The Eric Metaxas Show - Zachary Levi

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

Eric met with actor Zachary Levi to discuss "The Unbreakable Boy" 

Noble gold investments is the official gold sponsor of the Eric Mataxis show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you can protect your wealth with noble gold investments. That's noble gold investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. It's a nutritious smoothie of creamy, fresh yogurt, vanilla, protein powder, and a mushy banana. For your mind? Drink it all down. It's nummy. I wop vanilla. I wopanilla. Here comes arithmetic.

Hey there, folks. I'm back in New York City. Chris Himes, you're also back in the New York area. It's true. I got back last night, and I found my little dog. You know, as everyone was asleep, I had a later flight. And as I looked in the window, it was kind of like night before Christmas, except My dog was eating a piece of pizza that had been left out,

and he had jumped on the table and taken it to the floor. So that's what I came home to. I'm very sorry to hear that. Okay, I came home to a loving wife and zero dogs or children, which is sad. Okay, but so look, we've got a lot to cover here. We got a lot to cover here. Today, two hours, folks. In hour one, I'm telling you, in hour one today,

we have two absolutely harrowing stories, two different guests. The first one is Jeff Younger. Wait till you hear his story. And then after Jeff Younger, we have on another guest, our friend from the White Rose Resistance, A.J. Hurley, he has a harrowing story of his own. So if this is our one, prepare yourself for two very, very important guests, very important stories. In our two today, it's the lighter side of the Erkmataxis show. We're going to be playing my whole interview with Zach Levi. Zachary Levi, he's a big deal.

He's in all kinds of stuff. He's like this big Hollywood guy, but I'm too old to care. And I, but I have to say, I really liked him. So we're going to play both of the segments I did with him. I think yesterday we played one of the segments, but I said today let's play both of the segments. And then today we're going to play we're going to re-air a segment I did with John Irwin last night and of course tonight and every night

you can go to Amazon Prime and watch the House of David. This is a big deal. It's about the life of David. That's all I'll say for now. But I want to say it's a very big deal. It's a big deal. So we've got a lot coming up. I've got to mention a bunch of other things.

I want to talk about Pam Bondi and the Epstein list. I want to talk about Gene Hackman. I want to talk about our friends at the Herzog Foundation. Actually, I can do that a little bit later because we're going to run out of time here. Now, Chris, you and I yesterday were in Dallas, and we played part of this yesterday in the show. If you missed it, we're going to play this sometime next week. But a friend of ours, Tim Mahoney, has made a film about Michael Medved's book. It's the American miracle.

It's an amazing book. Amazing. I recommend it highly. And they've made a film. And in the film, they have to have, you know, a character playing the role of George Washington. And they got a guy, I don't even know his real name. who I think he used to do this at Mount Vernon. Now he does it at other places,

but he plays the role of General Washington, and he's so familiar with Washington that it's, take it from me, it's kind of freaky. Yeah, he's done his homework. Yeah, it's like one of those things where the actors in Hollywood, they do the background.

Like, what's my background story, even though it doesn't... Oh, no, no, no. That's times a thousand. Yeah. This guy is George Washington. And next week we're going to play a conversation I had with, it might as well have been George Washington. You'll see what I'm talking about.

It's totally freaky. But we should get some of these photos up. It was, I don't know what to say because I'm writing a book on the American Revolution. And by the way, pray for me on that because I want it to be everything it can be. And the American Revolution is one of the greatest events in the history of the world. That's not even an exaggeration on any level. and but talking to this guy who is so much like Washington, who knows Washington, it was just amazing. Okay, in the news, first of all, Pam Bondi said, oh yeah, we're going to release the Epstein stuff.

And some of you followed it yesterday. They sort of didn't. They released whatever they got, but what they got was Bubkis. And so it seems obvious, and they should have known this, and I guess they did, that, there are many very, very dirty cops in the FBI, bums, scum, corrupt people who do not care about you. They don't care about the dignity of the FBI. They're corrupt.

