Faith filled Movie making with actor, Kevin Sorbo

0:00 Today we're beyond excited to introduce a bona fide Hollywood legend, a man who has graced our screens in ways only heroes can. Kevin Sorbo. You've seen him as Hercules, you've cheered for him and God's not dead, but it's not just his acting chops that stand out. Kevin is just as mighty in his unwavering faith and commitment to living with purpose. He's spent decades entertaining us, while also boldly inspiring so many through his values and his voice. And now he's here to talk with us about storytelling, staying strong in your beliefs and what it really means to lead a life that's invested with purpose.

1:00 Welcome to Invested With Purpose, making the most out of our time, talent and treasure. I'm Kara. And I'm Brian. And today we have with us Kevin Sorbo or as many of you may know, Hercules. We're just going to jump right in with it. Welcome Kevin. Thank you for joining us with Invested With Purpose. So Kevin, I read that you were at a Billy Graham crusade when you found Christ or Christ found you, we shall say. I'd love to hear just a little bit about that because I have such respect for Mr. Graham and there's so much that he did in all of his tours, his crusades. So yeah, could you tell us a little bit about that? Well, I mean, quite frankly, I've always been a Christian. I don't look at it as a rebirth or anything. I grew up in a Lutheran church in Minnesota, typical of the Scandinavian bloodline, St. John's Lutheran church. And two things happen that year actually when I was 13 years old, we got a new youth pastor that started this place called the room at our church where every Wednesday night at eight o'clock to 10 o'clock, it was seventh graders or 12th graders to hang out in this room with the pink ones, they pull, we would also read the Bible. And he was just a really cool guy because my pastor at that time, a much older gentleman, just really scared the hell out of me. He was just a pretty scary guy.

2:22 And, you know, breathing was the same with this guy. So Pastor Lee was, you know, he's great with us. And then the Reverend Billy Graham was coming to town. It was August summer in Minnesota. I know people think Minnesota doesn't get warm. It gets very hot in here with just anywhere else in July, August. So it was a hot August night. It was a full moon. And we took about seven bus loads of our church to go see outside at the St. Paul Fairgrounds. And I know that Billy Graham, they had a lot to do. His company had like a production base up there in St. Paul, I think it was, and they had a big presence there. And it was 250 to 300,000 people outside.

3:03 It was unbelievable. And it was just, I remember I was really moved by what he talked about. It was, I don't know, it was much moved as just being in awe of the size of the people and just the reaction to everything he was saying by everybody. It was like, it's just huge organism, you know, bodies out there. And at the end of it, he said, you know, please come up. If you want, we have a lot of volunteers, you want to pray, just talk, whatever, whatever's on your mind, you know, so for whatever reason, I was so moved to go up there. And normally at 13 years old, I never would have done something like that. I was a very good student. I was an A&B student, but I was the last guy to raise my hand. To me, it was like, why can't I just say something? Why would I raise my hand and ask for permission? That's one of my problems in public schools.

3:44 That's a whole nother issue. But so I went up there and I remember my buddy, Jeff, said, where are you going? I said, I don't know, I got to go up there, man. I'm just, I'm just happy. So I went up there and I'm sitting on the grass with this guy that was probably 35 years old. So he's really old for me when I was 13. And all of a sudden, the hand went on my head. I turned up and looked over my shoulder and it was a Reverend Billy Graham. And the moon was right behind his head. So I could raise a moon being coming up. I heard the choir music going and everything. And all I could think of, I just saw all those photos I've seen ever since paintings of Jesus where they all have this glow coming off of it. And we started talking and we talked a little bit about sports, about school. He spent about three, four minutes with me and he said a quick prayer. His body guards with him, of course. He's got it. There's a lot of wackos out there, right?

