From "Christian Post" : "'Jesus Revolution' red carpet: Greg Laurie, cast share how film will reach 'lost' generation in need of hope"

Courtney, who plays a young Greg Laurie in the film, shared how his own spiritual journey was impacted as he brought the pastor’s story to life. Laurie grew up with an alcoholic mother and an absent father, and struggled to find hope and meaning in life. In the film, it’s a near-death experience that finally causes him to open his heart and mind to the truth of the Gospel. 

“I had such a fun time filming this movie in that I really took in the grace that is shown to all in Christ,” Courtney said. “Learning about Greg and taking on his past and the hardship that he really went through and then the excitement to understand that grace was extended to him was incredible. Your life doesn’t just become easy once you become a Christian, but there is a foundational strength and power, God’s power, that we can lean on to get through the tough times in life.”

Courtney said he’s hopeful there will be another revival in his lifetime, adding: “Not only do I think that we need it, but Lord willing, I believe it will happen.”

“My hope for this film is that people will go see it and have conversations afterward,” he said. “I think art strives to create a conversation. I hope people appreciate it for the story and the art that that it is, and then talk about it, because I think really good conversations can come from it.”

To young people who might be struggling to find meaning and purpose today, Courtney offered a word of encouragement: “There is a love that lifts that burden off your shoulders … God gives you strength. If you put your faith in Him, there is hope. If you’re struggling with you’re identity, look to the Bible for strength.”

Anna Grace Barlow, who plays a young Cathe, said that getting to know the real-life Cathe Laurie and witnessing her faith firsthand also strengthened her own faith. She expressed hope that viewers, too, will be inspired to find hope and purpose outside themselves. 

“The reminder that there's something bigger than me and it's guiding me and it loves me and it's keeping me safe — that has taken me through hard times I've had since filming,” she said. “My hope for this movie is that so many people see it and they're so uplifted and they love the music and they love the clothes and they take home that feeling; a renewed reassurance that everything is taken care of and it's going to be OK.”

“Jesus Revolution” is scripted by Erwin and Jon Gunn. Producers are Kevin Downes, Jon Erwin, Andrew Erwin, Daryl Lefever, Joshua Walsh and Jerilyn Esquibel. Lionsgate opens it Friday only in theaters.

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LOS ANGELES — The filmmakers, cast and real-life people behind “Jesus Revolution” descended on the Chinese Theater last Wednesday to celebrate the film's release and reflect on the story's timeliness — especially for young people today. 

Hitting theaters on Friday, “Jesus Revolution” stars Kelsey Grammer (“Frasier”), Jonathan Roumie (“The Chosen”), Joel Courtney (“The Kissing Booth”) and Anna Grace Barlow. It’s directed by Jon Erwin (“American Underdog,” “I Can Only Imagine”) and Brent McCorkle.

Based on a true story, the film follows a young Greg Laurie as he searches for purpose and meaning in all the wrong places. After meeting Lonnie Frisbee, a winsome hippie street preacher, he embraces the Gospel, and alongside Pastor Chuck Smith, helps launch a revival that leads to what TIME magazine later called the "Jesus Revolution."

Laurie, who today pastors Harvest Christian Fellowship, told The Christian Post that the film will provide hope to today’s lost and searching generation —  not unlike the climate he grew up in. He shared how the film was delayed for several years, which at the time was discouraging. 

“And now, as I look back on the schedule and where we're at in this moment in American history, I think this is the exact right moment for this film to be coming out,” he said. “So now I look back and I see that God had His hand on it all along. It’s a true story; it’s a relevant story. I think we're representative of a generation of young people back then that's very similar to a younger generation, searching for answers now. … This generation needs hope, just like our generation needed it.”

Heavily featured in the film is the love story between Laurie and his now-wife, Cathe. They met as rebellious teenagers, casting aside all rules in a bid to find freedom. After embracing the Gospel, both of their lives were radically changed. Today, the couple has been married for 50 years. 

