John Bickley

So we wanted to talk to you about, well, a number of things, but first, your new film, which is a very relevant wrinkle to it.

We just celebrated Veterans Day this week, and the Christmas ring actually involved, at one point, about 100 actual veterans and service members.

Can you tell us about that?

And I understand that Gary Sinise and his foundation played a role in finding some of those veterans to populate the film.

Yeah, I wanted to ask you exactly about that, in fact, the role of faith in this film.

The author of the book that it's based on is Karen Kingsbury.

She's a Christian author.

You've recently starred in Jesus Revolution, a powerful film.

You played the role of Chuck Smith, the founder of Calvary Chapel, where I actually used to go to church, in fact.

Oh, yeah.

How important is it to you to play roles that you feel align with or at least sort of have some sort of relationship to your religious perspective?

Yeah, and your portrayal of Chuck Smith was, first of all, really terrific.

It clearly grounded the film.

It's the heart of the film.

This is a very complicated story.

It's not straightforward.

The lives of the real people that it's based on were messy.

They lived messy lives.

And it's a story that never gets old, does it?

You've talked openly in the past about the role faith in general has played for you and how important it is.