E165: Directing The Chosen And Following God's Will w/Dallas Jenkins
The Lila Rose Show
Lila Rose
4.8 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 22 November 2024
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What inspired Dallas Jenkins to transform the beloved Christmas book The Best Christmas Pageant Ever into a movie? What challenges did he encounter while creating The Chosen and bringing this new family film to life? And how does he navigate following God’s will when outcomes don’t align with expectations?
In this episode, I sit down with Dallas Jenkins, creator of The Chosen, to explore his creative journey, the heart behind his latest project, and the faith that drives his work. Join us as we dive into the making of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and the powerful stories behind his compelling, faith-based content. You won’t want to miss this inspiring conversation!
#TheBestChristmasPageantEverMovie
Based on the beloved book, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever centers on the Herdmans – absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world. But this Christmas, they’re taking over their local church Pageant – and they just might unwittingly teach a shocked community the true meaning of Christmas.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever – in theaters November 8th. Starring Lauren Graham, Judy Greer, and Pete Holmes. Check out the movie: https://bestchristmaspageantever.movie/
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00:00 - Intro
02:29 - The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
03:51 - "It wrecked me"
07:31 - You created a Christmas classic
10:23 - Hardest scene to film and why?
14:07 - I think I had to be broken down and surrender
16:33 - What does it mean that a movie bombed?
19:05 - 5 Loaves and 2 Fishes
21:58 - Providential Facebook message...
28:38 - When did you feel the call towards filmmaking?
30:56 - How did you actually get started?
33:39 - How to do translate thought into production?
37:11 - How do you identify talent you can trust?
42:36 - How to keep your quality high?
46:43 - Advice for aspiring filmmakers?
47:13 - Focus on quality before success
49:31 - Favorite scene from Best Christmas Pageant Ever?
51:22 - What’s next for Dallas?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | And I got to the last chapter, and I am weeping. |
| 0:02.4 | I can't read. |
| 0:03.6 | I'm crying so hard. |
| 0:04.8 | And my wife's like, let me read it. |
| 0:06.0 | She takes the book. |
| 0:07.0 | She starts crying, so we're just passing it back and forth to each other while we tried to recover. |
| 0:10.6 | I closed the book and I said, I have to make this movie. |
| 0:12.6 | The acting, the directing, everything about it was so beautifully done. |
| 0:17.0 | The script's amazing. |
| 0:18.4 | So you created a classic. I think I had to be broken down and surrendered |
| 0:22.5 | before I could get the chosen. And for the first time in my life, I truly grasp the notion |
| 0:27.0 | that my job and our job is to make the best five loaves and two fish that we can, to bring it |
| 0:31.8 | to God. And if he deems it worthy of acceptance, the transaction's over. Welcome back to the |
| 0:37.1 | Lila Rose podcast. Today we're going to be talking with the director, |
| 0:40.3 | producer, and creator of the international hit series, The Chosen, Dallas Jenkins. |
| 0:46.4 | Dallas has a new amazing film out in theaters now called The Best Christmas Pagent Ever. Spoiler |
| 0:53.0 | alert, it is one of the cutest movies that I've |
| 0:54.9 | ever seen, and it is phenomenal. It's a movie that you can take your whole family to, your kids, |
| 0:59.4 | too, and get into the Christmas spirit, and it's about the greatest story ever told, Jesus Christ's |
| 1:04.0 | birth. This interview is a lot of fun because Dallas goes into both his rock-bottom experiences |
| 1:08.8 | before creating The Chosen and the best Christmas pageant ever, |
| 1:13.6 | as well as what goes on through his mind to idiot and visualize making such beautiful and |
... |
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