When it came to casting Trinitie’s larger-than-life husband, Lee-Curtis Childs, the journey to find the right actor to portray a charismatic pastor ill at ease with himself, took a slightly more winding path.
“We had a couple of ideas but nothing was really hitting the way that we really wanted it to hit.” When the Ebos started to think about the possibility of Sterling K. Brown their only question was whether he would want to do comedy. “Sterling is obviously a fantastic actor, but we're used to him making us cry and being in these super dramatic roles,” says Adanne. “But when we were going through his IMDb credits, we saw that he had been nominated for an Emmy for an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine which is a comedy we really love although we hadn’t seen that episode. He was hilarious and he had such a dynamic arc even as a guest star in a 30-minute episode. There were so many levels of funny that he was able to do in that role.”
When Brown first watched the short film he says he laughed uproariously throughout it. “I wanted to see how they would turn it into a feature and then when I read the feature script it was hysterical, while also being very introspective about the aspects of megachurches and prosperity preaching that are a benefit, as well as the things that are worthy of scrutiny. As someone who grew up in the church, and who has a deep affinity for the church, I think we should have the ability to engage in critical thought about the institutions that we follow and that we allow to occupy space in our lives.”