The following comes from a March 8 Christian Post article by Samuel Smith.
Speaking at a recent screening of the upcoming film “Little Boy” in New York, former Disney Channel actor David Henrie explained how working on the movie helped “save his life” by snapping him out of an “agnostic” rut in his life and led him back to Christianity.
The 25-year-old Henrie, who starred in the popular Disney show “Wizards of Waverly Place,” plays London Busbee, the older brother of the main character Pepper Busbee, or the “little boy.” The plot of the movie is that 7-year-old Pepper is desperately trying to find a way to bring his father back home from World War II and tries to do everything in his power through faith to make that happen.
The Christian entertainment news site Breathecast reports that Henrie told the audience at the Feb. 26 screening that when he first read the script, he was so moved that he sat in a coffee house and wept. Henrie recalled that he told his agent “this is the best script I have ever read, please get me in for this.”
After auditioning for a role in the movie, Henrie said he met some of the films producers, like Eduardo Verastegui, who were influential in helping him return to faith.
Jakob Salvati, the movie’s lead actor, and Verastegui explained that Pepper’s faith was influenced by a priest who told him that one of the things he needed to do to bring his dad home from World War II was to befriend the Japanese person in his town.
“[Salvati and Verastegui] were instrumental in changing my life, helping me to find the greater good and awaken the little boy in my heart, and led me back to my faith, led me back to my beliefs, and it has completely changed my life,” Henrie asserted.
The report also adds that Henrie, who proclaims to be a devout Catholic, confessed that he was in “a very agnostic place” in his life before working on the set of “Little Boy.”
“When we were on set, there were people of all different beliefs,” Henrie explained. “I had no clue that there were Christians behind the film. I will forever be grateful for ‘Little Boy’ because it was the film that saved my life.”
Praise be to God.
Once in a great while Hollywood produces films which are inspirational, and so, theologically speaking those types of films could be said to be a kind of actual grace. One youth, after seeing MIRACLE OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA, converted from Protestant and became a priest. I believe Dolores Hart became a cloistered nun because of a religious part she had in a film. Just as books can be tools which lead to conversion (St. Ignatius Loyola changed his life after reading THE IMITATION OF CHRIST), so too can movies lead one closer to God.
And, as I recall, Ignatius of Loyola read that book because he had been
wounded and had to be in bed for an extended period of time. He had to have something to occupy his mind, and it did that while it touched his soul.
(Loyola High ’66)
Rejoice! “Only in God is my soul at rest; from him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be disturbed at all.” (Psalm 62.1-3)
Our Blessed Mother at Medjugorje asks that our prayers at night be directed towards conversion of those who do not know the Lord. Looks like our prayers are being answered. Rejoice!