Cathe Laurie told CP that as a young woman, she was looking in “all the wrong places to find meaning and purpose for living and something beyond myself” — until God stepped in. Many of the internal struggles she faced, she said, she sees in young women today. 

“I feel like today, young people are lost. They're looking at social media, they're looking at their friends and looking in all the wrong places like I did,” she said. “And what they're really searching for is a truth to stand on, and I know that the Bible is alive, and Jesus wants relationships with anyone who is willing to ask Him into their lives. I believe that today, people want to experience that.”

“They’ve taken God out of everything; out of classrooms, our government, it seems like everything is pushing down the reality of Jesus Christ,” she added. “And yet, the hunger and thirst for spiritual truth, a deeper truth, is in every human heart.”

Don’t believe the critics.

Rotten Tomatoes viewers give “Jesus Revolution” a 99%

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jesus_revolution

From "UInterview" : "VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Joel Courtney & Anna Grace Barlow On Kelsey Grammer, Their Christian Beliefs In ‘Jesus Revolution’"

Jesus Revolution is the retelling of Pastor Greg Laurie‘s time in California during the 70s’ Jesus Movement. Joel Courtney plays Greg Laurie, Kelsey Grammer plays Chuck Smith and Anna Grace Barlow plays Kathy Laurie.

In an exclusive interview with uInterview, Courtney and Barlow reveal what it was like working with Grammer.

“I think every moment is a moment that you remember working with Kelsey,” Courtney began. “He is a legend like there are no two ways about it. He is so talented, he has been working so consistently, I mean, and just like a mind-boggling amount of time at such a high caliber of excellence that, I mean, working with him, it was kind of like unbelievable. It was unreal and like every day like going in just knowing like that was probably going to be some of my best work because he was on the other side of that scene with me was, I mean, just encouraging, um terrifying, and like amazing all wrapped up into one.”

Barlow went on to discuss what her scene with Grammer baptizing her character was like.

“I mean it was incredible and that scene specifically is probably the biggest moment I have with Kelsey in the movie,” she said. “I don’t really have a lot of scenes with him, but Kathy Laurie the real Kathy Laurie was there that day and she told me everything that was going through her head when she while she was being baptized and that was incredible to have that kind of subtext. So I remember having all those thoughts in my head fresh because she told them to me on the beach and then seeing Kelsey and the water was so cold and I literally felt like I was in this. Like sometimes they’re like, ‘oh we’re like doing the scene right now’ no, like it was we were totally, just completely in it. It was incredible.”

Jesus Revolution will be available in theaters on February 24.

From "Patheos" : "‘I Was in Tears in the Theater’: ‘Jesus Revolution’ Stars Joel Courtney, Anna Grace Barlow Talk Impact of Finished Project"

While the new film “Jesus Revolution” focuses on the growing Jesus Movement of the Seventies, it also features a heartwarming love story between two searchers turned believers, Greg and Cathe Laurie, portrayed by Joel Courtney (“The Kissing Booth”) and Anna Grace Barlow (“Supernatural”). The two characters bring a youthful, firsthand view to the effect that the spiritual renewal had on the masses and on their own lives.

To find his way as the young Laurie, Courtney studied the pastor and evangelist’s work and even drew from his own spiritual experience.

“I watched a lot of his sermons,” says Joel Courtney. “I wanted to see him embody the pulpit, watch how he connects with people. I am a Christian as well, and so I feel like I had a very good understanding of where he came from in his lost days.”

In this exclusive interview, Courtney and Barlow talk about how the film affected them, what drew them to be involved, and what they took away from the experience.

What was it like when you saw the finished film for the first time at the premiere?

Joel Courtney: I haven’t seen a cut since like August, and that’s pretty much raw film. There was no color, no sound, there was definitely no scoring to it. I don’t think we’d even done ADR. So, (at the premiere), I really got to properly experience it. And it’s kind of like a first-time screening for me personally, and just had a profound effect on me. It kind of rocked my world a little bit. I was just speechless.

What were your thoughts when the project was presented?

