Recently, Plugged In was invited to be part of a conference call with a number of the folks involved with the new Left Behind movie. We weren’t actually able to ask questions: A moderator did the talking. Still, it was fun to be a “fly on the wall.” On the call were the director (Vic Armstrong), producer (Paul LeLonde) and several of the actors/actresses, including Nicolas Cage (who plays Capt. Rayford Steele in the movie) and Jordin Sparks (who plays Shasta Carvell). The interview ran almost 90 minutes, with enough content to write a small book. For brevity’s sake, we’ve concentrated on some of the more “spiritual” answers given by Cage and Sparks:
Moderator: Is there something that you think would be important for someone who watches Left Behind to get out of it?
Nicolas Cage: I was very taken by the family dynamic that plays out in this script. And that’s what drew me to the project, that and an opportunity to work again with Vic Armstrong. … Captain Steele is a person who is in an extraordinary situation and realizes really what his values are. He reaches a catharsis through the experience of this extraordinary flight that he’s on and gets back to the heart, which is his relationship with his family, [especially] his relationship with Chloe, his daughter. … I want that to come across—that people realize, yeah we all make mistakes but in a moment of crisis what we really go back to is the love we have for our families. And that’s what pulled me into this project.
That, and also how you make such an extraordinary set of circumstances authentic. How do you make that real? That was a tremendous challenge for all the actors to play it almost Cinéma vérité—that this is really happening and we’re really believing in this situation.
Moderator: Was this the first time you’ve really heard about this story… people being taken away from the earth and disappearing?
Cage: No, I’m familiar with the rapture of course. … But I was not familiar with the Left Behind [book] series. My brother, Mark, is a Christian pastor, and he was very excited about this. And he said, “Nicky, you’ve really got to do this!” … I already wanted to make the movie because I thought it was such a great script … but when I saw how passionate he was, I thought I want to make this movie for my brother too.
The only other thing that I would mention is that I want this movie to work for people of all faiths. … There really are no atheists in fox holes. When you’re in a crisis, I want people from all faiths be able to say we’re all invited to the table. We’re all going to get something from this movie.
Moderator (to Jordin Sparks): [Were] you familiar with the books before you were part of this movie? What was your main motivation for being in this film?
Sparks: When I was younger, all the Left Behind books came out and then they released a teen series of the books for the younger kids. …So I read this teen series growing up and I just remember being so affected by the thought of, “Wow, what if my closest friends just disappeared one day?” …When you read the Bible and you take those things to be truth, it is definitely something that you can think of and go, “Wow, that, that could actually happen.” My motivation for being in the movie was definitely because I had read the books.
Moderator: We know that a lot of young people really respect you and look up to you. Do you think that young people can relate to this movie?
Sparks: [The film has] the ability to have people from all over come in and see it whether they are believers or whether they’re non-believers, whether they are agnostic … I’m excited for my fans to come in and see it as well because whether they know of the story of the Rapture from the Bible, or they’ve watched the [HBO] show, The Leftovers [which] is kind of similar where people just disappear, I think everybody can relate to imagining what if somebody that I loved wasn’t around anymore—in an instant? And it can definitely happen whether it is through being taken up in the rapture or a tragic accident. Life isn’t promised to us here.
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