ADAM ANDERS & NIKKI ANDERS: "Journey To Bethlehem"

Hello, my friend. Welcome to love someone with Delilah. The rain has been coming down ooh at my farm. I've got a skylight in my hallway upstairs, and when it rains, it sounds like music on the skylight. I go stand under it just to listen to it. And I've started flipping lights on in the house when we get up on school mornings because it's still a little dark outside. Sure signs that summer's gone her merry way and beautiful

Everything anything where there's music.

And young people, music, young people and visuals. And we're going to talk today about yeah, pop culture. And since I'm a child of the sixties and seventies, my pop culture was Bobby Sherman. Okay, I stopped pop culture When a really handsome actor left er. Ooh, yeah, which one was that? Who was there? That was George Clooney. When George Clune and he broke up with this so far off and left er. That was it for me. That was my last well that didn't see Yeah, my last

Hyper Do you actually have twelve.

Daughters I have. I have eight daughters and my husband has four daughters.

Oh my, we only have two boys.

Get to work. What are you guys doing work?

Yeah, you're like our core audience.

Then you can fill my whole family. And we do, and we do. We used to have a theater that was like a mile from my house, and anytime something amazing was coming out, like the movie we're about to talk about, they would rent the theater to do a preview for me, which was very sweet, and the film company would buy me popcorn and I would say, Okay, I'm going to bring a few people, and their popcorn bill would be like, you know, thousands of dollars. They're like,

Difference between going number one or number two, Like, if your family goes then it's.

Number one exactly exactly. But this movie is going to be number one anyway. We're talking about a new movie that is coming out next month, Journey to Bethlehem, And I got a sneak preview. The movie theater is closed, and so I I did. We watched it here in the basement of my house on a drop down screen, and I wish that we were in the movie theater because if we had been in the movie theater, all of my kids would have been up dancing to the songs. Yeah, yeah, there are something that happens.

We hope that up.

There are some fun songs in Journey to Bethlham.

Thank you.

So what made this project something? You guys said, yes, this is this is where our passions are going to be. How first off, when did you start filming?

We started filming in February first, I think was the first day of shooting this year. But it's been in the works for a very long time. I had the idea originally, I don'tant to date myself. Like years ago six Nicky's from Iowa. We were home visiting for Christmas and I couldn't find anything to watch, and I don't know why. It hit me that I thought, Wow, nobody's

So this is a baby that took seventeen years too, this is our oldest child.

Yeah, it's been really painful birth, really painful.

So Nikki, it sounds like you've been there for every step of the way. When did you say, I gotta do this too, I gotta I gotta lend my voice. I gotta lend my words. I gotta, we gotta do this as a team, as a family, because it's a family movie.

It is a family movie.

It's a family story about the greatest family got ever wove together, created by a family.

Yeah.

I love that.

It's really crazy. You know.

We actually have worked together for almost our entire release.

Our first date was writing a song together. That gives you any idea?

Wait, wait, which song? Which song? Do we know it?

It was probably terrible. We fought the whole time, I think, but I don't know if that.

It was probably on my soul ever came out.

I think it was Adore You from the wedding planner.

I think it was you wrote a Nanai adore You song on your first date.

I thought that's a.

Really good point on your first date.

Well yeah, because it's all fresh and I'm like, wow, you're cute and you run a door you song.

I'm not ready for love yet, but you're ready for adoration.

Adoration. Yeah, that's a good thing. I met my husband at the gym, and he never saw me with my hair combed or makeup on for the first six months of our friendship, like he saw me a relationship at my absolute least attractive, But it was good because we got to know each other.

I believe in that.

I believe in putting your worst out there first because that's what you can get through the worst, then you're definitely gonna enjoy best.

Well. I think that's a good way to get to know each other. But also writing a song is a pretty good way to figure out.

So now you've written a song, you've written a movie, you've produced a movie, and what was something this film taught you? Like something you didn't know either about the story the greatest story ever told, or about your connection to it when you started this seventeen years ago.

I think it taught me that making movies is really hard. It's not for the faint of heart. But I think it also for me personally. I just I fell in love with directing and making movies. So it was a really personal journey for me and just kind of changing careers.

The female perspective here.

I feel like, you know, you had I had to really think and deeply about what Mary was going through at that because she was a human being, well at least, and she had feelings, and.

She had family, and she living in a time at.

Which it was not an easy thing to show up pregnant to your fiance.

Yeah, the stakes were high.

The stakes were high, and yet uh, I loved this was probably my favorite aspect of the movie. You didn't waiver from that truth that she knew that she knew that she knew that this was divine, that she was carrying Messiah.