4:36 And so it had a huge impact on me in terms of just meeting him. I told this for years ago to Franklin. And after I told that story, I was on the Larry King show. And I get a call from Chicken Soup with the Soul and I said, look, we're doing a hardcover book for the life of Billy Graham. 101 people who've met and been touched by him. And they asked me to tell my story in it. And then I was very flattered by that, of course. And the Reverend, he loved it. At that point, I've already been doing my, you know, my faith based movies and stuff. So he was well aware of who I was. And they asked, I would do the publicity and fly around in the planes to do the publicity on the release of the book. So it was quite an honor to be able to do something like that.

5:24 It's amazing. Yeah, Billy Graham is just such a hero of the faith. It's just incredible to hear the stories that are still, that people he came in contact with, you know, years ago. And I know at the same time, you also, you know, of course, read a lot about you, you decided or felt that you were going to be an actor at a very young age. Can you tell us a little bit about that as well? Like how did that come about? There was a, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis is very famous. Anybody in the Broadway world knows of the Guthrie Theater. A lot of Broadway actors start there, or they go out there to do performances. It's an amazing theater. A lot of people don't realize that there's more theaters per capita in Minneapolis, St. Paul's, than there's on Broadway. There's a lot.

6:08 I didn't know that. They really invested in the culture, the arts, the cultural arts and everything. So in fifth grade, we took a field trip to the Guthrie to see the Merchant of Venice. And it was Shakespeare. I was 11. I didn't know what the heck they were saying because I was 11. And it was Shakespeare. It's Shakespeare. And I was put up to memorize. On the way home, my mom was a chaperone on our bus. And I sit next to my mom. She said, what do you think? And I said, no, mom, I'm going to be an actor. And she gave me that loving of mom, Pat on the thigh. That's nice, dear. So you're going to make a living doing this. But the seat isn't set. But the dichotomy of that, I'm sure it probably still exists today, which is kind of sad in a way. But I was like, okay, I got to be cool about this because I'm also a jock. And as a jock, you don't do any of this kind of thing. Those two things don't mix. You know, I was a drama class. I was a football back home baseball guy. And so I really didn't start. I was a closet test man, I should say. And it wasn't that I got to college that I had a double business major, but I started fooling around acting classes and stuff like that. And I signed an agent Minneapolis. A lot of people won't realize Minneapolis is home to a lot of big national headquarters or Best Buy Target. Got three Pillsbury, General Mills, I mean, this goes on and on. So I started doing a lot of commercials. I signed with an agent, an acting and modeling agency and started doing a lot of stuff. And I got my all

7:41 important screen actually the guilt card. So when I did move to LA, I already had a commercial agent because I really had a good tape already like 15 commercials under my belt. So that was never a problem getting an agent out there. But I do, I do remember my old agent at the time told me, I have to go to New York. You have to do Broadway become famous. And I said, how many places Tom Cruise got? We can't, we can't do this without mentioning Hercules. Right. I mean, that's really what, what, what springs us into your, your, your launch to the world, right? Is Hercules. Did you know when you, when you were first starting in Hercules that it was going to be as big as what it ended up being, that it puts you on the map? Did you have any inclination? I had good feelings about what was going on with my career at that point. I know that, you know, God bless me in a lot of different ways. I never had to work on the job when I was out there. I worked very well commercially. I was getting guestpots and murders she wrote on a commission, cheers. I was getting spots. Things were starting to happen. And I also noticed that now when I got a call from audition to go to Universal or Paramount or wherever it may be, I was all of a sudden getting better parking spots. I didn't have to park. Well, the other actions were seven blocks away in March and, you know, big to get in. And I said, okay, things are starting to happen. Then did a couple pilots.

9:00 I got leads in a couple of pilots, one through CBS, one through ABC. They didn't get picked up. And I took comfort in the knowing that fact that Tom Selekt had seven leads and pilots before he got Magma. Part of the routine. But things were starting to happen. When I got the series on Hercules, it was initially going to be just five two-hour movies. And they auditioned 2800 actors in North America as a role. I had seven callbacks on that. And when I got it, it was going to be five two-hour movies. The kicker for me, the biggest thrill for me, well, number one, we shot New Zealand, but more than number one, I got a whole year with Anthony Quinn. And I know a lot of younger people, I don't know Anthony Quinn is, but he was one of the bigger stars back in the golden age, back in the 40s and 50s and 60s. And the kids stories of guns and navarins, Orbo the Greek, Lawrence the Arabian, I mean, all the amazing movies he was in and become very good friends of the mountain, passed away nine years later. It was during the middle of, we, it was five tour movies.

