on iTunes or something.
Um what's the is there anythinginherently more joyful or
frustrating about the creativeprocess of creating an album

(24:55):
versus creating a film?
Um, do you get something out ofone more than the other?
Do you enjoy the kind of the thekind of immediate, more
immediate response you get fromturning our an album around
quicker versus maybe takingyears to get a film out?
What are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00 (25:12):
Um well, look, there's no one uh formula for
how long things take, you know,because uh yes, you can make a
song today and put it outtomorrow.
It doesn't mean it's gonna begood.

James Duke (25:22):
That's true.

SPEAKER_00 (25:23):
So, I mean, anybody can do that.
Um, but the great albums, thegreat art uh in music have
usually taken a lot longer thanthat.
And I would rarely do an albumin less than six months when I
was sitting down and and makingan album.
Um, however, on Glee, I had toturn around an album every week.
You know, that was completeinsanity and not fun.
Um, but we weren't writing allthose songs, so at least a song

(25:47):
existed and we were reproducingthem.
But um I don't even think itcompares how much more
gratifying a movie is for mepersonally.
And and I think that's not foreveryone because some people
just love music and that's allthey want to do.
But again, coming back to themalcontent, the non-malcontent,
malcontent that I am.
Um I've always been trying tofind why am I not happy just

(26:10):
writing songs because I've hadall the success.
So then we moved to LA and andgot into film and TV, and I like
that better, but even got to thesame point there.
I want to tell my own stories.
And Glee opened so many doorsfor me to tell my own stories.
So then I started selling my ownshow ideas, musical ideas, and
screenplays and and uh liveevents, and um because of the

(26:30):
success of Glee and and that Idid all that music, um, then
that opened all those doors.
So I got to finally tell mystories, but then I started
getting frustrated because I washaving so many of my ideas
ruined by other filmmakers.
Um, so then you go, oh man,that's not what I wanted to be
at all.
Um, and then I got frustratedwith that.
So it's always been this thingof something has kept moving me

(26:53):
forward forward until now I gotto this point.
I was on set in Spain makingthis movie, and I stopped and I
went, Oh my gosh, I'm in my 40sand I found my calling.
Like I finally found the thingthat I can use all my skills,
all my passions, everything Ilove, and story and to tell the
complete story from beginning toend, visually, musically, and

(27:17):
with the screenplay.
Uh, it was so fulfilling.
Finally, I'm like, this is it.
This is the thing I've beenlooking for, but I had to go
through all that stuff to learnhow to do it.
You know, I I first had the ideafor this movie Journey to
Bethlehem 17 years ago atChristmas in Iowa, and I wrote
an 11-page treatment of it.
It took me 17 years to figureout how to make a movie, you

(27:37):
know, to learn from all thesegreat people I worked with in
Hollywood, from the Tom Cruisesand Meryl Streeps and Ryan
Murphy's, all these amazingpeople I've had the opportunity
to work with.
You learn something, you know.
I learned more working withMeryl Streep on that one movie
of how to talk to actors and howto be around actors and what
acting is all about from thatexperience that helped me so
much in directing the actors onthis movie.

(28:00):
Um, so all of it was preparationfor the thing that I think I'm
supposed to be doing.

James Duke (28:04):
Was that was that prom?
You're talking about prom?
Yeah.
Um, was so so was Glee yourfirst um kind of uh work in the
business?
What was your first big projectin the business?

SPEAKER_00 (28:15):
Well, my first um big cut was, you know, well, for
Steven and then Nikki stuff, andthen it was uh Sinead O'Connor
and then Backstreet Boys numberone and all that stuff.
Then in film and TV, I starteddoing stuff for Disney first.
Disney.
We did Camp Rock, we did um whatwere they called Cheetah Girls
movies, we did high schoolmusical, we didn't know all

(28:36):
kinds of stuff with them.
At the same time, Fox kepthiring us to write Nikki and I
to write theme songs for themfor all their shows because we
were fast, we could do differentstyles, we could sing it.
Yeah, you know, and it was umagain, it was just a way for me
to make TV contacts.
And they're like, oh, we'regetting this big, you know, song
pop songwriter or producer gotto do our themes.
And I'm thinking I'm getting tomeet all the executives at the

(28:58):
TV studio to win-win.
Um, so that came together withGlee.
Uh, they needed somebody to doGlee, and they knew I was doing
musicals, and they knew you knowthat uh I would be a good fit
for this show.
Uh, long story short, you know,um, I did one song uh together
with Pear, my producing partner,for 15 years.

(29:20):
Uh, we produced one song for forRyan and he loved it.
And we were off to the races,did over 800 songs on Glee.
Wow.

James Duke (29:27):
Was that were you part of for this first season,
or did you come in after thefirst season?

SPEAKER_00 (29:30):
No, I did the pilot.
Yeah, I'm all the way.

James Duke (29:33):
Did you do the did did you do the um was it like
don't stop believing the firstbig single?
Was that you guys?
That was us, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (29:40):
Wow, wow Nikki and I are are basically that choir.
My wife and I.
That was a big deal.

James Duke (29:48):
That was a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 (29:50):
It was bigger than the original.

James Duke (29:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I remember that.

SPEAKER_00 (29:52):
I remember there's a whole generation that thinks
it's a glee song.
They have no idea that Journeyexists.
Uh I'm not telling them.
You don't tell them.
I like it.

James Duke (30:00):
Steve, please don't introduce him to Steve Perry.
We're all out of the job.

SPEAKER_00 (30:04):
Steve loves me.
Journey loves us.
Uh it it it blew up theircareers again, and and we have a
great collaboration with them.
And I've become very goodfriends with Journey and and
with their management.
And um, it's it's been reallygreat.
But so then Glee happened, andthen Rock of Ages with Tom
Cruise, and then you know, uhall this, all these great
projects.
And every step of the way, I waslearning something.

James Duke (30:25):
Um and yeah, so you've you've collaborated,
you've collaborated a lot withRyan Murphy.
He's he's a he's a he's a reallybig deal in the business.
He's one of the most um umproficient um creatives and
producers in the business.
Uh what what is that relation?
So I'm assuming it started inGlee, and what what would you

(30:49):
say um has attributed so much toyou guys working together and
what what's that what's thatrelationship been been like?

SPEAKER_00 (30:57):
Well, look, um Ryan and my relationship started kind
of funny because um if you knowanything about Ryan Murphy, uh
he knows what he wants and whohe wants to work with.
You don't tell him who to workwith.
And Fox Fox uh threw me underthe bus and told Ryan he had to
meet with me about Glee.
And Ryan had his own ideas, butyou know, okay, they make him

(31:19):
meet make me meet him.
And and uh I did not have agreat first meeting with him,
I'm not gonna lie.
And this was three months beforeI moved to LA.
I was still living in New Yorkand I was out doing meetings and
and working with Disney.
So I'm not sure I'll go meetthis guy and have a terrible
meeting.
Um, he didn't like me at all.

