Kevin Sorbo On His New Children's Book, New Film, And Americans Standing Up Like Lions
Actor, Producer, and Author Kevin Sorbo joined Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone for American Ground Radio Tuesday to discuss his new book and new movie but the conversation went waaaaay wider than that, touching on the collapse of cancel culture the evils of Hollywood, and the rise of Lions.
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When asked about his new book The Test of Lionhood from BRAVE Books Sorbo began telling his story behind the story.
“This book, really, it's from the Brave Books. Kurt Cameron came out with his about a year ago, and he was reading in public libraries and people all up in arms and the libraries closed. ‘We can't have him read this book here. It's a good book with good messages. We want drag queens reading our special books for the four and five-year-olds.’ It's crazy what's going on in the world right now, and you guys know it.
I mean, it's just nuts. And I do a lot of speaking events and I kept saying, you know what? I'm tired of this whole thing about the silent majority. We've been talking about it for years and years. Where's the silent majority? Stop being such wusses. Wake up! We need to be lions and we need to wake up the lions and get 'em out there, not be afraid to get canceled. And the more people do it, then there's going to be less canceling. Trust me. And Braid books got ahold of me and said, we like it. We want to do a book about the lions. We want to do about that deals with boys being boys.“
He continued, “Let boys be boys. Let boys grow up to be strong men. Let boys grow up in families with the dad's a strong dad. The mom's a strong [wo]man. They both have their different things to do that are good for the family. They're not identical. A man's, a man, a woman’s a woman. I'll get in trouble for saying that apparently, and I don't care. I just don't care. I'm so sick of what the world is doing right now and certainly what's happening here in America. And people need to start fighting back because this book doesn't bash anybody.”
Sorbo was on a roll, he continued, “It's just saying, let kids be kids. Let 'em grow up and decide what they want to be. Don't sit there and tell a third grader if he's a boy that he can be a girl. Let him find that out for himself when he grows up and he feels that way, that's fine. I'm in the industry of Hollywood. I've worked with gay people my entire career. You won't find one that says, ‘Gosh, he was horrible to me. He was so mean. He was so homophobic.’ It's not true. But they love their labels and they just throw it out there right away. And being a conservative and a Christian in Hollywood got me booted out, but I formed my own studio. Sorbostudios.com. Please go there.”
Looking back at his long career Sorbo added,
“A lot of good movies I've done down the past. You mentioned God's Not Dead. I was part of Let To Be Light, Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist,. What if?, Abel Steel, Soul Surfer. I've done a lot of wonderful movies and that's what people stopped me for today more than anything. They didn't even talk about Hercules of Andromeda anymore. My two series that ran for 12 years in a row, they talk about the movies that have a good family message with love, hope, redemption, faith, laughter. Things Hollywood will not do anymore.”
Parr then asked about Sorbo Studio’s upcoming release of Miracle In West Texas noting Kevin’s impressive filmography he said, “Look, Kevin, your IMDB right now says you've got something like 25 films in either pre or post-production. I mean, for some actors that would be an entire career, and that's just kind of where you are today. You really are doing a lot of work in trying to get positive messages out there.“
He answered,
“Well, I guess actors so sick of the stuff Hollywood's doing, and they actually called me and booted me out. They really did. About 10 years ago, 11 years when manager and agent said, ‘We can't work anymore.’ Hollywood doesn't want to work with you because being a Christian, being conservative, I went, ‘Wow, you guys scream for tolerance.’ But just like Washington D.C., Hollywood just shines in their hypocrisy and truth is kryptonite to these bozos. And I said, fine. It's amazing that tolerance is a one-way street, even though you scream for tolerance all the time. And I just said, I'm going to form my own studio and do my own thing. And because of that, I've been working more than ever. I've shot over 80 movies and since Hollywood booted me out, I've shot over 60 of those 80 movies and a lot of friends that are independent movie producers, like I get ahold of me and say, Hey, I got this great family movie. Would you like to be part of it? And you read the script and go, yeah, I'm going to be part of this.”
Sorbo added, “So we got to fight back to the culture because Hollywood is kicking our butt right now. They have such big money and they just throw it out there. But Walt Disney's flipping over his grave right now, the one in the fifties said, movies and television will influence our youth in a good, bad way. Well, he's never been more right in this current decade where his own studio is just destroying his name brand. Disney's looking at a well over a billion dollars in losses of movies this year because all they do is put up that woke agenda Crap. People are tired of it. Look at Indiana Jones will not make as much money. A $300 million movie with a hundred million dollars advertising campaign will not make as much money as the sound of freedom.”
Louis R. Avallone asked Sorbo about cancel-culture and when the TV Action Star-turned-Christian film headliner found a turning point, the answer was surprising. Louis began, “Kevin, you expressed a great deal of frustration at cancel culture. You're expressing a great deal of frustration with being politically correct, talking about Hollywood. What was the turning point for you? Because when you were working in Hollywood all those years, did you bite your tongue? Were you politically correct? And if so, do you remember what that turning point was for you where you said, you know what, I don't care anymore. I'm going to speak my mind.”
