Kirk Cameron from the Movie “Fireproof"

Interview By Rhonda Ridley

Movie Trailer:

For months there has been a great deal of industry buzz about “Fireproof”, an action packed love story filmed on location in Albany Georgia by Sherwood Pictures, the creators of the largely successful Facing the Giants and Flywheel. Directed and Produced by the Kendrick brothers, Alex and Stephen. With a tag line that reads, “Never leave your partner behind “, fire Captain Caleb Holt is fighting fires in town and being recognized and rewarded for it, however at home his marriage is fizzling out and there’s nothing he can do - until he realizes that it’s God who helps us maintain the Covenant of Marriage - not us. Recently, I was honored to sit down with “Growing Pains” star Kirk Cameron, who plays Caleb Holt and we talked about his thoughts on this film, his family and his faith.

What is Fireproof about?

KC: It’s an action packed love story who is on the brink of a divorce. He’s a hero in his community; everybody loves him, he is the man; putting out fires everywhere, rescuing everybody’s house, but at home he’s letting his marriage go up flames. He’ not interested in rescuing his marriage or his wife. Then his father steps in and says, “Son, I’d like you to put off the divorce for about 40 days and I’ll send you something.” Then he begins to mentor his son and he challenges him to an experiment called, “The Love Dare” and it’s a book that teaches his son what the true meaning of love is and going through this challenge teaches him how to love his wife and how to win her heart back. “The Love Dare” while it is a plot device in the movie, it’s actually a book that’s available in stores now and have pre-sold 500,000 copies and have already had three printings on it already because bookstores have placed many orders based on seeing the movie.

How did you get the part of Caleb? How did this come to you?

KC: Well, I first saw a movie called, “Facing the Giants” and that was made by the same church in Georgia that had an all volunteer cast with a small budget that did very very well. Well this is the next movie and I called them. They began making this film and I said, If there’s any chance and you need any help, I’d be willing to volunteer my time for your next movie. So they came up with this idea for Fireproof and I loved the story and loved the script and then went and auditioned, yes, they made me audition and they gave me the part.

With everything that you have going on, where does acting fit in for you now? Is it a passion still or a means to get the message out?

KC: Acting kind of has to come in between everything else I have going on. I love to act, but boy there are other things that are going on in my life. Acting fits in nicely to do the things that I’m trying to do with my life like tell a great story with a great message or like “Fireproof,” which is a movie about restoring marriages. I married my wife who was my on-screen girlfriend from “Growing Pains” she was Mike Seaver’s girlfriend and we’ve been married for 17 years our marriage is real important to us. We run a camp for terminally sick children and their families. I speak and teach a lot at schools, colleges and churches and I do a faith-based reality show called, “The Way of the Master”. So all those things have much more substance to them. I’ve been fortunate enough to act when it fits into what I want to do with my life.

Being happily married for so long, how did you relate to the material, was it difficult?

KC: No, it was not difficult to relate to the material , well some of it was, because I play a guy who’s very different from myself yet I could relate to a lot of, just the challenges of being married for 17 years and having six children and juggling work and family and everything. But, this guy is a real type “A” macho, “I’m gonna do my own thing” bully kind of a guy. It was also kind of challenging for me because of the emotional range that this guy goes through. He’s a guy that’s a real jerk, you really don’t like him in the beginning of the movie. There are a couple of fight scenes in the movie that are uncomfortable to watch. So, that was difficult. I’ve never been that angry with my wife. Also, there are issues of forgiveness and opening up and sharing how you feel. Her not feeling loved and him not feeling respected. He’s addicted to internet porn, which is mentioned in the movie and is dealt with in a very respectful way where you won’t even see anything. So, if your children are watching it they won’t have any idea what’s being talked about. The wife is also flirting with another relationship at work. There are all kinds of marital fidelity issues throughout the movie that are dealt with in a real way and will strike a cord with anyone who is, will someday be or was once married.

What is the premise of “The Love Dare” book?

KC: There’s a beautiful description of love in the Bible that says, “Love is patient”, “Love is kind“, “Love is not rude or self seeking” “Love never fails” - It’s 1 Corinthians. That is kind of the outline in “The Love Dare” book. There’s this thread of faith woven through there and the idea of this is love, God is love and God’s the author of love and of trust and healing and relationships and to really understand what love is you got to dig down deeper than how you’re feeling at the moment.

You’re an endangered species, not only in Hollywood, but in the world, how do you stay grounded?

