Entertainment
Email
Print
Iconic Role
Armie Hammer watched sermon after sermon to play Billy Graham
Photo Courtesy of Katherine Bomboy
Armie Hammer plays Christian evangelist Billy Graham in the movie Billy: The Early Years.
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: October 11, 2008
When Armie Hammer was first approached to play the role of Billy Graham in Billy: The Early Years, he knew the reach of Graham's influence.
"I would say that I was familiar with Billy Graham almost more in a historical context than a religious one," he said. "I was familiar that he had sort of established himself as the figurehead or Godfather, almost, of preachers. And, you know, he's way too humble to admit it, but I was familiar with exactly how much importance and significance he'd had on the 20th century."
Graham, who was born in Charlotte in 1918, went on to become one of the most recognized religious leaders in modern history. The movie, which opened in theaters yesterday, was directed by Robbie Benson and filmed in Nashville. It follows Graham's early career.
In addition to Hammer, the cast includes Stefanie Butler as Ruth Bell Graham, Billy Graham's wife, and Kristoffer Polaha as Charles Templeton, a friend and fellow evangelist (Martin Landau plays Templeton in his later years). Much of the film focuses on the differences between Graham, who embraced his faith, and Templeton, who eventually became disenchanted with religion.
Polaha had never heard of Templeton before taking the role. "It's such an amazing story, like the actor who could have been great, or the boxer who could have been great. This guy could have been a great preacher, and he had a crisis of faith and sort of just basically lost his calling."
Graham and his family were not involved in the production of the film, but Graham's daughter Gigi has seen and approved of the film.
Stefanie Butler met Billy Graham briefly when she was a child, but didn't know much about the personal lives of the Grahams before taking the role.
"I knew him from the same perspective that Armie did, regarding the fact that he was this iconic figure and this huge evangelist," she said. "He really changed the face of society and just allowed people to think about God in such a unique and dynamic way."
She didn't have as much to draw from for her portrayal of Ruth Bell Graham as Hammer had.
"There is not a lot about her, unless you read her books and her poetry," she said.
In taking the lead role, Hammer knew he faced a challenge, especially compared with previous roles in which he played fictional characters, including guest appearances on Veronica Mars and Desperate Housewives and roles in the films Blackout and Flicka. Graham is his highest-profile role to date. He is also being considered for the role of Batman in a proposed Justice League movie.
"Playing a character that's on paper you have so much more liberty to kind of go around and make it your own," he said. "Whereas, when it's someone as recognizable and identifiable as Billy Graham, if you mess up there are two billion people on the planet who have seen him preach, and who will say, ‘That's not right.' So it's more of a challenge, but as an actor, you know, I take a challenge."
The role took a lot of research on Hammer's part.
"I spent hours upon hours, upon hours, upon days, upon days, upon weeks, upon weeks on YouTube watching every sermon I could get my hands on," he said.
"His style of delivering a sermon was incredible. He literally scared the hell out of people. He just wanted to scare the hell out of them, and get them to understand what he was saying. And he had an amazing capacity for taking the audience and controlling them and allowing them to see and hear exactly what he wanted them to."
■ Tim Clodfelter can be reached at 727-7371 or at tclodfelter@wsjournal.com.
Email
Print