You know, Yeah, I love that you say that. I think a big thing for us was married to us would have been strong. She would have been the strongest girl God could find for this task. She wouldn't have been a dormat. She would have had a POV and that probably wasn't very popular then, but I think that's what made her stand out and made her right for the job, if you will. So that was fun for us too because it's a very modern, you know, very modern story. There's so many truths in this story that

Also try to stay very true to the scripture as well. I mean it's much I don't think there's not a lot written from Mary's point of view in the Bible, but what we could get we stayed one hundred percent true to. But there's you know a lot of things in her mind that would never be able to be known. So that's where our deep dive would take place.

In the creative License, it's in the in betweens as we call it. You have the scripture verses, Well, what happened in between?

What would I think?

I mean, if my family's legacy and their reputation was on the line and it was all on my shoulders as a human being, what would I I'd be crying out to God, just like I need God because that's the only person that I have. It's the only thing that I have that can sustain me. So her personal journey is pretty powerful, I think.

And then Joseph, who you know should have stoned her like you said, and definitely should have ended the marriage. Instead, he ended up standing by her side and taking, if you will, her stain upon him and saying, this is my child that we had out of wedlock. You know, it's a pretty amazing love story.

Well, and I love the fact that you show him being kind of ambivalent. Mary never was. But you know, the angel came to her first. Your angel, by the way, he is hysterical. My kids were, look, Cray was cracking my kids up so much. Oh that was that was very well written and very well acted. And the song everything was so sweet, so glorious and yet tongue in cheek and fun at the same time. But but the

There was something interesting about the idea that he wanted to believe her for something in him said, you need to believe her even though everything in the world is saying walk away. And I think we can relate to that. I think we've all had probably relationships where your family, everybodys saying this is not the right person for you, you need somebody else, or whatever. But you know there's something about this person, You're meant for, this person, you should be with that person.

Wait, wait, wait, did anybody come against you two when you when you were writing songs together?

Confession session happens when you write a script, your own life ends up being poured into the pages. We definitely had. We fell in love and were planning our wedding within two weeks, and that took almost four years to get married because life got in the way. But you know, and people talking and people talking, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, for sure. I think we've probably all experienced it on some level.

And I love that you had Mary grabbing him and saying, Okay, you're marrying me.

Yeah, yeah, I'll probably get some crap for that, but I just saw it's so cute.

It was very cut.

Yeah, and yeah, it's it's it's really fun when she does that.

But I love that that little thing where you know, they chose to trust God instead of trusting what the world was saying.

Yeah, I think they took a step of faith. You know, I think we all need to do that in our lives. Now.

That wasn't a step of faith. That was stepping off the Grand Canyon kind of step of faith. Okay, Antonio Banderas and what was that like working with him?

He is brilliant. You know. I had him in my sights for a long time and it was funny how it all came together. He was very busy directing a play, actually a son time play, and he didn't even want to be bothered with this because he was so focused. But I just knew I need somebody who can sing, first of all, because his Herod's song you heard it is really difficult.

Yeah, Herod's song for me, that was of all the music that was that was the highlight. It was so good.

So he's so amazing.

He's so amazing.

Say, everyone's singing every note in this movie, and I wanted it that way. And Antonio's song is the most challenging, and even he thought, I can't sing this, and I'm like, I know you can sing it. I've seen him fan of the opera and everything else, so I had it took some convincing, so I'd go to his play in Madrid and kind of keep showing up until he talked to me. And then he loved the script and then he liked the song, and then I convinced him that he could sing it, and man, did he sing it,

Come alive, boy, didn't he though? Herod's never looked so deviously wonderful.

And he switches on a dime from evil to just like childish and he's really brilliant.

And yeah, yeah, that for me. And I think that you know, when you go to Christmas productions, when you see the Nativity story, that is is absent. I've never seen it. I mean I've gone to the Roquettes for years and years and years and seen the living Nativity. They never mentioned that here it is, you know, out to to make sure his throne is not disrupted.

He was very insecure and history shows it. You know, he killed everybody that he thought might be a threat to his throne, including his family. He was a very evil man. And I thought it was just this story just had everything built in. You know, you have your love story, you have your villain, and then you have your comic relief from me with the Wiseman. They gave me that device, which is super fun to play with as well, because you need comedy.

It's a merror What is murder?

The way like in Sunday School? Like, what is mrr? Like? I don't know what this is?

You can't say mrr though, you got to say it now. For the rest of my life, say mror.

He knows what we're talking about. You will soon en.

Yeah, once you go see Journey to Bethlehem, everybody in America will be saying what is murr? It was fun and it was something that I loved sharing with my family.

Oh that's what we wanted.

We had like I.

Think they were six. Five boys have loved it too.

How old are they?

So we've got an eleven year old and a fourteen year old?

Oh and eleven year olds and fourteen year olds don't love really anything.

They hate everything.

They hate everything.

Yeah, yeah, you know, it was really awesome having them though along the way because we've been able to make a musical that boys love too.

