July 27, 2025 • 9 mins
Before The Chosen, Dallas Jenkins' What If. hit theaters in 2010. It returns to theaters Aug 5 & 7 for the 15th anniv., with a special reunion conversation among cast and Jenkins.SYNOPSIS - It's a Wonderful Life--modern day. What If... follows Ben Walker (Kevin Sorbo), a businessman who abandoned his faith. One day, Ben wakes up living the life he was destined for-married to his college sweetheart (Kristy Swanson) and serving as a small-town pastor. The film also features memorable performances by John Ratzenberger and Debby Ryan, packed with human, faith, and family.Here's the trailer for What If. 15th Anniversary event:Https://www.fathomentertainment.com/releases/what-if-15-anniversary/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, Kevin. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm doing great. How you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Absolutely fantastic and very excited to share a conversation with
you about the movie what If. And the reason why
is because I've been blessed with the opportunity to share
talks with actors, directors, writers about about faith based movies,
and your movie always comes up, and I just think
that that's the one that changed the course of where
we are today.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
What If?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
There's no question, I think what If? And then God's
Not Dead, which I did two years later. The same
writers did book movies that open up the vault. I
remember the Everywin Brothers do wonderful movies. I think one
of my favorites. I can only imagine. And they they
came said that their father came up to him after
they saw What If from God's Not Dead and they said,
why don't you guys making movies like this? So I
(00:45):
really believe the people behind those two movies really open
up the floodgate for making very contemporary, not ridiculously cheesy,
faith based movies, and it's been a blessing to be
part of those. That's the road I've been going down.
That's the what If road that I've been doing ever since.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
This is one of those moments where Stephen Ferdic at
Elevation Church will always say, drop the four walls of
the church and get out there and reach people. And
I think that movies like this are exactly that.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yep, no question, no question plenty. You just said that.
I was. We were recently down in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I was there at an autograph show, a comic cond show,
and on Sunday morning early I went to the church
there just check it out. And the pastor of the
same thing, he goes, it doesn't end in here when
you walk out there, that's what's more important. And I
realized the Bible God calls as a harvest. And I
realized after God's Not Dead came out with a success
of that and people stopping me coming up to me
(01:41):
in airports.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Look, I had a Muslim.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Woman come up to me and say, I became a
Christian because of your movie God's Not Dead. And I said,
oh my God, this is the road you want.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Me to be on. God.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Now I realized this is the road that You've always
intended me from beyond. And that's why what if is great?
Because It shows a guy that loves the road he's on,
but he gets his supernatural a chance to see through
God the road that God wanted to be on, and
it ends up falling in love with that road more
than the road he was on.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Is that one of the main reasons why your strength
in being faithful is still there and you are not
afraid to show that off.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
No, it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
You know, my wife warned me, like about fifteen years ago,
you better watch out Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
You know. I don't walk around a movie set preaching.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
If someone comes up and says to you Christian, I
go yeah, and we'll talk about someone said your conservative.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I understand.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Hollywood back in the nineties wasn't killing people for being
a conservative. Now it's where the conservatives are the new
gays in closet. Okay, the gays are out. The conservatives
are the ones in closet and Hollywood now and I
get people every movie I do.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I do have five movies year, on average, four to
five movies.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Every movie I'm in, people walk up to me and
whispering like we're doing a drug deal, saying hey, thanks
for being a voice of us. I go be a
voice for yourself. Stop letting fear rule your lives because government,
as we find out through COVID, Hello, everybody, Government loves
using fear as a way to control of our lives.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Please do not move. There's more with Kevin Sorbo coming
up next. It's the fifteenth anniversary of the movie what If.
We're with actor Kevin Sorbo. The fifteenth anniversary of what
If is coming out and it's going to be in
theaters because we can have that experience and we can
escape that world that they're trying to create.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Yep, check it out because there's a wonderful movie. There's
a movie in Hollywood used to do.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
You're gonna love it.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
John Ratzenberger's great as the Angel. He's very curmudgeony and stuff.
