Finding "The Way" Far from Hollywood

Alexanian: I would assume there are fewer people that are devout than not. When Emilio handed me the screenplay for the first time, what appealed to me is that it was not heavy-handed in any way. That makes it accessible. You don't want to watch an expert do something. That's boring. It's interesting to watch four people who are like us. My friends or people I've spoken to say they can identify with one or more of the characters. I don't know if I'd identify with somebody who was devout. That would probably throw me out of it. I think this film invites people who are working on it. I think most of us are.

We have Tree of Life, Higher Ground, Of Gods and Men, Machine Gun Preacher, True Grit. Is there a thawing going on in Hollywood where it's okay to talk about faith?

Sheen: You know, really and truly, we're about as far away from Hollywood as you can get. We don't have access to studios. We took this to studios and they had not a clue.

Estevez: They may today.

Sheen: We were trying for three years.

Estevez: They may take a different look at it now than they did years ago. I think it's just a different time now. If Hollywood feels like they're going to make money at something, they go for it. The issue we have is that if that's all Hollywood is interested in, not raising the bar, but just simply making money, I think the faith-based community is going to reject it.

Alexanian: They can smell it.

Estevez: They can smell it. And in fact, we met people along the road last year, Evangelicals, Catholics, who said, "If this is your heart, if you are true in showing us your heart, we'll go with you. But if you're disingenuous, don't bother knocking."

Alexanian: You can't set out to make an inspirational movie. It's sort of like opening up a restaurant to make money. If you don't make the best pasta dish that anyone's ever tasted, that's what you have to do. If you don't do it, you're gonna be less than who you are, who you're supposed to be. This was a film that had to happen

Estevez: We couldn't not make this film.

Alexanian: This was a film that had to happen. As Martin said, we're not part of the Hollywood system.

Sheen: Not that we didn't try.