Raising A Soul Surfer (25 page)

Christians are too often portrayed in the movies as weirdoes, nut jobs or hypocrites. We shouldn’t be surprised by this, since the Bible records in 2 Peter 3:3, “In the last days scoffers will come” (
NIV
). These are mockers who deny the truth.

None of us were interested in making a movie that would only appeal to the most hardcore believer. We wanted to share the message of hope with everyone, inside or outside of the church. As for how we wanted the faith element to be portrayed, we knew there had to be a balance. We rejected script after script because we wanted to ensure that the heart of the story remained an inspiring story about a young female athlete, Bethany, who
overcame great obstacles through her faith in God. (There are several well-made movies with inspirational faith backbones. A few of my all-time favorites are
A Walk to Remember
,
Amazing Grace
,
The Mission
and
Pollyanna
.)

It took a few years before Roy was able to lock down a director along with financing. With that step, the movie suddenly had traction.

That director was Sean McNamara.

Now
Soul Surfer
was going forward, and it seemed to us that God’s hand was taking care of every detail from start to finish. We believe that God assigned Sean to “direct” Bethany’s life on film. Sean had a résumé with several films and lots of television work—one of which was a series about surfers shot in Hawaii called
Beyond the Break
.

When it came to the integrity of the script, Sean McNamara worked hard to sort out the good from the bad. He was clearly irritated that so many scriptwriters had set off in their own direction without regard to the real story. At six-foot-three, and with a certain presence about him, Sean sure can be intimidating to unruly screenwriters; but don’t tell anyone that we think he’s really a big teddy bear.

Sean took on the project because, as he said, “I wanted to make a movie that mattered.” What none of us knew at the time was that making
Soul Surfer
was going to be the most challenging project in Sean’s career. The job of finding someone to invest in the movie fell largely on his shoulders. He traveled all over the world, including to Dubai, Beijing and Shanghai, looking for people to back the film; but he came back empty-handed.

At the same time, there was a tug-of-war happening about the script. Sean was striving to be faithful to Bethany’s story while also working with the people at Sony pictures, who warned him that he was walking a fine line by trying to please both the
Christian audience and the secular audience at the same time.

Unknown to us, Sean sometimes got to the point where he thought he should just give up. “It was a battle,” he confided to us after the film had wrapped. “I felt like this project was under attack by forces that didn’t want it to get out.” I don’t believe those were just natural or human forces. At the end of the film, he summed up the experience as one that had “tested my faith.”

We were excited to have a director who was sensitive to a Christian theme, and Sean wanted to truly portray our family, not just use our characters as cardboard cutouts around the action scenes of surfing and shark attacks.

Bethany’s simple yet profound faith was that faith he wanted to work into the film. Sean wanted to portray our faith in the movie as “pizza for everyone, not spinach for a few.” In other words, faith is not some atypical and strange thing only for the few, but something that everyone ought to enjoy.

For all of the opposition and struggle of the early years, Sean gained some potent help from some of the key actors who were signing on. Their own vibrant faith in Christ became a bold statement for the Christian theme to remain undiluted. Through them, we gained ground in our position that our faith was an integral part of the story—without it, Bethany’s amazing and dramatic comeback was meaningless.

Our insistence on the clarity and integrity of the faith element probably rubbed some people the wrong way. But as a family, we were holding on to the mission we had agreed upon many years ago:
to use our lives to glorify Christ
.

Oscar-winning actress Helen Hunt, and young actors like Ross Thomas, Lorraine Nicholson, Chris Brochu and, again, our
surfer friend Sonya Balmores were signing up to be a part of the
Soul Surfer
movie—and we still didn’t have a script with which we were satisfied. Finally, with the shooting scheduled only a couple of weeks away, we got the most current take on the script. While it took a few liberties, it was
finally
something we could live with—and, better yet, stand behind.

Still, at the back of our minds, we knew that even with a solid script there were a lot of hands the movie had to go through before it was shown to audiences. We could have worried about the editors, producers and studio executives, but we trusted God and we trusted who He had sent to us. We knew that Sean McNamara had the vision to keep the Christian message intact.

As I mentioned in
chapter 1
, once filming started, our family moved to Oahu and watched the whole thing unfold. There were a few little road bumps—some dialogue deemed “too Christian.” To our surprise and joy, it was the actors and actresses who insisted on keeping the integrity of the part. And not just professed Christians like Dennis Quaid, Carrie Underwood or AnnaSophia Robb. There were many more who had the courage to speak up and keep things from getting watered down.

By the time we got to the wrap party, everyone was exhausted yet exhilarated. It felt like we had all scaled a mountain. But now we had to ride some real waves!

