HEAVEN IS FOR REAL – GREG KINNEAR INTERVIEW
How did you find out about this project?
I knew Randall Wallace from working with him on We Were Soldiers, and we had kept in touch over the years. He was the one who told me about the book and project, which was surprising to me. Maybe because the last time he directed me was for this incredible real-life war story with bullets flying at me, but Randy has a great filmmaking team, so I was excited to learn about it.
What surprised you about Heaven Is for Real?
It was intriguing to me that two people cut from different cloths were both talking equally enthusiastically about the book. Randal Wallace went to seminary school and has a strong spiritual background, while our producer, Joe Roth, is Jewish and did not grow up with a religious background. Yet they both projected equal enthusiasm for how this could be a powerful movie. I hadn’t read the book but the story of a pastor from a small town whose son nearly dies and comes back to talk about seeing something on the other side sounded interesting. The conflict that could create.
And then what did you think of the script when you finally read it?
The script is a big part of why I decided to do the movie. At the end of the day there are a lot of different ways of telling this story, but I thought the story seemed very accessible to me. Obviously there is a religious thread throughout the story, but it also didn’t feel preachy. It focused less on what Heaven is and more on what this family experienced through their child’s story.
You play the pastor Todd Burpo, who wrote the book Heaven Is For Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back that inspired this film. Who is he?
He is someone with a strong belief system that is rocked when this event takes place in his life. It makes him actually question everything he believes and dig deeper in his own search for some kind of truth. At that age, kids have big imaginations but they are also capable of being completely truthful without any editorial control. The movie focuses on Todd’s struggle to understand exactly what he’s hearing from his 4 year old son.
What do you like about him?
Todd and I began texting a bit before the film and talked when he visited the set, but I don’t know him that well personally. What I liked most about him is that he wasn’t a one note stereotypical pastor. He’s a volunteer firefighter, a wrestling coach, a garage door installer, a family man who deeply loved his wife and children.
Young Connor Corum makes his screen debut as your son Colton in the movie.
We thought we had already found the right actor to play Colton, but when Connor auditioned for the role and walked out of the room, we all felt he was on a whole other level. The lines just came naturally to him. Connor has an innocence and extraordinary power by precisely not being practiced or rehearsed. He had never been shot on film.
What is he like on set?
He is living his life as a child while periodically doing scenes for this movie, but he is very much a boy and not an actor or show business kid. So, as soon as they say, “Cut!” he is basically throwing a ball or something else at me…
British actress Kelly Reilly plays your wife Sonja.
I had seen her in a few things over the years, and I was quite in awe with her recent work on Robert Zemeckis’ Flight, but I didn’t have anything to do with her casting. Randy called me one day and said, “I have just met your wife!” because he was so certain when he met her that she was the right person for Sonja Burpo.
And what has she been like to work with?
Very easy! Kelly is lovely and wonderful to work with. We both had the task of showing the strong bond this husband and wife have and making that family feel genuine, but with her that didn’t feel like a lot of work. She is wonderful at making Sonja as rich as I ever could have imagined.
So, how would you describe the tone of this film then?
It is a human story about the struggle of a family that is very unique; but I don’t believe the movie is not a sermon in any way. It’s entertaining and has some nice humor as well.
Did you get to meet the real Todd Burpo?
Yes, I met him briefly one day while we were shooting. He told me, “I understand you are playing me in a movie!” He was nice and maybe a bit overwhelmed by seeing 150 people walking around making a film about something that was about him and his family.
You had never worked with Thomas Haden Church before. What was that experience like?
It’s true that I had never worked with him before, but we instantly connected. Thomas has a very dry humor and a real honesty about him that I think is just tremendous. I have really enjoyed working with him.
And how was Margo Martindale?
I have worked with her on two other movies, but we never had scenes together. She is amazing as both a person and an actress.
The truth is that you are surrounded by quite an extraordinary cast on this set.
They are all real people playing real characters with very human characteristics. Given the subject matter it could have been easy to get cynical about this story, but nobody did. And you are talking to a guy who has hosted Talk Soup!
And what can you say of filmmaker Randall Wallace, the main engine of it all?
That he is really smart, tough when he had to be. Randal is a friend and a filmmaker. He has excellent taste in storytelling and works hard to get it right. He was the right director, I have no doubt, for this film.
What do you believe made him the right filmmaker for this movie?
I don’t know that you would want someone completely devoid of any sort of understanding about theology and struggles of faith on a film like this. Randy is somebody who has studied that in his younger years and dealt with it through the movies he has made. So, I think he inherently has in his DNA an understanding of that aspect of the storytelling that is important for a film like Heaven Is for Real.
How has Winnipeg, Canada, embraced the shoot and vice-versa?
It’s hard to know how a movie will do, but I can say that it will be a hell of a postcard for Winnipeg when it’s done! The beauty of these outdoor shots has been extraordinary, because the skies have favored us. And then we have Dean Semler as director of photography, who has managed to capture all those images in such a great way. If there is another character in this movie, it’s the sky.
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