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Speaker 1: Life Audio.

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Speaker 2: Hey Stellio, thanks for joining me. Hey Michael, good morning.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: You are welcome. Stelio Sabonte is our guest. He is

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Speaker 1: in a new family film, Hazel's Heart. It's on Angel platforms.

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Speaker 1: It's also on video demand.

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Speaker 2: He was also in Sarah's Oil last.

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Speaker 1: Year, one of my favorite films of twenty twenty five,

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Speaker 1: another family film. Of course, you've been in The Chosen too.

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Speaker 1: We might get to that, Stelio. As I say every

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Speaker 1: time I talk to you, You're in so many movies

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Speaker 1: I enjoy. I think Hazel's Heart will be other other

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Speaker 1: one when I finally watch it. The plot is amazing.

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Speaker 1: It's based on a true story. From what I understand.

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Speaker 1: Just give us the summary of it and what attracted

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Speaker 1: you to this this amazing movie.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you and thank you for all that. Hazel's

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Speaker 3: Harden is a true story based on the life of

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Speaker 3: Hazel Lighter. It's a very very well known story in

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Speaker 3: North Dakota, which is why the rest of the world

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Speaker 3: needed to hear this story.

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Speaker 2: She's a young heroine at the turn.

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Speaker 3: Of the century who basically puts her life on the

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Speaker 3: line to save her siblings during one of the worst snowstorms.

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Speaker 2: In their history.

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Speaker 3: I was very impressed with the script because it told

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Speaker 3: essentially kind of David and Goliath's story. We all have

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Speaker 3: those moments in our lives, and it's in those moments

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Speaker 3: that we have to make choices we're sometimes not prepared for.

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Speaker 3: I felt that she needed to be honored. I loved

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Speaker 3: Daniel's vision for the story. And you know, having grown

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Speaker 3: up and been raised in South Africa and then living

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Speaker 3: in New York and here in LA, I've never really

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Speaker 3: experienced a snowstorm anywhere near the magnitude, so I was

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Speaker 3: fascinated by it. And the response has been outstanding. Samuel

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Speaker 3: Gold would have done really well getting it out there

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Speaker 3: for us, and yes it's on Angel platform.

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Speaker 2: I love these regional stories.

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Speaker 1: There was a movie out a few years ago about

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Speaker 1: a boy who got lost on a mountain and I

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Speaker 1: think I think it was Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, one

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Speaker 1: of those New England states. And this one, of course,

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Speaker 1: like you said, this is a story that's well in

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Speaker 1: North Dakota. It's the girl was lost in for twenty

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Speaker 1: five hours, I think, or she was trying to keep

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Speaker 1: her siblings a lot for twenty five hours and freezing

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Speaker 1: of temperatures nineteen twenty. North Dakota is the setting for this,

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Speaker 1: so just an unbelievable story of survival.

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Speaker 2: Tell us about your character. I don't know a lot

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Speaker 2: about your character.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely so I play William Lener, her father, who you

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Speaker 3: know usually as a father, as a parent, which I

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Speaker 3: am protecting providing those are were driven by that, and

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Speaker 3: in the beginning of the film, he makes a certain

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Speaker 3: choice he later would come to regret, and he goes

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Speaker 3: out on a mission to try to, you know, help

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Speaker 3: them survive, redeem the situation, and do everything he can

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Speaker 3: to pull his children out of this storm. History not

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Speaker 3: the kindest to William. But the fascinating thing about all

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Speaker 3: of this, which I didn't mention and was that about

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Speaker 3: seventy five to eighty percent of the film is shot

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Speaker 3: in Are you Ready for This and abandoned kmart.

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Speaker 2: Oh.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. The effects team were remarkable. We were in a

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Speaker 3: very competitive bidding situation. Distributors were so impressed by the film.

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Speaker 3: We did a justice, but that was not what you

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Speaker 3: expected to see when you show up, is okay? We're

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Speaker 3: shooting it in an abandoned kmark, which we did know.