And I think the New York Southern District is at the top of the list of corruption in the FBI. So they didn't turn over what they're supposed to turn over. Because in case I didn't mention it, and I always should mention it, they're corrupt. So Pam Bondi said if it's not on our desk at 8 a.m. today. Now, we're well into the day. I haven't heard any news. But this is really nasty stuff. And so this is what the Trump administration and we the people have to deal with going forward,

is that there are people that are not interested in doing what they're told, in doing what is right by the American people. They're interested in doing whatever they feel like doing. They're probably have already destroyed all kinds of. kinds of stuff. So it's so wicked. So I want to say number one, pray for this nation, folks. Every day, pray that gods will be done in America as it is in heaven. It is very, very important. And so we're going to see what's going to happen with that. Maybe by the time this airs today, by the time you hear this, you'll have heard something. But this goes to, you know,

Johns Merrick has talked about this on the program. After we won World War II, there were, Japanese soldiers on islands throughout the Pacific who refused to give up. This was going like into the 1960s. Like literally they were, they were there still fighting the war. Even though Trump won, even though blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, there are a lot of these people in the deep state. They don't care. So we have to root them out like terrorists hiding in spider holes. We have to get them out. We have to fire them. In many cases, I hope we have to prosecute them. because what they're doing, you know, I don't need to say anymore. So that's crazy.

I want to mention today, Chris, I guess President Trump is meeting with Zelensky. Yeah, apparently they're expected to reach an economic agreement, which is sort of the step right before the final step of a peace agreement. So it's pretty sure he's going to make Zelensky governor of the 51st state of Canada. He's going to put him in the place of Trudeau. I believe that's what happened today. That is some 24 DHS right there. I did not.

Yeah. It's getting very, very complicated. And he's going to swap Greenland and Ukraine just to confuse people. So Ukraine will be the name of what Greenland is now. And Ukraine, which borders Russia, will be called Greenland. So it's going to get very complicated. I want you to stay tuned and stay tuned to the space because we're going to update you on all this. Okay.

Also, a little more seriously, one of the greatest actors ever, Gene Hackman, passed away at age 95, very mysterious. Not that a 95-year-old would die, but that his 64-year-old wife was also found dead. And if that's not weird enough, their dog was found dead. So nobody knows what's going on. But I'd like to focus on Gene Hackman as an actor. I cannot think of anybody who has done a more amazing range. He has been in three of the best films I've ever seen off the top of my head. One is the French connection. If you haven't seen that film, oh my goodness, one of the greatest films ever made. Tony Lobionco, who stars in that film and who just passed away last year, was a friend of mine. I can't believe I got to be friends with Tony

Le Bianco who appears in the French connection. But it's a tremendous film. Also, one of the greatest films ever made is young Frankenstein. He has an insane role in young Frankenstein. And if that's not enough, he's in the Royal Tenenbaum's. That might be his funniest role ever. I probably saw Gene Hackman the first time when I saw the Poseidon adventure in 1972. He's just, you know, he was everywhere. You talk about a humble guy who's not like beating his chest, what a great actor I am. He just was an absolutely spectacular actor. But just those films, Royal Tenenbaum, which to me, Wes Anderson's one of it.

He made like four or five great films. That's one of them. The rest I don't love. But Young Frankenstein, for sure, one of the greatest films ever made. And then the French Connection. And he has passed into eternity. All right, we'll be right back. Hold on to your hats.

Numbers don't lie. The impact that Balance of Nature makes every single day is astounding. You can see the numbers for yourself on their website at Balance of Nature.com. Listen to these stats concerning Balance of Nature's worldwide success. More than a thousand success stories reported each month, hundreds of thousands of customers worldwide, millions of orders delivered each year, and billions, yes, billions of fruits and veggie supplements

consumed by people who've decided to start living better. There's only one number missing, and that's you. Do what I did and add yourself to these numbers. start taking Bounce of Nature's Whole Food Supplements like so many others around the world. Here's another number that should get your attention. 35% use my discount code Eric to get 35% off plus free shipping and their money back guarantee. You must use my discount code Eric. Call them at 800-2468-751 and use discount code Eric or order online at balance of nature.com.

