GregAlan Williams

Giving the starring role in the new movie Preacher’s Kid to platinum-selling recording artist, Letoya Luckett, was not part of anyone’s plan, not even Letoya’s. Nonetheless, to my mind, there was a plan, a destiny, a design, set in motion by the grand designer himself.

Letoya, a founding member of Destiny’s Child, was initially set to play a substantial, yet, supporting role, in the film. A couple of days before production was scheduled to begin in Atlanta, the young actress originally chosen for the starring role; the one the studio, the producers, even the film’s writer/director, Stan Foster, had been raving about, tearfully withdrew from the project. The next day, Stan phoned Letoya and offered her the title role.

Forty-eight hours later, just a day before the cameras rolled, the entire cast sat down to read through the script. I remember the moment Letoya took her place at the table; quiet, humble, smiling nervously. It was the chance of a lifetime and she knew it. A star-making vehicle if ever there was one-- especially for a talented young artist who had been jettisoned from the successful singing group she co-founded just as the trio was about to warp into super-stardom.

Preacher’s Kid is Letoya’s first big movie, but you wouldn’t know it. Her performance is nothing less than wonderful. She takes her character from youthful innocence to full-grown, love-sick, lasciviousness, and back again. The role of faithful, dutiful, preacher’s daughter, Angie King, would demand the best of even the most seasoned young actor. Yet, on-screen, Letoya makes you love Angie and want the best for her-- when she’s doing right, and even…when she’s doing wrong. Angie King is Letoya’s role. It was meant only for her. And, despite the fact that, in the beginning, no one knew, so it is.

I know how Letoya felt as she took on her role that day at the table. She wasn’t the only cast member benefiting from God’s grace. Originally, I had been cast in a small supporting role, until I got a call that Stan wanted me to come back and read for the part of Letoya’s father, Bishop King. During the preceding weeks, Stan had auditioned many of black Hollywood’s best—certainly bigger names than mine, more recognizable faces—the kinds of actors that bring people to the theaters. Was I better than all those other actors? I doubt it. In fact, I wasn’t submitted for the role in the first place, or for any role in the film. Later, after I had been cast as the Bishop, I asked my LA agent why I’d not been submitted for the film from the beginning. He insisted that the producers had only been interested in casting from a list of “name” actors. Were it not for another agent (a much smaller agent) in North Carolina, I would never have made it into the audition mix at all. Or would I?

If you believe in divine order, in grace, in undeserved merit, as I do, then you understand, as I do, that a power greater than the agents, the producers, and, the all powerful studio, was in motion from the beginning-- moving not only on behalf of Letoya and myself, but on behalf of Stan Foster’s brilliant script, magnificent cast, and crew.

Preacher’s Kid is anointed cinema, powerful, uplifting, and true to life. I’ve performed in more than 150 films and television episodes, everything from the Sopranos to Remember The Titans and the West Wing. Yet, I have never been so grateful to be part of such an important work.

A good portion of that gratitude has to do with the saints of the New Jerusalem Church of God in Christ, at 14th and University, in Des Moines, Iowa-- the church where I grew up--where my mother taught Sunday School for more the forty years. Some of my thankfulness has to do with the members of Morning Star Baptist Church, another beloved hometown congregation. An additional portion of gratitude is associated with the preacher’s of my childhood; Rev. Alex Crawford, Bishop Goodman, Bishops Tindrell, Carter, and Patterson. It was the voices and the images of these good shepherd’s that both guided and inspired me as I worked on Preacher’s Kid.

In addition to being an attempt to do the best with the rich blessing I was given, my performance is a tribute to the people in the pews of those old churches, and to the men in the pulpit, to their faith and to their lives.