Zachary Levi on How Faith Propels AMERICAN UNDERDOG
By Movieguide® Staff
Actor Zachary Levi, known for his role in 2019’s SHAZAM! and Disney’s TANGLED, teamed up with the Erwin brothers in his latest role as NFL MVP Kurt Warner in AMERICAN UNDERDOG.
Levi said that he connected with Warner’s story of faith, perseverance, and sacrifice on more than one level.
“We definitely have a lot of crossover and how we came up in life and the type of Christian background and values,” Levi told Movieguide®. “But even outside of the spiritual faith aspect, there’s so much faith involved in this movie.
“Brenda’s faith in Kurt was a huge part of him believing in himself even more and being able to go and attain those dreams,” Levi explained. “The faith that her son Zach had in Kurt, and the faith that Kurt and Brenda had in Zach, to keep growing and become the young man that he has become—who’s just a ray of sunshine in this world—all of that stuff, to me, is the inspiration behind all of that. The hope that it builds, that makes a movie like this really, really worth doing.”
Levi revealed that both Kurt and his wife, Brenda, were on set for most of the movie’s filming in a previous interview. While Levi confessed that it was intimidating, he said that it was helpful to build that relationship off-screen for his on-screen portrayal of Warner.
Read Also: Zachary Levi Found Common Ground With Kurt Warner ‘As a Person of Faith’
Levi added that while the movie is about football, its deeper relationship themes carry the story.
“As much work as we can put in, we’re supposed to rely on other people,” Levi said. “Relationships are more important than almost anything. Community and love and family, that is the value of other human beings, the real only value in all of this. Football is great, but it’s entertainment, we have lots of that. I love football, I want to be entertained by it all day long. But that’s still something that’s temporal. Love and depth, that’s the real value.”
“Yes, it’s Kurt on the poster, and that’s the kind of go-to well, he’s the American underdog, but really, it’s all of them. They’re all American underdogs. They’re all struggling through life. At the end of the day, you need to have people supporting you through that,” Levi continued. “And they did and that’s part of the beautiful part of their relationship that endures to this day, they’re still I mean, they make me sick, how much they love each other.”
Check back to movieguide.org later this month for the full review of AMERICAN UNDERDOG.
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