Bella Star shares how God changed his live
OTTAWA, Canada (CCN) – If the story of the rich young man from the Gospel of Matthew had a sequel updated for modern times, it might resemble the life of actor Eduardo Verastegui, a Catholic who stars in the new film “Bella.”
In the gospel account, a rich young man asks Jesus what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him to sell all he has and follow him, but the man goes away sorrowful because he had great wealth.
In the modern day sequel, the Verastegui, a rich young man, does sell all he has and is prepared to give up his budding acting career to follow Christ.
Verastegui had reached the zenith of Mexican celebrity as a soap opera star and singer who had toured at least 13 countries to sold-out concerts. He’d appeared as Jennifer Lopez’s love interest in her popular music video “Ain’t it Funny.” His growing Hollywood television and movie credits included the starring role in the 20th Century Fox movie “Chasing Papi” and a co-starring role in the independent film “Meet Me in Miami.” He’d been listed as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world in People en Español.
In Los Angeles, while studying English, he found himself drawn to a deeper faith in Christ through his devout Catholic teacher. He began to see all the reasons he had wanted to be an actor – fame, money and pleasure – as empty and vain.
He realized he’d been typecast into portraying the unfaithful, lying Latin lover and playing those parts promoted negative stereotypes. The media portrayal of Hispanics in general demeaned both men and women, resembling nothing like the dignity and beauty of his mother and sisters in Mexico.
He understood he had hurt people through the work he had done and the messages in his movies were “poisoning society.”
“It broke my heart,” the actor told the annual Rose Dinner in Ottawa May 10, following the 10th annual March for Life in Ottawa. “I realized I had offended God.” He said he spent “many months in tears.”
Deeply influenced by Scott and Kimberly Hahn’s Rome Sweet Home, Verastegui sold his possessions, wondering if God was calling him to be a priest, perhaps in the jungles of South America. His spiritual advisor, however, told him: “Hollywood is a bigger jungle.”
He vowed to refuse parts unless they affirmed life and human dignity. For three years, he went without work, because all the parts offered him involved the “same negative stereotypes.”
“We are not called to be successful, we are called to be faithful,” Verastegui said to the sold-out crowd of 1,000. “I wasn’t born to be famous, or rich, I was born to know and love and serve our Lord Jesus Christ,” he said.
Then in 2004, he met movie producer Leo Severino while attending daily Mass.
Severino, who also spoke at the dinner, returned to the Catholic faith in 1999 through reading Christian apologetics. He began attending daily Mass, but he found most of the other churchgoers were “gray hairs cramming for their final exam.”
Younger Christians like himself were scarce in the mostly anti-religious world of Hollywood.
Then one day he noticed another young man who was standing next to a life-sized statue of Jesus, his hand on the sacred heart, his head bowed in prayer. Severino soon discovered: “This guy’s the Brad Pitt of Mexico.”
Not long after their providential meeting, Verastegui and Severino co-founded Metanoia films with some like-minded people who had also gained their movie-making and acting chops in Hollywood. They intend to produce movies that could change lives and hearts. “Bella” is Metanoia’s first.
Set for limited release in the United States in August, “Bella” won the coveted People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival last fall. This festival rivals Cannes in size and star power.
Severino said the award showed them, “God is bigger than Toronto.”
The award began opening doors for the film, though Metanoia still needs to find a distributor for wide release. Bella will open in selected U.S. cities in August.
Severino said the media, especially film and television, are “shaping our culture.” He noted how the movie “Million Dollar Baby” promoted euthanasia and “Cider House Rules” glorified abortion. Natural Born Killers influenced the Virginia Tech shooter, he said.
“Art and morality go hand in hand,” he said, urging the many young people present to guard their eyes and ears and their innocence. “God does not use evil means,” he said.
Rose Dinner attendees were invited to screen Bella. Many leapt to their feet, tears in their eyes, as the credits rolled. The lean script co-written by director and Metanoia co-founder Alejandro Monteverde contains nothing overtly religious or preachy. Beautifully acted, with especially strong performances from Verastegui and female lead Tammy Blanchard, the movie affirms life and family in ways Metanoia Films hopes will appeal to a general audience. Full of compassion, tenderness and love, the movie reveals the power of film when Catholics full of God’s love use their hard-earned skills to do something beautiful for God.
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Republished by Catholic Online with permission of the Canadian Catholic News Service.
- - -Among CCN governing members is the Western Catholic Reporter (http://www.wrc.ab.ca), serving Catholics in Alberta and published by the Archdiocese of Edmonton.
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Edurado:
I respect you for who you are, not for your religious belefs. I beleive in God and I am of the Jewish faith. You need to do what you want to do and not let religion affect your work ethics. You should respect God and Jesus but let it not intefere with your work and love for other people. I happen to admire both you and Ricky Martin and even thou you do not know me I love both of you and hope to meet you someday. You are a fantastic person but you should not be so serious. I am yor friend and care about you.
Mr. "T"
I recently met Eduardo in Wichita, KS. at the Mid-West Catholic Family Conference. I gave him some information on our apostolate (Kepha), but am unable to follow up with him. I cannot find any where to contact him. Can you help me?