Anna Grace Barlow:  I just loved the script. It’s like one of my favorite things I’d ever read before. And I really, really, really, really wanted to do it. I kept bugging everybody I knew about if they knew if I could do it yet. I’m really glad I got to do it.

Joel, you talked about what the movie how it impacted you. And I just watched a clip yesterday of Kelsey Grammer where he tears up talking about it. Did it have that same effect on you?

Joel Courtney: Absolutely. Also, part of it for me is like how much hard work goes into the film. I’ve heard from so many people who have seen the film, just as a viewer, they’re blown away. They’re so happy. And it really touches them, and it moves them. But I think from my perspective, our perspective, the long hours, really it almost like a greater return. We did long days, and just finally see the film turn out. (I’m) so happy with it. And I was in tears in the theater, and I was like fighting it and fighting it. I just was so thrilled by the film and I and I cannot wait for everyone to see it.

Anna, you’ve been on a lot of film sets. What’s something that you take away from this film?

Anna Grace Barlowe: Well, I walked away with a shirt that I stole, but I did have permission. It’s a really cute little tunic one, I just I walked away feeling very, very proud of the performance. I was proud of the work because of the amazing actors I got to work with. They pulled (the performance) out of me. Also, (I remember) wanting to be on your best behavior because Kelsey Grammer is in the movie. I’ll never forget it.

 “Jesus Revolution,” starring Joel Courtney, Jonathan Roumie, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Anna Grace Barlow, DeVon Franklin and Kelsey Grammer and directed by Jon Erwin and Brent McCorkle, releases February 22 through Lionsgate Studios. Click here for more information or to find a theater.

From "UPI" : "Joel Courtney: 'Jesus Revolution' is a fun movie about grace, forgiveness"

NEW YORK, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- The Kissing Booth, Sick and Super 8 actor Joel Courtney says his new, faith-based film, Jesus Revolution, offers two simple, but essential, messages: Be kind to others and give people who are different from you a chance.

"It's a story of grace and of love and forgiveness. Greg is taken out of this world of drugs and he's saved," the 27-year-old actor -- who plays real-life, artist-turned-minister Greg Laurie -- told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

Emphasizing how it is just as important to accept mercy from others as it is to extend it, Courtney said he hopes Jesus Revolution, which opens in theaters Friday, gets viewers talking because "there are too many people nowadays just judging others immediately and not having a conversation."

Set in 1970s California, the film follows Greg, an aspiring filmmaker and comic book illustrator looking for meaning and purpose when he meets street preacher Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie) and Pastor Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer), the leaders of an enormous, enthusiastic Christian revival movement for hippies seeking fulfillment through faith, not protests or drugs.

Kimberly Williams-Paisley plays Greg's troubled mother, Charlene, and Anna Grace Warlow plays his girlfriend and eventual wife, Cathe.

"Greg is a real guy, a lost soul in this era when there were so many lost people who were just searching, doing what they needed to do to be seen, to really be present -- tuning in, turning on and dropping out, trying to do whatever they could do to feel like they mattered," Courtney said.

"It turns out LSD and these drugs can be incredibly harmful to your system and corrosive to your soul."

Courtney described the real Greg, who is now 70 and has been a church pastor for decades, as a "great guy," who was supportive and generous with his time when the actor approached him to discuss the nuances of his life story.

"What a gold mine of insight into the character that I'm playing is the man himself," the actor said.

"It was a little nerve-wracking the first couple of days when he was on set and I was playing him. [I wondered,'] 'What does he think?' But he was so encouraging, that totally evaporated," Courtney said.

"He was saying he felt like he was being transported back to his childhood in the 1970s because of how good [the film] was turning out."

The role required the actor to explore the depths of despair, the peaks of joy and just about every other human feeling in between.

"The emotional journey on this was so tantalizing. When I was reading the script at first, I thought, 'This is going to be fun,'" Courtney recalled. "We really wanted it to be as natural and real as possible."