Yeah.

It's a very it's very targeted, I think towards I mean, it's got the love story for the girls, and you're Mary is gorgeous and sweet and sassy and confident. I've also never seen Mary portrayed as somebody the way you did in the beginning, as an intellectual who wanted to reject the whole notion of an arranged marriage.

And the way we handle the massacre of the incident. You know, we we allude to it, but we don't show that we know the whole we both did this was for our family to enjoy, for your family enjoy. We want grandparents and grandkids and everyone in between to be able to sit down every Christmas and watch this and and you know, and know what Christmas is about. But in a very digestible, approachable way. I think that everyone will love.

And everybody will want to get some mur.

Mercillrocket, yes, skyrocketed.

Plush toys.

Oh my god, there's so many cute, cute and funny and laughable and emotional scenes, the song between Mary and Joseph when they fall and love and they're the well, and just so many beautiful moments. I commend you, I applaud you, I thank you.

That means the world.

Yeah, thank you, because.

I am a lot of love, lot of hard work, so sick of holiday movies that are nothing but girls goes back to small town, meets boy, stand against all odds and they end up happily ever after. You know, that's ninety nine percent of the Christmas movies that are available that I'm like, no.

That's why we made this.

Yeah.

And there's something powerful about music that you know, pulls down your defenses too. I think it engages people on a deeper emotional level. I think telling the story with music too is something that I think we've been encouraged to see. The reaction so far.

So fun sitting in theaters for me and the screen, I kind of hide out when we do these screens and they're supposed to be super nerve wracking, but the reaction is so great from that they're crying, they're laughing, I mean, everything you'd hope for and loving the music, so it's been really rewarding.

Did we mention the dancing, Oh, the dancing.

Fine, No musical is complete without some dancing.

We're catching up with the co writers of the new musical Journey to Bethlehem, Adam and Nicki Anders. Adam is also responsible for the music and direction of the film. We got a little time left with them, but I'm going to interrupt our conversation for a bit so I can sing the praises of another amazing podcast sponsor. I love sharing new discoveries with you, and I'm excited to tell you about one today. Conair's Ceramic Auto Curler curl Secret the secret long lasting, great curls. You can find

Well, faith is a big part of my life and my wife's life. I grew up in church, my parents or ministers, so I grew up with these stories or my tradition. I love these stories. In this one particular, I thought, what an amazing musical it could be. Right, there's not many stories in the I will let that

And I know it.

Yeah, And my poor kids they've heard about it their entire lives. Literally, I've been trying for seventeen years to make this and my oldest is fourteen, So poor kids.

So it really is your first child, it really is.

Spain, my fourteen year old just looked at me, Dad, don't make a bad movie or it's all a waste. I'm like, great, thanks, well.

Thank you, thank you for that inspiring thought.

Yeah, but it's very personal story, you know, it's a part of who we are, and I just, yeah, I just wanted to share it with the world in a new way.

So you said something very important to me, and that is it's such a hopeful story. It is the hope of the world. Without that story, without that little teenage girl saying yes, I truly, none of us I don't think would be here. But if I did happen here upon earth and I didn't know that to be true, I certainly would not have survived the last ten years.

Me too, I think because millions of us feel the same.

Way, right, Yeah, that's the hope of the world, and you've shared it in a beautiful way.

I think that's why it's so emotional, even this movie. I think that surprised me how emotional I get every single time I watch it. And I've seen it.

And you wrote it and I wrote it.

But every time, the Nativity scene just gets me every time because it's personal, you know, it's part of who we are. And it is, like you said, the hope for the world, and we need it. Life is hard and it's a dark time, and I think we need more hopeful things and light. You know, my company is called night Light, and we named it that because we you know, light needs darkness to shine. So we just want to make movies and shows that bring some joy and light to the world.

Well, thank you for not hiding your light under a basket.

Yeah it's easier sometimes.

Yeah, it is, especially in your industry.

Yep, that is not a lie. You know what. They've embraced us. They've embraced this film and we're very excited about it.

Oh.

I love you guys. You guys are great. Thank you for a journey to Bethlehem. Thank you for spending time with us. And I pray you have the best holiday season ever and that that miracle that Mary refused to deny is a reality for everyone this holiday season.

I think it's a great reminder to go see what Christmas is about. November tenth, theaters nationwide worldwide.

Journey to Bethlehem.

Yes, Jerny Bethlehem and wait dot com you can actually tickets are on sale already. Bethlamovie dot com.

You can go back Journey to bethlehemmovie dot com or look up Anders Media. Nikki and Adam, thank you for this time, and thank you for this wonderful movie, and thank you for getting to Antonio benderis good luck, and again thank you. A young woman carrying an unimaginable responsibility, a young man torn between love and honor, A jealous king who will stop at nothing to keep his crown.