How do you portray a living legend who’s inspired millions — from everyday people to foreign dignitaries to U.S. presidents?
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Actor Armie Hammer said he spent "hours upon hours, upon hours, upon days, upon weeks, upon weeks” watching video of the Rev. Billy Graham’s sermons as he prepared to portray the renowned preacher in "Billy: The Early Years,” a feature film premiering today in theaters nationwide.
In a recent teleconference interview with reporters, Hammer said he read notes and other material about Graham. He called the Internet "the actor’s greatest tool,” acknowledging he used the Web as a resource in researching the evangelist.
"Billy: The Early Years” chronicles the early chapters of Graham’s journey to become "America’s Preacher.” It follows Graham from his childhood on a North Carolina farm to his marriage to Ruth McCue Bell to his rise as a young, dynamic preacher. The movie delves into his friendship with another young evangelist, Charles Templeton, who later has a crisis of faith.
Hammer, whose grandparents are from Tulsa, said playing a person who is so well known and revered is more challenging that portraying an unknown character from a movie script.
"When it’s someone as recognizable and identifiable as Billy Graham, if you mess up there are 2 billion people on the planet who have seen him preach and who will know and who will say ‘that’s not right.’
"So it’s more of a challenge, but as an actor, I take a challenge.”
Hammer and Kristoffer Polaha, who portrays Templeton, said they don’t characterize the film as "preachy” or "religious.” But they said it obviously couldn’t have been made without preaching and religion playing integral roles because of the subject at hand.
"What I think is amazing about ‘Billy: The Early Years,’ if you are a Christian, you’re going to go and you’re going to get a great lesson on a man who changed evangelism in America. He changed evangelism as we know it in this country and really did bring just millions of people to know Christ,” Polaha said.
"If you are not a Christian, you can go with your friends who are, and then not be offended and run out of the theater feeling like you got tricked into seeing a Christian movie.”
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Graham family reaction
Evangelist Billy Graham has not yet seen "Billy: The Early Years,” actor Armie Hammer said.
Hammer said Graham’s oldest daughter, Virginia "Gigi” Graham, has seen the film and is supportive of it.
Hammer said she has spoken to her father about the film but was concerned about his seeing the movie. "There was a little bit of concern due to the fact that he just recently lost his wife, and they didn’t want to emotionally upset him,” Hammer said during a teleconference interview.
Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s oldest son and head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, has posted a statement on the association’s Web site saying that the association did not collaborate in the making of the film or endorse it. A spokesman for Franklin Graham told a North Carolina newspaper that Graham was concerned about the portrayal of Bob Jones Sr., who was president of Bob Jones College. In the film, Jones says to young Billy Graham that he sees nothing ahead of the young man "but failure.”
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