CLEVELAND, Ohio--Pastor Alistair Begg is a liquor-drinking and cursing golf instructor in the movie "Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius." But according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, members of the real-life minister's church, Parkside Church in Bainbridge Township, understand its only acting.
The Scotland native plays the character Stewart Maiden in the new movie that also stars James Caviezel, who Christians all over the world know as the actor who played Christ in "The Passion of the Christ."
Begg is a prominent minister, whose church has 4,000 members, and whose sermons are broadcast in more than 30 radio markets. He was speaking at a conference with Chuck Colson when the talk turned to golf. Begg, a golfer and a Scot, was overheard by movie producer John Shepherd. Shepherd called him twice to offer him the part.
"I'd heard him speak. I knew he had a presence," Shepherd said.
That presence was also a pastor's presence, however, so Begg said he had hesitations about playing the role of such a rough character.
"I hadn't seen a script until I arrived on the set for the first day of shooting," he said. "When I read the first line, I said to the director, 'What have you done to me?' He had assured me it was rated G or PG and was a family film. But in the end, I was playing a real person and being true to that person's character. Most of my lines were exact quotes from Maiden."