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Speaker 3: I'd had meetings with the director. I had a lot

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Speaker 3: of questions about seeing how the effects worked. Then there

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Speaker 3: were concerns with the horses and everything else because the

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Speaker 3: floor was very slippery. But I am so proud of

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Speaker 3: what Daniel and Tarik and his entire team were able

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Speaker 3: to pull off and accomplish.

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Speaker 1: I think this is the movie I might be thinking

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Speaker 1: of as Lost on a Mountain in Maine something like that.

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Speaker 1: It's a movie that came out a few years ago.

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Speaker 1: Of course, you were not involved in that. This one

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Speaker 1: is Hazel's part. Another one you were involved in last

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Speaker 1: year that I really enjoyed is Sarah's Oil. That was

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Speaker 1: a I believe it was a Kingdom story movie, and

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Speaker 1: you played the bad guy in that film, and I

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Speaker 1: didn't realize it until afterwards. Stelio I was watching it

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Speaker 1: and didn't realize it and thought, he wait, that was

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Speaker 1: Stelio Savante playing.

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Speaker 2: The bad guy that I was cheering against. So how

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Speaker 2: do you approach such a role.

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Speaker 1: What is it like to portray the character people are

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Speaker 1: going to cheer against?

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Speaker 2: You know, I think.

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Speaker 3: One doesn't necessarily think in those terms, or I should

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Speaker 3: speak for myself and not be assuming every actor does

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Speaker 3: Earle was very earnest in what he was doing, which was,

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Speaker 3: you know, honoring his boss, his employer, so to speak.

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Speaker 3: I had had wonderful conversations with a director, highly accomplished,

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Speaker 3: critically acclaimed director cyrus Naarraste, who had worked with before

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Speaker 3: on Infidel. I just did another project with him in Brazil,

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Speaker 3: which I can't go into yet. And what we had

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Speaker 3: discussed with Earle was once the Oklahoma oil rush rumors

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Speaker 3: had started, a lot of folks from the East Coast

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Speaker 3: had moved there to get work, as they had done

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Speaker 3: when the railroad was built, etc. And what made Earl

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Speaker 3: so fascinating was that because he was an outsider, he

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Speaker 3: was not easily bought, and the employer he worked for

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Speaker 3: could get leveraged by using him. So to me, Earle

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Speaker 3: was a character that believed he was definitely doing the

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Speaker 3: right thing and actually got a lot of enjoyment out

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Speaker 3: of goading people and needling them in order to get that.

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Speaker 3: He has some physicality to him, but there's also a

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Speaker 3: tongue in cheek humor and what an incredible project to

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Speaker 3: be part of. Seniqua and her husband Kenrick, we had

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Speaker 3: remarkable conversations. They come to my church. Now Melrodriguez, who

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Speaker 3: plays Mace, who is just a sweetheart. His daughter was

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Speaker 3: baptized by my pastor. We end up going to the

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Speaker 3: same church. So there were so many great relationships on

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Speaker 3: set and being in Tulsa over the course of the summer.

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Speaker 3: For I think it was nine or ten weeks was

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Speaker 3: great because that's where it actually happened.

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Speaker 2: That's exactly right.

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Speaker 1: And of course for those who don't know the story,

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Speaker 1: it's a story instead of the early nineteen hundreds in Oklahoma,

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Speaker 1: African American young girl is I think I don't know.

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Speaker 2: The verb here.

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Speaker 1: I think deeded a plot of land because she was

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Speaker 1: from she had lived in a Cherokee tribe. I'm Cherokee

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Speaker 1: tribe who are and yet Native American tribe? I forget

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Speaker 1: the tribe, but anyway, they think it's worthless land. But

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Speaker 1: it turns out to be filled with oil underneath that land,

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Speaker 1: and of course then that starts people trying to get

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Speaker 1: that land away from her. Sarah's Oil is the name

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Speaker 1: of that one. It seems there's been a surge stillio

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Speaker 1: of these faith and family movies in recent years, and

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Speaker 1: I don't remember this many movies pre pandemic.

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Speaker 2: Do you have any thoughts of that.

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Speaker 1: What is driving this surge of content that is filled

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Speaker 1: with values and faith?