10:07 In the third movie, I, it just hit me and I called my agent and I said, I bet you they make this a series. And I said, why is it because there's nothing else like on TV at this time. Nothing like it. And sure enough, Universal called back about a month after that and said, you're staying down there. And by season three, we became the most watched TV show in the world. We were 176 countries. Yeah, that's just remarkable. Yeah. It was amazing. It was a blessing to be part of that. I did it for seven years. It was, it was great. Was there challenges in that as far as like, I mean, this is getting nuanced a little bit, but you know, just staying in a certain shape you had to stay in, did you have to stay on a certain diet? I mean, you had to obviously have a look to be Hercules the whole time. Well, you know, initially when they called me for the first audition, I kind of went, I'm in good shape. I'm six, I'm six, three, I was 225 pounds that worked out all the time. I lived right in the Santa Monica Venice border. I was at Gold's gym at least six times a week. I was rollerblading, biking all the way down Manhattan Beach and back every day. I mean, I was in great shape. And it was another way to defend off the frustrations of how they work out my aggressions that way. And I, you know, it, it was long hours. There's no question. A lot of days for me, probably 16 to 17 hours a day, door to door includes drive time on the set, lifting weights and getting out back home. I maybe average four hours of sleep a night because every night after getting home after working out, I'd have to memorize another eight to 10 pages of dialogues for the next day. So it was, it was a workout, but I'm not complaining. I had a blast on it. It was, and you managed to fall in love and get married with one of your co-stars. Yes, I did. We love

11:42 Santa Monica. She was great. I did. She came, she came down. I'm very first day on the set. I looked and I said, how are we going to make this work, Sam? She looked at me over the top and I'm like, well, I'm in New Zealand and we got a water hazard. We call it Pacific Ocean. We turn off you and I lost Angeles and she goes, Kevin, I don't date actors. I wore her down. Famous last words. That's how we do it as men. You got to wear them down. You know, I have heard you speak before. I have gone to a Christian film festival here in Orlando where you spoke. And you had said that you were one of the first to be canceled before it was cool to be canceled. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Because when I think of, you know, Christian actors, producers, directors that are invested with purpose, you are at the top of that list because of everything that you have stood for in the face of persecution.

12:32 You know, I was very fortunate. I think I was one of the first actors to really do more quality Christian movies than Christian movies. I also had kind of a get a horrible script, horrible acting. My first really unapologetically faith based movie was called What If. And I've done over 90 movies and What If in my book is my top three movies of all time. I think it's a wonderful movie. I told Dallas Jenkins directed it. He's doing a little thing about the chosen right now. Yeah, that little thing. He directed that movie and we shot it in Michigan. Same writers that did God's Not Dead a couple of years later was obviously it was a huge shit.

13:13 What if it's better? That's in trouble with independent movies. How do you get them out there? You don't have a hundred million dollar advertising budget like they do for these three hundred million dollar Avatar movies. So we got to rely on Word of mouth and God's not dead. Got that Word of mouth. But What If is even better? But that really opened the door for me. And obviously mix that with social media and everything the growth of it. I've always been vocal but not in negative way where I stand conservatively and where I stand as a Christian. And my manager and agent 10 years ago called me and said we can't work with you anymore. I thought studios don't want to hire you. I'm going, why? What's going on? And they said, well, the things you're posting. I said, you mean the truth? Having trouble with the truth? And sure enough. And then, you know, obviously I'll know it's accelerated over the last six, seven years. Tremendous. Got insane. And now everything that I said, I can even bring up COVID. Everything I said about COVID ended up being true. And I actually posted on X not too long.

