Parents are “supposed to” guide their children’s programming, Dean Cain, a star in the upcoming movie “No Vacancy,” said on the Todd Starnes Show.
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The following is a rush transcript from The Todd Starnes Radio Show. Listen to the program live Monday – Friday from 12 p.m. until 3 p.m. Click here to listen to the full interview.
TODD STARNES: [01:41:53] There is a great new movie out called “No Vacancy.” It’s actually based on a true story. And the star of this movie is a good friend of this radio program, Dean Cain, who is on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Line right now. Dean, good to have you back with us. [01:42:09][16.0]
DEAN CAIN: [01:42:10] Todd, always a pleasure. [01:42:11][0.8]
STARNES: [01:42:12] And congratulations on the new film called “No Vacancy.” It’s got to be exciting. I know you guys put tons of work into it, and now it’s time to promote it and talk about it. And sometimes that’s actually harder work than actually doing the filming. [01:42:26][14.1]
CAIN: [01:42:29] Agreed, except if you really like the movie, then it’s not. And I love this movie and I love the message of this film. The three main actors that you’ll see in it: myself, Sean Young and then T.C. Stallings. T.C. Stallings is brilliant in this film, and he plays a character named Cecil Johnson, who was drug addicted and ready to try to take his own life and through a series of events, ends up at this men’s center with the church that I’m the pastor of. And he has a complete turnaround of his life. This is a real story. So when you get something like that, it really has even more weight than if you had just sort of made up this story, because all the lives Cecil Touched and Pastor Cliff Lee, who I play, all the lives that he touches every day, we got to be there in the community, see it, smell it, taste it and meet the people. So it was a really wonderful situation. Sean Young plays a reporter, a jaded reporter, who comes in there and sort of exposes the story to to the world. And it makes a kind of “It’s a Wonderful Life” kind of feeling at the end, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. [01:43:42][73.3]
STARNES: [01:43:42] And we have links, folks, at the live show blog with all the information about the film. Dean, I’m I’m wondering, what was the experience like for you getting in there and learning about, I mean, you’re playing the pastor in this film. What was that process like for you learning about the real life character? [01:44:00][18.2]
CAIN: [01:44:03] It’s wonderful! When you get to actually be with the person you know you are going to be portraying. It’s fantastic. Now he’s taller than me. You know, he’s a taller better looking guy, so he was wonderful. I try to watch some of his mannerisms in the way he treats people, and it just gives you an extra take on the character. When you originally read it, you already have an idea as an actor what you want to do, but then I met Pastor Cliff Lee, and he’s just such a sweet, gentle man, and he’s not one of those people who will be preaching, you know, a fiery sermon. He’s a very, very compassionate, lovely, lovely man. And so I tried to use some of his humor and take that and sort of put it into the character because, you know, he had a great sense of humor, you don’t think of pastors all the time as having great senses of humor. He really has a great sense of humor and is just a wonderful, loving, caring man. It was just a pleasure to meet him and sort of try to steal those little bits and pieces and put it into the character. [01:45:03][60.8]
STARNES: [01:45:04] So the film, it’s a one night only film, fathomevents.com, folks, and that’s Monday, May 9th. That’s when you’ll be able to go to the theaters and watch this – Monday, May 9th. And again, we have links to all of the the show at toddstarnes.com. You know, Dean, I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while now because this film is coming out at really an important time in our culture where a lot of moms and dads are waking up and they’re realizing, wow, you know, we thought Disney had our backs here. We thought they were churning out content that was going to affirm the family and not divide the family. And it’s going to be important for moms and dads to do their homework, and they need good, wholesome projects that they can actually direct their kids to. [01:45:51][46.7]