And Christie Swine plays my wife in it. And it's,
like I said, it's a revers's a wonderful life and
it's just is a wonderful touching you can bring your kids.
It's PG rated, and the streaming on it has exploded
over the last five six years. People are discovering it
and talking about it. So Dallas Jenkins, who directed me
(03:44):
in it, who's doing the Chosen right now, said hey,
let's re release this thing.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Are you on board?
Speaker 3 (03:48):
And I said, heck, yeah, I'm on board, So let's
do it. So we've been hitting it hard to August five,
August seventh. Go to Fathom Events, find out what theater's near.
You fill up the theater. We'll get more days, We'll
get more screenings.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Trust me, Can you guys do something that's very very
special here the whole team is back together and you
talk about the experiences of this movie that to me
is a dear future reader or dear future movie watcher moment.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Instead, there's a credits rolling where we got together and
shout out to TBN Studios outside of Fort Worth and Dallas.
Was there, of course, and I was there in Christine,
John Ratzenberger and Michael Scott, one of the producers, and
we kind of had a little roundtable about it, and
I think people enjoy it after the movie finishing.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Now, speaking of movies, I have a very good friend,
her name is Ambers. She wants to know if there's
going to be any more Left movies.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Hopefully, yes, left behind. Yep, we're talking right now. I'm
talking with the producers and the writers of the last one.
We did, which was Left Behind, Rise of the Antichrist.
I was honored to direct that one and start it
as well, So help people check that out. I two
movies came out a year and a half ago, Left
Behind and Miracle in East Texas. I recommend both those movies.
Please sign up at sorbostudios dot com. Storbostudios dot com.
(04:54):
If you want an autograph DVD copy, I'm happy to
send that to you, but several studios dot com. I
got four new movies coming out this year and three
documentary So I'm staying busy and I'm here shooting a
movie right now in Las Vegas with Dean Kane.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
So we got Hercules and Superman together. Right.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
How do you find balance? I mean, seriously, is it
through prayer and meditation? How are you finding balance? Knowing
you're so darn busy?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
You know, family is always number one. I got great.
You know, my kids are getting other're twenty three, twenty one,
and nineteen. Now.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
They used to travel everywhere with me, but now they
got they got dad. I got my own thing going on.
But you know, my boys have done a couple movies
with me. They're both in the business as well, and
the golf course is another cathedral for me.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I love being on the golf course.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
I don't I disagree with Mark Twain that golf is
a walk spoil because I just love being out in
these beautiful management panicured lawns and greens. And it's just
I play a lot by myself, and that's my chance
to sort of be by myself. It's the only chance
I get. And then the gym. I still work out
all the time.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
I think.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
I think working out and staying healthy is very important
in life, no matter what age you are.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Did you ever find out why they called this movie
what if? Because to me, that is the ultimate question
in life, the what if factors what I call it.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Everybody has it right, I don't care at what if moments?
What if I'm married this person? What if I walk
down that road instead of this? And what if I
took that job instead of the one? Amana, there's we
all have what ifs. Every termin economics opportunity cost. Everything,
Every decision you make is an opportunity cost because there's
probably one hundred other things you could have done instead
of doing the one thing you're doing right now. So
(06:24):
you know, you never know you'll you'll never know what what?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
What if? What could have happened?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So I get a chance in this movie to see
my my what if come true.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I look at John Ratzenberger as a god a godwink
moment because that because we all know that there is
an angel that is standing beside us, but if we
don't recognize them. And John Ratzenberger's role in this movie
is one that says, open your eyes, open your heart.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
He doesn't.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
He does in a physical way. To me, it's pretty funny.
So I won't say anything beyond that, but it's pretty funny.
And John was great. So I had him in my
movie Miracle in East Texas as well that I directed,
True Story said in the nineteen thirty Texas and it's
a wonderful faith based movie as well. And John came
back to work with me once again and he was great.
We had so much fun.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Is there a side of ben Walker that lives inside
of you? Because I mean, like you said before, we
all go through these what if moments and things like that,
but Ben Walker really proves to us right there in
front of us, that you can reshape your life and
grow forward.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Well, I think every movie, every actor does bring. They
bring a little bit of themselves do it as well?