James Duke (31:35):
Um and what was what was terrible about it?
What happened?

SPEAKER_00 (31:38):
Well, first of all, he he he came in hot because he
didn't want to meet me in thefirst place.
So I was wasting his time.
And he's like, I don't even knowwhat a music producer does.
And he's like, What is it?
What does that even mean?
And I'm like, I don't know.
I've never had anyone ask thatbefore.
I'm like, I don't know, wefacilitate the creation of music
of all kinds for all mediums.
I don't know.
I made up some crazy answer.
Um, he yeah, he was not feelingit.

(32:01):
And um, you know, he looked atme, I had a ring on, he's like,
What are you married?
I'm like, yeah, he's like, to awoman.
And I'm like, yeah,unfortunately.
Uh so he was not having that.
Um, it was not did not go well.
And he's like, What's yourbackground anyway?
And I said, Christian music.
It was just downhill from there,man.

(32:21):
It was a disaster.
A worse meeting in my career.
He's he will never admit any ofthis.
Uh, but um, from that meeting,which you couldn't imagine for
me, I couldn't imagine a worsefirst meeting to it becoming the
greatest collaboration of mycareer, uh, is pretty
remarkable, right?
We just don't know.
Uh he's he's genius, uh, he'sextremely loyal.

(32:43):
I think one of the reasons I'veworked with him so long is he's
loyal.
And he found somebody he lovesand he loves to work with and
who he thinks is good.
And I think that's really whatcomes down to him.
I'm good.
He probably actually doesn'tlove me.
He probably thinks I'm superannoying.
He probably hates me.
It's okay.
I love Ryan.
He's gonna hate me.
But uh he is very demanding, uh,but he's he's brilliant.

(33:04):
And what I've learned from himis directing is just about
taste.
You know, I would watch him dowhat he does, and it really just
the thing, Ryan's magic, is thathe just has really good taste.
He knows if something's good ornot.
And he does couldn't speak themusical language with me, but
he'd know if if it was good ornot.
And what I loved about him isall I had to do, he he kind of

(33:26):
insulates the his people, right?
The people he trusts, he createslike a little wall around them
so nobody can get to you.
So I did 800 songs and I nevergot a comment from the studio,
from the network, or from therecord company.
Wow.
Wow.
Just think about that, right?
So the magic of what Ryan doesis he understands that

(33:48):
committees don't make great art.
Right?
And he keeps control overeverything.
And basically I would do it, I'dsend it to him, and he'd say
approved.
That was the process, which waslike the greatest creative
experience of my life becauseI've always had to deal with a
committee, suits, people thatdon't know what they're talking
about, telling you what to do,screwing up your your song or

(34:11):
whatever it is because they haveto prove that they you know
exist for a reason, that theygotta justify their salaries or
whatever it is, right?
There's obviously good AR peopleand good executives.
I'm I'm generalizing, but somany times you're making 15
people happy and you dilute it.
It's not better, it's worse.
Yeah, we know that and we haveto go along with it.
And that's really frustratingfor an artist when you know you

(34:33):
have something special and thenit gets ruined.
And he didn't allow that tohappen.
So that's really the brillianceof Ryan.
He he finds talent, he holds onto them, he protects them, he
lets them have an opportunity todo their best work, um, and then
he benefits from it, frankly.

James Duke (34:50):
What what um when he's talking to you about music
and what and what he wants insomething, um is he talking to
you about story?
Is he talking to you aboutemotion?
What what is it that you are,and now that you're a director
yourself, uh what is it thatyou're looking for to try to

(35:11):
understand what belies themusic?
Like what what what do I needhere?
Is it is it story?
Is it emotion?
Is it a some sort of specificcharacter beat?
Is it all the above?
What's it like to to tell astory through music in film and
television?

SPEAKER_00 (35:26):
It's all those things, you know.
Um I think I really learned umthrough the years of how to how
to connect the song to a moment.
Um, it has to start with thestory, you have to serve the
story.
Um, it's funny, I I would alwaysget frustrated early on with
casting because they wouldalways cast people who weren't
good singers.

(35:46):
You know, they would cast agreat actor over a great singer,
and I'm like, Yeah, but it's amusical, they need to be able to
sing, and they're like, No, theyneed to be able to act.
And I didn't really understandthat in the beginning.
Um, but I really understood itwhen I became a director because
you can't fix the wrong cast inpost, right?
And if I've seen it so manytimes with my other shows where
things went wrong, it wasbecause we got the casting

(36:07):
wrong.
And um, so you have to startwith the character and the
story, and then the music justhas to complement that, and you
just have to work with what youhave.
And um, if you can nail theright song, the right sentiment,
the right feeling, bothlyrically and musically, to
match an emotional moment in amovie, it's a home run.

(36:29):
And I learned how to do that onGlee.
You know, I got 800 shots at it,and um, that was an incredible
experience.
I mean, can you imagine havingthe opportunity to try things
for 122 episodes and kind ofguess, well, I think this is the
good one, this is gonna hit, um,and then seeing a week later the
feedback that you were right,you know, and what happened was

(36:52):
I I learned to trust myinstincts and my taste, right,
through that process.
So I would go, oh, so what'shappening is if I like the song
and I like what we did, I'mfinding that everyone agrees,
right?
It's like Quincy Jones said, Ijust make music I love and I'm
lucky people agree.
That's what I learned on Glee.
Like, oh my gosh, I have averagetaste.

(37:14):
I have the same taste as mostpeople.
So if I like it, then we'redone.
So what I would start doing isjust grinding away until I was
happy.
And that's all I can do.
And and I took that with me intouh the the filmmaking process.
And if you man, you connectthose things and nothing
penetrates like a song in amovie.
It just gets so much deeper intoyour soul and your emotions than

(37:36):
just the words.

unknown (37:37):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (37:38):
So uh that's really what you try to do is just
connect those dots.
And I mean, otherwise the musicfeels pasted on, it doesn't feel
organic.
Um so I don't really know ifthat answers your question, but
um, it does it's hard to explainhow it works.
You just have to be so cognizantof the story and the emotion
you're trying to convey, andthen you have to know how to do

(37:59):
that with the song, and that'snot easy.
Um, but when you get it right,it's awesome.