CAIN: [01:45:52] I agree wholeheartedly as a parent of a now 21 year old. You know, when I started doing kids movies was when I had a kid, you know, and faith-based movies when he started going to a Christian high school or junior high school and stuff like that, immediately, those things become important to you as parents when you’re trying to teach your children and teach them the values that you want them to have and what you hold important. Back in my day, I remember, you know, which shows we could watch and the way my parents taught me, and I certainly wasn’t having to fight that in school. Well, the things you see today, I’m shocked. It didn’t happen with my son’s time, but this new sort of weird indoctrination is going on. I’m not for it. And as a parent, you know, you do things like talk about sex to my kid in third grade, we’re going to have a problem. That’s not OK. So parents, you know what I say is be involved. I was always involved. I knew every class he was taking. I knew every teacher by name. I knew everything that was going on. I was the playground monitor. I was there at lunch times, you know, and I was fortunate. That was a luxury for me to be able to be there. But I made that a top priority, because there’s nobody more important than your own kids. And, you know, I believe in parental rights and parents being able to guide their children. They’re supposed to be, I mean, that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Anything other than that seems completely insane to me. Nobody should be telling your kids, you know, keeping secrets from the parents and things like that. I mean, there are situations, but it’s such an outlier when the parents are abusive and things like that. There’s ways for that to be dealt with within the school. But what they’re talking about now is like, you know, taking away the parents rights to educate their kids. It’s insane to me and trying to indoctrinate them doesn’t make any sense. As parents, I say, pay great attention to what they’re doing, what they’re watching on TV, the kind of movies they’re seeing, video games, the Tik Tok. You just watch all that stuff because it feels like there’s evil out there, always trying to penetrate your home. And when you have these devices, they’re allowed to come right into your living room, the kid’s bedroom, and it’s terrifying. [01:48:06][134.1]
STARNES: [01:48:07] On the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Line, our good friend, great actor Dean Cain. You remember him from “God’s Not Dead,” that great movie series, “Lois and Clark, The New Adventures of Superman,” and the brand new film coming out on May 9th. And folks, you’ll be able to see that in movie theaters across the country. “No vacancy,” Dean, before we let you go, I’ve always been curious to know the answer to this question. I mean, you are you are a Hollywood star and you had a lot on the line when you went out there and you talked about your faith, you talked about your politics. Was that a difficult decision for you to do? Because a lot of others in that same position being a top star would probably not want to do something like that? [01:48:53][45.4]
CAIN: [01:48:55] Well, you know, there are sort of rules to go by and back in the day, you know, you had your publicists and everybody was talking about what image you should put out there and all that stuff. I tossed that stuff, you know, a couple of decades ago, because it felt really weird to me. It felt very strange to have people telling you what you could talk about and what you should say. You know, I remember when I first started I was 25 years old, 26 years old when I started playing Superman, and I remember them saying to me, OK, you have to pick a charity. And so I’m like, I have to do what? You know, nothing ever was just natural, it just didn’t happen naturally until I took over my own career and decided to make those decisions for myself. When I realized that I had an opinion, and my opinion meant something to me. Maybe it was when I became a parent. Maybe that’s when, you know, things all become real to you, because you really care about somebody more than yourself in the future. So it’s not what anybody would advise me to do to say these things or do these things, or to become a police officer, which I’ve done as well. A lot of things that people just say don’t do that. That’s the worst thing to do, but they all feel right to me. So I believe, you know, to thine own self be true. So, I have to do that, and I sleep like a baby every night as a result. [01:50:08][73.4]
STARNES: [01:50:08] Wow, that’s awesome. And that’s a great word and especially a word of encouragement. We have a lot of students at Liberty University that are in the film program there, and you know, they’re churning out some incredible projects, and it’s always great for them to be encouraged when they know, you know what? You can be a person of faith. You can be a conservative, and you can be a star in Hollywood. [01:50:30][21.0]
CAIN: [01:50:32] 100 percent, I mean, you look at guys. People seldom make this connection. Denzel Washington talks about God all the time and his faith, and how it’s given him strength and humility. He’s my favorite actor of all time. You know, Chris Pratt talks about his faith and things like that, and I think that’s wonderful. And more and more people are doing that, it’s fantastic. You know, everything has to be about your faith. You don’t have to shove it down anybody’s throat or preach to them, but be true to yourself. And if you live life that way, I think, like I said, I sleep like a baby, and I’m sure those two guys do as well. [01:51:03][31.0]
STARNES: [01:51:04] Well, Dean, we’re going to leave it there. Appreciate you spending some time with us. Congratulations on the new film. We’re going to look forward to promoting this, and we’ll be in the audience on May 9th. [01:51:13][9.1]
CAIN: [01:51:14] It’s an honor, Todd, thank you so much, sir. [01:51:16][1.8]