There's something in there. But certainly the script spoke to
me in a lot of ways. And I think in
my own what if moment back in nineteen ninety seven
on Hercules, when I had an aneurysm I was unaware
of that blew up my body. I stuffed a series
of four books, and it took me three years to
recover from it. So I wrote a book, True Strength
(07:43):
to my Journey from Hercules and Mere Mortal and How
Nearly Dying saved my life. It really was a what
if moment where it just put it, put priorities in order,
and you realize, you know what, I love acting.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I love doing what I'm doing. I kind of listen
with Scotti Scheffler, the World's Greatest call for right now.
What he said.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
He goes, look, I love golf, but God's number one
for me and my family's number And I said, good
for this guy. So the guy won me over just
just by having priorities in straight, not just saying golf
is the end all, be all kind of thing. He
just says, look, I want to win, but you're going
to say I got it.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
To make a choice. I know a choice I'll make. Yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
My what if moment was during the COVID lockdown. In
my daily writing, I kept asking where are you God?
Where are you God? And then in that writing the
words came out, I'm right here. Where are you?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Change change me forever, changed me forever.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
It's it's a wonderful.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Uh. You know that little parable about walking in the
beach with God and all of a sudden there's only
one set of footpert.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, where can people go to find out more about
all of your movies? You said you've got four on
the way. We need to support you, dude, yep.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Sorbo Studios dot com. My last name s O Rbo.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Sorbostudios dot com. Sign up when these movies are coming out.
I would let everybody on that list knows I've got
I've got one hundreds and thousands of people that follow
us there. I post a lot on on I got
two and a half million followers there, and I got
another probably million and a half on other.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Sites like Parlor and Truth and Getter and stuff.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
So I let people know that way, But please, Sorbal
Studios is a great place to know exactly when these
movies are coming out. My other movies are there if
you want to get you want to autograph, DVD copy
or something or anything.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
We got all kinds of stuff on that site, so
people check it out.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Please come back to the show anytime in the future, Kevin.
The door is always going to be open for you.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
We will because I got four coming out.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Will you be brilliant today?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Okay, all right, you two, thank you, Thank you, sir.
Good morning, Kevin. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm doing great. How you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Absolutely fantastic and very excited to share a conversation with
you about the movie what If. And the reason why
is because I've been blessed with the opportunity to share
talks with actors, directors, writers about about faith based movies,
and your movie always comes up, and I just think
that that's the one that changed the course of where
we are today.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
What If?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
There's no question, I think what If? And then God's
Not Dead, which I did two years later. The same
writers did book movies that open up the vault. I
remember the Everywin Brothers do wonderful movies. I think one
of my favorites. I can only imagine. And they they
came said that their father came up to him after
they saw What If from God's Not Dead and they said,
why don't you guys making movies like this? So I
(00:45):
really believe the people behind those two movies really open
up the floodgate for making very contemporary, not ridiculously cheesy,
faith based movies, and it's been a blessing to be
part of those. That's the road I've been going down.
That's the what If road that I've been doing ever since.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
This is one of those moments where Stephen Ferdic at
Elevation Church will always say, drop the four walls of
the church and get out there and reach people. And
I think that movies like this are exactly that.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yep, no question, no question plenty. You just said that.
I was. We were recently down in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I was there at an autograph show, a comic cond show,
and on Sunday morning early I went to the church
there just check it out. And the pastor of the
same thing, he goes, it doesn't end in here when
you walk out there, that's what's more important. And I
realized the Bible God calls as a harvest. And I
realized after God's Not Dead came out with a success
of that and people stopping me coming up to me
(01:41):
in airports.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Look, I had a Muslim.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Woman come up to me and say, I became a
Christian because of your movie God's Not Dead. And I said,
oh my God, this is the road you want.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Me to be on. God.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Now I realized this is the road that You've always
intended me from beyond. And that's why what if is great?
