Filming of Billy Graham's Life Underway in Nashville

Teresa Neumann : May 4, 2008
Beverly Keel - The Tennessean

"There's a sense on the set that this film is more than a movie, the work is bigger than the crew itself."

(Nashville, Tennessee)—A Billy Graham biopic is currently being filmed in Nashville, starring Armie Hammer (the great-grandson of industrialist/philanthropist Armand Hammer) as the young evangelist. The older Graham is played by Nashville's Bill Graham, the preacher's first cousin and a preacher himself, according to a report in the Tennessean. (Photo by: Katherine Bomboy)

Said Hammer: "They've never made a movie about this guy, and beyond any sort of spiritual reasons or anything like that, he is really an iconic figure of the 20th century. He's gone places and done things that no one else has been able to do, and he can do it all with such grace. From an acting standpoint, that is such a difficult role to try to emulate. I've been going to church and reading my Bible and doing a lot of other spiritual work to get in that right headspace to even start to play someone like Billy Graham."

The report notes that country singer Josh Turner was cast as George Beverly Shea. "He was a force to be reckoned with in gospel music, and still is," said Turner.

Reporter Beverly Keel wrote, "There's a sense on the set that this film is more than a movie, the work is bigger than the crew itself."