Throughout his decades-long career, Cuba Gooding Jr. has played a wide range of characters, from disgraced athlete O.J. Simpson to Rod Tidwell in “Jerry Maguire,” earning him an Academy Award. However, according to the 56-year-old actor, his latest role, a drug dealer turned Christian in “The Firing Squad,” is one of the most impactful he’s ever tackled.
Gooding Jr. told The Christian Post, “After living through the pandemic and all the wars that we’re going through, it’s like, it’s time to get back to God. I got the script sent to me for this film, and it hit me so powerfully that these men had nothing to live for but found faith in the darkest times in their lives in a jail cell. They were able to face the inevitable with dignity and pride.” From Christian filmmaker Tim Chey and starring Kevin Sorbo, Gooding and James Barrington, “The Firing Squad” is based on the true story of three men facing execution. As the moments leading to their deaths unfold, a series of unexpected events begins to reveal the profound impact of faith and its ability to offer hope in the darkest times.
Their path to redemption extends beyond their salvation, sparking a spiritual awakening within the prison camp. The influence of their faith touches even the most hardened inmates, leading them toward the compassionate embrace of Christ. Gooding Jr. plays Samuel Wilson, an inmate facing imminent execution. His “moth to the flame” moment, he said, was the conviction that the “world needs stories of redemption and faith at a really crucial time.” He said of reading the script, “I just wept.” He added, “Interestingly enough, a lot of films that you see today go to streaming websites, and the theater-going audiences kind of stayed at home,” he said. “We were trained during the pandemic, and now we’re afraid to go back to the theater.”
Goding Jr. continued, “But what is the audience has never wavered? The congregation. They go to church every Sunday, rain, sleet, shine. And here we have a film, like ‘Sound of Freedom,’ like these other faith-based movies that are saying, ‘Here’s your story in the theaters,’ and they’re showing up. We’re having these screenings and people come like crazy because that’s the last real audience available to fill going to the movies.” The actor described the emotional response from audiences who have screened the film: “They sit quietly, they laugh, and then they cry,” he said. “It’s like I haven’t seen this reaction since ‘The Passion of the Christ.’” Gooding’s journey mirrors the themes of his latest film. Raised as a Christian, he drifted away from his faith during his Hollywood career but recently rededicated his life to Christ.
Several years ago, the actor admitted he went through a “dark time” in his life after his father died — “and then one day, I literally I woke up and God said, ‘Alright, you ready to come back? Remember me?’” he recalled. For the actor, “The Firing Squad” has reignited his desire to impact society positively and, according to him, marks a direction that prioritizes depth, redemption and meaningful storytelling.
“Every day, I have a prayer list that I pray, for not just individuals but groups of people,” he said. “And I think what this movie did is really reawaken that attention to society and how my journey can be a positive impact on a lot of people.” “The Firing Squad” hits theaters on Aug. 2.