When the first rushes (also called dailies) of the surf scenes came in, our son Noah was not satisfied—neither were any of us, especially Bethany. The surfing scenes looked great to everyone who didn’t surf. We are a family who watches surf DVDs every day, and we saw right off that we needed to showcase Bethany’s surfing for an impactful ending.

Noah and Becky came up with a plan to film Bethany in Tahiti. His skeleton crew grew when everyone wanted to help out in Tahiti! He had a budget plan that tripled by the time the production team finished, but it was worth every penny spent.

It is fairly common for major film studios to have test market showings of different versions of the same movie. The test audiences fill out questionnaires so studio executives can compare audience reactions to each version. In the case of
Soul Surfer
, there was a director’s cut and a studio cut. In one, the faith side of the story was stronger; in the other, the faith message was softened. For example, in one version, Dennis Quaid, playing Tom, reads to Bethany from a book clearly marked “Holy Bible.” In another version, this scene might be absent altogether.

Depending on audience reaction, or perhaps studio whim, the final version of the film might be one or the other, or just have the words “Holy Bible” magically erased from the black book Dennis is holding, though he is obviously reading from the Bible. It’s hard to have control over the final editing stage of the process.

Does that sound like nitpicking? Maybe. But they were making a movie about us—about real, living people—not about semi-legendary figures from the past. Hollywood doesn’t have the right to rewrite someone’s life, unless he or she has signed that right over to them.

At least we had this first cut. Finally, our family was going to get to see the film.

The scene was Culver City, California. We were all gathered in a small theater on the lot of Sony Pictures Studios. The lights dimmed, and there on the screen was something I would have
never imagined when I first stood on warm sand with a surfboard under my arm, or first noticed a handsome, goofy-foot surfer named Tom Hamilton, or first held our baby girl in my arms. There was our life being played out on a giant screen, complete with dramatic music and world-famous actors.

Have I mentioned the word “surreal” recently?

Sitting in the velvety darkness as the final credits rolled, for a moment I could see with intense clarity the hand of God working through it all. For all our fuss and fears, our tensions and tears, God had guided the making of our movie, working through believers and unbelievers alike. His hand had been on us even in our darkest hours. His hand was with Bethany, protecting her, inspiring her and blessing her with the very thing she prayed for just before the attack. Her story—her life—has proclaimed God, reaching farther than the tragedy of losing an arm, farther than if she’d never lost it.

God’s hand was on Tom and me even when we were far from Him. His hand was on our unreliable van, leading us to a friend named Mark Nakatsukasa and his incredible roommates Creature and Michel, who ended up leading us to Christ. His hand guided Sarah Hill to jump feet first into youth ministry and make an impact with a bunch of rambunctious surf girls who would end up preaching the love of God across the world. God had also prompted Sarah to recall what He had written thousands of years ago—words that became our buoy of hope when the waves threatened to drown us.

Before the attack, I had so many plans for my future and dreams of how my daughter’s amazing talents could affect the surfing community. But my hopes and dreams were too small for God. He always has much grander plans. Now, I was sitting in a movie theater knowing that our story, which puts God firmly in the center, would go out and reach people who maybe have
never even seen an ocean. My plans were way too small. It took a tragedy to shatter them and recast them into God’s plans.

Bethany’s story of faith will be seen in faraway places where she may never get to visit herself. It will be bootlegged and sold for a dollar in Bali; it will be downloaded on computers and mobile devices. It will end up on Netflix and on-demand channels. Someday it might even end up on network television, with commercials for sports drinks or hair-care products interrupting the movie in weird places. It will go to people and places that would never have heard of Bethany if she had
merely
become the world champion of women’s surfing.

When our plans unravel, when the fear and the tears of tragedy collapse our safe and petty world, we can only turn to God, who works all things for good to those who love Him (see Rom. 8:28). The frayed fabric of our pain becomes a work of beauty in His hands.

That day in Culver City, when the lights came on in the little theater, I saw one corner of God’s tapestry, one tiny corner. It was enough.

As everyone stood and clapped, Tom and I remained seated, with tears rolling down our faces. God had used Tom and me, a couple of laid-back soul surfers with a mottled past, to raise a soul surfer for Jesus—actually, to raise a family of ocean-minded believers. Our boys have proven themselves to be men of God on their own journeys of faith. Though they may never face the same attention their little sister has, they have each honored God and their parents in their own special ways.

We are just the Hamilton family, undeserving and unworthy recipients of God’s love, mercy and grace.

I am sure that the prophet Jeremiah never foresaw surfers like us when he recorded God’s assuring words of care and comfort that have been our fortress of security through everything.
I like to think that our Lord was thinking of us when these words were burned into the prophet’s mind: “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the L
ORD
, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’ ” (Jer. 29:11,
NIV
).