Use discount code Eric to get 35% off plus free shipping balance of nature.com. My Pillow is excited to announce that they're having the first ever mega sale on overstock clearance and brand new products. For example, you can save over 50% on this season's flannel sheets. The queen's size is only 5998 and King is only 6998. They sell out fast every year, so be sure to order now. You can also save 30% on their brand new My Crosses. They're designed in the likeness of the one Mike has worn every day for over 20 years. They come in men's and women's styles and they're made right here in the USA.

Get the 2025 six-piece My Towel sets for only 2998. The initial quantities are extremely low, so get them now before they go. And I can't forget to mention the best-selling standard. MyPillow is just 1498. To take advantage of the first ever mega-sale, go to MyPillow.com and use promo code Eric or call 800-978-3057. But wait, remember that $75 free shipping rule? Well, that ship has sailed because right now, for a limited time, every order ship's free. Folks, go to MyPillow.com.

use the promo code Eric. Mypillow.com. Promocode, Eric. Hey, the folks. Welcome back. As I think I just told you in the introduction, right now, I have the fun of talking to someone who claims that his name is Zach Levi. I haven't seen any identification, any corroboration, but we're going to take him at his word. He's an actor. You would know him from Chuck, Shazam, and perhaps from Tangled. And because Tangled, I think, is Anns. you wouldn't recognize him from that, but maybe you know his voice. Zach, welcome to the program. Thank you so much, man. Nice to be on with you.

What was it like to be animated? It was fun. I mean, I grew up a big Disney nerd, a dis nerd, as one might say. Loved all of the cartoons, all the old, you know, classic Disney making stuff. But then also the Renaissance and all the movies and all the, all of the musicals. And I literally dreamed of one day being in a Disney animated musical. and then I got to be in one. And not for nothing, but it's one of the best.

Tangle is a really excellent Disney. But being animated as you were, like, were there, there are no medical issues? You know, occasionally a safe tries to fall on me. Some acme dynamite is always falling out on me. Yeah. It's all good. So it worked out.

All right, because people told me that there can be stuff that lingers and just from the process of being animated. So you are in a new film starring my friend Patricia Heaton, who is such a great, great actress. I'm going to ask you, since you're a young guy to embarrass you, was it intimidating to work with, it's not about her fame, her talent? She is an amazingly talented actress. Were you daunted? I was, I was not. I was not daunted.

You should have been. You should have been, Zach. You should have been daunting. If I was in my right mind. If you knew what you're talking with. I wasn't just sossed all day long. Yeah, exactly. No, you know, fortunately, I had met and known Patty a little bit prior to that

and knew she was such a wonderful person, and she is such a fantastic talent. And I was really honored that she said yes to this little movie because it's a really small movie. I mean, it's a very slice of life, very grand in film. And she plays my mom in the film, and she just, she crushes it. She's so good. So what is the plot of the... film basically because the title is the unbreakable boy. So what's that about? Yeah, so it's a true story about a real family navigating the human condition, really. It's a young couple that gets pregnant

on their third date and decide to keep the child and, you know, figure it out along the way as they do. And so they're navigating their own selves and their relationship and marriage. And then they have two children and the oldest of which has brittle bones disease, osteogenesis imperfecta. but also is on the autistic spectrum. And so a lot of the movies centers around that child, Austin, and what it means to raise a child on the autistic spectrum or any child with special needs for that matter, and how difficult those waters can be to navigate

while you're also trying to figure out who you are and how do you have a healthy relationship with your spouse? And, you know, it goes to some, you know, real places. It's not just rainbows and butterflies. I mean, my character, Scott, he's a real guy, a real, you know, he's done very well by his family at this point, but he went through some really gnarly dark times through alcoholism, and he doesn't pull any punches, we don't pull any punches in that in the film,

but it's all, it holds you, though, like, with a lot of love. And so you get delivered on the other side of the story with lots of redemption and lots of hope and lots of love and what it means to love yourself and love your kids. It's powerful, man. And would you call it a quote-unquote faith-based film? Like, I always have, you know, we could talk about that. that issue of what that even means, but I'm just curious.

