I don't know half of you half as well as I should like;
and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
Well it's the Christmas season once again. December is hear and with it brings inclement weather around the country (I think we're suppose to get some rain and chilly 50 degree weather down here). Along with the Christmas season comes Christmas movies. "The Santa Clause 3" didn't seem to realize that Christmas fell on December 25th this year so they decided to release at the beginning of November. All that aside though this week "The Nativity Story" comes to a theater near you, and I would love to hear your opinion about something in particular dealing with this movie.
I saw the trailer to the movie and it looks pretty decent, and it supposedly does well at following the story as the Bible tells it (I haven't heard about when the wise men show up yet though, that is something I'm wondering). An interesting thing has happened though. The girl who plays Mary (Keisha Castle-Hughes) is a sixteen year old girl, who just happens to very recently gotten pregnant. She also happens to be unmarried. Now unless she's carrying the Son of God (and I know she isn't) that means unlike Mary she did not conceive while being a virgin. I'd say ironic, but the real Mary had a pretty good excuse for becoming pregnant out of wedlock.
I come to you to ask if it really matters. Does the fact that an actor behaves a certain way in their private life have any bearing on the movie that they appear in. This has no bearing on the traditional secular movie though and really only relates to those which include moral and religious values such as this one. For instance the fact that Ian Mckellen is gay doesn't stop me from watching Lord of the Rings (although who knows maybe it should).
This same topic was brought up when "End of the Spear" came out and it became known that in this overtly Christian movie, there was an overtly gay actor playing a main character (Chad Allen). I personally chose to not see the movie because of that, however, I know of many people who did. Does it matter and does it affect the Christian message of a movie when the actors who play in it act contrary to the values of the film? Your thoughts...
Louie Leonardo is gay? Hmmm, I knew that Chad Allen (also in that movie) was guy, didn't know the other guy way. I think that it (being personal life) *should* have some bearing on the director's choice in a "christian" film, but most of the time it doesn't. I'd like to ponder this more and even comment more, but at the moment, I have to run...certainly food for thought.
oops I copied and pasted the wrong guy's name, It's fixed now
Hmm...Good question. I think actors/actresses that play Biblical or Christian characters and whose own lives do not reflect those values make the movie a little less meaningful for me. I wonder how they could spent that much time making a movie and not be affected by the message. I guess if I was choosing the cast I would prefer to have the people be Christians, but there's not really an abundance of big name Hollywood actors who fall into that category. Does that mean the writers/producers are selling out because they'd rather make money than use less well known actors? I don't know...
It is strange to me that a movie will support something so much, such as christianity, and then it will allow something into it that is an obvious opposition to what is is primarily supporting. I hope that makes sense. However, I think that there can be alot of good that comes from a movie, despite who plays what parts. I believe that our God is willing to use the secular to work out his plan.
If the reason that an actor is hired is because the directors of a christian movie wants to support affirmative action for homosexuals, and is scared to cut the individual because he is gay and there may be repercussions, then I disagree with that motive. And if I were making a christian movie, I would not cast a homosexual or a unwed mother in a key role. Unless they had repented from their sin, and their lives showed that they had.
I think I may stop there. I appreciate this thought provoking post. And I appologize, mr. handsome, for not commenting more often.
This is an interesting question, and I feel that as your TLF (token liberal friend) it's my duty to put in my 2 cents :)
Firstly, I'm shocked she's pregnant because well, she's SIXTEEN and well yes there's the unmarried thing too, but still, SIXTEEN?!?! When I was 16 I was running my car into trucks on the highway (not really, but I came close), I wouldn't have been able to take care of a kid. And she's been dating her boyfriend for 3 years which makes her 13 when they started dating (and he 16). Maybe I'm being presumptious, but the likelihood of having a deep emotional relationship at 13 seems close to zilch. Who knew what they wanted at 13?
But onto the real topic at hand - perhaps they cast Ms. Castle-Hughes BECAUSE she was young and pregnant and they felt that she would be more able to relate to the feelings of well, being young and pregnant. I personally don't believe that knowing an actor's "real life" has any effect on whether I see the movie or not because for me, it's just a movie. I don't see why an actor's life should make any kind of statement on the movie itself. It just doesn't matter because it's not up to us to judge. Let God judge her as He will.
As for actors being gay, I don't know about the rest of you, but my high school theatre program was ridiculously chock full of gay guys. This makes me wonder about the proportion of actors who are closet gay and just not telling us to save their image. How many movies will you stop seeing if all these people came out? Maybe I'm wrong about the actual proportions, but it's an interesting thought. And of course Tom, I'm likely to be your only friend who's both Christian and pro-gay (still on the fence about marriage, but I'm leaning towards yes) so I'm pretty sure everyone hates me now.
Ok I'll get off the soapbox :-P
.. im gonna be seeing that movie.. ill let you know what i think about it..
of course.. ill prolly look at it.. more from a filming stand point.. :-\