Actor: Personal Crisis Reason for 'God's Not Dead'

A new film about faith hits the big screen this weekend. It tells the story of a bright young college student who risks flunking a course because his religious beliefs are at odds with his atheist professor.

"God's Not Dead" director Harold Cronk said the story-line is based in reality. It also features Willie and Korie Robertson from A&E's hit reality television series "Duck Dynasty."

It's a first for the family who has turned duck calls into a multi-million dollar empire.

"It is a great year for faith based films and we are just happy to be a part of it," Willie Robertson said in a recent interview with The 700 Club.

"We thought the script was phenomenal, some of the situations," Robertson continued. "It is just everyday stuff."

Actor Kevin Sorbo plays the college philosophy professor who is an atheist. It's a role the actor said he could identify with.

"I have friends who are atheist. And I don't mind having those conversations without the whole anger thing entering into it," Sorbo told CBN News. "I find it very strange that so many atheists could spend so much time and hatred towards people that want to believe in God and believe in Jesus. It's weird to me."

Kevin was raised in a Christian home and personally accepted Jesus into his life when he was 13 years old at a Billy Graham crusade.

Bob Waliszewski, director of Focus on the Family's entertainment review department "Plugged in Online," offered a family friendly take on the movie and others opening this weekend below:

It's a faith that has sustained him throughout a successful career that includes his best known role "Hercules" in the mega-hit television series.

"I have done 40 movies since then," Kevin recalled. "I am shooting one now. I got another one after this. Knock on wood, thank God, I am still working."

Faith has also sustained this Hollywood husband and father through tough times. At the height of his career, he suffered an aneurysm in his left arm, eyesight failure, loss of balance, slurred speech, and three strokes.

"I just broke down and I cried. I felt there was a death in the family. And I felt like somebody had died and it was me," Sorbo recalled about that time.

He still remembers his prayer to God in that time of crisis.

"Help me to find the acceptance in this. If this is the best, I am going to be then help me to fight through this every day because it was tough," he prayed.

With his wife by his side, Sorbo fought his way back. And his personal relationship with God is part of the reason he believes God wanted him to take this latest role in "God's Not Dead."

"Faith is not tangible," Kevin shared. "You can't touch it. It's something that is a belief. It is something that is inside of you. And I needed faith to push past every single thing that I was going through and what I felt."