Kimberly Williams-Paisley stars in the new film, Jesus Revolution, opposite Kelsey Grammer, Jonathan Roumie and Joel Courtney. The movie is based on a true story of a spiritual awakening in California in the ’70s, led by teenager Greg Laurie and his pastor, Chuck Smith. Jesus Revolution opened over the weekend to rave reviews, an especially welcome response since filming was an arduous task.
“We shot it in Alabama. It was very quick,” Paisley, who plays Charlene, the troubled mother of Laurie, tells Everything Nash. “We’d run out of time, and so they’d say, ‘Okay, you have one or two chances to get this whole long sequence.’ [There’s a] sequence in the bar at the end, when I walk out and I get in my car. I had two chances to do it. But I like working that way. It’s sort of like guerilla filmmaking a little bit.”
Jesus Revolution was directed by Jon Erwin and Brent McCorkle, two of the many talented people that made filming so successful, in spite of the challenges.
“They also had really high-level people on this,” Paisley praises.” The [Director of Photography] was phenomenal. The hair, makeup and wardrobe team were fantastic. Jon and Brent were great. So the time and energy and money was put in the places that really mattered to create this beautiful product in the end,”
Williams-Paisley’s character is far removed from who she is in real life. Married seven times, addicted to alcohol and cigarettes, the actress found an underlying beauty in the role she portrayed
“I love this role,” Williams-Paisley tells Everything Nash. “I was so grateful to get to play this part. It’s a totally different role for me, and a totally different kind of character. You might not recognize me. I have a blonde wig. I’ve got the whole period makeup and period costume. I play an alcoholic, smoker woman who had seven husbands, a really broken woman who was trying her best. I was just so grateful to get to play her because I think she’s beautiful in her own way.”
Now that Jesus Revolution has been officially released, the wife of Brad Paisley isn’t sure what her next acting role will be. But she does say that, as with everything else she does, her main goal is to do her part to make the world a better place.
“I want to spread light in everything I do,” the mother of two maintains. “I want to be a vessel for light and for goodness, and I want to make the world a better place. The world has been good to me and I want to give that back in, in everything I do.”
Jesus Revolution is in theaters now.