The Unbreakable Boy: Zachary Levi On Faith And Hollywood
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It's Live in the Bream with the host of Fox News Sunday, Shannon Bream. This week on Live in the Bream, I want to tell you about a movie I just got a chance to see. Now listen, if you are complaining that Hollywood is not putting out good quality stuff, family friendly things, uplifting things, you must see this movie. It's called The Unbreakable Boy. I'm not going to lie to you. You need to pack your tissues for this one, but you will be crying forever.

In joy, in sorrow, in all the feels. And we are blessed enough today to have one of the stars of the movie with us, Zachary Levi. Thank you so much for joining us on Live in the Dream. I'm so honored to. Thank you so much for having me on the show.

So listen, this movie is real life. It's based on a real family. And listen, every family struggles with something. Life is not easy or perfect. And you guys really delve into this. I would love to get your impression when you first read the script or this movie came along and why you decided to tackle this role. You know, for a lot of the things you've already said, it's a real story. It's about a real family.

and about navigating life, just the human condition, what it means to find and love oneself and love each other in a partnership, in a dating relationship that turns into a marriage and loving your children that you have along the way. And it's not all just rainbows and butterflies. It's got so much heart.

And it's done with such a soft hand that like it really holds you the whole time. But like you said, I mean, it hits you in all the fields because it doesn't shy away from the difficulty, the grit, the darkness, the sorrows that we go through, the fights that we go through. But that's what makes it so much more redemptive at the end. You know, you really go with these real people through their real scenarios and it allows you to feel so much more deeply and

More than that, this is just a fantastic script written by the director, John Gunn. He's an incredible writer, director, producer, and he just really had a singular, wonderful vision for this. We were so blessed to get all of the very talented cast and crew involved in the middle of the pandemic, by the way. This was like height of COVID, end of 2020. And we made it happen, and it was a miracle. And to be able to tell a story...

Where I, you know, selfishly as an actor, I was so grateful for it because I felt like I got to show a lot more of my own range as an actor. A lot of roles that I've played in the past are wonderful, but they tend to be in a higher energy, feel good kind of state. And this, while there are moments of that, I got to be a much more, you know, nuanced and subtle character and one that has really high highs and really low lows and

I thought that was also very valuable for me. But to be able to tell a story that quite frankly tackles autism in such an authentic and beautiful way

and challenging way. I have never seen or heard of a film that does it quite like we do it. And I think it's imperative that we tell stories like this. Autism affects so many of us more and more and more every day. And I love that we get to kind of put a story like that, represent that on the screen and do it with so much love.

And, you know, even just so far, the amount of people that have reached out just watching the trailers online, the amount of parents with children who are on the spectrum or neurodivergent that have reached out, that have reposted, that have said, "Oh my gosh, I cannot wait to see this movie. I was crying watching the trailer." I just know it's going to resonate with people. And the truth is, even if you don't have any autism in your family or you don't know anyone with autism, which tends to be more of a rarity these days, but even still,

This isn't just a movie about autism. It's a movie about, like I said, navigating the human condition. And I think ultimately, you know, certainly what my character, Scott Lorette, he goes through is this really redemptive journey, but it's all a matter of,

Him, you know, really struggling and fighting God or, you know, what he's been given as a life. We all have these ideas, these expectations of how we think life is supposed to go for us. And then God throws a bunch of curveballs and we can either accept that or resist that. And he resists and resists and resists. And he gets brought to his knees in this journey of radical change.

acceptance that leads to radical surrender, that leads to radical love and his ability to see the beauty in his son and how his son changes his life. I mean, it's a very powerful film and I'm just very, very proud of it.

Well, like you said, you're going to see real moments. I mean, where families are losing it, where, you know, kids who struggle with special needs are losing it. I mean, it's a reality check on the fact that there are families all around us that we may not, single parents, whatever it is, we may not understand what they are facing every day and what they're going through every day as we go on about our lives, unless we also have some of these similar struggles and challenges in our own lives.