Because It shows a guy that loves the road he's on,
but he gets his supernatural a chance to see through
God the road that God wanted to be on, and
it ends up falling in love with that road more
than the road he was on.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Is that one of the main reasons why your strength
in being faithful is still there and you are not
afraid to show that off.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
No, it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
You know, my wife warned me, like about fifteen years ago,
you better watch out Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
You know. I don't walk around a movie set preaching.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
If someone comes up and says to you Christian, I
go yeah, and we'll talk about someone said your conservative.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I understand.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Hollywood back in the nineties wasn't killing people for being
a conservative. Now it's where the conservatives are the new
gays in closet. Okay, the gays are out. The conservatives
are the ones in closet and Hollywood now and I
get people every movie I do.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I do have five movies year, on average, four to
five movies.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Every movie I'm in, people walk up to me and
whispering like we're doing a drug deal, saying hey, thanks
for being a voice of us. I go be a
voice for yourself. Stop letting fear rule your lives because government,
as we find out through COVID, Hello, everybody, Government loves
using fear as a way to control of our lives.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Please do not move. There's more with Kevin Sorbo coming
up next. It's the fifteenth anniversary of the movie what If.
We're with actor Kevin Sorbo. The fifteenth anniversary of what
If is coming out and it's going to be in
theaters because we can have that experience and we can
escape that world that they're trying to create.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Yep, check it out because there's a wonderful movie. There's
a movie in Hollywood used to do.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
You're gonna love it.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
John Ratzenberger's great as the Angel. He's very curmudgeony and stuff.
And Christie Swine plays my wife in it. And it's,
like I said, it's a revers's a wonderful life and
it's just is a wonderful touching you can bring your kids.
It's PG rated, and the streaming on it has exploded
over the last five six years. People are discovering it
and talking about it. So Dallas Jenkins, who directed me
(03:44):
in it, who's doing the Chosen right now, said hey,
let's re release this thing.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Are you on board?
Speaker 3 (03:48):
And I said, heck, yeah, I'm on board, So let's
do it. So we've been hitting it hard to August five,
August seventh. Go to Fathom Events, find out what theater's near.
You fill up the theater. We'll get more days, We'll
get more screenings.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Trust me, Can you guys do something that's very very
special here the whole team is back together and you
talk about the experiences of this movie that to me
is a dear future reader or dear future movie watcher moment.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Instead, there's a credits rolling where we got together and
shout out to TBN Studios outside of Fort Worth and Dallas.
Was there, of course, and I was there in Christine,
John Ratzenberger and Michael Scott, one of the producers, and
we kind of had a little roundtable about it, and
I think people enjoy it after the movie finishing.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Now, speaking of movies, I have a very good friend,
her name is Ambers. She wants to know if there's
going to be any more Left movies.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Hopefully, yes, left behind. Yep, we're talking right now. I'm
talking with the producers and the writers of the last one.
We did, which was Left Behind, Rise of the Antichrist.
I was honored to direct that one and start it
as well, So help people check that out. I two
movies came out a year and a half ago, Left
Behind and Miracle in East Texas. I recommend both those movies.
Please sign up at sorbostudios dot com. Storbostudios dot com.
(04:54):
If you want an autograph DVD copy, I'm happy to
send that to you, but several studios dot com. I
got four new movies coming out this year and three
documentary So I'm staying busy and I'm here shooting a
movie right now in Las Vegas with Dean Kane.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
So we got Hercules and Superman together. Right.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
How do you find balance? I mean, seriously, is it
through prayer and meditation? How are you finding balance? Knowing
you're so darn busy?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
You know, family is always number one. I got great.
You know, my kids are getting other're twenty three, twenty one,
and nineteen. Now.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
They used to travel everywhere with me, but now they
got they got dad. I got my own thing going on.
But you know, my boys have done a couple movies
with me. They're both in the business as well, and
the golf course is another cathedral for me.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I love being on the golf course.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
I don't I disagree with Mark Twain that golf is
a walk spoil because I just love being out in
these beautiful management panicured lawns and greens. And it's just
I play a lot by myself, and that's my chance
to sort of be by myself. It's the only chance
I get. And then the gym. I still work out
all the time.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
I think.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
I think working out and staying healthy is very important
in life, no matter what age you are.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Did you ever find out why they called this movie
what if? Because to me, that is the ultimate question
in life, the what if factors what I call it.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Everybody has it right, I don't care at what if moments?