14:10 I said, I need more conspiracy theories because all mine keep coming true. So, because there's going to be no apologies from all those people. Of course, that went after me and all these CNN and all these bozos. That just as you know, they slide every single day. And, you know, but yeah, I'm the first guy. I get actors last six, seven years. I get actors, not as active directors, camera guys, makeup people. They come up to me in a set individually, whispering like it's a drug deal. And they thank me for being a voice for them. And I said, be a voice for yourself. Because there's the biggest problem. I said, if we don't stand together and start getting more vocal about it. I said, then this stuff will not be as damaging as it is.

14:51 And it is getting better. I think more and more people aren't waking up now and come out. So, I love the voices like a John Voigt coming out there and Neil MacDonald and those people are speaking up more and more and more. And we got to not be afraid. You know, fear is the government's favorite weapon. I tell, we got to wake up the lions, the sheep are in the sheep. Let's wake up the lions because we got a battle on our hands that Hollywood is winning that culture battle. But I'm going to keep making these journeys I'm doing to fight back as best that I can. So, what is your advice right now to a young, aspiring actor starting out in Hollywood that doesn't want to lose their soul in the pursuit of fame or success? What is your best advice to them? Well, I think it's easy to do. I always tell people to take acting classes. You don't have to go to college to be an actor. But I know there's wonderful drama, the things, you know, minors and drama, majors and drama, whatever.

15:39 But there's, I think there's better coaches in LA or New York or something to learn the craft and, you know, keep up there and get some practice with it. I always encourage the guy getting a commercial agent. But we see how the commercial world has changed so much too. So, I probably wouldn't work at all in commercials right in today's world because I'm a white person. And I say that with this ridiculousness because I think the third highest guy in Disney, they caught him on tape and he got interviewed. He thought it was just interviewed by the woman who had a hidden camera going. And he said, and he said, look, we are told not to hire any straight white men anymore in Disney. And you're going, this is, it is so crazy. And you look at racism in a way, you know, it's not a one-way street. And it's just, it's not what we're doing to people right now. It's crazy. It's insanity. But I tell these young kids, they say, get a commercial agent, get yourself out there, put miles on a funny camera, anyway you can, do independent films. There's so many good Christian production companies out there. Not only the Sorbitur Studios, but you got the Irwin Brothers, you got the Kendricks, you got more and more people jumping on board. There was Sony Affirm, they moved on, they sold some GAC or whatever it's called, I can't remember, but I think they're there. But, you know, they're getting bigger and better. You're getting more actors. I want to get involved. We have more people on the other side of the camera.

16:59 I get to Sorbo Studios, I recommend people go to sorbostudios.com and sign up all the time. And we got a lot of good things coming on the pipeline with that as well. And by the way, since it is Christmas, I know that post Christmas going on, I don't know. But you get this wonderful devotional book my wife and I wrote together and you get that by going to sorbostudios.com as well. We got a lot of good things on it from my books, my white books. Please sign up, we keep up the date. I've got four movies coming out next year in post production right now. Three documentaries coming out. You just had the firing squad come out in 2024 with Cuba Gooding, Jr. The firing squad, which just came out in 2024, which the message for this week, especially being Thanksgiving, is so apt because I just watched it. And I've, for anybody who hasn't seen it, it's about a group of gentlemen that are in an Indonesian prison and, you know, their faith story, basically. But it just is a reminder of the gratitude that we should have. And so tell us a little bit about which movie was it that you had spoken of? Oh, Elijah Peel. They just, yeah, just wrapping up here. Anything?