James Duke (38:04):
Well, and I think it's so fascinating that that
glee gave you that opportunityto when you're having to churn
it out um, you know, week afterweek, you've it's a job, you've
got to get it done.
But like you said, for you itbecame this opportunity to learn
what what works, what doesn'twork, how to connect with the
audience, how to connect withthe emotion of the scene.

SPEAKER_00 (38:26):
That's uh that's a only person that's ever gotten
that opportunity.
I mean, to every week, it'slike, okay, we dominated the
charts.
I don't know if you remember.
I mean, we had nine out of thetop ten.
We were like Taylor TaylorSwift, you know.
And we had nine out of the topten on iTunes at the same time.
Um, we had 50 songs in the tophundred of Billboard, and we

(38:47):
were a TV show.

SPEAKER_01 (38:48):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (38:48):
I mean, that's bonkers.
But I would, it was amazing.
I had my little scoreboard and Ijust kept track of it.
And nobody else in history hasever gotten to get that kind of
feedback on their createcreative process um and to be
able to hone their own taste andand build their confidence to
trust uh what they do as anartist.
And and um that was just it wasa godsend for me.

James Duke (39:11):
Well, I mean, with all due respect, I mean, sure,
Glee was successful, but therewas always before you there was
cop rock.
Don't forget cop rock.

SPEAKER_00 (39:20):
That's true.
I don't know if cop rock, thegreatest show ever made.

James Duke (39:25):
Um I gotta go back and watch some of that.
I just remember as a kid seeingthe commercials for that, going,
what is happening?
Um so for oh, I forgot what Iwas gonna ask you about that.
I made the cop rock.

SPEAKER_00 (39:38):
I made the cop rock.
Well that's what cop rock does.
It ruins everything.
I think we have to end thisconversation now.
We're done here.

James Duke (39:50):
Um so I you oh, I don't want to talk to you about
musicals.
So did you were you like a bigfan of because music?
Musicals had fallen out of favorfor years.
Um, were you a fan of musicalsgrowing up?
Um, and if so, what were some ofyour favorite musicals?
And what kind of um are thereany that you kind of even kind

(40:12):
of pull inspiration from today?

SPEAKER_00 (40:14):
Wow.
So here's the thing.
I don't like musicals.

James Duke (40:24):
Um I love it.

SPEAKER_00 (40:26):
That's breaking news.

James Duke (40:28):
Am I breaking news right now?

SPEAKER_00 (40:29):
You may it may be the first time I've admitted
this in public.
Um it's not that I don't likeall musicals.
Uh my favorite musical of alltime is Son of Music.
My s because that's an amazingmovie.
Yeah.
My secret second favorite isWest Side Story, another amazing
movie.
Um, but other than that, I didnot ever seek out musicals who
watch them.
I I just don't like I don't likemusical theater um as a I think

(40:52):
I respect it and I think it'samazing.
There's some of the by the way,some of the best talents on
earth are found on Broadway.
They're unbelievable.
When I lived in New York City, Istarted to grow to like musicals
more.
I started to find, especiallygoing to the theater, it kind of
hits all your senses, you know.
Um, and I I kind of startedfalling in love with theater

(41:14):
while I lived in New York, butstill not, I wouldn't consider
myself, I just wasn't raised onmusicals.
I didn't watch every musicalthat came out.
We just didn't do it.
Um frankly, a lot of them werepretty risque and you know,
minister parents, and it just Iwas into rock and roll and pop
music and all that.
So uh but I think that was kindof part of the magic of what we
brought to a musical, is becauseI think people who don't like

(41:37):
musicals will still like ourmusical.
You know, and Glee, it it wasyeah, it was a musical, but for
some reason everybody liked it.
And I think it's again, it'sthat same thing because I didn't
approach it as a Broadwaymusical.

James Duke (41:50):
Yeah, like and and I'm assuming Rock of Ages and
and prom, these are films thatyou're going, hey, I want to do,
I want, I want to kind of breaksome of the uh not cliches, but
kind of the standards, and Iwanna you wanna you wanna kind
of push and evolve the the genrea little further.

SPEAKER_00 (42:07):
I wanted it to sound like it could go on radio every
time we did anything.
And that was my pitch to RyanMurphy when I first met him in
that horrible meeting.
Um, I did tell him somethingthat stuck in his head, and I
said, my pitch to him was nobodywants to listen to a glee club.
Like we've all gone to highschool to hear our kids sing,
and they're awful.
Let's be honest, right?

(42:27):
They suck.
So I'm like, nobody wants to sitthrough an hour of that.
I want it to sound like theythink they sound in their heads.
That was my pitch.
And they sound like they're onradio.
So I'm I want to make records.
And I told him, like, nobody'sgonna sit through an hour of
karaoke either.
And you know, three monthslater, I move from New York to

(42:47):
LA and we're unpacking in ournew house in LA, and I get a
call from Fox saying Ryan Murphywants to talk to you again.
Three months later, after ourlike bad meeting.
And uh he calls me uh and hesays everything sounds like
karaoke.
And I had left him with thatlittle seed, I guess.
And I think that was a Godthing, you know.
Because I don't know why I saidit, it was as I was leaving his

(43:09):
office.
I turned around and said it likeweird.
Um and um that stuck with him,and he said, Do that thing you
pitched me.
Uh you know, I want to hearthat.
And I did, and then he was like,This is it, this is the thing
I've been looking for for threemonths, and that was really
cool.
Um, but yeah, it's uh I don'tknow.
I think musicals, um, there aresome very good musicals.

(43:33):
Please don't misunderstand whatI'm saying.
But there is a formula to modernmusicals, especially I think
they've gotten away early on inthe old the reason I like the
old school musicals is thatthose were the hit songs of the
time.
You can't say that now, right?

SPEAKER_01 (43:48):
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (43:48):
Um, I don't think you're gonna put Dear Evan
Hansen songs on the radio.

James Duke (43:52):
Yeah, um but but but there but like you said, there
there has been kind of anevolution and a crossover um uh
greatest showman.
That that had a song that hitthe radio.
That's pop music, yeah.
And then and then uh we don'ttalk about Bruno, right?

SPEAKER_00 (44:08):
Like there's like some of the Lynn Manuel probably
does more poppy stuff now.
Uh I I think the reality is umthat's the stuff that has mass
appeal when you write songs foreveryone, and that's what I've
always done.
So I'll just continue doingthat.
I think Lynn Manuel is probablymore musical theater than we
are, um, for sure, but um, he'sbrilliant at it, but that's not

(44:30):
what I do, and I just need to dowhat I do, which is ABBA.
You know, I was born with ABBAplaying in the background in
Sweden, you know.
Um I have to stick to my roots.
But uh Sweden doesn't have a bigmusical theater history, it has
a music history, pop music, youknow.
Um, so that's just what we are,and I think it's a really cool
combination for for a movie.