But yeah, it's not sugar-coated. You do see family in crisis. And there's so many different storylines here. But I got to say, the young man who plays Austin or Ozman, he's fantastic. I mean, what a fantastically talented young man.

What I love about him is that, you know, you'll see in the movie that there's this theme of learning to be grateful. And for this young guy who exists in real life, every day is the best day. And I thought one of the most powerful lines that you as, you know, the father who Scott here who is struggling says,

is you said, "I wish I felt about anything the way that Austin feels about everything." He's just such a grateful, excited kid. And there's that real undercurrent that, yeah, we're all gonna have real struggles and really dark times.

But your character, Scott, comes around to finding gratefulness in the midst of all of that. Yeah, yeah, it's true. And I think that that is a truly universal theme. You know, it's something that we all struggle with. We all of us. I mean, I've been so blessed in my life. I have so many things to be grateful for and I will still find myself grateful.

you know, in these moments of ungratitude or fear or anxiety or whatever comes and tries to tackle us with that darkness. And Austin, Ozman in real life, and Jacob Laval, who portrays him in the film, really are a great example of living completely in the moment with no judgment, just living so...

living so, like with this unbridled optimism and positivity. And, you know, listen, that's not to say we all have to live with unbridled optimism and positivity all the time. Every moment of the day. But those are...

little sparks right like to remind us like yo shake out of this like this is we were not created to live in this low energy and live in that fear because ultimately it all comes down to that we're either choosing love or we're choosing fear everything else is rooted to that are we how are we treating ourselves how are we thinking about ourselves and treating and thinking about other people is that being driven by love or is that being driven by fear and so this yeah this film and

Jacob's portrayal really just jump off the screen and in real life similarly, and it is a great reminder to be in that moment and no matter what's going on.

rejoice, give thanks, be grateful because every day can be a great day. We'll have more Live in the Bream in a moment. Start preparing for your future at Liberty University and join thousands of LU alumni like Shannon Bream. From a flexible K-12 online academy to doctoral level programs, Liberty University has a range of

Thank you.

So we're talking to Zachary Levi. He is one of the stars of this new movie, The Unbreakable Boy, which is out February 21st.

You may know him from his hit TV series Chuck or from Thor Shazam. He is Shazam, American underdog, which I love too. You know, so much of what you've done in this movie too, I talked about this in the beginning, is that Hollywood is really embracing things that have this family-centric touch of faith, really uplifting, positive stuff. And

I was at a gathering a couple years ago, a bunch of people just kind of off the record from all different industries. And one of them said, yeah, it doesn't matter to a lot of these movie executives if they have any faith or they believe any of this stuff. They know they've discovered there's an audience for it. Do you feel like we're just going to see more and more of these high quality, really in-depth, beautiful, powerful movies that are more in that genre? I mean, that's my hope, certainly.

I think that Hollywood is a very interesting industry in that sometimes they have strangely conflicting motives. On one hand, you are very correct in that these really well-done four quadrant, meaning men and women, young and old, stories that are faith-based or faith-infused or faith-adjacent or just things that have some good solid morals and

and good messaging, but done excellently. You know, those movies do better than really any other movie because you're selling, ultimately in the movie theater, you're selling tickets to everyone, right? It's a whole family that's all buying tickets and all going to these theaters.

And so traditionally they've done better than almost any other film. And so one might then conclude, well, why not? Why wouldn't they just only make those films? Um, and that's in part because that would be way too many of those films. Probably we need to balance that with other films, right. That are more adult oriented or more children oriented or somewhere in between. So I think that's part of it. Um, but also, I don't know, there's, there's been a lot of, um,

executives, even executives that are not, like you said, kind of spiritual or faith-based themselves, they see the opportunity in it, but also they are being led by other agendas and things as we've seen, you know, there's been a lot of different types of agendas that have been infused into Hollywood and things that they feel like those are types of stories that we also need to go make.

that don't necessarily make a lot of money a lot of times. So I don't know that it's all based on success as much as based on them kind of balancing a lot of these things.

