With the upcoming release of Journey To Bethlehem, I spoke with Adam Anders, the creator, producer, writer and director of Journey To Bethlehem, to find out more about it. We talk about his journey, creativity, the truth of Christmas and Journey to Bethlehem, either watch the interview below or you can read our interview which starts underneath the video.
Journey to Bethlehem is a fun, entertaining, hope filled musical based on the birth of Jesus, that captures the essence and truth of Christmas. This is a must see film and is not to be missed. Full of joy, hope and truth, it has to be one of the best and most epic Christmas movies of all time. Read our full review of Journey to Bethlehem
Apollogies for some reason Zoom did not record the video of myself.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey to faith?
Well, I grew up in the ministry. Actually, my parents were both in the ministry and missions and in the music ministry. And they left the classical music for gospel music.
Before I ever came around they met at the Royal Academy of music in Stockholm some Swedish. And so I grew up in the faith because of them. At the same time, though, they were really open and let us listen to lots of different music and were really great at letting us learn about culture and art and different things.
And yeah, it was a great upbringing and, and I, my faith, I’m one of the only, I guess, pastor kids that didn’t leave the faith or rebel in some way. They did something right. But my faith has sustained me my entire career in life.
You’ve worked with many music artists, how did you get into that? I think a lot of people know you from your work on Glee as well.
Yeah, I was a, you know, my dream was to be a bass player when I was a kid and that’s as far as my dreams got. And then that happened and then I want to write songs and I started writing songs and then I started producing them and went on this great journey worked with amazing artists.
And was moved to L. A. by Sony ironically, because Sony’s putting out this movie. And yeah, sort of produced big artists and wrote songs, hits for Backstreet Boys and Ace of Base and, you know, all kinds of people. And but I wanted to get into film and TV. As I just loved storytelling that’s always been my passion, even when I was young.
And I thought, well, the best way to get into film and TV is through music, since that’s what I do. So I started doing music and next thing I knew, you know, it was Glee and High School Musical and Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers and Rock of Ages and just craziness ensued. But it was an amazing, amazing thing and I learned how to make movies working with the best of the best on either side.
It was my film school, is what it turned out to be.
Working in that environment, working in Hollywood, how did you find being a Christian working there?
It’s hard, you know, and there are so many Christians in LA we call them stealth Christians because it seems like none of them are here.
But I, I know I’m not alone, but a lot of times you feel very alone. On Glee, you know, I think I was the only Christian, you know in that room and that’s hard at times, you know. My response to that to knowing that, you know, I was the outlier was to just do good work and to be excellent at what I was doing, and be kind, and, and try my best to just knowing I had a microscope on me just be known for loving people and doing good work, and, and that’s kind of been my motto, and I don’t always do it well, but that’s what I try to do anyway,
I think that’s the same for all of us who work in whatever industry or whatever job we do is, that’s how we try to be, to show that we are different, to show that, you know, Jesus
It’s a little amplified in Hollywood, I think, because Hollywood is, is deciding pop culture for the world, in a way.
And everything comes from here. So you can feel it. It’s a pressure cooker. You can feel the tension, the spiritual tension and kind of the battle that’s going on for dark versus light. It’s very Star Wars y here. And you can feel that. I really believe you can if you’re a spiritual person. It’s exhausting at times, but it also means this is where we need to be.
I think you can see that in the movies that are coming out and the movie that you produced and other movies, you can see that dark versus light happening on our screens. And so you’ve made journey to Bethlehem. What inspired you to turn that into a musical?
You know, it was 17 years ago, believe it or not, before all the things we just talked about happened. I was just a songwriter, music producer living in New York with my wife and no kids at the time. And we were visiting her family in Iowa. And I was looking for something to watch at Christmas and there wasn’t anything and it was not a musical for sure.
It just kind of had the idea, just like a bolt of lightning. Like you should tell the nativity is a musical. It was all right there in front of me. Mary and Joseph’s love story, the original Romeo and Juliet, Herod, the villain. A wise man or my comic relief, every family movie needs comic relief and I just saw it.
I got that vision and I really feel God tattooed it on my heart at that point because I was not ready to make a movie 17 years ago. I would have made a horrendous movie. But I wasn’t, you know, I just looked at it as I’m going to write the music and someone else will make the movie. But God had completely different plans and he pushed pause on this dream until I was ready to make it myself.
This is the first movie you directed, was there any part of the filmmaking that you found quite difficult?
You know, all of it. I won’t be so quick to judge movies anymore. I can tell you, no, look, I’ve been around, I’ve made a lot of movies. Years, but I’ve never been the one responsible for everything and on this particular.
I’m the writer. You know the co songwriter I’m the director. I’m the producer. I wore so many hats That it was it was tough, but at the same time was my baby and I wanted that but I think you know It’s a miracle when a movie gets made, and then yet another miracle when it comes out. And yeah, it’s really an incredible amount of work that goes into it, but it’s hugely rewarding.
Creatively you know, so I say, I found my calling in my forties, which is, is very. But my whole life, I think it’s been leading up to this and I’ve been in training to do this.
When you look back at your life, you can see places where God has guided you to the point where you are now.
100%. Everybody that I came in contact with, people I learned from, you know, I say failure is a great teacher. And I’ve failed so many times on this movie trying to make it but then COVID hit in 2020 and I had six months of nothing. And just sit and look at this and go, okay, what did I do wrong?