James Duke (44:51):
Well, uh, I don't get to ask this question very
often, so I'm going to.
Um being on set with Tom Cruise.
Is it different than being onset with another actor?
What is it about him that uh youknow they say he's our last
great, you know, movie star?
Um what was that experiencelike?

SPEAKER_00 (45:10):
That was um probably still a highlight of my career
uh getting to work with withTom.
Um so many great stories andmemories.
Uh wonderful, wonderful man uhto work with.
Um he's so gracious, he's so uhgiving to everyone he works
with.
Um and the reason he gets somuch out of people is is he
works harder than any of us.

(45:30):
There's no way you can outworkTom Cruise.
It is humanly impossible.
He almost killed me.
Um I I joke, two hours with Tomfeels like 24 hours with another
human.
Um I've heard this.

James Duke (45:40):
I have heard this.

SPEAKER_00 (45:42):
He's just his energy, his drive.
I'm 6'6.
I think he's I don't know, let'sbe let's be generous, 5'8.
Right?
I tower over him and I felt tinynext to him.
Uh he is a huge presence.
Um he is a really remarkableguy.
Um, and it was just an amazingtwo years that I spent working

(46:02):
with him very closely.
I'd go to his house almost everyday and work with him uh on his
voice and his singing.

James Duke (46:08):
But that's what I was gonna ask you.
Are you actually kind of voicecoaching him?

SPEAKER_00 (46:11):
I did.
Yeah, I was literally the guyturning him into a rock star in
his house.
Wow.
Um, which also was the beginningof my directing career, frankly.
Uh, Tom had so much to do withit.
He got so dependent on me thathe would fly me out.
My work was done on Rock ofAges, and he would fly me out
for every single scene that hehad.
He wanted me there to approveand make sure he trusted me to

(46:32):
tell him the truth.
Really?
He trusted me to tell him if helooked like a rock star or not.
Because um, you know, we hadsome funny moments when we were
working together where I wasbrutally honest with him, and he
loved that.
Like I had this incident wherefor some reason he was singing a
song, and whatever it was mademe, you know, sometimes you're
tired and I was overworked, Iwas doing glee at the same time,

(46:52):
and I'm fried, and I got a laughattack starts coming on.
And I'm like, I don't know ifyou guys have ever had that.
It's like there's no stoppingit.
When you get a laugh attack,that bubble, you're I was like,
I'm screwed.
Like he's singing, and I'm aboutto start bursting out laughing
in his face.
Like, what do I do?
Do I run out of his living roomor do I just go with it?
So I just went with it.
I just started laughing.
And I'm laughing so hard, I'mcrying.

(47:14):
Uh, he starts laughing, he'scrying, he's laughing so hard.
We finally compose ourselves,and I stop and I look at him
like Tom, and he's like, Yeah,yeah.
I'm like, that sound you weremaking, he's like, Yeah, don't
ever do that again.
Um, and he he's like, All right,I can trust this guy.
He told me the truth.

(47:34):
And that was such an importantlesson for me because that did
more for my relationship withhim, being honest, because how
many of these stars are lied toall the time?
Nobody tells them the truth,nobody has the guts to tell them
the truth, and I'm just stupidenough to do it.
So I would just tell the truth,and then I realized wait, this
is my secret weapon that I'mwilling and able to tell the

(47:56):
truth to it doesn't matter whoit is.
Um, and that's a gift, man.
It's it got me in trouble mywhole life.
Finally, it became like, okay,they because what it is, actors
of that level, first of all,only have yes men around them,
but two, the way they feel safeis when they know someone's
watching is going to tell themthe truth.
So on set, as a director,everyone feels safe when you're

(48:20):
honest with them.
So when I was with Antonio, thatwas the greatest compliment he's
given he he could give me at theend when we wrapped him, and he
told me I felt safe with you thewhole time and your vision and
how clear you were and what youwanted.
Uh, and that's like the greatestuh compliment a director can
get.
And that comes from beingtruthful.
Just look that my job is to makesure the bad stuff never makes

(48:42):
it out to the public.
That only the good singing andonly the good lines and the good
acting performance, you know.
My job is just watch it andlisten to it and go, that's not
good.
And here's why, and now let'sfix it.
You know, um, that's what theylong for, you know, frankly.

James Duke (48:58):
That's good.
That's good, man.
Uh let's let's segue now intoJourney to Bethlehem.
You uh how does this film uhcome to be?
I mean, you mentioned you firstcame up with the idea 17 years
ago.
When do you decide, hey, I'mgoing to write and direct a
musical about the birth ofChrist, and I'm gonna convince
Sony to do this with me and allthese big stars to do it with

(49:21):
me.
Um, give us the give us kind ofthe the journey of the journey
to Bethlehem.

SPEAKER_00 (49:27):
Well, it's a long one.
Uh I didn't know it was gonnatake that long.
Um and look, I've always been adreamer.
So I had this, I had no businesshaving a I dream for a movie at
that point, you know, 17 yearsago.
I was just starting out and hadnot done anything in Hollywood
at that point.
Still lived in New York.
Um, but I had this idea, youknow, and and look, the
difference between me andprobably somebody else sitting

(49:48):
sitting at home is I have anidea and I tried to go make it.
You know, so many of us haveideas and we don't pursue them
and we're afraid to fail.
And my uh I think my firsttalent, maybe is my honesty.
My second, probably greatestgift um is that I'm okay with
failure.
Uh and I'm gonna fail over andover and over again.
And I think athletes, and man,have I failed a lot trying to

(50:12):
make this movie.
17 years of failure, and nowit's coming out.

James Duke (50:16):
But ambition, ambition is a ambition is not a
bad thing.
You're an ambitious person.

SPEAKER_00 (50:20):
No, no, it's well, I I don't like the word ambition
because it has certainconnotations.
I think um tenacity and beliefin yourself.
If you don't believe in it,you're not gonna fight for an
idea.
Why in the world do you thinksomeone's gonna drop millions of
dollars on it if you're notwilling to fight for it?
Um, so I mean I started thatjourney 17 years ago, then moved

(50:42):
to LA, all these thingshappened, Glee, and I had this
idea, never went away.
Then I wrote the first versionof this with a friend who was
wanting to be a screenwriter.
So, well, hey, let's write thistogether.
And that was 2010, the firstversion of the script.
Tried to sell that for fouryears, couldn't.
Uh, everybody told me, no, thisisn't gonna work, nobody wants

(51:04):
this.

James Duke (51:05):
Now, did you have all the music written for the
for that first script?

