Kevin Sorbo is a new name that could be included in the entertainment industry's list of canceled celebrities. The actor who is famous for his role in Hercules told Fox News that Hollywood canceled him for being a conservative Christian. The situation got so bad that the actor, who is about to release "Miracle in East Texas," even lost his agent who "blacklisted him":
It was sad to me, you know, my manager and agent for so many years said that we can't get you jobs anymore, work with you because of you being a Christian, being a conservative. And I almost had to laugh at that because it's an industry that screams for tolerance, and yet it's a one-way street. It screams for freedom of speech. But Hollywood's a one-way street as well. And that's just too bad, you know. But I love the industry. I love the movies and TV. It was really weird. I mean, here's the thing. We have such a huge divide in our country right now, and it's perpetuated by the mainstream media, perpetuated by movies, TV. I don't harbor that kind of anger and hatred towards people. I have a different point of view.
His latest project: Sorbo Studios
Being canceled led him to create his own production company, Sorbo Studios with his wife, Sam, whom he met on the set of "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys." That was the beginning of their love story. They got married in 1998 and had three children. Kevin Sorbo told Fox News that later they created the production company Sorbo Studios. Several people are intrigued by their work because they make "quite different films." It is all part of a new professional life that he launched with his wife:
You know, it put me on a road that I never thought I'd be on, which is the talk circuit. And I do probably about 12 to 15 speaking events a year and covering everything from pro-life to Christian education to medical to whatever it may be. Even Hollywood, motivational … I mean, people want me to talk about the culture war between what Hollywood's doing and the kind of movies I'm doing because, obviously, we're doing quite different movies. I don't think I'm doing something that different. I'm doing the movies Hollywood used to do.
An example of this is "Miracle in East Texas." The movie, which will be released between October 29 and 30 in select theaters, is based on a true story set in 1930 and tells the story of the largest oil field in the history of the world.
'Miracle in East Texas,' a film "opposed" to Hollywood cancellation culture
The story, Sam Sorbo explained, was written by screenwriter Dan Gordon for Paul Newman and Robert Redford. However, the actors decided that they were "not going to work together again." The film seemed lost until the couple agreed with Gordon who told them about the project, as Kevin Sorbo explained:
He dusted it off. We did a movie with him earlier called ‘Let There Be Light’ that Sam wrote. He came to do the rewrite on it, and that's how that relationship was formed. The character that I play actually is one of the two characters that were the main — really the main story's written about them. John Ratzenberger plays the other guy with me. These two guys would go through Oklahoma and Texas wooing widows out of their money on fake oil wells. They would sell 500% of the shares in dry holes and move on. True story. And then when they got to Kilgore, Texas, they accidentally struck oil.
They explained that they make movies that go against the cancel culture they see in Hollywood day after day. Therefore, they define it as a family comedy but with a deeper background. Sam Sorbo explained to Fox News:
We do live in this culture of canceling people. And that, of course, is the opposite of forgiving them. And the movie, one of the themes in this movie and part of the reason that we fell in love with it is it has a theme of redemption, has a theme of forgiveness. And, you know, every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