You know, no, it's a great question. I would call it more like faith infused. Like, the premise of the film is not hinged on the faith. Like, to me, a faith-based film is either a straight-up biblical story, or it's a story that is really hinging upon faith as being a part of its main, you know, story points. And I will say Scott's faith is a major, a transformational point in his life. But the movie, the story is not, is not hinging on that.

It's definitely laced in there. It's infused with it. But it's not anything. If you're not a person of faith, it's not something that's, you know, going to trip you up by any stretch. Right. Okay.

But you think of it as more as faith infused. I just want you to know that I find that kind of funny. It's a funny concept. Faith infused, ladies and gentlemen, don't be frightened. It's only faith infused. whatever the heck that means. It's like, you know, like all these fizzy waters we drink now, right?

You don't really get the full flavor. No. No. It's just a tincture, a tincture. It's a biblical faith. It's infused with some flavor. Don't be frightened. Well, so now it comes to us from the kingdom story company that's the folks behind

Jesus Revolution and the best Christmas pageant ever. And American Underdog, which was. the film I did with them where I portrayed Kurt Warner, the NFL quarterback. Right. So do you identify publicly as a person of faith or as a person infused with faith? Well, I get both. I don't know. I mean, I think a person of faith is greatly infused with faith, right? It's a huge part of who we are, our identity. I've identified as a person of faith my whole life and I've never shirked away from that in my career. When did you first become infused? You grew up in a, Christian home? Yeah. Yeah, I grew up in a non-denominational Christian home, you know,

spirit-filled, you know, speaking in tongues. You're in filled. We're on the same page, brother. Yeah. In fact, I got a ream a word of knowledge for you right now, which I cannot share on the air. Okay. Not really. No, I don't. I don't. But you go, but listen, because you're in Hollywood, you've been in some big Hollywood movies, I assume that that's tricky. Patty Heiden is a woman of faith. She's handled that very well. But what I find funny, and I don't think I've teased her publicly about this, but like somebody like Patty Eaton, they can kind of hide behind the Catholic thing. Like the kind of fact, like, oh, I'm just Catholic. It's like, I'm just Irish Catholic. She's a person of Christian

faith. But when you're Catholic, it's almost seems like, oh, it's just a thing. You know, I play paddleball. It's, it's no big deal. Yeah. But you're not, you're not Catholic. You're just a Christian. So has that been a challenge for you? I mean, I know Hollywood is not typically faith friendly? You know, I don't know, man. I mean, I don't know all the conversations that people have internally with themselves or with other people when it comes to the judgments

that they have. You know, for example, like I could have been talking about how I'm a person of faith earlier in my career and there could have been people who were like, ew, you know, we don't, but they wouldn't say that to my face per se. They would go and talk about that by my back. There could have been that, you know. There could be producers or executives

or casting directors that don't, want, don't like me and don't want to work me because of that, but I don't ever feel like it's been some major conspiracy or whatever. To be honest, I think, in fact, you know, Patty and I were just at a summit, a kind of a culture summit. We were talking about this. I think more, more than anything, people just are responding to whether or not are you a decent human being. Are you a kind of human being? If you are trying to force your beliefs, whether they're Christian or Catholic, or otherwise down to anyone's throat. If you're trying to bang them over the head and somehow carry yourself as holier than thou, judgment, and told, whatever. Then, of course, nobody wants to work with you. I wouldn't want to work with you.

I might even share the same spiritual faith or whatever, but I still wouldn't want to work with you because you're annoying. And you're not caring, you know, like one of my favorite quotes, certainly of, you know, within Christendom, although recently I've heard that it might not be true that this person didn't say this, which would be a bummer. but the quote still holds true to me. And it's St. Francis of Assisi who said,

preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words. To me, that should be baseline, Christianity, Catholicism, pick your religion. Like, if you want people to understand what it is you believe in, then you better go walk that walk so vividly,

so impactfully, that you don't have to say anything because people see it in you. They see it in your eyes, they hear it in your voice, they feel it in your character. You are exemplifying it in your actions. So when people feel the need to have to go and be really preachy, I find that that's because they're compensating for not actually walking a lot of that, Justin, being who they are. People can see my faith when I don't stab the people I hate.

