Zachary Levi Trusts God When Picking Roles
Sarah’s Oil and Shazam! star Zachary Levi has revealed how much faith guides his judgment when selecting roles he is offered. As it turns out, it does quite a bit, but he still asks himself the same things every actor does.
RELATED: ‘Sarah’s Oil’ Review: A New Chapter for Zachary Levi?
“I look at the script first and foremost. Is this a good story? Is it worth telling? Is it well-written?” the actor explained to Fox News Digital (via The New York Post). “Is that a character I would want to portray? Is it a challenge for me?”
He added that he doesn’t “want to just play the same thing over and over again,” which may be a hint he has no interest in playing Captain Marvel again in the off chance DC Studios comes calling once more.
However, Levi doesn’t rule out continuing to work in multiple genres. “There’s not any particular specific type of movie that I want to do,” he stressed. “I kind of let God guide me.” That’s the crux, but there is more to his decision process, starting with “redemption.”
“There are certainly roles and projects that I have chosen to pass on because I just felt like there was no way I could see any kind of redemption in them,” Levi said.
“I’ve done plenty of things that have nothing to do with faith. But they still have elements,” he says,
that are redemptive. You know, good triumphant over evil, stories that embolden people, inspire people, give them courage, give them hope.”
We can see then what attracted him to the roles of The Big Red Cheese and Bert in Sarah’s Oil this year. The latter, which is now in theaters, has a major studio behind it (Amazon-MGM), a circumstance that, unlike ten years ago, Levi contends, is a result of Hollywood instinctively following the money.
“Faith-based movies or faith-infused movies, really in the last 10 years, have started to show just how effective and lucrative they can be,” he said, “which is why a lot of studios have spun up branches of the studio to focus on those types of films.”
“Prior to 10 years ago, I don’t know that anybody would have touched it because I don’t think Hollywood really cared until they saw that there was money that could be made in that world,” Levi continued.
“There’s a lot of really faithful people that go to church regularly and want stories that reflect their same faith,” he observed.
NEXT: Shazam! Director David Sandberg Reveals Why He Has No Interest In Helming A Superman Movie