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Speaker 3: I think first and foremost is audience. I think there's

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Speaker 3: a need for it. I think there's an appreciation for

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Speaker 3: it because these kinds of films are so better made,

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Speaker 3: so far better are executed and made, and have so

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Speaker 3: much more artistic integrity than what It's easy in hindsight

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Speaker 3: in twenty twenty to call cheesy Christian films because we

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Speaker 3: did have an era of them where maybe the message

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Speaker 3: was solid, but the execution and artistic integrity of the

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Speaker 3: films was horrible. And the flip side of that is

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Speaker 3: in mainstream films, the artistic integrity is outstanding, but the

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Speaker 3: message is sometimes vacuous of some wholesome integrity. I also

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Speaker 3: think the success, and it's easy for me to say

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Speaker 3: that I'm biased, I think the success of the Chosen,

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Speaker 3: how well done it is, the remarkable effect it had

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Speaker 3: during COVID, where people all over the world could download

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Speaker 3: it free on an app. It gave them something to

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Speaker 3: look forward to. And I also think the success what

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Speaker 3: the Kingdom Stories and wonder Projects of the world have

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Speaker 3: been able to do has kind of the train has

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Speaker 3: left the station, because now these stories are traveling.

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Speaker 2: They're not just American.

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Speaker 3: There's hunger and thirst for them everywhere.

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Speaker 2: Even while I was.

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Speaker 3: In Brazil, the amount of wholesome were spiritually driven or

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Speaker 3: faith in content that's being shown there is off the charts.

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Speaker 3: So I would say those are the two biggest contributing

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Speaker 3: factors that I think. Also our filmmakers, who happened to

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Speaker 3: be people of faith are being a little bit more

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Speaker 3: disciplined in learning their craft and wanting to make sure

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Speaker 3: that what's on the page is excellent, good enough to

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Speaker 3: elicit response from critically acclaimed actors that we typically would

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Speaker 3: not see in these kind of stories, and that only helps,

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Speaker 3: you know, bring in a bigger audience.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, And you mentioned Brazil.

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Speaker 1: Brazil was is one of the biggest viewers of the

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Speaker 1: chosen From my understanding, it was number two worldwide for

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Speaker 1: the for the longest time. And I know that Kindrick Brothers,

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Speaker 1: who are good friends of mine there they were I think,

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Speaker 1: down in Brazil making a movie in the past year.

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Speaker 1: So it's it's how we need hope all around the world.

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Speaker 1: I think that that's what that's what we're saying here.

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Speaker 1: Of course, it's the hope of Christ, but these movies

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Speaker 1: that portray that hope also help as well. You are

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Speaker 1: a person of faith, Celio, what part does your faith

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Speaker 1: play in these roles that you take? It seems like

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Speaker 1: you land in a lot of movies that have hope

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Speaker 1: in them.

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Speaker 3: I have the last few years. You know, I've been

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Speaker 3: literally doing this since the Last Supper. I've been at

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Speaker 3: it a long time. This is my fourth decade. I

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Speaker 3: started in the early nineties, mostly with thriller's action thrillers,

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Speaker 3: very kind of successful series on the critical side, but

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Speaker 3: have nothing to do with any sort of faith. The

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Speaker 3: last few years, I feel God has just been pulling

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Speaker 3: me into them. The projects find me, and to the

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Speaker 3: first part of your question, it's given me a much

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Speaker 3: more kind of discerning I in terms of what I engaging.

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Speaker 3: In the past, I'd said yes to a lot of

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Speaker 3: projects I had no business. I do regret some of those,

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Speaker 3: especially while my my child was growing up, but we

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Speaker 3: have to provide and and in retrospect, I do wish

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Speaker 3: on some of them i'd made better choices. Now my

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Speaker 3: child is an eighteen year old and she gets to

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Speaker 3: make fun of my nose. On screen, so it's it's

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Speaker 3: it's okay.

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Speaker 1: Wells really don't need to imply that that we should

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Speaker 1: only be in movies that provide hope through Christ. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you know, I I enjoy movies that have nothing to

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Speaker 1: do with Jesus. I was watching to Spika with me

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Speaker 1: last night with my with my kiddo. Although that has

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Speaker 1: some good values in it as well, I would argue

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Speaker 1: it's it's a pro adoption film.