For example, I don't do it because I'm a Christian. It's not allowed. I can't be just stabbing people because I hate their guts. and that's how people know. That guy, he's probably a Christian. The Holy Spirit prevented him doing that and being in prison forever, which he would deserve. No, it's interesting you say this because honestly, that issue has become so big for me. I wrote a book a couple of years ago came out called Letter to the American Church,

and I'm dealing with this issue of how many Christians they talk about, it's a lot about talking about your faith. And there's nothing wrong with talking about your faith. but if you're not living it, probably you should shut up. And I think that that's, it's kind of a, it's a disconnect in the culture. It goes back to, I wrote a book about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He saw this in the German church. They were all about talking about their faith.

And I believe this, but when the time comes to live it out, that's really, you know, what God is interested. He's interested in your living it out. So it's a hugely essential thing. We're going to keep you for another segment. Don't run away. Folks, we're talking to Zach Levi. The new film is called The Unbreakable Boy.

We'll be right back. Folks, welcome back. I'm talking to Zachary Levi-Reyer. many films. He's been animated once, but he recovered. You seem fine. You seem like a perfect live action human being. You don't even seem slightly animated at this point. Thank you. I appreciate that. That's very awesome. More than a lot of people give me credit for. Probably a lot of vitamin drips. Whatever they did, it worked, and you just seem fine. I just want to say. Okay, so we're talking about the film that is out in theaters right now called The Unbreakable Boy, starring our friend Patty Heaton.

And I want to ask you, like, did Patty try to shove her Catholicism down your throat? No, no, no, no. I love how passionate she is about her Catholicism. You know, I know what I really do. I mean, I don't see her shoving, shoving her Catholicism down with her. I just, I was just looking for a cheap laugh, Zachary, so thank you. Oh, yeah. Keep forgetting. You're really into those. Yeah, it's bad. It's terrible.

Yeah, then I should just go along with a joke. Yeah, she was horrible. She was really, she talked about just like waterboarding. you with you try to get you to wear a nun's habit she just doesn't care she doesn't care ruler yeah smackin wrists and knuckles all day yeah well it's well she's one of those folks seriously who has navigated you know faith and hollywood dramatically well i mean she's you know uh she's sort of legendary i was kidding you when we started out and saying you were you and timidated working with her no joke uh my wife and i saw her in a play that she did uh you know offbrose Broadway play in New York about, I don't know, it's got to be about 10 years ago or eight years

ago, something like that. I was astonished at her as an actress because it's one thing when you see a sitcom, you kind of think like, oh, yeah, it's a sitcom. Anybody could do that. That's not true, but you kind of, it feels like it, just because it feels very natural and, you know, and you're playing actors. But in this play, I was blown away by acting skills. I thought, holy cow, that's just amazing.

And I think people don't often realize how much talent actors have because they make it look easy. You know, they're just doing something that it looks like anybody can do. But of course, that's not the case. What are the projects are you working on right now? Or what's in development in your life? Well, just a comment on what you said. No, it's very true. I mean, it's like, you know, it's why we all love watching professional sports and feeling like,

like we would have caught that ball or we'd have thrown better or whatever, right? And people like Patty are really any actor. Oftentimes people associate you to indefinitely whatever role they found you in, whatever was the kind of like, you know, your big moment. And for her on, everybody loves Raymond, you know, multi-camera sitcom, people will often think of her and be like, oh, funny and, you know, really good in this comedy space. The truth is, in order to be a great comic, like, you really have to understand life and good, real acting oftentimes in order to then hit those moments, like, know the timing and why it's different than just a regular cadence, but really, you know, kind of nail those moments, and she does it so effortlessly. She's so talented.

