Fireproof
Short description
Fireproof centres on Caleb Holt, a fire captain whose guiding principle at work is never to abandon a partner. At home, his seven-year marriage to Catherine, a hospital public relations director, has come apart amid arguments over careers, money and household responsibilities. Both are ready to divorce when Caleb's father John asks him to take on a forty-day challenge known as The Love Dare, a final attempt to save the marriage. Caleb agrees, then wavers on learning how closely the experiment is tied to his parents' faith, but he stays with it and tries to win Catherine over.
Alex Kendrick directed and wrote the screenplay with Stephen Kendrick; the brothers also produced. It is the third of Kendrick's features, following Flywheel (2003) and Facing the Giants (2006) and preceding Courageous, War Room, Overcomer and The Forge. Kirk Cameron plays Caleb, with Erin Bethea as Catherine. The cast also includes Ken Bevel, Stephen Dervan, Ric Young and Jason McLeod.
Made for a modest independent budget, the film took about 33 million dollars worldwide, a large return relative to its cost. On IMDb it holds 6.5 out of 10 from roughly 25,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.7 from about 880 votes. A critics' rating of 4.8 from 21 reviews places it well below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- When filming the house fire scene, local television crews rushed to the set, believing it was a real fire.
- Initially, filmmakers planned to use mouthwash mixed with a sports drink in the scene where the characters drink spicy hot sauce, but then decided to go another way. The characters played by Kirk Cameron and Steven Dervan first drank plain tomato juice, but before each new take, a little Tabasco sauce was gradually added to Dervan's juice, and finally he was unable to bear the burning in his mouth any longer and ran off to rinse his mouth.
- In the film scene where the protagonist kisses his wife, the filmmakers had to dress Cameron’s real wife – Chelsea Noble – as the hero’s wife and obscure the scene with shadow to make the difference less obvious on screen. All other scenes with the wife were played by actress Erin Bethea.
- Kirk Cameron, for religious reasons, absolutely refuses to kiss women unless it's his wife. To film the corresponding scene with his character, filmmakers dressed Cameron's wife (Chelsea Noble) in the dress of Caleb's wife, whom Cameron was playing, and who was played by Erin Bethea, and shot the kissing scene so that viewers wouldn't notice the substitution of Bethea with Noble.
- Kirk Cameron waived his fee for appearing in the film and requested it be donated to his ministry.
- The film’s lead actor, Kirk Cameron (who is also a Christian evangelist in addition to acting), refuses to kiss women other than his wife in films, adhering to his principles.
- A real house slated for demolition was burned down during filming. All the tiles and similar materials were removed from the building in advance. One of the supporting workers involved in preparing the house for burning spent his childhood in that house. A significant portion of the smoke inside the building was added to the shot using computer technology. James Cameron actually chopped a hole in the floor with an axe.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