18:08 Elijah Peel, we'll talk more hopefully by next year later. It's, you much, I'm going to say quickly on firing squad, that's a true true story. My character was an American kid over there when he was in 20s, killed a man, got life in prison, a lot of his imprisonment became a pastor. And he saved a lot of people's lives. He was actually ex-cuted in 2015. So it's not that long ago. Cuba Gooding Jr. is great in it as he marches out singing amazing grays. And it's just a wonderful moment. And Elijah Peel is a, I played the manager to, I guess, comparing the Justin Bieber or something like that. Justin Bieber doesn't have a drug problem, but he's famous like Justin Bieber or Justin Timberlake. And he is just lives a very, very typical rock and roll lifestyle with too much drugs, too much women, too much booze, too much everything. And he actually flat lines on stage.

18:58 Justin Bieber Wow. And while he's in the hospital, he gets lucky and necessitated. While he's in the hospital, a semi-alcoholic girl peaks in on that, Sarah with leukemia, and she's going to treatment. And she walks in and starts telling them about Jesus and about God. And it's a very touching story. And it's, I don't know what's going to come up, but it was a cool movie to be part of. Justin Bieber And the common, the common thread through all these movies, and it's something I think like it's not just Christians, it's just people to just want an uplifting story with a, an ending that gives you something of a crescendo where there's hope, there's optimism. And yeah, I mean, that's what it is. I don't want to see a depressing sour movie. I mean, unless I'm really, Justin Bieber And that's all they want to do. That's all how we want to do.

19:44 Justin Bieber You hit the key, I got two key words. You hit one hope. People are looking for hope and people are looking for redemption. I mean, you know, Jesus, God always have redemption on the table except who want to actually go for it. So I like the movies, I call them actors movies, where characters that people know about or can relate to, they walk on a movie and think about it. You don't think about it walking out of when you see Deadpool or an avatar or a partially caring, they're fun. Justin Bieber Right, they're fun. Most of the time. Justin Bieber Is it a tutorial in Russian that it's over? Justin Bieber It's not, it's not like you, boy, that character really touched me this way, that way. It's just fun. And I get it, why people want to go there. I enjoy them as well. But I like movies as an actor that make you think you can relate to that person and has the message that has hope in there because right now, our world's insane. And I'm so happy that President Trump, Trump got back in the office again. I see him quite often living out here in Florida as well. I've been to Mar-a-Lago a number of times. I've golfed with him before.

20:44 And I really think that a lot of wonderful things are going to happen over the next four years. Justin Bieber We just got to know who can drive the ball farther. Are you allowed to tell us? And Kevin, I love how you brought up the raising the bar in Hollywood for Christian movies. And here at Timothy Plan, we have an anti-family entertainment screen. It's very near and dear to us that we do not own companies that would produce stuff like you've talked about with Deadpool and some of the other stuff that I wouldn't take my kids to go see. So we're very happy to hear the elevation in faith-based movies. Go back a little bit in your career. Back when you were doing more secular stuff, you said years ago you had a health issue where you had blood clots and basically, I mean, it could have all been over. Like, I don't know if any of this would have happened.

21:35 Can you tell us a little bit about that scare and how that sure brought you closer to God? Justin Bieber I was doing most of my own stunts because I liked it. The athlete in me, we rehearsed fight scenes every day. We shot two or three every episode. So even on days we weren't filming fight scenes, I would, you know, I'd block the scene, they'd go light it and I got 30 minutes over here with the stunt guys to work on the fights because most of them I'd have fight four guys, eight guys, 12 guys. So it's like a dance choreograph. Justin Bieber You're hercules. Justin Bieber But I started in Proud of where I left off with Pimpic was going out with it. When I came back home to LA, they found a lump up here where my left side is clavicle. And it was weird. I was doing publicity for my latest movie called Call of Conqueror called The Fathered Conan, the Barbarian. So Arnold played Conan and even though he's older than me, I'm apparently his father. But I was, I went to my chiropractor before they're going to buy up some of this lump they found up here. And a voice in my head said, don't let them crack your neck.