What does it need to be? And it was inspired time and we started over and this is what came out of it. And that’s why I decided, you know, I’ve been asked to direct before. And I said, no, that’s crazy. I have too much going on. I can’t start a new career, you know, I’d have to walk away from everything because it’s all encompassing.
You can’t do things when you direct and when I came out of COVID with this script, I was like, all right, I need to direct this. I can’t turn this because I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve sold movies. I’ve actually written scripts. I’d sold six of the scripts before and they were so many of them were just butchered.
I didn’t recognize what I sold. I’m like, what is this? And it’s so frustrating. I’m like, I can’t let that happen to this story. It’s too important. Yeah, definitely.
You’ve got a fantastic cast working on the movie especially Antonio that’s King Herod. I mean, He just seemed perfect for that role.
I had him since COVID. The three years I had him top of my list. I just went, man, Antonio, I haven’t seen him. The opera and, and you know, all the different family movies he’s been in. Puss in Boots. Spike Higgs, and he just, he has this charm, yet he can be evil, he can sing like nobody he’s a phenomenal talent, and I just thought, man, how cool would that be?
It was a long shot. You put your your long shot at the top of the list. Thinking you’re gonna go to option five or six by the time you’re done. But God had other plans. You know, I pursued him and his manager and his manager was like, yeah, I like the script. I like the song, but, but he’s not available.
He’s busy directing and starring in a play. He can’t even be bothered with this. And I just kept pursuing it kind of like I did with this movie for 17 years. And I called the manager again and I said, well, where is he directing a strong this play because I want to go meet him and he said, well, Madrid, Spain.
And I said, well, I’m in Madrid, Spain. So set it up. Cause that’s where we were prepping for the movie. So I don’t think that’s a coincidence. And so I still couldn’t get a meeting with him. So we just started buying tickets to the show and going. We just started stalking him. So finally, long story short, he came out after a show one night and I got a few minutes to talk to him and pitch him my vision.
And by that time, he had listened to the song and loved it. And he just really caught the vision and said, let’s do it.
And do you have a favorite part of the movie?
You know, I think the nativity scene itself I think it’s so magical and I had that vision in my head for so long, the image of the, the end of the nativity scene and, you know, when we were running around on set, I was blocking the scene and with all the crew and I was showing them, I had the music playing.
I just turn it on. I’m like, Hey, we go here and the camera comes out here and then I’m like doing this whole song and dance and then it finishes and I look around and everybody has tears in their eyes. And I’m like, oh, wow, we’re onto something. Yeah. And now still when I’ve seen it a thousand times I tear up every time I get to that part in the movie, it’s so powerful.
It’s not what I did, it’s what it means. It’s what it means to me. Yeah.
I think for me, that was the most powerful part of the film as well. i’s just awesome part.
It’s really beautiful. It’s really magical.
I think as well, this, this movie really brings the truth of Christmas to the screen and do you think in some ways we’ve lost sight of the truth of Christmas?
100%. 100%. That’s, that’s why I wanted to make this movie. Yeah, you know, if nothing else, if people at least know what Christmas is about at the end of this movie, what the meaning is in Christmas, because we all celebrate it.
They think it’s Santa Claus and elves. No, it’s not. And so kind of the vision for the movie was how can I tell this in a way that’s as captivating and compelling and vibrant as a Santa movie or an elf movie, but do it about Christmas, what it’s actually about. So kids lean into the story and want to know more and families can watch it together and enjoy it together every Christmas.
That was the mission. And yeah, hopefully it worked.
I think it does. I think it captures the joy of Christmas, the truth of Christmas.
It’s surprising too. It’s in a different package than you’ve ever seen. It’s heightened, you know, I always say, you know, if it was a super grounded, like documentary start singing and dancing to pop music, you’re, you’re like the filmmakers lost his mind.
Like, what is he doing? So you have to heighten it enough to where you can justify it. And it’s not a documentary. I say in the beginning of the movie, inspired by a true story. It’s inspired by not a documentary. They didn’t sing and dance to pop music. But it is a true story as far as the filmmaker is concerned.
And you should watch it with that lens. Like I believe this is true.
How do you think God will use this film? What do you hope audiences will take away?
Man, I hope it brings some light to the world right now, especially this season with what all that’s going on. It’s hard to watch the news.
People need a respite. They need I think they need the hope that is inherent in this story and, and Jesus coming for a fallen world, a lost world. And man, I hope they can watch this movie and feel better than they’ve and then they want to watch it again. I hope this. Music lives on in their families and their homes.
I hope kids want to ask more questions about this. Discover their faith. And I just hope it brings a deep joy to families everywhere in the world. This Christmas. Yeah,
Finally, how can we pray for you?
You know what? I appreciate that. I pray the strike ends here. It’s a very tough time. Nobody can promote it except for me. So I’m running ragged. I’d really love for my cast to be able to, to talk about the movie.
But also pray that people don’t wait till Christmas to watch it. I need people to show up early when this movie comes out, go to theaters, bring your friends, bring your neighbors, bring your people who aren’t believers who just love the movie. This is the thing you can bring them to. It’s much easier than bringing people to church.
Go to the movies, go early, go often so that theater owners will keep the movie in through Christmas. You know, because if everybody waits till Christmas, they won’t be there. So I just pray people show up and support this movie.
Journey to Bethlehem is releasing in US theatres on November 10th and in UK cinemas on November 17th – everyone go see it.