SPEAKER_00 (51:08):
At that point, no music, just ideas.
Um I had some initial ideas ofwhat I wanted the music to be.
Um, but I didn't feel like Ineeded to prove myself on the
music front.
Like the music's gonna be good,is what I kept telling people.
I was just too lazy to write thesongs.
Um, so uh that the part B of mystory.
But uh 2017, I try again, andnow Glee's been going for years.

(51:30):
Uh, and I've done high schoolmusical, and I met when I did uh
high school musical, I met a mannamed Peter Barsacchini uh who
wrote high school musical.
He created it, and we had thesame agent, so we connected, and
then in 2017, we started overand wrote a new version of this
movie.
Uh I sold that, but uh they saidwe don't like the script.

(51:53):
And I'm like, okay, well, I'mnot a screenplayer.
And and you know, I it was mystory, and I Peter's a great
writer, but it was my fault ifit they didn't like it.
Um but it was my vision, and itwas pretty pretty much the
vision of this movie, um, butthey didn't like it.
So they hired someone else towrite a new script.
I got that one, um trying tothink what year it was, maybe 18

(52:14):
or 19.
Um, and I hated it.
And and it wasn't that it wasn'tgood, it was a very good script,
but it was not my movie.
It wasn't my vision for thismovie.
And if I've come this long andthis far, I'm not gonna settle
for something that's not mymovie.
And uh so that ended up dyingtoo.

(52:35):
Um, so then uh long story short,COVID hits.
I can't, I don't have anythingto do.
I'm like, let me pull this thingoff the shelf and dust it off
because I still I need to makethis movie.
Um so I started over again.
And then I asked Peter, hey, youwant to take another stab at

(52:55):
this with me?
And because I have an idea ofhow to do it.
And so we wrote the version thatthat now's gonna be in theaters,
and that didn't come without itschallenges.
Um, we wrote that a companycalled Monarch Media um uh paid
for it.
They they came out came on asfinanciers and co-producers,
which was great.
We were supposed to shoot inUtah um like a few weeks before

(53:17):
we were supposed to go there.
Uh, we found out that the ownersof this the set in Utah wanted
final cut on the movie.
What like that it's the same setthat Chosen shot on, and the
Mormon Church owns it, and theywere concerned we were gonna do
something to the Bible story.
So that died, and then I had totry Morocco and I went to the
Holy Land and scouted Israel,and then that didn't work, and

(53:39):
then I finally found Spain.
Um, but it's just been a grind,man, every stuff of the way.

James Duke (53:46):
Um but what was the what was the for you?
What was the connection betweenmusic and the birth of Jesus,
the story of the of Mary andJoseph and Jesus' birth?
What what is it that lent itselfto this idea that you have of of
bringing music to that story?
I'm just curious what what madeyou want to do that?

SPEAKER_00 (54:06):
I think it's one of the only stories in the Bible
that feel like a celebration.
You know, and and I feel, youknow, when I when I the idea I
had, and and I'm not I I don'tlike to quote this movie because
it has different connotations,but Moulin Rouge is what was in
my head, right?
Which is one of the musicals Ilove, by the way.
I love the movie too.

(54:27):
I love his creativity, I thinkhe's brilliant.
Um and I thought, why can't thenativity be this kind of a
celebration?
And of all the stories in theBible, this is one that can.
And when I was young, there wasI had a storybook Bible that was
very picturesque and colorful,and uh it would make me want to
read the next page of the Bibleand lean into the story.
And I'm like, that's what themovie should be.

(54:47):
It should pull you in with colorand fun and vibrance, and and it
should be a celebration.
It's like, especially if youbelieve in Christmas.
Um, but even if you don'tbelieve, but you celebrate
Christmas.
It's called celebratingChristmas for a reason, not
depressing Christmas, you know.
Um, and Bible stories areusually so depressing.

(55:08):
It's like, you know, sheepgrazing in dirt and it's sandals
and staffs, and nobody smiles.
And there was a nativity storyLionsgate did where Mary didn't
say a word or smile the wholemovie, and they like they
started the movie with theMassacre of the Innocents.
My kids screamed and ran outcrying.
Like, great, thanks a lot.
Merry Christmas, Lionsgate.
Uh, I'm like, it can't be any ofthose things.

(55:28):
So I was like, let's make it acelebration for the whole
family.
They're gonna watch Elf and thenthey're gonna watch Journey to
Bethlehem every year.
That's the plan.
And I didn't know how hard itwould be, but uh here we are.

James Duke (55:42):
So you so you finally kind of get this one up
and going.
And um when did you write themusic, by the way?
Did you write the music duringthe pandemic as well?

SPEAKER_00 (55:52):
Or so we wrote the first songs on the 17 script,
the 2017, the Peter script.
We ended up writing a couplesongs for that, and then we
wrote a couple more on the nextscript that the one I that
wasn't my movie, and the songs,even the songs we wrote, I'm
like, they don't this doesn'teven go together.
Like again, that celebration.
And you have to to be able tobreak into song and dance on a
biblical story, you need toheighten the world.

(56:14):
The world needs to be elevated.
It can't be super grounded, andthen they start singing and
dancing, right?
That's just that's another thingI learned making musicals for 20
years.
It needs to be elevated andheightened.
And that was the thing.
That script was super grounded.
It was more of a documentary andand uh than a celebration and a
family fun movie.
That's you know, look, this isnot what you expect.

(56:36):
When you go see this movie, it'sgonna not gonna be what you
expect.
The characters aren't what youexpect, the tone, uh, and that's
what I love about it.
You know, it's there's creativelicense taken, you know, because
I know it it's not adocumentary.
They didn't break into song anddance to pop music either, you
know.
So there's definitely creativelicense taken, but um it you
have to to make it a musical, orit'd be terrible.

(56:58):
Can you imagine the chosenbreaking into song and dance and
choreography with pop music?
Right.
Doesn't work.
Yeah.
Um, so yeah.

James Duke (57:06):
Um I haven't seen the film yet.
I've only seen the trailer.
My kids and I can't wait to seethe film.
I showed the kids when it firstcame out, the trailer, and they
got all excited.
My daughter was like, Is thatLacrae?
And I was like, Yeah, that'sLaCrae.
And I will say, just by lookingat the trailer, um what I find
appealing is that it does feellike there's almost a

(57:27):
fantastical nature to the to thefilm.
In a sense, you have, you know,your, you know, one of your main
jobs as a filmmaker is to createa world.
And it does feel like you areattempting to kind of create a
world here that you're gonnainvite the audience into that
isn't isn't kind of the typical,maybe just uh, you know, sword

(57:49):
and sandal type feel, um, whichis which which is intriguing to
me.
I haven't seen the film, but itit definitely I I just from the
trailer, I get the sense thatyou are trying to do something
different here.

