{"id":56897,"date":"2018-02-17T12:47:31","date_gmt":"2018-02-17T20:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=56897"},"modified":"2018-03-13T20:02:08","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T03:02:08","slug":"interview-round-writer-producer-stars-samson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2018\/02\/interview-round-writer-producer-stars-samson.html","title":{"rendered":"Interview round-up: The writer, producer and stars of Samson<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now that Samson<\/a><\/i> is in theatres, here\u2019s a quick round-up of some of the interviews that the actors and other people involved with the film have done to promote it.<\/p>\n

First, of course, there is my interview with lead actor Taylor James<\/a>.<\/p>\n

James also spoke to Lifezette<\/a> . . .<\/p>\n

Through his time in Sunday school while growing up in Sevenoaks \u2014 in Kent, England \u2014 James was partly aware of the story of Samson. But he didn\u2019t realize the potential of the story until he began his own research and talked to others about what the story meant to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was when I was doing the research that I just fell in love with the opportunity of how we could tell the story on a cinematic platform. You don\u2019t want \u2018Samson\u2019 to be a radio play, let me tell you that. You want \u2018Samson\u2019 to be a film,\u201d said James.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

. . . and my Patheos colleague DeWayne Hamby<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The writers flesh out the character of Samson. Everyone knows his highlights and this movie has more of a backstory. What are some of the ways you identified with him?<\/b><\/p>\n

His struggle for me was his reluctance to walk the path that was laid out for him and I had to see why he was reluctant, that he had youthful emotions and youthful qualities. I had to remember what it was like for that, someone\u2019s who very reluctant to do things. Not saying he\u2019s spoiled. He\u2019s hard-headed, he\u2019s passionate. He had all these youthful emotions that we learn to control as we get older and we learn to use to get the benefit from them. We use them for fuel. I wanted to know why he was reluctant. When I tapped into that mind frame and saw that he wanted love and then when he lost the love, the fear came in and those were the next steps toward redemption.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lifezette also spoke to Rutger Hauer<\/a>, who plays Samson\u2019s father Manoah:<\/p>\n

Hauer stars as Samson\u2019s father, and he was interested in the project and its take on the classic story from the beginning. However, the movie fell through early on, and Hauer was ready to move on to other things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sort of gave up on it,\u201d Hauer, who was born in the Netherlands and now works out of Los Angeles, said in an interview with LifeZette about \u201cSamson.\u201d When the picture came together again at the last minute, Hauer jumped onto a plane and threw himself into his character.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a story that can be told many times because it has a lot of elements in it,\u201d he said of the film, which is just the latest cinematic telling of this biblical story. Previous versions include a Cecil B. Demille-directed picture and a \u201990s telefilm. \u201cThis is sort of like the history of where we came from, in a way.\u201d . . .<\/p>\n

Said Hauer, \u201cIn stories like this, you don\u2019t really have much more than what your costume says and what your makeup is \u2014 and the rest is whatever you can bring to it that makes sense.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meanwhile, the Amarillo Globe-News<\/a><\/i> spoke to screenwriter Jason Baumgardner:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the credits went up, one of the most emotional parts for me was seeing the credits and all these jobs that were created from me sitting down at a coffee shop and putting words on a page,\u201d he said. \u201cAs far as the characters and how the story is set up, it\u2019s pretty much ours.\u201d . . .<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always had this idea \u2014 and this was even from film school \u2014 but to adapt this big idea to a movie,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted to do this \u2018Braveheart\u2019 Biblical epic that has never really been made. Samson came to mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, it\u2019s the 6-year-old boy in me. Superheroes are a big deal right now. If you believe in the Biblical narrative as I do, he was this real superhero who actually lived.\u201d . . .<\/p>\n

Eventually, the script made its way in 2015 to Pure Flix, which wanted to option it. But the movie was still a bit of a darkhorse. Baumgardner and Smith had some new marching orders \u2014 don\u2019t make it an R rating. So they rewrote and dialed it back, perhaps leaving Delilah a little more to the imagination.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And now for the video interviews:<\/p>\n

Taylor James and Caitlin Leahy, who plays Delilah, spoke about the movie on Pure Talk<\/i>, a talk show produced by Pure Flix, the studio that made Samson<\/i>:<\/p>\n