A still from the film, “The Forge,” starring Aspen Kennedy (center) and Priscilla Shirer (Photo Credit: AFFIRM Films, Inc.).
“God works in mysterious ways.”
It’s a well-worn adage and bitter admission by humans that God’s designs, motives, and machinations lie beyond our understanding. But if we’re fortunate, we can gain some semblance of understanding in retrospect about why we went through a certain situation.
That was what precisely occurred about five or six years ago on a Sunday. After church, budding actor Aspen Kennedy was working out at the gym when he was prompted to contact his estranged father.
“I didn’t know what to really say because, again, growing up without him, I’m like, ‘Hey, this is a man I feel like I barely know,'” said Kennedy. “However, it’s on my heart, and it’s pressing to reach him and let him know I forgive him.”
After going back and forth about it, Kennedy got his dad’s number from a relative and called. He told him he forgave him for not being in his life and loved him.
According to Kennedy, his father said, “I’ve been praying for this for a very long time, and you know, I was young and dumb, but I really appreciate you for doing this.”
A Role Reflecting Reality
In addition to catharsis and a sense of resolution, that moment prepared him for one of the most prominent roles in his acting career: playing Isaiah Wright in the faith-based film The Forge, which was released nationwide on Friday (Aug. 23).
With little in the way of future prospects, 19-year-old Wright must make a decision that will impact his life. In “The Forge,” the character also contends with bitterness and anger over not having a father in his life.
“I’m going back to it like, ‘God, you literally gave me that instruction back in 2018-2019 to work that out of my heart,” Kennedy said. “He graced me to not be angry and carry that bitterness but to say, ‘Hey, this is what it could feel like if you did carry that, but to get that off your heart so we can work that out. So when this film comes, you’ve already experienced this, you know?'”
Kennedy stars alongside Priscilla Shirer, the multi-hyphenate actor, evangelist, motivational speaker and New York Times best-selling author, best known for her lead role in the acclaimed, faith-based film “War Room.”
Both actors were in Chicago earlier this summer to promote “The Forge,” directed by Alex Kendrick (“War Room”) and produced by Stephen Kendrick (“War Room”). The Kendrick brothers also wrote the film.
Motherhood and Manhood
Priscilla Shirer stars in “The Forge,” in theaters nationwide (Photo courtesy of Facebook).
“When I read the script,” said Shirer, “I was immediately drawn to it because, as you mentioned, it’s about a 19-year-old young man. I’m a mother of three sons.”
Shirer plays Cynthia Wright, Isaiah’s mother.
“She’s doing the best she can to raise this boy, but he’s reached that pivotal moment where he’s transitioning from boyhood into manhood,” Shirer said, “And she recognizes that no matter how good of a mother she might have been and currently is, she cannot give him his ‘Man Card.’ Another man is going to have to give him the ‘Man Card.'”
Community at the Core
Shirer said the film’s plot feels urgent and necessary because it speaks to so many contemporary issues.
She touched on the negative influence of social media validation on young and even grown people.
“They really are getting a lot of their cues and their evaluation of their own significance based on what they’re seeing on social media, based on what they’re seeing the peers around them. That’s not a great sounding board when you’re comparing yourself to people who are struggling just like you,” she said.
“So for a movie to come along and remind us that there is strength in someone who actually has an investment in their life, who actually cares about seeing them win, who actually has some experience attached to them so that what they’re saying carries more weight than someone who’s coming in at the same season of life as you. That’s the weightiness of that in the film.”
Reviving the Village
Shirer also adds that “The Forge” is centered around Black men and serves as a commentary on the power of community at a time when it is less prevalent or influential.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”That’s something our community has lost,” said Shirer. “In the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, we all lived in the same community. The church was the hub. It was the center point for the entire community. [/perfectpullquote]
“Your mama wished you would misbehave three houses down because somebody’s mother or dad was going to come out and correct you because we were a community,” she said.
Hope and Healing
Whether Black communities are not as tight-knit, spread out or missing altogether, “The Forge” depicts an alternative, a vision of brotherhood and kinship that stands in sharp contrast to the isolation and human disconnectedness so prevalent in these times.
“To be reminded in this film of the power of an older brother, saying, ‘Let me keep my eyes out for young brothers that are in my sphere of influence, who may have a father in their home or not, and what I can do,” she said.
“The value I can add to this young man’s life really can shift the trajectory of how he sees himself and the choices he then makes for his future.”
Kennedy added, “Truly, the film is so powerful to the point where the message speaks to so many people for so many different reasons, but this truly is just to be engaged with the possibilities and the power of hope that is released as you watch it.”
“The Forge” is available in theaters nationwide. For more information, visit www.theforgemovie.com.