Although Greg's introduction to Christianity happens after the mesmerizing, but egotistical, Lonnie comes to his aid after a drug-fueled, near-death experience, Greg more closely aligned with Chuck's less-ostentatious style of ministry and followed in his footsteps after Lonnie burned out and hit the road.

"Lonnie had this relationship with the Holy Spirit in a profound and daunting way. He had this power of healing in which people have these testimonies where they truly had no hearing in their ear and they had hearing after he blessed them and prayed over them," Courtney said.

Numerous former drug addicts also insisted that they were miraculously relieved of their cravings after meeting Lonnie.

Joel Courtney and Anna Grace Barlow play real-life minister Greg Laurie and his wife, Cathe, as young adults in "Jesus Revolution." Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

"The way that Chuck really structured his ministry as a pastor was scriptural from the pulpit, theological, almost heady, as opposed to leading from the heart, which was Lonnie's style," Courtney said.

"Greg sought the balance of both. He got some of that scriptural cornerstone foundation from Chuck, where it is the Gospel first, but he has a powerful way of speaking similar to Lonnie. I almost want to say he is the perfect middle ground of the two of them."

The actor said the title of his movie might scare some moviegoers away, but he expects others will check it out and find themselves pleasantly surprised by an entertaining, uplifting story.

"The way that you get audiences that you wouldn't otherwise get is you make a high-quality movie, and 'Oh, you know what? It also talks about faith,'" he said.

"I think there are going to be a lot of people who are going to be curious more than anything and excited to maybe just go to the theater, see a fun movie and then have a profound conversation afterward about it."

From "Showbiz CheatSheet" : "‘Jesus Revolution’: The True Story Behind the Movement Turned Hollywood Movie"

A new Christian movie called Jesus Revolution is about to hit theaters. The film tells the true story of the Jesus Revolution, a movement that took place in the ’60s and ’70s across the world. 

‘Jesus Revolution’ tells the true story of one man’s conversion to Christianity

Jesus Revolution tells the story of Greg Laurie, who was one of the real-life people involved in the movement. He converted to Christianity in the ’60s after crossing paths with pastor Chuck Smith, one of the leaders of the Jesus Revolution. 

The movie also deals with the cultural clash that happened during the Jesus Revolution movement. Hippies and young people began attending church alongside more conservative older people, and both parties disagreed with the other’s views on life and religion. 

The cast includes Frasierstar Kelsey Grammer as Chuck Smith and The Kissing Booth’s Joel Courtney as Greg Laurie. Other actors involved in the project include Jonathan Roumie, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Julia Campbell, and DeVon Franklin. 

 

 

‘Jesus Revolution’ was in development for seven years

Jesus Revolution has been in development for almost seven years. According to Liberty University, producer Jon Erwin shared that he got the idea for the film after picking up a 1970s copy of TIME magazine that featured a cover story about the movement. 

“I studied it for years,” Erwin said of the magazine cover. “We were just dreaming of being able to make this movie. It’s a miracle that Lionsgate let us make it.”

Part of the development process meant casting changes. For example, stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan was originally set to play Chuck Smith, but was replaced by Grammer. 

The real-life movement that inspired ‘Jesus Revolution’ 

“The Jesus Revolution” began in the late 1960s on the West Coast and eventually spread across the globe, according to Encyclopedia. Some major themes of the movement included a return to simple and communal living and rejecting drugs and alcohol in favor of religion. 

Members of the movement made music a central part of their faith, incorporating the rock and country sounds from popular songs of the day into their services. They also expressed their dissatisfaction with typical middle-class Christianity, preferring to blend it with their hippie sensibilities, according to The Conversation.

Some of the big names in the Jesus Revolution include Smith, who was the founder and pastor at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, Nashville pastor Don Finto, and Steve Freeman, who opened the Kingdom Come Christian Coffee House in South Carolina. 

The movement came to an end by the late ’80s, but its influences on Christianity can still be felt today. The Jesus Revolution brought more young people to churches, created youth groups for young Christians, and started the trend of modern worship songs being used during services.