"God With Us" cast stops by Good Day Atlanta

The fate of the world is in your hands. I don't care. You won't let me down? I won't get my wings if this don't happen. I don't care about your wings. You mean you don't care about my wings? I don't care about your wings. You have to care. How y'all say coming to save everybody. Oh, this looks good, you guys. Get ready for a modern-day faith-based drama with some laughs sprinkled in. God With Us is the latest movie Rel Howery has executive produced. It reimagines the biblical story of Mary and Joseph. Rel and the rest of the stars, Rotimi, Aspen Kennedy, and Ashley Olivia Fisher, join us now for a first look at this flick. Thank you all so much for being here. Of course, we don't have you on the couch because there's just too many of you. But, man, it's great to see you. So let's just start off with the basics here. At first glance, especially when we showed that clip, it looks like a comedy rel. But you really do incorporate some serious tones. You talk about faith in this. So how do you find the balance between funny and reflective? I think comedy does a good job of introducing like real conversations, actually. And so Jimmy Jenkins did an amazing job of creating a story that... You know, a character like mine, which I play Gabriel, the angel, Thank you. like, kind of letting humor kind of, like, let us kind of massage what the message is going to be. And, you know, Ro hit me up, you know, who's also an executive producer on this movie, and... Man, it's such a good script to, like, really retell this story of Mary and Joseph from a modern perspective. And then we got these two superstars right here. Sure, sure. Making that story come to life. But, yeah, humor does a good job of massaging the message, I believe. Well, I bet. And I joke with my family that I believe God does have a sense of humor. 100%. And I feel like that will resonate with some people who feel like. Sometimes people get so stuffy about religion. So, Rotimi, I'll toss this over to you. How do you guys handle that in this film, knowing that we are in the Bible Belt here? Some people might feel like it can be blasphemous. So what are your concerns, or how are you addressing that? There's no concern. You know, I think it's all good because it's all conversation. Yeah you know, a lot of questions will be asked. A lot of people are going to be opening up the Bible for the first time. So that's our mission, you know. Show the story and let people decide how they want to go on their journey. And for us, it's a mission for us. For me, it's one of the most important, if not the most important jobs I've done because it's way bigger than me, you know, and we're glorifying God and giving him his moment and his shine. If we can have one person open up the Bible, then we've done our job. You couldn't see Raul's face, but it sounds like you really touched him in saying that. I'm going to keep talking with you, Rotimi, for a moment. We've seen you on Power. We've seen you as Mr. Butterscotch on social media, right? And it sounds like this really does mean so much to you. So let's talk a little bit more about your character, because it sounds like he is sort of a doubting Thomas. Yeah, I think he represents the majority of the population, because a lot of people have questions. A lot of people have been hurt by the church. A lot of people are just trying to discover how they can get closer to God you. To discover who Walter Moon truly is, and I feel like a lot of people are dealing with that today. Yeah, addressing the elephant in the room right off the gate, off the bat, I should say. So Aspen and Ashley, you guys are our modern Joseph and Mary, Junie and Mary, if you will. So when you first heard the premise, what went through your mind? Well, I was just like, oh, no one's done this before? I didn't realize no one's done a nativity story. And then I was like, oh, they probably have, but it was always animated. Unlike those childhood PBS things or something like that. And I was like, then this is an all black cast. And I was like, We're really going to send a message here. Absolutely. From that alone, I was like, I need to read the script. Yeah. I need to read the script. Yeah. Can I get the script? It's a secret. And you got more than just the script. Yeah. Yeah, so, yeah. What about you? Yeah, it was the same. Once I read the script and was able to talk to the director, Jimmy Jenkins, and just hearing his heart behind it, his vision, I'm like, okay, this is not just going to entertain people, but I truly believe people will be impacted. Well, it really is the perfect time for this movie to come out. This week, we're getting ready for Thanksgiving, then the rest of the holidays. So families will be glued to their TVs trying to find something to watch. This sounds like a great option. But let's just talk about how this really does show how crazy of a story Christ's birth is, right? I mean, just randomly this... Virgin is pregnant and she's with a man who loves her and she's trying to defend her honor. So talk about how you tapped into that side of those characters. Um, well, Well, like everyone's been saying, Jimmy did a really good job in the writing to just humanize what's been going on. So I think when people hear this situation, they're just like, oh, wait, if I told my man that I'm pregnant and we're a virgin, he's going to be like, huh? And Jimmy did such a. He fleshed it out in such a way that anybody of any age, like if you're junior high or a high school star, you can understand. And I think that working with Aspen, we just had really good chemistry. It was easy for us to connect on set and just show that love and just really humanize the character and find their purpose, which everybody's challenged to do, right? So we go through that, finding purpose, adversity, and unwavering faith, and that's depicted. Throughout this movie with our journey, for sure. Is there anything that you want young women to take away from this? I just want them to understand that unwavering faith is the only way. We're tried every day, all the time. And I think when you lean into God and just have a stronger relationship, that stillness is going to give you so much ease. And I'm a testimony to that. I'm still going through it, and I'm just so happy to be a vessel to be used. I'm really honored to play this role because it's helped me in a lot of ways in my real life. Beautiful. I want women to understand that unwavering faith is the way to go. And I feel like you mean that. I do. Thank you for sharing. So this last question, I'll start off with you, Aspen, and then I want to hear from the rest of you. Without getting too deep into your faith, did this movie challenge yours in any way? I think this was a beautiful reminder of who God has been in my life personally. And just looking over my life, I'm like... Like this story, it's just like you may not understand. He's present with you, but he's always with us. No pun intended, but he's truly been faithful, and I'm excited for the world to have that encounter with him, too. God willing, through the film. What about you, Ralph? I mean... Well, let me say this real quick. I think one of the great things about this story more than anything is watching Mary and Joseph's love story. You know what I mean? Like we have this Bible story. We have this story we know so much about. But I don't know if we've ever looked at it from this beautiful love story of Mary and Joseph and finding love within faith. That's what's fascinating me, even just kind of seeing it again at the last premiere we did. It's just like, I'm blown away by that. And it makes you love, love again. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. Any final thoughts from you, Rotimi? No, for me, you know, reading the script, it was more of like a class a bit. I learned a lot that I didn't know, you know? And so... It was put into different perspectives of the Bible that it was like, I never thought of it from that point of view. And I know the Bible pretty well. So if it can affect me that way, I know it's going to just blow people's minds. So when they see it November 13th, oh, my God. It's going to be amazing. I'm so excited for you guys. You've all spoke so beautifully about your faith, and I hope that touched some of you all at home. Thank you all for your time. Thank you. Of course. Please come back. Yes. Come back out somewhere. Make sure you go see it. Oh, you don't have to worry. Thank you. This is right up my alley. This is the kind of movie I would see. I love it. You guys can watch God With Us in theaters nationwide tomorrow.