What am I working on other than that? I've got a film, this rock climbing film that I'm going to go shoot in Rome for a few months coming up soon. Wait a minute. What? Are you just making this up? Are you just making stuff up? Oh, yeah, I got this rock climbing film. Yeah, who doesn't have one of those? You've got a rock climbing film in Rome? Well, we're going to shoot, yeah, so there's not a lot of rock climbing in Rome, per se,

but there are the Dolomites nearby. And we're going to shoot most of the film on one of these volumetric LED stages, because trying to shoot it all in the middle of a rock face would be, cliff face would be pretty difficult. So we're going to shoot it on a soundstage for the most part, and then we'll go do some of the exterior stuff out there. And I guess... So shooting it in a sound stage

reduces the risk of plummeting. Yes. You always want to keep plummeting... There's still a possibility of some plummetage. Wow. But yes, yes. So that's the next job I'll go shoot. Right now, I'm Briggable Boy,

just trying to get that out to the masses. It's such a beautiful film. And, you know, I will say, I really am hoping that the conservative audience, I want everybody to see it. It's not a conservative movie per se, but I think it definitely checks a lot of the boxes that conservative audiences are looking for in a film.

Yeah. And I just need everybody out there listening or watching or whatever to understand. You know, I look online, I see a lot of conservative folks who are very angry that there's not a lot of content for them out there. Well, if we don't support conservative content, then more of it's not going to be made for people. So I just hope that people understand that. Like, you've got to support it.

Otherwise, the studios will never see that there's a reason to make it, you know? You don't realize, Zach, you're singing my song. That's my song you're singing. And you don't even have to call it conservative content. It's just good content, right? It's just good content. It's not, it's not whatever all that, you know, people are so angry. It's like, I just want a movie that's just a good.

It's like, great. Then when you find them, go watch them. When you find those podcasts, so the shows or whatever, support them. because otherwise we're not going to get more of it. And I say that to everybody who's listening to this show, for example, if you're listening to this show now, you should be listening harder, even harder. Listen up.

No, but it's kind of true because I was recently doing a lot of press for the Bonhofer film. I don't know if you saw that, but a film was made about the life of Bonhofer. I wrote a book about him some years ago, and it's such a great film. And I said to everybody, just what you said, Like you need to support great films. It's about a hero of the faith.

Like you need to tell people about it. You need to go see it because otherwise you'll get less things like that. So I'm very excited for this film, The Unbreakable Boy, folks, for the love of Pete, go see it, the Unbreakable Boy. And it's starring Zach Levi and Patty Heaton. I would see it just for that. But Zach Levi, a joy to get to know you a little bit. you congratulations on the film and on all you're doing. Thank you, brother.

Such a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for having me on. Thank you for sharing the good word with the audience. And I look forward to meeting you in person at some point. Same here. Thank you. Bless you, bro. Bye.

Folks, I'm talking to John Irwin. You know him from all kinds of films, but there's a new one coming out tonight on Amazon Prime. It's actually a series. What do we call these things? TV series? Is it a TV streaming series? on Amazon Prime.

It's called House of David. And each episode is how long? An hour. An hour. Okay. Isn't it fascinating? I mean, as a filmmaker, that we are now at a point

where you can tell stories over eight hours. You have the freedom to do this. It's really hard work. I mean, I call Dallas Jenkins, who does The Chosen often. We're great friends, and I'm like, this is hard.

Television is hard. Yeah. But the amazing thing is the amount of stories that you can tell. And I think the reason there hasn't been like a sort of a definitive David movie, in my opinion, is his life is an odyssey. It's so big. It's such a big story. You really have to explore it in this way in chapters.

And this chapter is the hero's journey. So this, we were just talking off the air, these eight episodes, which is season one, I mean, you're not doing season two yet. But it culminates in that moment in his life. perhaps, because we don't want to spoil it, where he may go up against a giant. It's just a big ending. Maybe his name starts with a G. We don't know. We can't say publicly because it's all been embargoed.

But the fact is, it could be the case. So in the first episode, eight episodes, three of which are available tonight? Three are available tonight. It takes you all the way up to the anointing of David. And the discovery of Goliath is the end of the third episode. It sort of sets the stage. You know, what's interesting is David was a, a. an outcast chosen to be king in a nation that already had a king.

Yes. That's a, that's bad. That's a death sentence. That's a secret to keep. That's trouble. In fact, when the prophet Samuel goes to anoint him in the Bible, he says, you know, if Saul finds out I'm going, he'll kill me. So there's stakes just to the anointing of day.