22:39 And I was getting warned by God, I know I was and I didn't pay attention. And the chiropractor who's never cracked my neck, I let my neck actually, somebody's been cracked my neck that day. And I sat up and wanted to do that, you know, because I never liked it. Even a new chiropractor, I'll say, crack anything but leave the neck alone. He cracked it, which is weird. Well, they ended up being an aneurysm. They've been spitting blood, blood pasta down. But that cracked that way. On neurology is called retrograde slow and sent a series of clocks into my brain. It took me four months to learn how to walk and balancing it took me three years before we covered my silver 10% loss of vision in both eyes. And but it was it was a long recovery for me. It's pretty tough. But I think that, you know, my fiance at the time, before we got married, Sam, was very strong, you know, for me. And my faith is strong for me. And I wrestled got a little bit. I was pretty angry. My career was really starting to fly. But you know, it's, I wrote a book, I wrote a book on the show right here. Yes, it's called Choose Strength, My Journey from Hercules, The Mermortal, and I'm Nearly Dying Saved My Life. Didn't want to write the book, my wife made me write it.

23:50 And it's been a godsend since it came out 12, 13 years ago. And all of a sudden, I'm doing since then, I'm doing 12 to 15 speaking events a year, motivational speaking, health speaking, whatever it is, because we really, we all hit roadblocks in life. God never prompts anybody in easy life in this world. So how do you react to those roadblocks? You can blame the world friends family God, but the reality is you got to look in the mirror and say, okay, what am I going to do because Sam always said whenever I get down, Kevin, it happened. What do you do about it? And it just, it was motivation for me to fight back and get my health back. Well, you, I mean, you're speaking to the importance that I feel like I held out when I was younger and trying to find a wife and wanting to make sure I found a Christian woman. And I tell my son this all the time, he's 15. I'm like, you have to understand the importance of being equally yoked in your marriage and how much that matters to you because now you're both in your own ways, advocates for Christians and film and homeschooling and so many different areas.

24:53 You know, how do you, how do you all balance all this? It's crazy. I mean, homeschooling helped a lot because once Hollywood kicked me out, I just got involved in the, you know, two sort of studios, but also other independent movie people came to me and say, Hey, we want to work with you. And so I would travel a lot while Sam would just travel with me with the kids. So they're always with the other, which is great. And Sam's so busy with homeschooling stuff. She's, I think she's wrote her fifth book on things right now. She's kind of ward up in Washington, DC, for her work in the homeschooling world. And we just said, speaking of that together in Milwaukee as well. So it's, you may get work, I still have a very, I'm a very driven person. I've always been that way.

25:36 And I think a lot of those have been filled by my, my parents. They were, they grew up on farms in Iowa. They didn't have any money with there. They grew up just tough and strong and taught all five of the kids of my family and the fourth to five kids that you work hard. You don't expect handouts, you know, be part, they were JFK Democrats, you know, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for their country. They're no Democrats that talk the way they JFK would be a conservative today. All they got to do is listen to this 1960 inauguration speech. It's pretty, pretty blatant. That's half the Republicans don't talk to that way. So it's, we live in a world now that is quite different than what my, what I grew up in. So we're quickened from our parents grew up in the 30s and 40s and 50s. Well, you are surely invested with purpose. So we thank you so much for being on the show today, Kevin. We value you. We value the work that's being done through your family, through your children, as well as your wife. We're watching from afar and admiring. So it's great to have you on the show. Thank you for joining us on invested with purpose, making the most out of our time, talent and treasure. Thank you. God bless you guys. Thank you.

26:40 Invested with purpose is brought to you by Timothy Partners Limited, advisor to the Timothy Plan funds. Timothy Plan is a family of biblically responsible mutual funds and ETFs. For more information, please visit Timothy Plan's website at www.timothyplan.com. Some of our podcast guests may have a relationship with Timothy Partners Limited on behalf of Timothy Plan, including affiliations, partnerships or sponsorships. However, guests are not compensated for their appearances and their opinions do not constitute paid testimonials. Please be aware that investments carry risks and individual experiences may vary. Consult with a financial advisor for personalized advice. And remember to find us on all of the major social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.