SPEAKER_00 (57:58):
100%.
And I I tried to, in the first10 minutes of the movie, tell
people what movie this is.
I intentionally start with withthe wise men you'll see, and
it's funny.
Um and I think it's reallyimportant to tell people from
the beginning, you can laugh.
We're not taking ourselves tooseriously.
Um and uh you have to, sincethey don't know what they're

(58:20):
doing, and it's so different,it's it's really never been done
what we were doing with thismovie.
So you have to kind of give theaudience a chance to figure out
what movie they're in.
So I tried to do that.
And you know, just my Herod, youknow, he's crazy.
He's he's like what Johnny Duppis the pirates, you know.
It's just he's totally unhinged.
And he's a rock star of thetime, you know.
And I would tell Antonio, he'slike, you know, before his song
starts, he's like, What am Idoing here?

(58:40):
I'm like, You're Mick Jagger,you're about to go out on stage.
You know, um, and he man that heembraced that.
Uh he's just a total rock star.
I mean, our Herod's got eyelinerand like you know, leather
pants.
So it's uh it's a very unusualtake, but it's very fun.
Um, but it gets reverent when itneeds to.
It's serious when it needs tobe.
Um, but the idea is to bring youalong on this journey and this

(59:03):
adventure and and just giveeveryone something.
You know, at Christmas wegather, right?
Our grandparents, kids, aunts,uncles, cousins, everywhere we
gather.
What do you watch?
What do you can you watch thateverybody will enjoy and that
has to do with Christmas?
And that was the goal.
Believers, non-believers,friends, family, whatever.
Um, and to make a version ofthis story that's digestible for

(59:25):
everyone, um, and that you canwatch again and again because
the music's great and you lovethe performances, and you
discover little Easter eggs I'veplanted everywhere, by the way.
You need to watch it more thanonce.
Um, but yeah, I want people towatch Elf and this every
Christmas.

James Duke (59:39):
That was the goal.
Do you talk about the um thecasting process?
Seems like you have a veryeclectic, interesting cast.
What was the thought behindthat?

SPEAKER_00 (59:48):
And yeah, the casting process was crazy.
Um, I'm very picky, I will say.
Um, one thing I've learned, andI think we hit on it, is if you
get the cast wrong, you're dead.
Um There's no fixing that inpost.
I learned that the hard way onmany projects that I sold.
And I was determined not to havethat happen here.
So it all began and ended withMary.

(01:00:09):
I had to get Mary right.
It's at the end of the day forstory.
And man, it was hard.
I had hundreds of submissions,you know, going through, and I'm
just like, no, none of these areright.
This isn't it.
This isn't it.
And then everybody's gettingfrustrated.
You have to cast someone, takethis one, take that one.
I'm like, no, I'll know it whenI see it.
You know, that battle, that'swhere your kind of your movie

(01:00:30):
lives or dies.
How willing the director is tofight at that level at the
beginning?
Because if you get that wrong,it's there's no, I can't come
back from it.
So I fought.
We were a few weeks.
I probably I want to say we werelike four or three, three weeks
or something, the holidays awayfrom starting rehearsals, and I
had no cast.
It was really scary.

(01:00:52):
Oh, yeah, I'm fully in prep modein Madrid and I have no cast.
And the studio's freaking out,rightfully so.
Um, I'm like three in themorning, I can't sleep because
I'm like panicking about this,and I'm getting emails from LA
with from casting, and I'm goingthrough and I no no no, and then
this Fiona Palomo pops up.
I've never heard of her, and Iwatch this thing over and over

(01:01:13):
again.
I'm like, oh my gosh, I foundher.
Um and I sent an email in themiddle of the night to Sony, I
found Mary.
Let me cast her.
And they let me cast her withouta callback.
Really?
As a lead in a feature film.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:29):
Wow.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:29):
And in a theatrical, you know, it's a it's a big, big
thing, and never probably neverbeen done.
Now, that's why the Lord worksin mysterious ways.
If I had cast her way earlier,they may not have let me cast
her because she wasn't a bighousehold name.
And they would have made her doa bunch of callbacks and screen
tests and all this stuff, and itmay not have worked out.

(01:01:50):
But because we were so late inthe game, they're like, Great,
fine.
I'm like, perfect.

James Duke (01:01:56):
So we could just gave our audience the perfect
strategy for working with astudio.
Wait till the wait till they'regonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00 (01:02:04):
You won't believe how quickly you get yeses when
they're out of time.
So now everything's I'm like,okay, crap, full speed ahead.
Now now I need to pick Joseph.
We had six names that we liked.
Um, the first one up was a guynamed Milo Mannheim.
Uh, we did a chemistry reading.
So now I have Mary.
So she's chem reading nowagainst the six Josephs in a
row.
And the first one up is Milo.

(01:02:26):
I had no idea who he was, fulldisclosure, uh, which is
embarrassing because he's thebiggest star in the Disney like
franchise world right now.
He does all the zombies movies.
I had no clue.
The good news is I cast him, Iimmediately circled him.
This is Joseph.
Like it was amazing.
There's one line in the moviethat he delivered so perfectly
in his audition with Mary, andtheir chemistry was so amazing.

(01:02:47):
I'm like, yeah, I'm done.
So much so, my producing partnerAlan, he just turned off the
camera and vanished halfwaythrough Milo's edition.
He didn't even wait for theother five.
He's like, I'm done.
This guy's perfect.
And uh sure enough, then itturns out he's a huge star.
So that was a bonus.
I don't even know why he wasthere, like auditioning for my
little movie, but he had justloved the music so much.
That's why he showed up.

(01:03:08):
So he wanted to do this.
Um, and he also wanted to dosomething probably outside the
Disney uh kind of uh sphere.
So that would get him.
Um, then of course Herod is themost important piece left, and
that's the villain.
Um and I'd always had AntonioBender's tops on my list, and
uh, of course, that was kind ofa pipe dream.

(01:03:30):
Um, and the manager liked thescript, liked the song, had
played Antonio the song, and heloved the song.
He's like, I can't sing itthough.
So we got kind of dismissed.
And I kind of, again, tenacity,man.
We just stayed, couldn't let goof Antonio.
I'm like, I think this is theguy that needs to play Herod.

So he he thought he couldn't sing the song.
Is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:48):
Yeah, it's a very, very challenging song, and it's
crazy rangy.
Like the the last note in thatsong is like the highest note in
the history of cinema.
Um and he just kind of, youknow, and and his manager's
like, look, he's directing aplay and he studies starring,
and he can't be bothered withthis right now.
And we kept persisting.
I'm like, come on, I just knowit's him.

