by Matthew Pejkovic
The latest film from faith-based film studio The Kingdom Story Company, Unsung Hero tells the true story of the Smallbone family, who in 1991 found themselves in dire straits when patriarch and concert promoter David Smallbone went bankrupt. With the promise of work in the US, David made the life-changing decision to move his wife Helen and their six children from Sydney, Australia, to the burgeoning country music capital of Nashville, Tennessee.
One of the many success stories to come from the Smallbones’ leap of faith to the US is the rise of younger siblings Joel and Luke from the Christian pop band For King & Country. Following in the footsteps of their older sister – the highly successful Rebecca St. James – Joe and Luke would consistently top the Christian music charts and sell-out arenas, winning four Grammy awards in the process.
Recent years have seen Joel and Luke venture into filmmaking, with Unsung Hero their latest and most personal project yet. Joel co-directs alongside Richard Ramsey (The Song) and stars in the film, while Luke took on the role of producer.
“For about the last 11 or 12 years, I’ve shared (our family) story from stage and had a bunch of people come up and be like, ‘man, you guys should write a book’,” said Luke. “Writing a book just sounds hard, you know? So, we thought maybe we could make a movie instead.
“We made a movie in 2016 called Priceless, so I called up a producer that worked on that film and said, ‘hey man, I just got this feeling that there’s something to this story about my parents coming from Australia to America. And legitimately, he just goes, ‘okay, let’s do it’.”
Essential to the success of Unsung Hero is the casting of Daisy Betts [below], who is best known for her role in the action series Last Resort. Betts plays the role of Helen Smallbone, the hero of the film’s title, who through the harshest of times kept her family’s spirits afloat with her faith-filled optimism. The casting of Betts was a miracle, signing on 10 days before filming after another actress pulled out of the project.
“We wanted the person, obviously, to be Australian,” said Luke. “The problem is that there’s obviously a lot of very successful Australian actresses… but to get them to do a project at this budget, at this scale, and then also to get them to want to play a mother… you know, women in Hollywood, they don’t want to play a mother of six because they really think that could impact future roles.
“We went through basically every single Australian actress that there was, and we came to Daisy. And the thing with Daisy is that she was in LA for a lot of years, and then basically had just decided, ‘you know what, I’m going to go home and raise my family in Australia’. She really hadn’t acted in three or four years.
“We were intrigued by her look. We were intrigued by her presence and some of the other things that she had done. So, we did a Zoom meeting with her, and she was absolutely spectacular!”
Adding to the surreal nature of bringing their own family story to the screen was the decision to cast Joel as their father David. The multitalented Joel had previously starred in films, most notably in the nativity musical Journey to Bethlehem where he played Antipater alongside Antonio Banderas’s Herod.
“I think there was something intriguing about a son playing a father,” said Luke. “Shia LaBeouf did it just recently [Honey Boy], but you don’t hear of that happening very often. So, we thought that was an added level of intrigue.
“At the end of the day, my brother Joel and my dad are basically the same people. It’s just that at the age of 40, dad had six kids, and Joel currently doesn’t have any. But it is a little bit surreal. I think it was probably more surreal for mum and dad because mum and Daisy’s character are very, very similar to each other, while my dad is an optimist and Joel plays him as a little bit pessimistically.”
As Unsung Hero portrays, the early days in the US for the Smallbones were filled with struggle, with the once affluent family having to make ends meet by mowing lawns and cleaning the houses of their much wealthier neighbours. It is those experiences of beginning anew that still have a profound influence on Luke’s life.
“I think I’m more aware of allowing my kids to struggle and actually work through the struggle than what I would have been if I hadn’t have gone through some of the things that we struggled with as kids,” said Luke. “Struggle produces something in people. I mean, C.S. Lewis has a great quote where he says pain and struggle is God’s megaphone for change.
“So, if you’re living a pretty easy life, in some cases it’s forgettable, and I don’t want to live a life that’s forgettable…but yeah, I think that struggle is a good thing. I mean, it’s scriptural. Struggle produces character, character perseverance and ultimately perseverance turns into hope.
“I think I would say to a lot of people that if you’re going through some measure of struggle in your life, lean into it and see what the things that God’s teaching you, because it is a powerful thing to learn how to overcome disappointment, how to learn how to overcome struggle. It’s essential lessons I think that people need to take with them.”
Unsung Hero is in cinemas on 30 May 2024