No lie. Yeah. I forget about this stuff. That's, again, one of the wonderful things about being able to tell something, you know, via a film or TV series that you forget things, you know, you read things, but then you see it and you go, oh yeah, I forgot that part. I remember when I read your book Bonhofer, it just, you rethink history through the lens of a personal story.

Yeah. And, and it's, it's amazing. Ken Burns uses the term emotional archaeology, which I like the idea of what we do of taking a story from history and bringing it to life. It's an amazing exercise. I mean, we were just talking about, you know, this idea how the world has changed since we were kids and how you can now tell a story in the, you know, the way. And, you know, TV has changed so dramatically.

I mean, Sopranos was one example. For me, the crown was the ultimate example. When I saw The Crown, a few episodes, a few seasons of it, I thought, this is like a golden age of storytelling. I can't even believe that you can tell this story, and each hour is gold. It's not like they're doing filler. It's just gold. You're getting backstories and you're able to develop characters.

It's like the 19th century novel. It's like Dickens or Tolstory. We've never been able to do it. this. It just didn't exist really. The setup didn't exist. You go to the movie theater, you've got two hours, that's it. And there's certain stories that make

for great movies, but when you have a life like David and you have the coming of age hero's journey and the odyssey of his life and his reign, you have to break it into chapters, and television allows us to do that. And we're in this moment where the success

of films like mine, like Jesus Revolutioner I can only imagine, or the chosen, with Dallas has given us a moment where we're able to get the resources necessary to do these things and still keep creative control. So I have the audience to thank, like, the power of our unified voice is powerful. And so that's why I'd love for you to tune in for the show. Oh, yeah. No, no, no, don't worry. We're watching this. This is a must see TV. It's interesting because I'm fascinated as a creator, you know, like when I wrote the Bonhofer book, I thought, this is a series, right? Now, the film just came out. The film is fantastic. I hope everybody will

see the film. But I've always felt, and I think we're going to do it, I want to do a series because you get into this. It's so epic. There's so many characters and backstory and the Nazis and what's going on. And you want somehow to be able to tell all of that. You can never do that really in

two hours. It's just not that kind of a story. The form is different, and the series format, limited series, or multi-season series, just allows you to explore the characters in whole ways. And it's a different form. of storytelling a bit, but it's so satisfying.

I mean, I've only done feature films up to this point, and it's amazing to be able to explore these characters over the course of hours. Again, when I saw the crown, my wife and I watched it, I was just blown away. I thought, we can do this now? Yeah. Like, this is every one, and it's interesting because the writing, of course, has to be great. It doesn't work if the writing's not great.

But if the writing is great, wow. What did Shakespeare say? The play is the thing, you know, ultimately. Did he say that? I'm pretty sure I said that, and he stole it. But you know what? I don't care who gets credit. You know, okay, Aaron's the Taxes said, the play is the thing.

The plays. And that's what matters. It's the words, honestly. And that's the thing about David is you think about we're still singing like the band for King and Country just released a cover for the album to the credits to the song, Psalm 40, the U2 song, 40 years old. And then the lyrics to that song are 3,000 years old. So you think about that's the power of words. Wow. We're still singing the words of King David.

Wow, wow, wow, wow. thousands of years later, and that's a crazy thing to think about. And I think that stories matter. I think stories are the ways that we understand the meaning and purpose of life. There's no... I mean, look, the Lord created us that way. Right. It's intrinsic to who we are.

So, tonight, people can watch three episodes of this. Three episodes? And then, ultimately, there are eight episodes. There's an episode every week thereafter until the finale that, again, is very big. That's all I'll say. So the finale's big. Maybe. It's a big guy.

A big guy gets killed. Maybe not. We don't want to spoil it because it could go either way. Yeah. But are you allowed to think publicly about other seasons? Or is... I would say I'm thinking about other seasons of the show every day. And, you know, again, the success of these things is what creates the opportunity for more of them.