(01:04:09):
I've seen him a fan of theopera, he can sing anything.
This guy's amazing.
Please let me talk to him.
And he's like, No, he's doingthis play.
I'm like, well, where is hedoing the play?
I'll go find him.
And he's like, he's in Madrid,Spain.
I'm like, so am I.
It's amazing.
I don't believe in coincidences.
And I'm like, okay, game on.

(01:04:30):
So my producing partner, Alanfrom Monarch, he starts buying
tickets to the show.
And we start going.
So we're working, you know, allday, and then we okay, let's
walk over to the theater andtext the manager.
Come on, send him out, send himout to talk to us.
And he didn't, and then Alanbefriended uh a guy at the
theater who was apparently bestfriends with with uh with

(01:04:51):
Antonio, so he got him to comeout.
So we come back that he says,come back tomorrow.
So we come back the next day,and sure enough, it's two in the
morning at this point.
Antonio comes out at the emptytheater and comes and talks to
me.
I get like three minutes topitch him my best elevator
pitch.
I'm super nervous because I haveso little time, and um I pitch

(01:05:13):
this thing and pitch thecharacter the way I envisioned
him.
And he's like, That does soundfun, actually.
Um, but I can't sing the song,and I go, Yes, you can.
He's like, What do you mean?
I said, I have this piano on myiPhone, and every night we've
been coming here, you've beensinging that note live.
So you can sing this song in thestudio for this movie one time.

(01:05:36):
And he goes, Really?
And I go, Yep.
And he's like, Huh.
All right, and I'd asked themanager, what do I need to get
him to say for him to do themovie?
And he said, just if he saystalk to my manager, then he's
in.
So he looks at me and goes, Ilike you.
Uh talk to my manager.
He walks away.
And I'm like, Yes! We got him.

(01:05:57):
We were floating home at two inthe morning in Madrid because
we're like, we got a movie starin our little movie.
That's fantastic.
Yeah, and then of course, Lecraeand Joel, all that so I won't
bore you with uh amazing storiesall the way down of how we got
just Joel.
I mean, I cast his wife first,Mariah, as Mary's sister, and
then I needed now that I gotHarrod, I need his son

(01:06:18):
immediately.
And we were already shooting atthis point.
We're two weeks into shooting,and I don't have the son, so I'm
like freaking out.
We keep moving the scenesaround, and and somebody tells
me Joel's an actor, Mariah'shusband.
I'm like, no, he's in for Kingand Country, he's Australian.
I can't have an Australian in abiblical movie.
They're like, no, I think he canget rid of the accent.
So that kind of stuck with methat weekend.

(01:06:40):
I watched a movie he had starredin some years ago, and he was
amazing in it, and he had noaccent.
I'm like, well, okay.
So I asked permission from hiswife to call him.
So I call him, he picks up onFaceTime and he's packing.
I'm like, where are you going?
He's like, I'm coming to Spainto visit my wife.
And I'm go, I say, bring abigger suitcase.
And he's like, What?

(01:07:02):
I'm like, how would you likeyour scene partner to be Antonio
Benderas for the next few weeks?
And that's the story.
Yeah.

That's great.
That is fantastic.
What's the what's the processbeen like?
You know, obviously you'vedreamed about this project for
so long.
It's been cooking, gestating forso long.
You rap now with a musical boom.
Now you got to put all thepieces together.
Did it did it really just kindof flow together or or or did

(01:07:31):
you have to do any reshoots ordid the music did you have to do
a lot of rewriting?
I'm just curious about kind ofthe post process.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:39):
Um man, I had an amazing editor, Sabrina Plisco,
who um she chased chased us onset.
So she was back here in LA, butshe would get the dailies, and
then she was cutting scenes thewhole time, and I'd see the cut
scenes, and I'd know that wassuper helpful too, because uh
many indie movies don't want topay for that.
You know, we're not a studiofilm, we were indie e finance.

(01:08:01):
So um, even though we havestudio distribution, um, they
approach the film very much froman independent standpoint.
And you usually don't have aneditor chase, it's expensive,
right?
But they I fought for that too,because I knew we're in Spain,
we're never coming back, right?
I have to get it, and I have toknow that I have it.
So she was chasing, and and Iknew as we're doing this, it's
special, like the way she'scutting this, she's got the

(01:08:23):
vision exactly.
And so I landed back from Spain,and a week later I had my my
direct my editors cut, and shehad a full string out.

SPEAKER_01 (01:08:31):
Wow, that's fast.

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:33):
Yeah, and so well, I mean, we wrapped in middle March
and it's coming out in twoweeks, so the whole thing's been
crazy.
Wow.
Um, and then we dove in togetherand we had an amazing time
editing the movie, and it reallycame together.
The score, you know, um Pear, mypartner and I did the score, but
he first was trying to do it inSweet, he lived in Sweden, and
we were trying to do longdistance and it just wasn't

(01:08:54):
working at all.
And he's like, just get someoneelse to do it.
I quit.
I'm like, no, you're notquitting.
Again, tenacity, because I knewI knew we should do it, and he
should do it.
And so I said, Why don't youjust come over?
And I had an office next door towhere we were editing that was
empty, and I set up a littlestudio there, and we scored
while we were editing.
So by the time I turned in mydirector's cut to Sony, it was

(01:09:16):
fully scored.

Wow, Adam, that's impressive.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:09:19):
So they're like, this is the best director's cut
we've ever gotten.
And I think a lot of that uh wasthe score.
Usually it's a temp and it'sgarbage and it's a mess.
And um, the reality is so manyeditorial mistakes are made
because the music doesn't work,right?
So this gift of being able toscore the movie while we're
editing, we can really tell if ascene's working or not because

(01:09:42):
we scored it properly.
If you can't find the rightmusic, it makes the scene not
work, but the scene might begreat, right?
So that was a huge gift, too.
So um it's moved very quickly.
CGI was the hardest thing thattook the most time, and you
know, we limped to the finishline, we had no money for it.
And we had budgeted 30.
This is funny, we'd budget 30CGI shots, we ended up with 236.

(01:10:05):
Whoops! Oh boy.
Oh man, a lot of you'll see inthe credits, there's a lot of
names from India.
Yeah, a lot of CGI done in Indiaon this thing.
Uh, but it turned out great.
Yeah.

Now the music though, because you because the
casting was so late, don't youdon't you uh uh for the songs?
I'm talking about the songs,don't you put the songs together
and they sing them?
Do you play them back on onstage while you're shooting or
on set while you're shooting?
Um, so did you have to produceall the songs like right away?

(01:10:39):
Like, how did that work?