KC: Well, you know, I appreciate the encouraging comments, the truth is that I can say all this and present an image out there that may or may not be true, you’ll never know. So, you’ve really got to ask my wife and kids, they’ll let you know the truth. But it’s very important to me to have integrity, to me God comes first and my family comes second, if I fail at those two well, I’m just playing games. So for me, my family and my faith have been my anchor in grounding me and helping me to navigate through a lot of the things that really destroy marriages in Hollywood and your own personal integrity. I understand that if I didn’t have those things, I’d be just like everyone else. I’m no superman, I’m no morally superior person, but because I have someone like my wife and my mom and dad who are still together taught us basic good values and then my own faith in the Lord has been what saved me from a lot.

Did your parents take you to Church?

KC: No, I was an atheist for most of my life and then I lost my faith in atheism when I was about 18 years old.

Marriage is quite difficult, I experience it as being perfect fertile ground in which to grow, not only to grow as a couple, but to grow yourself as well. I read something that says you will not kiss anyone in a movie, unless it’s your wife. Was that a tough decision for you to make?

KC: Well, there’s a great scene in the movie, a very touching and romantic scene in the movie and it gets to a point where you're just waiting for Caleb to kiss his wife, and if he didn’t you’d want to smack him. So, it was a great part and addition to the story and yeah, I’ll kiss my wife, but I won’t kiss any other women regardless of the fact that I‘m an actor. So, I asked my wife if she’d do this new scene. The scene was actually added into the script it wasn’t originally there. She came to the set, dressed in the actresses’ clothes and we shot the scene in silhouette so, the romantic scene is really my wife Chelsea and me. It really gave us an opportunity to do a movie about honoring marriage above all things and to be able to honor my marriage personally.

Have you missed out on certain jobs because of the courage you’ve had stand up for what you believe in?

KC: I haven’t had tons of offers to say no to, but the ones that came my way that went against what I believe, yes, I’ve said no. I’m quite sure others have convictions and things that are important to them. If you a chance to do something that was gonna hurt your kids or hurt your mom or your dad. You have to say, “I’ll wait until the next one.”

SIDE NOTE: Kirk actually stopped and said that he’d like for us to stress this perspective specifically because he knows that there are people out there who believe this same way so he feels it’s good for them to know how he feels and it also adds a special twinkle on the movie.

Was it tough for Chelsea to see you in this role?

KC: You’d have to ask her. However, I think it would have been tough if we did not honor our marraige the way that we do and the way that we did while I worked on the movie. I guess it’s a little strange and a little weird. But we felt it important to put the values in a movie and not just a low quality independent film. It’s a real movie with a great story. People are going to laugh and cry and feel as if they connect with the material.

What was it like, coming from Hollywood and knowing what everything costs, to have everything donated - from locations, actors, equipment etc? To see the outpouring of support, that must have been magnificent.

KC: It really was. People were touched by “Facing the Giants” particularly the people in that community because they were the ones who made that movie. So, when they heard about "Fireproof" the man who owned the train line said, "aw man"...Kirk interjects, "we have a scene, did you see the trailer where there's a train that comes upon a car that's stuck on the tracks, if not, I just happen to have the trailer right here." The guy said, "how many cars do you need?, Where do you want the engine?, When do you want it to show up? and they donated the train, they donated the fire trucks from the station, and they donated a wing of the hospital. It was a community spirit.

SIDE NOTE: Kirk stops the interview to have everyone who didn’t see the trailer, a moment to see it.

Where did all of the volunteers come from?

KC: All of the volunteers came from the little town of Albany, Georgia. It was produced by the people who go to this little church there and the surrounding community and the profits from the movie are being poured back into a community sports park in their town. That’s open to the community to keep kids off of the streets.

Tell me about Camp Firefly?

KC: Camp Firefly is a camp we started about 19 years ago on the set of “Growing Pains” because we were meeting kids through the “Make-A-Wish Foundation“. These were kids that had terminal illnesses and their wish was to come on the set and meet the cast so we met a lot of these families and wanted to do more than sign autographs and send them home. So we started this camp which is a one-week all expense paid vacation for the family. We invite the mom and dad and siblings because it’s a whole family thing when you have Cancer. They get away from doctors, treatment and hospitals and all that stuff and they come and spend a week together with other families that understand what they’re going through. There are days where the moms get pampered and the dads get a day of golfing and the kids are off playing and swimming in the pool. It’s just a joyful happy time for these families to forget about being sick and build friendships and get connected back with each other again.