People overcoming their differences to selflessly help the greater good of their community shows their true integrity. The new drama, ‘Ordinary Angels,’ is an inspirational retelling of a true story about the Schmitt family, which relies on the help of their neighbors in order to save their young sick daughter. Those acquaintances willingly put their own challenges and differences aside to rally together and secure the liver transplant the young girl desperately needs.
The film was directed and produced by Jon Gunn. ‘Ordinary Angels’ screenplay, which is based on the actual events that the Schmitt family and their neighbors went through, was written by Kelly Fremon Craig and Meg Tilly. The movie stars Hilary Swank, Alan Ritchson, Nancy Travis, Tamala Jones, Drew Powell, Amy Acker, Skywalker Hughes and Emily Mitchell.
‘Ordinary Angels’ follows Sharon Stevens (Swank), a fierce but struggling hairdresser in small-town Kentucky who discovers a renewed sense of purpose when she meets Ed Schmitt (Ritchson), a widower working hard to make ends meet for his two daughters. With his younger daughter, Michelle (Mitchell) waiting for the liver transplant, Sharon sets her mind to helping the family. What unfolds is the inspiring tale of faith, everyday miracles and ordinary angels.
Lionsgate is set to distribute ‘Ordinary Angels’ in theaters this Friday, February 23. In honor of the drama’’s release, Gunn generously took the time recently to talk about helming and producing the project during an interview over Zoom.
Film Factual (FF): You directed the new drama, Ordinary Angels,’ which was written by Kelly Fremon Craig and Meg Tilly. What was it about the script that convinced you to helm the film? What was your overall directorial approach to directing the movie?
Jon Gunn (JG): Well, I have been working with Lionsgate on a number of movies over the last five years, and this was one of those projects. We did ‘American Underdog,’ ‘Jesus Revolution’ and ‘I Still Believe’ together. I directed a film with them called ‘The Unbreakable Boy’ with Zachary Levi, and that movie comes out next February.
In the process of all these projects that I was developing with the Urban Brothers at Kingdom Story Company, Lionsgate said, “We don’t only want to finance your films, we also want to collaborate with you and bring your ideas that we love to the screen.”
So ‘Ordinary Angels’ was a project that Lionsgate had. It was brought to them after 15 years of development through various producers, writers and filmmakers.
Dave Matthews– the Dave Matthews – was one of them, so he’s one of our producers. Then he brought it to John Berg, the producer of ‘Elf,’ who had also worked at Warner Brothers for many years. John had then brought it to Lionsgate.
So I was busy collaborating with Lionsgate on a lot of other projects. So they said, “Would you look at this script and tell us if you think you’d like to make this movie? We really, really love it and we think you’d be a good fit.”
So I read it, and it was a draft written by Kelly Freeman Craig. She’s lovely. She wrote and directed ‘Are You There, God? It’s me, Margaret.’
It was just a wonderful script and story, and we all felt like we could see it turned into movie. It’s a story that needed to be told. It’s an unbelievable true story that was inspiring but also just really honest and filled with real human drama. It also has a third act that took place during the worst snowstorm in Louisville history in 1994.
So I found a very exciting and cinematic. It just dealt with a lot of issues of service, helping others and community coming together, and healing. There were a lot of things I love, but it also has the charm and flavor of an Erin Brockovich-type of character at the heart of it.
The fact that we got Hilary Swank to play this character with such a gift. Sharon’s funny, dynamic, broken and messy. She’s just an ordinary hairdresser who changed lives. With this one family in particular, she just took it upon herself to help them and save them, whether they wanted her help or not.
The film is funny, heartfelt and beautiful. So I was excited to take the film on and be the guy to finish it after so many years of it being a development. I was really honored.
FF: Once you signed on to helm the drama, how did you approach researching Sharon Stevens and Ed Schmitt’s lives as they fought to save the latter’s younger daughter, while she was waiting for a liver transplant?
JG: Well, it was great because the real Sharon had written a book, which you can also find. So that was really helpful. Having all of the resources of a true story and the real people at your disposal is so helpful.
Again, this was an event that took place against the backdrop of this blizzard in 1994 in Louisville. So there was a lot of news footage about it. The actual story that our film depicts has a lot of news footage around it. So anyone who grew up in or lived in Louisville, Kentucky in 1994 knows the story of this blizzard and the snow baby.