But I would say that I think there are a lot of independent filmmakers that understand the value of making a very excellent film from an entertainment perspective that also is infused with really good messaging. And being very intentional about it, not being preachy about it, not hitting anybody over the head with anything. Because then, by the way, to me,

making a really, you know, let's say like deep, deep, you know, right wing conservative faith based movie that feels preachy. That's just as bad as making a super left leaning progressive movie or whatever that's that's really preachy. Nobody really wants either one of those things. You know, everyone just wants a really excellent movie that has messaging in it, but that's subtle and that's organic and it's authentic.

And you can almost say anything you want if you do it that way and allow the audience to eat that and then decipher what you're supposed what you're trying to convey. But when you're beating people over the head and saying you must comply with whatever this messaging is, then you're not making film. You're making propaganda and nobody wants that. Yeah. And I think that all those things you talk about, the Unbreakable Boy again out February 21st.

Really nails all those things on the checklist. It's done with excellence. It's beautiful to the eye, to the ear. The acting is phenomenal. It just has such a beautiful arc and you ride all of these different emotions through it. You playing Scott, obviously, as the dad in this movie, he really struggles with a lot of things he had experienced.

different dreams for his life. I think all of us had these moments where like, oh, I didn't think this is where I was going to be going or what I was going to be doing. I mean, we all hit roadblocks and dark, difficult times. And he doesn't deal with it well initially, but he is willing to put in the work and save his family and do the things that he has to do. And like you said, find a way to love himself because he's always having this kind of internal, I guess we could say, dialogue with

about not being a great dad, not being a great human being. So we walk through that whole evolution with you as Scott, the dad. Yeah. I mean, that's what, that's what, like I said, it's one of the reasons I love this project so much because it just is real, just real. And I could relate to so much of what Scott struggled with because, and I think a lot of us can, we all have these ideas of what we think our life is supposed to be. And,

Of course, we make plans and God laughs, they say, because there's so many things that are so completely outside of our control. And I'm the type of person, I'll struggle and have anxiety over things that are within my control. But if it's something that's outside of my control, I'm like, well, there's nothing I can do about that. And I can find peace in them a lot easier. But it's still, when things are happening and you've had a completely different vision for your future and for your family, and if you don't have...

healthy ways of coping with understanding that and accepting that. And in this case with Scott, booze was really his go-to, you know, and that's something that I can, you know, honestly, I can relate to. I've definitely gone to booze in times of darkness in my life. And thank God it wasn't something that overtook my life. But that can, that's a real thing that a lot of people struggle with.

And so I liked that. I liked being able to let things get a little messy. If you tell stories and you want to really get across themes like redemption, it's very difficult to tell a story of redemption if you don't go through hell in order to get there. And that's what most of our lives, almost all of us can, so long as we're an adult, hopefully a lot of kids have not gone through a lot of darkness as still being children, but as an adult,

There have been plenty of opportunities through either family or extended family or community or society or your job, workplace or whatever, that darkness can come at you and you can struggle and things can be hard. That is the human experience.

And so I love that we get to really dive into that and let people who might otherwise not get a story, if you're going to a faith-based or faith-infused type of story, they tend to work on that with a little more kid gloves and a little less teeth. And this isn't, as you can attest to, this isn't like, this is still very much a movie that a whole family can watch, but thematically it allows itself to go to that grittier, messier place. And I'm really grateful for that.

Yeah, and so much for the kids, too, as we keep saying family-friendly. But there are kids' relationships. Kids can be cruel to each other when there's an otherness or a differentness. And, you know, sometimes kids are acting out of their own hearts. I mean, we see all of that in this movie. So I feel like there's so much for the younger kids.

Folks that you may take along to this movie too, kids, nieces, nephews. I mean, there's a lot there to talk about with your kids about how they view and treat other people. And that goes for all of the kids that are portrayed in this movie. They're all dealing with something different. And sometimes at first blush, you don't see that. But this movie will call you to dig deeper in relationships with people. Often, you know, the common saying is, you know, hurt people hurt people. And there's some of that going on with these kids too. Yeah.

