Among Hollywood producers DeVon Franklin is unique. Not because he is one of the youngest (just into his 30s) big studio producers, nor that he is African American. It is because he is Vice President in Charge of Production at Columbia Pictures and a weekend preacher. Now that, you must admit, is unique. A Seventh Day Adventist at that, which means that his Sabbath begins on a Friday evening when a film crew might still be filming a scene, and yet, he reports, this has not been a problem because he was up front about his faith from the very beginning.
Hollywood is not as filled with unprincipled people as its detractors believe. This, and more, DeVon told me when we talked recently about how his faith informs his work, his new book, and the film he was instrumental in getting produced.
Because this is a film review column, let’s begin with Jumping the Broom, a movie filled with Tyler Perry-like humor, meaning that several of the male characters make outrageous remarks about sex, while still others evince a deep faith in God. After talking with DeVon (he was quick to tell me to call him by his first name) for a while, I asked about his film.
“I’m very excited about it!” he replied. “It has such good people (Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, Paula Patton, Laz Alonso, Mike Epps, and Romeo Miller are just some of the headliners). It’s about a wedding and a love relationship in which people wait until marriage to come together. And this isn’t preached. It’s just there in the story for people to see.”
DeVon Franklin’s book, Produced By Faith: Navigating the Road to Success Without Compromising Your True Self, is an intriguing combination of memoir (lots of information about how he came to work in the film industry and how a studio operates), of inspirational testimony, and of self-help advice for those in the early stages of their careers. Actually, “self-help” would be a misnomer, DeVon preferring “God-help.”
He writes at the conclusion of Chapter One: “My primary God-given assignment and goal is to inspire you. If I can take my personal ambition and my service to Christ and make both more successful without compromising—you can. Let this be your handbook for progressing in your career and your faith at the same time, without compromising either one.”
Early on in the book he writes that it was while he was Sony’s point man in Beijing, China overseeing work on the remake of The Karate Kid that the idea for writing it came to him. He was sitting on a park bench reading Paul’s Letter to the Romans at the time. I asked him if there was a particular passage, thinking of how important Paul’s Letter has been in Christian history, especially in the spiritual awakening of Martin Luther and John Wesley.
DeVon’s answer, “Well, I had had a busy week. Flown to London for a premier, and then back to the U.S., and then on to Beijing—clear around the world. Some would say that I live in the fast lane, so busy, always on the go and all. But it really isn’t that way for me. I am always taking with me and reading my Bible, and God is with me.
I see myself as living in the ‘faith lane.’ Anyway, I had been reading Romans, and when I got to the 8th chapter, I knew that I should write a book to help those seeking success in their lives, and that they do not need to downplay their faith, that God wanted to bless them and bring them success, if they stay with their principles.”
DeVon writes how standing up for one of his basic principles, that of keeping the Sabbath, has had a very positive result in his career and life. As mentioned earlier, DeVon is a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and indeed a preacher filling the pulpit once a month at his home church in Oakland. Thus his Sabbath is not a Sunday, but begins with sundown on a Friday. He was part of a crew at the time when it became necessary to film a shot before the end of the day.
He nervously looked at the sun lowering in the sky. “On that shoot they wanted me to help with the camera, but when I told them I couldn’t work on the Sabbath, they were okay with that. I have found that people in Hollywood have been very understanding of my beliefs. I’ve talked about them at times with members of the film crew, and we’ve prayed together and such. People sometimes think of Hollywood as being so full of evil and such, but it’s not been that way for me.”
I expressed my appreciation that his autobiographical book was not a “Gospel of Success” book like those peddled by some TV preachers, and he replied “No, it isn’t, although I do think that God wants to bless us, both spiritually and physically. But it’s the spiritual that is most important. God expects us to get ready and to do our part. He doesn’t just do everything for us.”
Complete interiew on www.patheos.com
By Edward McNulty