Check out our website. We are a Catholic father and son organization. Starting our 13th year we have members in 7 states and one in the Philippines.
http://www.kepharocks.org
Thank you and God bless.
Corey
such a beautiful story!
I think this is a glorious step forward for the Catholic & Christian family!!!I thank Eduardo
& all those like him for their Fiat to God.God Bless,God Speed,Love & Prayers!!!
Eduardo Verastegui invites you to attend the Guadalupe Festival at the Jobing.com Arenas in Glendale, Arizona on August 8th, 2009.
Eduardo Verastegui los invita al Festival Guadalupano en la Arena Jobing.com en Glendale, AZ el sabado 8 de agosto.
Visit the link below for more information.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knJHhzQbSY8
Buenas noches
Estimado hermano
Reciban un cordial saludo de mi parte, mi nombre es Ivania Brevé soy de Honduras y pertenezco a un movimiento catolico de jovenes llamado EMPROISTAS, nuestras raices estan fundadas en San Francisco de Assis y fueron dadas a conocer por medio del padre José María Pujadas. Gracias a la sabiduria que Dios le transmitio habemos muchos jovenes que hemos logrado un cambio.
Hace poco tuve la oportunidad de ver el video del testimonio que Eduardo Verastegui dio en EWTN, y me hizo reflexionar sobre mi encuentro, y como muchos jovenes tenemos ataduras viejas, y que necesitamos de una luz que nos ayude poco a poco a ir dejandolas atras y asi generar un cambio en nuestras vidas. me gustaria que algun dia si tuvera la opotunidad diera ese testimonio a los jovenes de latinoamerica que tanto necesitamos a Xto y que a veces lo ignoramos.
Tambien me llamo la atencion la película (Bella) pero lastimosamente no se estreno en mi país, actualemente mi parroquia (Salvador del Mundo) se encuentra realizando actividades para la construccion de salones en los que se impartiran las catequesis y otras actividades de grupos y movimientos. el comite pro-construccion tiene entre sus actividades la premiere de peliculas y me gustaria que se lograra presentar la suya debido al mensaje que por medio de esta se envia a los jovenes. agardeceria que me dijeran lo necesario para presentar dicha pelicula en las salas de cine del país.
agadeciendo de antemano su ayuda
y deseando que el Señor continue derramando bendiciones y que nuestra madre santisima guie siempre sus caminos.
X XTO +, + y + y con Maria mucho +
atte:
Ivania Brevé
With respect, I am glad that Eduardo is identified as a Catholic if this is the tradition that nurtured his faith in Jesus Christ originally and transformed his life more recently. That is a truth about his life that should not be ignored--we are incarnate beings after all. As a former "protestant", "born again", "spirit filled" Christian, I one day discovered that Catholicism was far from being exclusive...it included everything that was life-giving as it sought to avoid leaving things out of its teachings merely to make life more convenient. The very word catholic means inclusive of the whole revelation of and testimony of faith in Jesus Christ through time and in eternity. All who are baptised into Christ belong to Christ...unfortunately, many who are baptised into Christ fail to long for the fullness of the inheritance of the saints, as Eduardo himself discovered. It was certainly the teaching of the recent Popes that helped me to understand what was really at stake with issues such as social justice (many women seeking abortions state that fear of actual or potential domestic violence was a key factor in their decision), abortion, euthanasia and the perversion of human sexuality which includes the "contraceptive mentality" that I so often encountered in other Christian traditions. While unnecessary divisions are to be avoided, distinctions should continued to be made in charity where issues of truth are concerned and where they are often left conveniently unconsidered.
I don't think Cathrine[the first comment]enphasised this Catholicism enough,please next time instead of saying a Catholic,please say Christian or Born again,i have watched Eduardo on TV and online so many times,he never even mentioned that he is Catholic,now that's how you go about this Christianity,we are one,we have to be one,like Jesus said,a house devided among it's self cannot stand.
You go Eduardo! Im so proud of you,please dont stop what you are doing,i was praying to God for a born again,spirit filled,no nonsense,good looking, Christian husband,then i thought to my self,does this criteria realy exist? a couple of days later,i saw Eduardo on T.B.N, he said he has been keeping him self pure for six years,he is all about God and he is so good looking then i realised that,these kind of men realy exist.Thank you Eduardo for letting God use you to bring hope to us.Love your movie Bella,and may God richly bless you.
It is a beautiful and rare thing for a person to turn their back on the world to see Jesus, then turn to face the world with a reflection of God's glory and grace. For this, I am thankful for men like Eduardo.
I saw "Bella" last night in the living room of a dear friend. The film is almost overwhelmingly powerful. How refreshing it is to watch a movie so raw and real; so un-Hollywood! Thank you, Metanoia films- please keep moving forward with the breath of God at your back.
In response to the way this article was written, I have a couple of things to say. The term "Catholic" is used in a way that promotes exclusivity, and may close doors to spiritual searchers. In statements such as "a Catholic who stars" and "when Catholics full of God's love", are used, you promote, not Jesus, but "Catholicism".
Also, please give God the credit for our talents. Instead of, "use their hard-earned skills", turn people to Jesus by recognizing that these gifts come solely from God, and are useless outside of His hands.
Where can I find a list of the songs played in the film?