It's such a collective grief as well. I think a lot of us are starting to really feel it two years in. At first, it was the fight or flight instinct kicking in, and I recently did a story about pandemic fatigue, and it's real, the burnout is... People are feeling it. It's a unique experience that none of us really could have predicted.
No, and bringing that up, that pandemic fatigue, I said earlier, where we're not in control, what an opportunity for people to go, "Wow, I don't have any control," and to really look to God and say, "I'm tired, I'm full of fatigue and grief, and I need a break, I need some peace in my life." That's the only place you're going to really find true peace. Maybe the blessing that comes out of this pandemic is that people do really take stock of their life and go, "Wow, what's really important? What really important? Is it money? Is it my relationship with my family, my friends, my health? What's important, my relationship with God?" That's really important.
I don't know that you necessarily go to a movie and [then] your life is transformed overnight, but it plants seeds. I've seen wonderful movies, even films that aren't Christian films, [where] I love the message, and it really resonates with me and makes me think about life. I hope that people can go with their families or their friends and afterwards, they're sitting over a meal or whatever, and talk about it and say, "Hey, how'd you feel about that story and that message?"
What would you say your biggest takeaway from the project would be?
That I can still act [laughs]. I love coming off of a project and knowing that I've made some lifelong friends ... I've done a lot of projects in 30 years, but what I really feel good about is that this movie also has a message to it that could ... Even if it impacts one person's life, if one person out of a million people that see this, their life changes because of it, and the odds are, it's going to be more than one person that's going to be affected by this story, but I can look back on my career knowing that I will feel very honored to have been a part of this movie, "The Mulligan."
I'll tell you something really cool. The guy who co-wrote this book, Wally Armstrong... He wrote it with Ken Blanchard. I met Wally ... almost 30 years ago, I met him at a Christian golf event, like a men's fellowship where guys get together, they play golf, they talk about Jesus, and support each other and encourage each other. It's like a big men's Bible study, I guess.
It's a crossover.
Yeah, it's cool and it's fun. They call it the Midwest Fellowship. Anyway, I met Wally, [a] really fun, super charismatic, loves life guy. Well, several years after I met him, I was in England ... I was there. My family was with me, and it gets light at four o'clock in the morning, so I snuck away to go play golf because my family was still sleeping. I got to this golf course and no one was there because it was 4:30 in the morning, but it was light, so I thought, well, I'll play and then I'll pay when they open up.
I went around twice. I played 36 holes of golf. They finally opened up, I went into the pro shop, and the guy is like, "Oh, you want to play some golf?" I said, "I already played 36." He says, "You've got to be kidding. What time did you get here?" I said, "4:30." We strike up a conversation. He says, "I know one person in the United States," this is because I'm in England, and I said, "Really?" He goes, "Yes, a guy named Wally Armstrong." I go, "You got to be kidding me."
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