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, that's that's and that's all part of, you know, the importance of, again, telling the human story. The human story is not just an adult story. The human story is very much, you know, it's our whole it's our whole life, including our childhood and and especially our childhood, because that's where so much of the initial trauma can begin and does begin again.

as is evidenced in bullies. Hurt people do hurt people. Hurt people are traumatized. Young kids being traumatized, no idea what trauma even is, acting out of that trauma. And that can manifest in many different negative ways. Our film definitely gets to touch upon that, gets to call

call that in, you know, both the, well, all of our child actors really did a fantastic job. John, our director, did a fantastic job of guiding them into just really grounded performances. And it never feels...

You know, it's just like it never-- It can have so much heart, but I feel like we did a good job of never getting into not just the preachy, but like the after-school special, you know? - Not schmaltzy. There's none of that. - Yeah, you know, we didn't go there. And it keeps it just that much more, I think, enjoyable, you know? Because when you feel like it's being just laid out for you, that schmaltziness,

your brain starts to check out a little bit. And I think that the themes, and look, you're like a good Pixar movie. To me, Pixar movies are fantastic because they really are on an intelligence level that is good for everyone watching that movie. A lot of kids' movies, the intelligence level is really dropped to the level of the child's intelligence. And we don't go to that place in this movie. It's thematically very deep.

and impactful and intelligent, but not so much that it's not accessible for even all the kids.

Okay, I have to brag on you a little bit. I got to tell a story about Zachary Levi. Because he is, listen, he will tell you he's not a perfect guy, but a lot of people in Hollywood think he's one of the nicest guys who's there. And I can attest to that. I had to remind him before we got started. This is how you know he's a good guy because he's done this more than once. But I was on a plane back in 2018 next to a man, got started in a conversation, which I don't usually do on planes, but

Started talking to this guy, found out he had a little nephew who was essentially dying. Very young little kid, loved the Avengers, loved movies, comic book characters, those kinds of things. And I the next Sunday I was in church and the pastor did this whole sermon about you got to ask God for things that are so big, like you can't get any credit because only he would do it.

And this guy reached out to me and said, do you think you could find any actors who would call or send a message to my little nephew in the hospital? And I thought about it after that sermon. And I thought, I don't know people in Hollywood, but I'm going to put this out there on Twitter. And there were different connections here and there for different people who did respond. And Zachary was one of those people. And he's such a good guy. I don't know if he even remembers doing it because he probably does this kind of nice stuff all the time. It was back in 2018.

But I went back and looked through my DMs and videos and things and found that he had sent a video message to this young boy in the hospital who his family said he was so ecstatic and excited about that. He passed away a short time later. But Zachary Levi, you are one of the good guys. And I thank you for doing that and for making movies that will really bless so many families. Like you said, whether you have a personal connection to this issue or anything else, every family struggles with something. Every parent struggles. Every kid struggles.

So I just thank you for putting something as fabulous as The Unbreakable Boy out there February 21st. And I wish you all the best and massive success with it because I know it will be a blessing. Making me cry over here.

Well, listen, like I said, I know you genuinely to be a good guy, whether the, you know, we all want good press and that kind of thing. And I've heard plenty about you, but I know that from my own personal experience, you are that guy. So thank you for that. And, and for this movie and, and so many positive things that you put into the world, we all appreciate it. Well, thank you. I'm, I'm, I'm very honored by all of that. And, and,

I will just say that we just got to keep waking up and trying to be who God created us to be, the best version of us that we can be. And we're all going to struggle and we're all going to stumble and we're all going to fail at that. And we have to have grace and hold each other in love and grace and forgiveness and also accountability. And I hope to just keep fighting for a better world. And that's exactly what I'm going to keep doing.

Well, God bless you in that. And thank you for joining us on this week's Live in the Bream. February 21st. Check it out, folks. The Unbreakable Boy. Thank you. Listen ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app.

Fox News Audio presents the Fox Nation Investigates podcast, Evil Next Door. Exploring the life and crimes of five serial predators from across the United States. Follow and listen starting February 25th at foxtruecrime.com.