Catholic filmmaker Sean McNamara offers insights on faith and the movie industry

We Catholics can get discouraged at times when we struggle to find entertainment that doesn’t fly in the face of our beliefs and values. We may like a show, movie, podcast or social media influencer, but just wish the stories we enjoy didn’t have so much that was opposed to the teachings of the church.

It may seem that the entertainment industry gets a bad rap from the Catholic Church because of this but that’s not totally true. There are some shining lights in Hollywood whose active faith seeps into the stories they tell through their art. One such shining light is Sean McNamara, director of such films as “Soul Surfer,” “On a Wing and a Prayer,” “The Miracle Season,” “Raise Your Voice,” “Spare Parts” and “Hoovey.”

McNamara got his start writing and directing children’s stories for both television and film. His current project, “Reagan,” about our 40th president, Ronald Reagan, opens in theaters on Aug. 30. I had the opportunity to talk to Sean about this latest film, but also about what it’s like being a Catholic in Hollywood and how his faith influences the stories he chooses to tell.

The interview is edited for length and clarity.

Sister Hosea: What kind of challenges have you faced as a Catholic in the industry? Have you had any pushback from that in your own faith expression?

Sean McNamara: I went to 16 years of Catholic school, so being a Catholic, I have a strong background. My mom was a super Catholic. Any time we went to a new city, we’d have to go to the church first. Just last year I took my kids to the Vatican, so I know part of her is reaching through me and keeping that tradition alive.

It had never really been an issue to me in Hollywood how Catholicism or my religion [affected things] until I did “Soul Surfer.” With “Soul Surfer,” I started to learn the differences [of how Hollywood sees religion]. In high school, I took a class called “Religions of the World” and learned about Judaism, Islam, Bahai, Christianity. We studied all the great religions of the world, and that really opened my mind up to think we’re all on the right path but just doing it in different ways.

So, when I got working in Hollywood, it’s like any other industry. There are good people, bad people. There are nice people, mean people, and I love them all. I love the Jewish people I’ve met. I just finished a film about the Holocaust [Bau: Artist at War]. I want to make a Muslim film. I want to make faith-driven films and see how we can come together as opposed to the things that are pulling us apart.

When you make faith-based movies, we call them “God handles” any time you reference anything faith-based like the Bible. So, in “Soul Surfer,” the script had 24 — in my cut there were 16 God handles — and the movie you saw in the theater had eight because we didn’t want to hit people over the head with Christianity. We had many conversations about this because we wanted to get the faith-based audience but also the mainstream, and I feel with “Soul Surfer” we did it well.

Before, faith used to get into all the movies. Think of Frank Capra and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Faith was all part of it, but then faith got pushed out, so when you’re doing films about faith, industry people say, “Well, it’s faith-based.” I grew up on faith-based film, but it was just all part of it, integrated and organic, because it was just a part of who everybody was. Now, when characters sit around a table and say grace, all of a sudden it becomes a faith-based movie. But people do that. I do that every night when I sit down with my family and we say a prayer before we eat. It’s organic and real and for it to show up in a film shouldn’t be such a big deal.

Sister Hosea: Talk a little about “Reagan” and working with Dennis Quaid, who is a vocal Christian.

McNamara: I don’t know if you know my history, but I had a friend whose dad was in the industry. He asked me, “OK, kid. What do you want to do?” I said, “Well, I play music in a band and plug in microphones.” He said, “Audio! That’s what you need to do.” Next thing I know, the first job I have in the entertainment industry is Reagan’s inauguration, the first one, 40 years ago, our 40th president — and now it comes full circle.

Forty years later, my 40th movie, I’m now making “Reagan.” I was there [in Washington, D.C.] when I was 18 years old, plugging in his microphones, standing there right in front of him. It was fun, and I remember taking pictures of him, and I’m in my black tuxedo taking it all in.

When making this film, it was like, “who’s an actor who could really portray a guy who was likable?” Reagan was likable, he always had a joke, wit; he was funny and made audiences laugh. He was a great communicator, and I think it came from the fact that he was an actor. He knew how to get people to respond to him.

Who’s another guy just like that? Dennis Quaid. He just has that smile, that grin on his face like there’s some mischievous thoughts going on in his head. Dennis wasn’t a quick “yes.” He was nervous about playing such an iconic character, and I said, “Look. I’m nervous about directing such an iconic character, but nobody would be better than you.” We had another meeting at the Reagan Library, and he brought his kids and he said, “You know what. My Mom wants me to do it so I’m going to do it!”

Sister Hosea: What do you look for in a good story?

McNamara: When I get sent a script, I read it and see if I get moved emotionally on anything: if I laugh, if I cry, if it kinda scares me, if it excites me. If that happens just by turning a piece of paper, just imagine what you’re going to do when you’ve actually got human actors breathing life into the characters. So it’s got to move me somehow emotionally.

The second part is: “Does the story intrigue me?” I go, “Ooh, what’s going to happen,” or “Ooh, I didn’t know that, that’s interesting,” and does it pay off at the end. A lot of times I’ll get a script where it’s almost there, it doesn’t really pay off but you like the characters along the way, they were interesting, they were intriguing. Since I’ve done enough movies, I know that we can polish it up, we can adjust it and make it work and if we bring in the right writers — maybe the original writer or another writer to polish it — they can bring it up to the level that it needs to be at.

But you just use your imagination and think about what actor could play the part and how are we going to breathe life into all these characters. So, it’s a process. “Soul Surfer” took six years to get to the big screen and a lot of that was just raising the money and the same with “Reagan.”

“Reagan” took about 10 years. It’s all about working together to get your movie made. You know, I believe that I’m getting help from elsewhere [McNamara looks and points upward]. I still talk to my parents. They’ve both passed away but I still seek advice from them.

When I went to the Reagan Library, I went up to Reagan’s grave and I said, “I don’t have any idea … another director was supposed to direct and he passed away. I’m sitting here and I don’t think I’m qualified to tell your story, but if there’s anything you can help me out with …” Then a big wind came up and knocked my hat off and I’m running after it, and I’m like, “OK, is that him doing a joke or am I not supposed to do this movie?” Because I believe they’re all up in heaven just watching over us. So I really just follow my heart with stories like that, then I just do as much research as I can do and I try to make it as good a film as possible.

“Reagan” will be in theaters Aug. 30. For more information, go to https://www.reagan.movie/.

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