So, so it was really fun to weed through all that old footage. We actually put some of it throughout the movie itself, and then also in the closing credits. So for those people who think this is too unbelievable of a story to be real, you can see some of the real footage in the closing credits.
FF: How involved were Sharon, Ed and their family and friends in helping develop ‘Ordinary Angels?’
JG: They’ve all been really accessible. Ed is a very private man, and he struggled and suffered a lot in his life. His daughter Ashley has been so excited to be a part of all of this. The real Sharon has also been so excited to be a part of all this.
So there was a ton of access, and we’ve all been become really close. They’re all in love with the move and so excited to finally have their story shared.
So it was super helpful that I could call on them and ask them questions about how things really happened. I got a lot of details out of that. So we became a family, which is really wonderful.
FF: The film stars Hilary Swank, who you mentioned earlier, as well as Alan Ritchson, Nancy Travis, Tamala Jones, Drew Powell, Amy Acker, Skywalker Hughes and Emily Mitchell. What was the casting process like for the movie?
JG: As a director, casting, and finding the right actors to bring these characters to life, is the most important thing. So you dream of the people you think could play these roles when you put your list together.
But it’s so hard. A lot of times those people say no, as they’re not available or not interested. So there’s a lot of heartbreak along the way to land the cast that you hope you could dream of.
So you can imagine that getting Hilary swank was difficult. First of all, I love her work. She’s a two-time Oscar winner. I’m a huge fan of her work from ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ and especially her Clint Eastwood boxing movie, ‘Million Dollar Baby,’ which I had seen four times in the theater.
I think she’s funny, dramatic, interesting and unexpected in her performances in so many movies. I hadn’t seen her be funny in a long time. This is a movie that’s a drama, and there’s a lot of brokenness in it, but there’s levity in that humanity.
So I just knew she’d be a great person for it. But I almost couldn’t believe that we got her. In the negotiation, you sort of think it still could fall apart. I didn’t want get my heart broken, but I still held out hope that we would really get her on set.
Then Alan Ritchson was such an interesting surprise because he’s known so much for playing Jack Reacher on the Amazon (Prime Video) show. He’s also known for doing action movies like ‘Fast X.’
But he’s really this quiet, mild-mannered, blue-collar man, and he gives a very vulnerable performance in this film. I don’t think anyone’s going to see this coming. When they watch him, they’ll be like, where is this version of Alan Ritchson coming from? It’s astonishing. But he’s just great in it.
Nancy Travis plays his mom in this movie and she’s wonderful. We thought really hard for the cast and everyone in this movie, including Tamala Jones, Drew Powell, Amy Acker and the two kids who play Alan’s daughters, including Skywalker Hughes, which is, by the way, such a cool name. Then Emily Mitchell is the young girl who plays the sort of heart and soul of the movie, Michelle.
They’re just a super special cast of actors who were there because they wanted to be there. They gave so much of themselves that it comes through in the performances.
I feel like directors always have to say that when they do press, but I honestly love this cast, and we’re all like family. So I was so grateful to get them.
This is going to be a role that I think Hilary is going to be recognized for. We have not seen her do something like this in a really long time. I’m very excited to share that.
FF: The movie is set in Louisville, Kentucky, like you mentioned earlier. How did you decide where you would shoot the drama?
JG: It’s funny because the movie is set in Louisville in 1994. We ended up shooting the movie in Canada, in Winnipeg, mainly because we needed the snow; the whole third act of the film is set during a blizzard.
So we went to Winnipeg in January to scout (locations). It was 30 degrees below 0. We ended up shooting in March, when there was still snow covering the ground.
Then we waited until the snow melted. We shot the movie backwards, in late summer and into the fall.
So there was a lot of scouting. Winnipeg was great because there’s a timelessness to the city. So it was easier to make it look like 1990s America without having to do a whole lot of work.
But period pieces are fun. You have to really look carefully at places that feel like they’re still of a past era. Then you have to clear away all the things that are modern, and bring in old cars, wardrobe and set dressing to make it look like that era.
So Winnipeg worked out great. The local crew was amazing, and the weather behaved in just the way we needed it – the snowstorm was real, and we were out there in the real snow. So the film felt totally authentic, and that was important to me.
Film Factual 