Actor Stephen Baldwin enjoyed success in Hollywood, but the 60-year-old said he left for a reason, and that reason was Jesus Christ.
During a recent interview with People, Baldwin said he might have become a major star after the crime thriller The Usual Suspects hit theaters in the mid-1990s.
“But that wasn’t me. I didn’t want to be Tom Cruise, and have to make $100 million at the box office. I’d rather be a schmuck from Massapequa! I’m good at that!” he said.
The actor, who also starred in other films, chose a different path after his wife, Kennya, hired a Brazilian woman named Augusta as their housekeeper.
“One day, Kennya and Augusta were talking and she [Augusta] said, ‘I think it’s funny you believe I’m here to clean your house.’ My wife tells me, ‘I just spoke to Augusta, and she said the real reason she’s here is because God spoke to her, and she said in the future you and I will become born-again Christians and have our own ministry,’” recalled Baldwin, who at the time thought it was strange.
However, Baldwin later attended some evangelical festivals with his sister, who was a Christian, and became interested in a skateboarding ministry in Florida after seeing a skate park on the beach where the skateboarders would preach with thousands of young people listening.
“I felt a calling,” Baldwin said. He later produced a Christian-themed skate video called Livin’ It, distributing 10,000 copies and going on tour to visit churches.
“Jesus and the Holy Spirit fascinated me,” he said of the transformative time in his life. Baldwin has since made no secret of his Christian faith and has depended on God in hard times.
In an interview with CBN News Baldwin said it was time for people to communicate with the culture about Jesus.
“My point is simply this: I believe I have a calling,” he said. “Do you know what that calling is? To stand up in a new and hard core, radical way for the Lord. In the process, if I insult a couple of people, if I offend a couple of people, and if I got to shake it up a little bit, as long as it is led by the Holy Spirit, amen.”