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Speaker 2: Let's let's talk. Let's let's talk. Let's talk about let's

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Speaker 2: talk about your early role and the Chosen. That's yes,

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Speaker 2: that's just it.

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Speaker 1: It's amazing to talk to someone who was there from

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Speaker 1: the get go, which you were, and now this thing

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Speaker 1: is worldwide, it's a it's viewed by it's been viewed

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Speaker 1: by just one hundreds of millions of people worldwide, people

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Speaker 1: from Wolpe Guildberg to tuck her Carlson, like the Chosen,

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Speaker 1: and those who wouldn't agree on anything.

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Speaker 2: It's incredible. It's incredible to see.

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Speaker 1: Though, take us back to the early days and what

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Speaker 1: was your role then and what do you remember about

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Speaker 1: those days?

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Speaker 2: Do you have any sense that it can be anything big?

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Speaker 3: There's a lot of nostalgia that comes up because I

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Speaker 3: was part of a short film called The Two Thieves

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Speaker 3: or Once We Were Slaves about the perspective of the

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Speaker 3: Crucifixion from the Two Thieves point of view, which again

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Speaker 3: Dallas is very nuanced in what he does. I think

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Speaker 3: that's a remarkable gift he's been given. That kind of

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Speaker 3: paved the way was the birth pangs, and he has

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Speaker 3: said that of the Chosen coming to fruition, I portrayed

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Speaker 3: the good thief on the Cross. Jonathan Roumy, who plays Jesus,

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Speaker 3: portrayed the Lord in that and Jonathan, excuse me, Dallas

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Speaker 3: had reached out to me. I believe it was twenty

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Speaker 3: seventeen or twenty eighteen with a role on the Chosen,

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Speaker 3: a different role than the Moses role. He said, I

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Speaker 3: have something I want you to look at. Excuse me,

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Speaker 3: I'm lying. I did not tell him I received an

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Speaker 3: appointment for it. Then he found out I had to

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Speaker 3: pass on the film he call on the series because

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Speaker 3: I've been contracted to do Infidel in Jordan. I have

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Speaker 3: no idea something else will come back up, and he said,

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Speaker 3: don't worry about it, Stellio, We'll find something else for you.

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Speaker 3: I'm in Jordan. I go to all of the architectural

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Speaker 3: biblical sites, which I'm fascinated by. I go and see

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Speaker 3: gets Semine in the Holy Land. I take my wife

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Speaker 3: and daughter to Mount Nebo, where Moses is buried.

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Speaker 2: It was very emotional for me.

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Speaker 3: I see the Holy Land, and I know that that's

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Speaker 3: the last thing that Moses saw before he passed. According

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Speaker 3: to his word, the Lord's work, Moses didn't get to

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Speaker 3: go in. I think that's not only because he was

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Speaker 3: disobedient and struck the rock, but because Moses represented the law.

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Speaker 3: The lonely gets you so far. Jesus is what takes

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Speaker 3: us to the Promised Land. He literally walks us in

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Speaker 3: or walks us through there so it would be the

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Speaker 3: New Testament. And I get very emotional. I have photos

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Speaker 3: under the snake in the poll, not the original because

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Speaker 3: that was destroyed. My wife and daughter and I see

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Speaker 3: the museum. I come back about three months go by.

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Speaker 3: Michael Dallas calls me up, says, I have a very

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Speaker 3: iconic role for you. I'd really prefer if you didn't

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Speaker 3: say no. I read it. It's Moses, and it feels

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Speaker 3: like God had qualified a certain part of that for me.

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Speaker 3: My grandfather also survived the Holocaust Jewish believer by moving

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Speaker 3: to South Africa. My mother's a Christian via she's a

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Speaker 3: Messianic Jews, so a lot of personal attachment to that role.

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Speaker 3: And I don't know how much of an inkling we'd

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Speaker 3: have of the success of it, but we do know

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Speaker 3: that it was the most successfully publicly funded project of

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Speaker 3: all time. I think they raised record sums at the time,

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Speaker 3: it was somewhere between maybe sixteen and twenty mili, so

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Speaker 3: we knew the audience was there, but now to see

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Speaker 3: you know it going into season seven is just remarkable.

