Unsung Hero, a biopic about the family of music duo for KING + COUNTRY, opens April 26. For KING + COUNTRY’s Joel Smallbone co-wrote the movie, directed it and stars in it as his father, which he said was pretty challenging mentally.
The movie’s about how David Smallbone and his pregnant wife, Helen, uprooted their six kids and moved to Nashville after David lost their savings. The flat-broke family survived on the kindness of strangers until daughter Rebecca became a Christian music star.
On set, though, Joel found himself in the weird position of doing scenes as his father, while another actor played him as a small child.
“It’s like, ‘I am my dad. But that is me. But I am me and this is my mum. But I’m kissing my mum. But it’s not my mum, it’s an actor,'” he says. “Like, [it] just breaks your brain.”
As for how he managed to direct and star in the film, having never directed before, Joel says musicians are great at multitasking, so he just transferred those skills to the set.
“It was outrageous. It was intense. It was drinking from a fire hose. It was all of those things,” he notes. “But somehow I felt in such a flow with it all.”
As for the added pressure of making sure his entire family was OK with the film, Joel reports, “Everyone was really proud of it and thrilled. And it’s been really redeeming for all of us.”
So, who is the Unsung Hero of the title?
“Depending on your life experience … folks are coming at it and seeing themselves in different ways, which is beautiful,” says Joel. “My mom and my sister Rebecca are kind of my personal unsung heroes in the film.”
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