divorce, and it’s ugly, and we’re fighting over everything, I got a house on a drug rehab street. I said, “I’m slowly losing everything. I’m buying time here. I really don’t know what to do. I’m doing whatever I can to survive.” He said, “Why don’t I help you. Why don’t we take the one thing that you have left that has any value? Why don’t we just take that off the plate so you can stop fighting [in the divorce and custody] because that’s the first thing you need to do is stop fighting and realize there’s nothing to fight over. You guys just need to move on with your lives because your kids are becoming affected by it.”
RM: Your personal story definitely will impact others. How do you hope your character from Do You Believe? will impact audiences? BB: His main goal is to really help plant seeds and save as many souls as he possibly can, because he does live with a lot of regret, as all humans do. What he doesn’t have is resentment. That’s the difference between where I used to be and where I am now. I used to have not only tons and tons of regret, but I used to be full of resentment. You can’t be an effective Christian if you have any resentment at all, because your heart is constantly battling that resistance, the resentment of your past. Your past is gone; there’s nothing you can do about it. What you can do is you can help others by letting them see that you don’t have resentment. That’s the beauty about the framework of the film. We so delicately intertwine our lives that you don’t know how you’re going to affect another person, whether you know them or you don’t know them, until that moment that your paths cross. You can help people or you can hurt people; those are your two choices as you go through life. You can walk through Starbucks and be angry at the person in front of you because they cut in front of you, or you can let that anger go. People just don’t realize the affect that others have on them through the course of the day, and I think that’s what I wanted my character to really do, is just leave people with a sense of hope, that there is hope in mankind and everybody has that power to provide hope to anybody at any time.
My life is completely opposite of the way it used to be. For years in Malibu, I lived in beach houses, and really nice homes, and then the big mansion on the hill, and for the last seven years I have lived in little condos, and I live in a little 1,300 square foot, three bedroom condo in Austin, Texas. Then he ostensibly just bought my house. He said, “I’ll buy the house and we’ll partner on it. We’ll figure out a way to get it fixed and then we’ll sell it.” For somebody to come in that didn’t know me at all, to take that kind of risk; he just took a great step with me and said, “ You know, I believe in you. If this is what we’ve got to do, then let’s get it done.” It worked out. We got it fixed, and got it sold and I paid him back plus, plus. From that moment on, I was free to leave. He said, “So, what do you want to do?” I said, “My biggest fear is I don’t want to just leave my kids.” So I hung around my kids for an extra year, and then realized that the only way that I was going to move forward and be an effective father would be to get back up on my feet and start churning again. I’ve got to start working; I’ve got to start doing something. At that moment is when I got the movie [Revelation Road]. RM: God has definitely put you on a path and placed people in your life for a reason. How do you approach life differently now? BB: My life is completely opposite of the way it used to be. For years in Malibu, I lived in beach houses, and really nice homes, and then the big mansion on the hill, and for the last seven years I have lived in little condos, and I live in a little 1,300 square foot, three bedroom condo in Austin, Texas, and that’s mainly because my son is here, and I get to raise my son through high school. I just realized you don’t need all that stuff. You don’t need to go get a new car just because a new car is out there; you don’t need a new shiny this, or a big square foot that; you don’t need all that stuff to be happy. The only thing you really need is just to be reminded that the moments that you have are gifts and to enjoy those gifts. It’s really kind of a humbling lesson to say, “ You know what, I’m thankful for what I have, instead of thankful for what I think I’m supposed to have.” 38 Risen Magazine
RM: What would you say to people that try to dismiss God’s transforming love with science instead of faith? BB: I would pray that they would have that moment of realization when they take in that first deep breath of God’s air and their heart actually fills up with His emotion, that they would immediately get it; there’s no science to that. People can come up with whatever scientific theory they want to come up with, but on that day, on March 3, 2013, when I sat down and gave all my anger to Jesus I wasn’t drinking a funny cup of coffee, and I didn’t have a prescription pill, and there wasn’t any lightening bolt or standing up… it was just me standing in the middle of the high school, outside the auditorium, with three gigantic redneck, Oklahoma boys and a Baptist preacher. It’s funny. People go, “I want to be saved,” and they try to set it up, this fancy place. You can’t dress up being saved. When you get saved, it’s going to happen in the place you least expect it, at the time you least expect it, but in the moment that you most need it. RM: From sports to acting, both careers allow you to have a sphere of influence. What responsibility do you now feel when it comes to using your fame positively? BB: I’ve always wanted to use my fame positively. Even when I was playing the villain role, I guess, in the football stuff; that was all for the show