How Nearly Drowning Transformed This GAF Star’s Life
By Movieguide® Contributor
Over two decades after his near-death experience, actor Jesse Hutch is still grateful God saved him in a moment that changed his life forever.
“I drowned when I was 21 years old,” Hutch said. Before becoming an actor, he worked as a white-water rafting guide. “That was another miracle in my life…I should be completely, honestly dead. I shouldn’t have lived, and, if I did, I shouldn’t be able to speak, I shouldn’t be able to hear, I shouldn’t be able to talk.”
He talked with CBN News about the accident.
“Through a series of events, [I] ended up underwater…and just couldn’t get out,” he said.
The HOMESTEAD actor acknowledges that being alive today is a complete miracle.
“I still remember it quite vividly, and it’s a miracle that I’m actually alive, breathing, talking,” Hutch said. “I can think, I can walk, I have a family — that I’m even an actor, that I can remember things. Because, in all reality, without oxygen anywhere from 11 to 22 minutes, I should be completely gone. Both my eardrums should be completely blown.”
Hutch explained the mental turmoil he went through while underwater and how at one point he literally surrendered his life to God.
“Then you start to kind of go through the emotional aspect of it a little bit where you’re like, ‘OK, I logically know that…my body’s gonna want to breathe. How do I stop that?’” Hutch explained. “And eventually you just come to the wall where you go, ‘I’m done.…I’m finished.’ And I remember coming to that point where then it became spiritual, where I was like, ‘OK, Lord. I’m finished. I can’t do anything on my own power. I can’t do anything in my own thought.’”
His body then tried to force him to breathe underwater.
“And then I started convulsing and trying to breathe, and I was trying to hold it, and trying to hold it back. So, now I kind of have the spiritual, the emotional, the physical, all happening at one time.”
He ended up breathing in water and became unconscious. Hutch woke up later in an ambulance.
The event was so jarring that he realized he wanted to grow closer to God and walk in His purpose for his life.
“That’s literally when God turned my life around through a series of events, and for the first time in my life, I was like, ‘Oh, I think I’m gonna attempt to be an actor. That was never on my heart, never in my mind, not even an interest.”
READ MORE: GAF’S JESSE HUTCH RECOUNTS DROWNING EXPERIENCE: ‘IF YOU’RE STILL BREATHING,’ YOU CAN CHOOSE GOD
Now, acting is what he loves, especially in Christmas movies, and he uses his platform to share uplifting messages with others.
“It’s the funnest,” Hutch told Movieguide® last year of performing in Christmas movies. “To be in something that my kids can watch, that my family can watch, my grandmother can watch, I mean, that’s fantastic.”
“I really love the idea that…if you can do a Christmas movie every year, I mean, it’s just gonna keep coming back. And that’s pretty cool. It’s like a fashion trend, except it comes around a lot more,” he added.
His latest movie, HOMESTEAD, a post-apocalyptic film, premiered in December.
“I hope it allows people to take more judgment out of the equation, and instead just be where you are, and work from there. Don’t be afraid of the things you don’t see anymore, just deal with what is on your front step,” he explained.
“We need to have more grace for each other, and for ourselves because a lot of people are really hard on themselves,” Hutch added.
READ MORE: CAST TELLS ALL ABOUT ‘HOPE-DRIVEN’ POST-APOCALYPTIC MOVIE HOMESTEAD
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