BEYOND IMAGINATION
MercyMe’s Bart Millard reflects on Oklahoma-shot film about hit song
Bart Millard knew that people were interested in his story behind MercyMe’s hit song, “I Can Only Imagine.”
As the contemporary Christian band’s leader and the song’s author, he’d told the story of abuse, transformation and forgiveness numerous times since “Imagine” took the world on an inspirational musical ride to heaven in its 2001 major-label debut.
Still, Millard wasn’t sure what to think about a movie based on the track. He could only imagine seeing his life story on the big screen for all to see.
“It’s pretty crazy. I had to see it a few times before I was able to kind of separate myself and kind of watch it as a fan. I’m really pleased at how it turned out and how the redemption story unfolded,” Millard said of the movie “I Can Only Imagine,” which premiered in theaters March 16.
He never dreamed that an actor like Dennis Quaid would portray his dad or that the movie would be filmed in Oklahoma, where MercyMe got its start.
Exceeding expectations
Turns out the true-life tale proved to be a big box office draw.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, “I Can Only Imagine,” exceeded box office expectations and grabbed the No. 3 spot over its opening weekend. The film debuted to $17.1 million from 1,628 cinemas to defeat two other highly anticipated films, “A Wrinkle in Time” and
“Love, Simon,” the news outlet reported.
Actor J. Michael Finley portrays Millard in the film. Besides Quaid, another widely recognized actor, Academy Award winner Cloris Leachman, stars in the movie.
The movie highlights Millard’s bleak home life being raised by an abusive father. The film also follows Millard on his path from struggling singersongwriter to eventual success on the contemporary Christian music scene, while his father, Arthur Millard Jr., finds hope and transformation in the Gospel. Bart Millard wrote the song “I Can Only Imagine” after his father’s death from cancer.
In a recent telephone interview, Millard said he was grateful that the movie was filmed in Oklahoma, which figures prominently in MercyMe’s trajectory.
The band was formed in 1994 at Henderson Hills Baptist Church in Edmond, where band member Jim Bryson’s father was a pastor. MercyMe led worship at First Baptist Church in Moore for some time, plus they did a weekly Bible
study at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. They moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to seek a record deal after about three years in Edmond.
Many scenes in “I Can Only Imagine” were shot throughout Oklahoma, including a farm in Yukon, the Centennial Rodeo Opry, OKC Farmers Public Market and Del City’s Castle Row Studios. The movie’s climax was filmed in the Civic Center Music Hall in downtown Oklahoma City.
Millard said they originally thought that they might be able to film in Texas because that’s where he grew up, but when that didn’t work out, Oklahoma was chosen.
“I don’t think at the time they (filmmakers) realized how much Oklahoma was a presence in everything we did, so I was excited that if it couldn’t be in Greenville, Texas, then Oklahoma was the next best thing because MercyMe started there and most of our formative years came out of that season being in Oklahoma City, just trying to survive,” he said.
Not a ‘fluffy’ movie
Millard said he found the moviemaking process
“amazing,” and he loved visiting the set. Sometimes, there were some scenes that were too hard to watch, and when that happened, Millard simply looked away. Others proved to be cathartic.
“I came about the time that Dennis was shooting his scenes, and it was amazing,” he said. “I was just fascinated with the process. I have never seen a film being made. At the same time, watching some of the more difficult scenes was pretty therapeutic like watching the scene where my dad and my character get into this huge fight or when my dad was diagnosed with cancer because I was there for those scenes.
“I didn’t think it was going to affect me the way that it did, but it was really hard to watch. There were some scenes I intentionally stayed away from. I would go for a drive until they were done. But the coolest part about it was in between takes, being able to spend so much time with the actors and becoming friends with them. That’s something that I will never forget.”
Millard said his favorite scene that made him laugh was one that showed him meeting
Scott Brickell, his manager (portrayed by a gruff Trace Adkins) for the first time after a concert.
Scenes he found particularly poignant were those that showed special moments between him and his dad, such as a moment where he helps his father with his IV and they are watching a graduation. Millard said that’s when his dad began to tell him about how he met his mother.
“My parents divorced when I was young, and I never heard my dad talk that way about my mom,” Millard said. “I’ve seen the film so many times already, but that scene still gets me because that’s just how far we had come for my dad to sit there and talk about how he cared for my mom. That was a very real moment and very important to me.”
He said it was very important to him that his father’s abusiveness be portrayed realistically so that people would understand how much God transformed the older man’s life.
Millard said he wondered at one point if he himself was ready for the gritty reality to be flashed upon the screen.
“I thought, ‘Am I ready for this, emotionally and
spiritually?’” he said. “We’re about to dig up things that I’ve been trying to bury my whole life.”
Lessons learned
The recording artist said he learned some lessons through grief counseling he underwent when his wife’s brother-in-law was killed, and those helped him while the movie was being made.
“I learned from that counseling that your childhood is connected to how you respond and react to things,” he said. “If it wasn’t for unpacking those truths separately, I don’t know if I would have ever been in a place where I would be able to tell the story.
“I’ve been really open about how my father was and what he was by the time he passed away. So yeah, it’s tough to watch, but I didn’t want them to make a fluffy Christian movie. I wanted them to understand just what kind of monster he was because that makes the redemption story that much more powerful. If you kind of water it down, then the redemption story is watered down, in my opinion.”
That realism is what makes the movie’s message about hope and redemption so powerful.
And that’s what Millard wants people to take away from the film — that the Lord has the power to change lives, even the lives of those other people may “write off.”
“The biggest thing would be for people to realize that as long as there is breath in our lungs, our story is not over, it’s still being written,” he said. “I see so many people, including myself, that write people off like there’s no way that God can get to them.
“If you would have asked me who is the one guy that God can’t reach, I would have said my dad 10 out of 10 times, and here we are talking about this amazing redemption story. As long as our hearts are beating, there’s no one that’s out of the reach of God — there’s always hope. There’s always hope to cling to.”
What does he think his dad would think of the film and the idea that their story is being shared on the big screen?
“If my dad were here he would probably laugh and say, ‘What have you done?!’ “Millard joked. “He’d probably say good job getting Dennis Quaid!”