What if I'm married this person? What if I walk
down that road instead of this? And what if I
took that job instead of the one? Amana, there's we
all have what ifs. Every termin economics opportunity cost. Everything,
Every decision you make is an opportunity cost because there's
probably one hundred other things you could have done instead
of doing the one thing you're doing right now. So
(06:24):
you know, you never know you'll you'll never know what what?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
What if? What could have happened?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So I get a chance in this movie to see
my my what if come true.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I look at John Ratzenberger as a god a godwink
moment because that because we all know that there is
an angel that is standing beside us, but if we
don't recognize them. And John Ratzenberger's role in this movie
is one that says, open your eyes, open your heart.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
He doesn't.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
He does in a physical way. To me, it's pretty funny.
So I won't say anything beyond that, but it's pretty funny.
And John was great. So I had him in my
movie Miracle in East Texas as well that I directed,
True Story said in the nineteen thirty Texas and it's
a wonderful faith based movie as well. And John came
back to work with me once again and he was great.
We had so much fun.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Is there a side of ben Walker that lives inside
of you? Because I mean, like you said before, we
all go through these what if moments and things like that,
but Ben Walker really proves to us right there in
front of us, that you can reshape your life and
grow forward.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Well, I think every movie, every actor does bring. They
bring a little bit of themselves do it as well?
There's something in there. But certainly the script spoke to
me in a lot of ways. And I think in
my own what if moment back in nineteen ninety seven
on Hercules, when I had an aneurysm I was unaware
of that blew up my body. I stuffed a series
of four books, and it took me three years to
recover from it. So I wrote a book, True Strength
(07:43):
to my Journey from Hercules and Mere Mortal and How
Nearly Dying saved my life. It really was a what
if moment where it just put it, put priorities in order,
and you realize, you know what, I love acting.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I love doing what I'm doing. I kind of listen
with Scotti Scheffler, the World's Greatest call for right now.
What he said.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
He goes, look, I love golf, but God's number one
for me and my family's number And I said, good
for this guy. So the guy won me over just
just by having priorities in straight, not just saying golf
is the end all, be all kind of thing. He
just says, look, I want to win, but you're going
to say I got it.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
To make a choice. I know a choice I'll make. Yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
My what if moment was during the COVID lockdown. In
my daily writing, I kept asking where are you God?
Where are you God? And then in that writing the
words came out, I'm right here. Where are you?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Change change me forever, changed me forever.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
It's it's a wonderful.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Uh. You know that little parable about walking in the
beach with God and all of a sudden there's only
one set of footpert.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, where can people go to find out more about
all of your movies? You said you've got four on
the way. We need to support you, dude, yep.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Sorbo Studios dot com. My last name s O Rbo.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Sorbostudios dot com. Sign up when these movies are coming out.
I would let everybody on that list knows I've got
I've got one hundreds and thousands of people that follow
us there. I post a lot on on I got
two and a half million followers there, and I got
another probably million and a half on other.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Sites like Parlor and Truth and Getter and stuff.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
So I let people know that way, But please, Sorbal
Studios is a great place to know exactly when these
movies are coming out. My other movies are there if
you want to get you want to autograph, DVD copy
or something or anything.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
We got all kinds of stuff on that site, so
people check it out.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Please come back to the show anytime in the future, Kevin.
The door is always going to be open for you.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
We will because I got four coming out.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Will you be brilliant today?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Okay, all right, you two, thank you, Thank you, sir.
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UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd brings her championship swag to iHeart Women’s Sports with Fudd Around and Find Out, a weekly podcast that takes fans along for the ride as Azzi spends her final year of college trying to reclaim the National Championship and prepare to be a first round WNBA draft pick. Ever wonder what it’s like to be a world-class athlete in the public spotlight while still managing schoolwork, friendships and family time? It’s time to Fudd Around and Find Out!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com