SPEAKER_00 (01:10:42):
All the songs have to be you know done before you
shoot.
Uh you have to choreograph andrehearse with the dancers and
all this stuff.
Um, the only thing that you cankind of do last minute is is put
the cast on it, like their theirown voice.
So what we had was demos that weoh, I see.

So you actually you you you you produced the songs
without the cast voice, and thenyou add the cast.

SPEAKER_00 (01:11:01):
Yeah, the songs are done, but just not with Antonio
on it.
So it's me singing instead ofAntonio.
It's me singing instead of JoelSmallbone.
It's me being like, great, I'meverybody, you know, and then my
wife's Mary and Rebecca andeverybody, you know.
So uh that's what we do, andthen you rehearse to that, you
build everything around that,you choreograph to that, and
then as you're casting people,my brother, who's a phenomenal

(01:11:23):
vocal producer and has done allmy stuff for 20 years, he then
goes in with the cast member andreplaces me with Antonio.
And that needs to happen a fewdays at least before we shoot it
because we have to have time tofinish it and mix it, and then
he needs to hear it and practicelip sync to his own voice and to
those nuances.
So um that's how we do that, andthen it's playback on set, you

(01:11:46):
have speakers blaring,everyone's dancing and singing
along and having fun.

And you can't make any excuse me, you can't make
any changes to the music afterthat.
Like it's it's it's locked in,or are you able to make a tweak
or two um to the songs um afteryou've no?

SPEAKER_00 (01:12:01):
We can.
We can't change the vocal atthat point.
You know, you can edit the songdown, you can't lengthen it, so
always shoot more than you need.
Um, and then the thing we canchange is the the score, the
music underneath that can changeuh as much as we want, and we
finish that uh we changed andtweaked to picture a bunch of
stuff uh in post.
Um but fundamentally it's it'sthe demos.

(01:12:24):
I mean, it just hasn't changedthat much.
Um and uh yeah, it's pretty funuh to see them come alive the
way they did since they've beenin our heads for so long.

What did you learn shooting this film?
Like what's your I'm sure youlearned a lot, but do you have
uh one or two kind of really bigtakeaways?
Maybe it's personal, maybe it'sprofessional or artistic, but uh
what do you take away from thiswhole experience?

SPEAKER_00 (01:12:52):
Well, I think personally I found my calling,
you know.
That that's probably the thegreatest gift this movie gave
me.
Um I also found how hard it isto make a movie, um, to move
away from your family for almostseven months, nine hours apart.
Uh I'm asleep when they get homefrom school.
Um it was very, very difficult.

(01:13:13):
Um I didn't even I couldn't planfor how hard that would it would
be, frankly.
And I think people don'tunderstand.
I I I won't criticize a filmever again, um, because just
finishing a movie is a miracle.
Getting it made is a miracle,finishing it's a miracle, having
it come out is an even greatermiracle.
Uh I'm taking the W in two weekswhen this movie comes out in

(01:13:34):
theaters, whether it flops ordoes great, I can't control
that.
Um control what you can control,right?
Um, and then you have to let goof the rest or you'll go crazy.
We made a good movie, we'reproud of.
Um and it's coming out, and andit's so hard and it's such a
sacrifice for so many people.
Um, that it's it's an amazingart form.

(01:13:55):
And you you said it earlier ofhow it's such a collaborative
thing.
It takes a village to make amovie.
I mean, you have people who arebest of the best in 300
positions on a movie, and theyall come together to make
something special.
Um, you know, I liken it to Icould write a song by myself, I
can produce it by myself, I playa lot of instruments.
I can do right here in thestudio I'm sitting in, and it'll

(01:14:16):
be good, it'll be fine.
But if I go to a studio oranother studio and I bring in
five of the greatest musiciansin LA, and then we do it again,
it's gonna be vastly different,right?
Um, and it won't be betterunless I'm still leading it as
the director.
But it will be if I can lead andshow them what my vision is and
then let them do their thing andlet them do what they're great

(01:14:39):
at.
You're gonna have a completelydifferent thing and a much
better thing.
And um I I would say a big, bigtakeaway is let people give
people room uh to do their bestwork.
You know, I I I really think umpart of the magic of this movie
is all the department heads gave110% um because I let them be

(01:15:00):
creative, I let them do theirthing.
I didn't tell them what itshould be.
But then I I got it, it was likethe bumpers, you know, they go,
no, no, no, that's too far, noback here, you know.
And I would tell them, go crazy.
Worst thing that happens is Isay no, that's not it.
But I don't want to limit you.
And when you don't limit peoplewho are really good at their
jobs, and you let them do theirbest work and have fun and be

(01:15:23):
creative, it's amazing what youcan what you can accomplish.

Well, that was really good.
Adam, this has been fantastic.
I um so appreciative to you fortaking the time.
I know you're in the midst ofall this big press push.
Uh, just a reminder for people,I don't know when they're gonna
listen to this, but November10th, it's in theaters
everywhere.
Uh, Journey to Bethlehem.

(01:15:48):
And it's a fan, it's a film forthe whole family.
I know I'm taking my kids to seeit.
And uh, this has just been afantastic.
Congratulations on the film andall the success.
And and uh we'll come back andwe'll we'll bring you back some
time to talk about whateverother projects you got kind of
going on.

SPEAKER_00 (01:16:03):
So thanks for having me.
Thanks for uh letting me talktoo much.

I had it.
I always like to close our timeby praying for our guests.
Would you allow me to do that?
Absolutely.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Heavenly Father, we just uhthank you.
We thank you for Adam.
We thank you for just um justwho he is and how you've created
him to um to tell stories and toto create music and to bring joy

(01:16:29):
and celebration um uh into life.
And God, we just thank you forhis tenacity and we thank you,
God, that you have created himin such a way that um that he
actually brings life to otherpeople through his art.
And we thank you for that.
God, we we pray a blessing uponhis work, we pray a blessing

(01:16:50):
upon his marriage and hisfamily.
Um, God, we pray that youcontinue to just um birth inside
of him um these uh thesecreative endeavors that uh you
have for him to do.
And God, just uh watch over himas he does those things.
And we thank you for this timetogether.
We pray this in Jesus' name andyour promise as we stand.

(01:17:11):
Amen.
Thank you for listening to theAct One podcast, celebrating
over 20 years as the premiertraining program for Christians
in Hollywood.
Act One is a Christian communityof entertainment industry
professionals who train andequip storytellers to create
works of truth, goodness, andbeauty.
The Act One program is adivision of Master Media
International.

(01:17:32):
To financially support themission of Act One or to learn
more about our programs, visitus online at Act One
Program.com.
And to learn more about the workof Master Media, go to
mastermedia.com.

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