And so we've told this first challenge. but the goal would be to tell the entire life of this character much the crown is a great example and we'll see and I think and so that's why I would just say tune in the more our voice unifies

it's sort of like the you know Joshua in the Battle Jericho the walls fell down when they're voice unified and that really is what's happening culturally especially in our industry and I would just say to say thank you to the audience like this is an unprecedented moment in Hollywood I've never seen anything Absolutely. You can't overstate that. There's something utterly unprecedented about where we are,

and everyone needs to thank God that we are in this moment. We can make films like the Bonhoeffer film. Like this is an extraordinary moment. People need to take advantage of it. So ladies and gentlemen, you got your marching orders tonight. Tonight, it's Thursday, folks. Tonight, check it out. It's called House of David on Amazon Prime. John Irwin, just so proud of you. God bless you. As always, man. Thank you for the friendship and the stories that you tell. And onward. It's tonight. I can't wait for you to see.

Tonight, I know, I can't believe it. We had some news the other day. Chris and I, we were in Dallas, and I met with the folks who were putting together the cruise. You know, the inspiration is the name of the company. And we're going to be on this Norwegian cruise line ship. The V-VUts, their newest ship. But I got information from them when I was in Dallas. It's literally two days ago.

And I said, I've got to mention this every day on the program because people don't know. and I didn't understand this before, and I'm sorry I didn't mention it before now. But typically when somebody like inspiration books somebody like me to headline this kind of a tour on a cruise ship, they go to the cruise ship company and they reserve a number of cabins for the Eric Mataxis tour group. So they do that.

And then at some point the ship, you know, Norwegian cruise line says, we need those rooms back because we have people who want them. And so then eventually they have to give it up. So we had to do that. At least that's what Inspiration told me. But then for some reason, and this is the stuff I don't know and I don't care. But the Norwegian Cruise Line came back to inspiration and said,

we can give you some of these rooms back for a little while. So that happened very recently. So I'm here to tell you if you've contacted the. them and they said, oh, we're going to put you on a waiting list or something. If you call them now, if you contact them now, they have these cabins that we have reserved again. They said to me, rather pointedly, Norwegian can take them back at any time. I don't think they were saying that to me as a selling tactic. I think they were saying, we don't have any control and they made it clear to us, we'll let you have these, but we're going to just take them off when we want to

take them off. So as far as I know, today, they're still available. Ericmetaxis.com slash cruise is the website. Ericmetaxis.com slash cruise is the website. So I'm excited about the cruise. There's all kinds of details we still haven't shared about the cruise. We're doing a pre-cruise thing. If anybody wants to come to Athens early and join us for the pre-cruise event. It's going to be a Socrates in the city three-day tour. We're going to do a Socrates event. We haven't figured out who's our guests for that. That's also available at the website, Ericmataxis.com slash cruise. But the main thing is the cruise itself. That's the one where there

are cabins that are reserved. They're holding them. But at any point, they can take them back. And then it gets tough. So I'm just telling you, if you're thinking about this, think hard now and look into it now, go to Ericmataxis.com slash cruise. I also want to remind you that my book, Donald Drain's the Swamp, is available. Donald Trump is

draining the swamp. So, I think it's fun right now to, well, we're going to be talking about this in the weeks ahead because these books, they're a lot of fun, but you can get Donald drains the swamp, Donald builds the wall, Donald on the fake news. I recommend going to my store.com using the code

Eric, you get an insane discount. my store.com, use the code Eric. By the way, anything you get at Mypillow.com, please use the code, Eric. And finally, our friends at the Herzog Foundation want you to know that they exist. Why? Because they want to help you. If you're interested in homeschooling or quality K-12, Christian education, Christ-centered education, the real stuff.

This is the future of the nation, folks. If we don't get busy doing this, if we let our kids be indoctrinated by Marxist, transgender activists who have taken. taken over many of our public schools. That's on us. So please avail yourself of the free resources at the Herzog Foundation, herdsug foundation.com. They are heroes in this fight. I mention them every day. They have a website. Readlion.com. R-E-A-D-L-I-O-N.com. Tell them, Eric Mataxis sent you, you'll be grateful when you see. They want to help you educate your kids. So that's Herzog Foundation.com.

All right, thanks for listening.