LOUIS, Mo. — Maisie McClain, the daughter of a Southeast Georgia Baptist minister, isn’t your typical Hollywood star — and she’s not afraid to bring her Christian beliefs to the set of her movies.
“The Kingdom of God is absolutely everywhere,” McClain told CBN News at the red carpet premiere of her latest film, “Soul on Fire,” which opens in theaters nationwide on Friday. “We have the Holy Spirit in us. Bring it to the set, bring it to the movie, bring it to the story.”
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The new film, a project of Sony Pictures, is a biopic chronicling the miraculous life of St. Louis native John O’Leary. John O’Leary suffered severe burns over 100% of his body at just nine years old when his childhood home exploded. As a result, he was given a 1% chance of survival.
In the film, McClain, 31, plays O’Leary’s wife Beth.
“One of the things I love about the Bible is that it talks about cooperation with God, not asking God to do everything and just letting Him do it or doing it all ourselves,” she said, quoting 1 Corinthians 3:9. “We’re working with God, and you feel that when you’re on set. You feel like you’re not doing it alone, you’re not doing it on your own.”
McClain, who came to faith in Jesus at a revival event when she was 7 years old, said she was first inspired to work in film because God was “living within me and giving me strength and we’re doing it together.”
“This accomplishes things that no human being can do alone,” she said at the St. Louis premiere. “When you partner with the Holy Spirit, he is the one who has the power to change your life, not people.”
O’Leary told CBN News that his life story, which he recounted on his podcast “Faith in Culture,” is primarily one of gospel transformation and not just a miraculous physical recovery.
O’Leary said the most difficult part of his transformation was not surviving a seemingly insurmountable fire, but overcoming a sinking feeling of worthlessness.
“The only place of worth was not in my work, my efforts, my successes, but in the grace of God,” he said. “You’re going to see this all over your life as this boy deals with the scars from his burns. But you’re going to see the hand of God manifest in ordinary people, ordinary heroes. This is where the gospel lived.”
O’Leary, now a well-known author and motivational speaker, also credits God for his amazing physical recovery.
“It’s not a question of courage or tenacity or self-imposed will,” he said of how he miraculously recovered from an almost certain death sentence. “This is the hand of God. This is a story of miracles.”
He added that the prayers of many people across the country got him through.
Having a front row seat to O’Leary’s powerful testimony deepened McClain’s belief that “with God, nothing is impossible” and strengthened her faith in “the power of prayer,” she told CBN News.
“Sometimes I think…when I say I’m going to pray for someone, or when I say, ‘All I can do is pray,’ it makes it sound like it’s not important, not the most important thing I can do,” she said. “But really, that’s the most important, most important, most effective thing you can do, because God is a God of miracles, and I think John’s life is proof of that.”
McClain isn’t the only one to be bold about her faith. O’Leary’s co-star Joel Courtney, who plays O’Leary in the new film, has also been open about his Christian faith.
Courtney became known to many followers after starring in the 2023 hit movie “Jesus Revolution,” which depicts the Jesus Movement in the 1970s.
The 29-year-old star said both “Jesus Revolution” and “Soul on Fire” are “two highlights of my life.”
“As a Christian, I love to talk about my faith. I love to talk about my Lord and Savior,” he said. “These movies hold a really high and high place in my heart, especially because they relate to faith.”
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