Sorbo replied,
“Well, I never cared from the beginning. I was never politically correct or incorrect. To me, political incorrectness is everything is just crazy for me. It's just upside down and backwards. I was always vocal, but not a negative way. People said something on set. I go, why do you feel like that? And I wouldn't be yelling. They yell, the left is yell. They forget. They yell really loud that they're right, that they're correct. And then once you point out the obvious faults of their way and hit 'em with truth, they say you're wrong and walk away. They don't tell you how you're wrong, but that's their defense. You're wrong. And then walk away and all angry.
I think it's because of social media about 10, 11 years ago, 12 years ago. I mean, I was just posting the truth and that was enough to set people off. And my agent manager said, we can't deal with you anymore. And I was like, oh my gosh. I mean, everything I post, there's no hate behind it. There's no anger behind it. I don't care if someone's gay. I don't care if someone's far left liberal. I may not understand that world, but I'm a live and let live guy. I believe in freedom of speech, but they do not. And the whole idea about liberalism, if they would look up the definition of the word, and they probably change it. They keep changing the definitions of all the words now. But being a liberal man, everybody's point of view was supposed to be okay. It was supposed to be all right, but you have a different point of view.
But now it's like the view, right? The view. It should be my view on that TV series and mour than those wacky women. I mean, they won't invite me anymore. And I did that show five or six times, but the last time I did it about seven years ago, I kind of laid into 'em and they called 'em on their bs. Well, they've never invited me back. They don't like to be challenged. They don't like the truth in their face. It's kryptonite to them. So I'm just going to keep on doing what I'm doing and I'm fine. I love the industry. I love making movies. I love being with creative people, and I've done just fine without Hollywood.
I was never a Hollywood person to begin with. I just fell in love with acting at a young age. So I had to deal with the crap of it. And I think there's a lot of actors out there, and trust me, I know a lot of people come up to me on movies in the last six, seven years, say, ‘Thanks for being a voice for us.’ And I said, ‘Be a voice for yourself, man.’ ‘Oh no. I'll get blacklist like you.’
Then I go still making movies. Hollywood's not going to call me for anything big anymore, but that's fine. I'm making a living. I'm doing movies that have a positive message instead of the negative ones that Hollywood keeps shoving down our throats.”
Stephen asked, “Now, Kevin, you talk about speaking up and fighting back, and one of the things that I've seen over the last, at least two years, I think, and correct me if you think differently on this, I'm seeing a group of people that are in and around Hollywood standing up and fighting back the way you are. Kelsey Grammar, Dean Kane, you've got Jonathan Rumi out there, Jim Caviezel. You've got people that are kind of fighting back the same way that you are. Does that give you any hope?“
Sorbo replied,
“Oh yeah. I think more and more people are waking up. I really think the lions are saying Enough is enough, and it's changing. It's only going to get changed more in a positive way because people have had it. The American public has had it. We've had it with all these A-listers so-called a-listers in Hollywood that they're worth hundreds of millions of dollars. They can afford to be socialists. You know what I'm saying? They're not living that lifestyle. Trust me, they made their money in a capitalist business. I mean, they can all from Netflix and Amazon, all these people can sit there and go, we're for this, we're for that. But behind this, behind the curtain, they want to make money, and that's a capitalist business. Capitalism is the perfect No, but it's the best system that's ever been around. It's what made America the best country in the world, and now the liberals and the left, and people like Biden are just trying to destroy America.
Why? I don't know. It's incredible to me. It's the weirdest thing in the world to me. When you look at what they're doing, not only through the government, which has always been a joke, but through the voting process, through people, just apathy I think is the biggest killer in America. People go, oh, what can I do? Well, you keep giving the government an inch every day. Well, after 30 years of it, they've taken miles and miles away. We're losing all kinds of freedoms. We don't have freedom of speech anymore. The way I get attacked on the internet just cracks me up. Twitter, I'm able to on Twitter because of Musk. I've got close to 2 million followers there. But you look at what they did on Facebook, I had over 2 million followers there, and they took me down two and a half years ago for posting the truth because that Zuckerberg and his little trolls, they hate the truth. These people, these guys are just worms. They just are. They hate who they are. They look in the mirror and go, I hate my life. And they want to take it out oneverybody else, they want to drag you down, me down. And anybody has a different opinion. They think it's going to make them feel better about themselves, and ultimately it just makes 'em feel worse.”
Parr closed the inteview with a couple of recommendations: “If you're looking for a book to read to your kids tonight, go check out the Test of Hood. Kevin Sobo, thank you so much for spending some time with us here on American Ground Radio, and thank you for your faith.”
Mr. Sorbo signed off adding, “My pleasure. Bravebooks.com and then go to SorboStudios.com to check out my latest movie coming up, Miracle in East Texas. You'll love it coming up next month.