[ listening in...Michael W. Smith, Steve Taylor & jeff obafemi carr - published in CCM magazine february 2006 ]

When the new motion picture The Second Chance hits theaters on February 17, moviegoers will be treated to a true-to-life gem of a film - a thought-provoking, soul-stirring tale of reconciliation and redemption. While the movie is poised to connect with a mass audience, thanks to the creative supervision of meticulous director/co-writer Steve Taylor and national distribution via Sony Pictures, Christian music fans are especially eager to see recording artist Michael W. Smith in the starring role.
    Smith plays Ethan Jenkins, the rough-around-the-edges musician turned associate pastor of a large church in the affluent, predominantly white suburbs. When Ethan's hype-over-ministry approach results in public embarrassment for the church, his father - the church's senior pastor Jeremiah Jenkins (J. Don Ferguson, Remember The Titans) - sends him to the inner city on a humbling fact-finding mission to their sister church, a black congregation in the projects. Jake Sanders - portrayed by jeff obafemi carr (Panther, NPR's "The Tavis Smiley Show") - is pastor of Second Chance Community Church. Street tough and committed to his neighborhood, Pastor Sanders resents the arrival of Ethan with his expensive car and naive "just throw some money at the problem" attitude. As the two men are forced to work together, they learn to overcome their misconceptions - about true ministry, about each other, and about themselves. They also learn that some problems are bigger than either of them can handle alone.
    Here, on the eve of the film's release, CCM arranged for Michael W. Smith, jeff obafemi carr and Steve Taylor to reflect amongst themselves on the making of the movie. We hope you enjoy their telling conversation as much as we did.

Steve: The initial idea for The Second Chance came about five years ago. I was watching something that made me wonder why American church life tends to not get portrayed very accurately in films and television. I'm sure there are some notable exceptions - the greatest exception being something like what [Robert] Duvall did with The Apostle.
    I grew up in church. My dad's a pastor. jeff, you've grown up in church. Michael, you know...usually when we see that life portrayed in TV or on film, it just never seems as remotely like what it actually was. It felt like people who don't go to church trying to imagine what it would be like. So the original idea was, "What if we made something that felt accurate? That actually felt realistic?" From there I talked to longtime friend and collaborator [photographer/videographer] Ben Pearson. He and I started [brainstorming] and he came up with the idea of Michael playing one of the lead roles. So we got with you, and then you brought another writer in - Chip Arnold - who is a longtime friend of yours. We all hit it off, and we started going to work on this screenplay.

From left: Michael W. Smith, Steve Taylor, jeff obafemi carr

Michael: That was five years ago. I think I've always had acting in my blood a little bit - did a couple of little things on the side...It's been something I've always wanted to do, but I never felt like I was supposed to move to Hollywood and try to pursue that. First of all, God has called me to do music. I thought if I ever ran across something that I really believed in or that I got to work with friends, a Nashville-based thing that I trusted was going to be done right, and it was a great story and somewhat redemptive, then I would entertain the idea. So when you guys brought this whole thing up, I said, "Sure, I'm interested." Then I guess at some point you got the first draft where you felt you had something to work with. That's when we started meeting - did test runs out at my barn which was really actually quite fun.

Steve: It was fun. I think at that point especially when the first sort of test was when... Let's face it, singers acting doesn't have a great track record going all the way back to Neil Diamond in The Jazz Singer and probably before that. [laughter] I don't want to pick on anybody. But there are times when it has worked great. I mean, there was no way to know until we actually started running some scenes, and that day, it was like you were able to act very naturally and take direction and that was the day I left thinking, "I believe this could work."

Michael: Well, I think that was the real question honestly. Just really be honest. I could understand. I think you were probably walking into this thing going, "Can the guy pull it off or can he not?" So that was the real test. I felt like I did okay. Again, believe me, I was so confident walking into this thing, but I quickly found out that I didn't know as much as I thought I did. And I had a lot to learn. So I just really had to go in with, "I'm confident I can do this thing, but I need to be teachable."

Steve: We had discussions like that. At one point we were still six or eight months out - and I think you and I talked. I said, "Man, we realize that if you don't pull this off we're going to be in trouble." And you said, "Steve, I know you're nervous, but I'm telling you I'm going to be ready. I'm going to have everything down. I'm going to be ready when it hits." And you got with an acting coach. You worked a lot with him ahead of time. First day you were ready.

Michael: I learned all my lines when I was out on tour with MercyMe. I didn't play a lot on that tour. I literally was in my room memorizing my lines and making little cassette tapes.

jeff: You pulled it off, and you did a great job.

Michael: I still cringe in a few spots...

jeff: Every actor does. I don't go to many of the screenings anymore because I just sit there the whole time, and I'm wincing. And after a while you just wince at every line. You start saying, "Okay, I could have done that better. Look at the expression on my face." You find every little thing. Every actor is extremely hard on themselves so the fact that you're doing that to yourself means you really are in the acting world. You're now officially an artist in that area, too.
    Steve, as a director, how do you feel about the end result? Is it close to the original thought or is it better?

