Actor Dean Cain acknowledges that his busy schedule isn’t for everyone. He has 12 upcoming projects. He’s appeared in more than 200 titles during his three-decade career, which included the Emmy-nominated series Lois & Clark.
“I like to do a whole bunch of different things,” Cain told Christian Headlines. “… I can’t be just a one-trick pony. It would drive me bananas.”
Lately, many of Cain’s movies have involved faith-based and inspirational content. He appeared in the 2014 hit God’s Not Dead and has a role in the upcoming film God’s Not Dead: Rise Up. He also appeared in the 2022 faith-centric movie Paul’s Promise, which tells the story of a firefighter-turned-pastor.
One of his latest films is No Vacancy, which tells the true story of a Florida church that declined to build a new sanctuary so it would have more money for its homeless ministry. Cain portrays the pastor. No Vacancy is now available on Pure Flix, Prime Video, Apple TV and VUDU.
Cain says he realizes his faith-based films have their critics. He’s seen the comments on social media. But he says he keeps doing them because the movies are inspiring people. He also wants to make movies his son can embrace.
“I’m a single father, my son is 22 years old. … I started making kids movies when he was a little kid,” he said. “… Not all the films I make are faith-based and they’re not all inspirational, but a large majority are because I want my son to be able to see those films, I want him to learn from them. I want him to watch the way I’m living my life and the choices that I’m making and say, ‘I see why he’s doing that. I see why he wants to help out.’”
Having a child, Cain said, forced him to confront the deep questions of life.
“My faith really got stronger, much stronger, and I really had to face it and discuss it once I became a father,” Cain told Christian Headlines. “That changed everything. Suddenly someone’s more important on this earth than me. … And then I have to explain to him the world and the rules of the world, and why we’re here. You get into those questions that, as a single person running around, you can always just sort of, you know, sweep that under the table. … But this forced it.”
For every critic of faith-based movies, he says, there is a fan.
“I’ve seen people say things on social media, like, ‘I loved XYZ – it’s my favorite movie,’” Cain told Christian Headlines. “And it was one little tiny … movie that I thought nobody would ever watch. [But] it touches people. And when you can do that, what a great way to make a living and what a great way to get messages out there. So I’m very blessed to be able to do that. And I’ll continue doing that.”
Photo courtesy of Pure Flix
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.