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Speaker 1: One final question for you about The Chosen. What are

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Speaker 1: your thoughts on it's popularity. We've had projects about christ

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Speaker 1: before and they did okay at the box office, and

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Speaker 1: you know, some people watch them, but it wasn't to

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Speaker 1: this level.

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Speaker 2: What is taken into another level? What's been the difference

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Speaker 2: with The Chosen?

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Speaker 3: You know, that's a great That is a great question

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Speaker 3: I know I can answer for myself. Yeah, and I

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Speaker 3: think it goes back to Dallas's gift. When Dallas wrote

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Speaker 3: The Chosen, he made a statement about it and he said,

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Speaker 3: other projects about the Lord have always been told from

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Speaker 3: Jesus perspective. The key with the Chosen is it's from

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Speaker 3: the perspective of the people who knew, spend time with,

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Speaker 3: were influenced in moved by the Lord, and it's filmed

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Speaker 3: that way. Literally, it is framed that way, and I

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Speaker 3: think it feels more personal, and we get to see

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Speaker 3: Jesus the man and what he suffered and what his

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Speaker 3: struggles were and what his victories are because of it.

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Speaker 3: But we also, from those people's perspective, get to understand

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Speaker 3: where his impact can be applicable to us personally because

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Speaker 3: it's told that way. So I am not Dallas's publicist,

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Speaker 3: but I would give him credit for that. I agree

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Speaker 3: with everything you said.

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Speaker 1: I think when I watched The Jose that I see

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Speaker 1: myself through those characters, and so when when christ is

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Speaker 1: talking to one of them, I feel like I feel

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Speaker 1: like it's a word for me, you know, And so

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Speaker 1: we can see ourselves in those characters. You know, we

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Speaker 1: are Peter, we are Mary Magdalen. Yeah, so I think

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Speaker 1: you're exactly, absolutely exactly right. Let's go to go back

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Speaker 1: to Hazel's Heart, which is now on Angel Angel platform

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Speaker 1: as well as video owned. Man Give Me One or

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Speaker 1: two maybe lessons from that film that you want families

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Speaker 1: to take away from it.

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Speaker 3: You know, Hazel's heart is filled with them. There are

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Speaker 3: a lot of young characters in the film. The lead

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Speaker 3: is Hazel played by Madeline Dundan, who was just outstanding

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Speaker 3: showed wisdom beyond her years in the role. I think

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Speaker 3: the lessons are that in those moments that come we

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Speaker 3: all face them, we lose family members, we go through hardship,

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Speaker 3: we have to have something to lean on because the

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Speaker 3: decisions we make when stakes are high can have life

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Speaker 3: altering consequences. That doesn't mean bad, It just means that

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Speaker 3: in those moments we have to be very careful how

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Speaker 3: we choose. I also think that Hazel's heart has a

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Speaker 3: very redeeming quality of hope because it's not about how

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Speaker 3: long your life burns, it's about how brightly the flame flickers.

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Speaker 3: So while you have an opportunity to serve others and

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Speaker 3: do something in your life, step into that.

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Speaker 2: It's so much more rewarding to give than to receive.

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Speaker 3: And that's not just a Christmas time, it's every day

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Speaker 3: with every person we meet. Your smile could make a

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Speaker 3: difference on a day in someone's life when they were

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Speaker 3: going to take their life. I'm in an industry where

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Speaker 3: depression is rampant, and those opportunities that we have are paramount,

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Speaker 3: So I think those are the two things that come

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Speaker 3: from that discernment about making choices and giving people hope.

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Speaker 1: If you like today's episode, please subscribe and leave a

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Speaker 1: five star review.

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Speaker 3: That's how we help more people just like you find

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Speaker 3: the show.

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Speaker 2: A big thanks to the team at life.

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Speaker 3: Audio for their partnership with us on the podcast.

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Speaker 2: If you go to lifeaudio dot com, you.

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Speaker 1: Will find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network.

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Speaker 2: See you next time

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Speaker 1: And