Steve: I think the movie is way better than it had any right to be. Because - at the risk of these forums, it sounds like it's all one big group hug - these are honestly all the facts. When you're doing music, it's still a collaborative medium, but it's not nearly as collaborative as film-making. So as a musician I used to read these types of forums or talk about filmmakers and all the collaboration, and I thought they were being kind of "show-bizy," kissing up to everybody. And when you get into it, you realize how relatively small the director's role is, how many things can go wrong, and when things go right, how fortunate you are because there are so many things that are out of your control. I believe God's providence made a lot of this possible.
    One great example was when I was trying to find a main actor. We had an L.A. casting director focusing on Jake's role. There was a handful of great black actors I was hoping would do the role - Don Cheadle, Jeffrey Wright and Andre Brauer were all people we were trying to get a hold of. This was like four or five months out. But we needed another table reading, and someone invited you [Jeff] to read Jake's role around the table. You had never seen the script before...read it totally cold. And the part just came alive. It was exactly the way I had heard that part. It was really remarkable on so many levels. So I got with you the next day, and we got lunch. I said, "So tell me what you think." [Laughter] Well, you tell them.

jeff: You told me to be honest, so I proceeded with the notion, "Hey man, I'm not in this movie anyway so what do I have to lose?" We went through this. "Okay, first of all, a black guy would never say this." "This would never happen in the black church." I left the meeting and felt pretty good. Steve, to your credit, you were like, "Yeah, let's talk about those things." And came back later and had another draft of the script with some other stuff in it. I thought, "Man, this is really nice. I hope I can at least play a small part in this movie."

Michael: I really do think it paid off that you did the table read, coming in and working with me knowing you're probably not going to get the part. Although the whole time I'm thinking, and I know Steve's thinking, "This guy can do the part." But the cool thing was you and I being able to work together. We did that a lot. We developed some sort of rapport with each other. I think it really honestly paid off because we were already connected, man.

jeff: I really think you see it on the screen because - the old acting teachers would say, "Acting is living truth under imaginary circumstances." That truth was there. That connection was there. We had done it so much, gone through so many exercises, read through it, acted through it, walked through it, played it out in front of video cameras instead of film cameras. By the time we got to the set we just really had some good moments. And that's where I think in the midst of being harshly overcritical of my own performance I can set that aside and say, "Hey, man, that's a good scene." ...like the foot washing in the movie that happens. I think that catches everybody off-guard. That was like some kind of day of shooting, especially for some of the people who were around who had never done that kind of thing or been around that kind of thing. That's when you see the real significance spiritually of something like that. It was really a tear jerker.

Michael: That whole day for the actors was life-changing. I don't think I've cried that much in years. They were real tears, too. It was just an amazing day. Interesting, too, being at a screening yesterday when you got to that scene - there were people sniffing all over the theater and crying. It's cool that you're affected by that scene. It translates to the audience.

jeff: I've been thinking, people will have an expectation of you because of your artistic side. How do you think they will react when they see you in a movie as opposed to seeing you sing?

Michael: I really don't have a clue what people are going to say. I just wonder if they're going to look at me differently. I have to keep telling people...it's so funny - my Dad when he sees it goes, "Son, you frowned in the movie. I've never seen you frown that much." [Laughter] I'm going, "Dad, I'm not Michael Smith in the movie. I'm Ethan." "But you just frown. I've never seen you frown." "I'm playing somebody else, Dad!"

jeff: I hope the movie goes far and beyond what some people would say the target audience is. I think that sometimes in conceptualizing movies that deal with issues of faith they become movies or pieces of art that just preach to the choir. So a film kind of gets held within a small circle and gets passed around. People say, "Oh, this is great." And it never goes out anywhere. I really think this movie is going to go out further than just the "Christian audience."
    There are so many things that come out of this film and so many discussions I've had with people who have seen it. One person will call and say, "Man, I liked that whole issue of race." Another person will say, "I liked the whole issue of big church - small church." Somebody else will say, "Man, I know some immigrants, and they're dealing with the same thing. This guy has a PhD and can't get a job." I'm like, "Wow, that's a lot of stuff." So that's a good piece of art. I hope it sets off some dialogue.

Steve: We wanted it to be a pretty broad canvas. Its ambitions were way broader than its budget. I think we wanted it to be something with multiple plot lines - like Traffic or Crash or Magnolia. I don't think any of us were interested in doing one man against the world. You know what I'm saying? Honestly, part of the reason that Christian movies in general really set the bar so low is because they tend to be kind of simplistic in their approach and outlook.
    For the very first screening of the rough cut everybody invited kind of the harshest critics they could get to come and watch it. And I would guess 70 percent of that first audience were people who would not call themselves Christians. And we got a really good reaction right away. It will certainly have its deepest resonance with fellow Christians because there are things in there that draw very specifically from what the Bible teaches and what Jesus taught. But I've been really happy with the way it seems to have a broader appeal.

Michael: That's the challenge though. How do you let people know about the film? You're showing the film around the country and trying to build some momentum. That's the cool thing - you're getting a pretty positive reaction everywhere you show this movie.

Steve: Right. I think we know we've got something. And now the challenge is to try to get people actually to roll the dice...

ccm