It was the year 1995 and Stephen Baldwin (Massapequa, New York, 60 years old) was positioning himself as one of the actors of the moment after starring in the successful thriller The Usual Suspects alongside Kevin Spacey, awarded with two Oscars. After that release, he continued working, accepting roles and adding projects to a list that currently accumulates more than 100 movies and series. But, in the early 2000s, he decided it was time to take a step back and move away from Hollywood. That said, he never stopped working. A quarter of a century later, who for younger generations today is better known for being the father of Hailey Bieber and father-in-law of Justin Bieber than for his own projects, has revealed why he made that decision.
“I probably could have headed towards becoming a big star,” Baldwin explains exclusively to People magazine. “But that wasn’t my style. I didn’t want to be Tom Cruise and have to raise 100 million dollars at the box office. I preferred to be a nobody from Massapequa. I’m good at that,” adds the brother of fellow actor Alec Baldwin.
This disappearance was a conscious decision and, as he defends, has nothing to do with the success or failure of the projects he participated in. In 2001, as the American publication recalls, Baldwin embraced evangelical Christianity and dedicated the following years to it. Specifically, to a youth evangelization program through skateboarding. “After the birth of our daughter Alaia, my wife hired a woman named Augusta, from Brazil, to come live and work with us and help us. She didn’t speak English; she only communicated with my wife, who is Brazilian, in Portuguese. One day, Kennya and Augusta were talking and Augusta said: ‘I find it funny that you think I’m here to clean your house,” the actor now recalls. Augusta explained that she had had a vision in her church in Brazil when she saw the announcement that some Americans were looking to hire someone to help them with their families. “My wife told me: ‘I just spoke with Augusta, and she told me that the real reason she is here is because God spoke to her, and told her that in the future you and I will become born-again Christians and will have our own priesthood,” Baldwin explains.
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At first, he was skeptical about that revelation, but everything changed after Hailey’s birth and his move to New York. He attended an evangelical event with his sister Beth, who had already converted to Christianity; later, he attended another skateboarding festival in Fort Lauderdale. He understood that this was a calling and became interested in the project. He contacted them to propose producing a skate video with a Christian message, which would fuse punk-rock style Christian music with skateboard culture. “In the first six months we had distributed 10,000 copies. Then, one of the largest churches called and asked how much it would cost to bring the skaters from the video to their church for a live event. That’s when I left Hollywood,” the actor recalls. And he adds: “I visited 125 churches over four years. Jesus and the Holy Spirit fascinated me.”
In the interview, he points out that Hollywood has not accepted his faith because they thought “I acted a little strangely.” But he also assures that there are those who have appreciated his work: “I receive many direct messages from people telling me how my work has moved them, and that’s the only thing that matters. I’m happy to be where I am now at 60. I feel very fortunate. And I firmly believe the best is yet to come.” Currently, he is working on producing Christian films aimed at a young audience; he already has four movies to release in the coming years. “My commitment to the Lord now is simple. I told Him: ‘Lord, give me the platform and the resources to tell stories about you, like John Hughes did.”
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