I can be your hero baby

04 Mar 2013

By The Record

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans,” says the opening line to the film Bella, a movie which has a special message, and which was produced by Eduardo Verástegui – a Hollywood actor who is currently touring Australia at the invitation of Australian Catholic University.

Verástegui, 38, was born in a small village in Northern Mexico (Xicoténcatl, Tamaulipas) where his parents still live today. Coming from a close-knit family, and out of respect for his father, he entered law school at age 17, and studied for just two semesters.

After realising that the law was not his passion, he moved to Mexico City to pursue a career in acting and singing.

After years of singing all over Latin America in a “boy band” and acting in “telenovelas” (soap operas), he decided to seek out fame in Hollywood.

Enjoying considerable success due to his acting talent and Latin good looks, even starring alongside Jennifer Lopez in a video clip for the song Ain’t it funny, life seemed to be on the way up for Verástegui.

However, after some time passed, Eduardo began to experience emptiness. “I was 28 and I had everything I had dreamed of. Yet I was empty. I had everything, yet I had nothing. It wasn’t like I had hit rock bottom, but something wasn’t right.”

“It was at this time that I had an English teacher and she changed my life. She used the Socratic method to teach me, and ended up posing questions to me that I hadn’t considered before. She asked me what the purpose of life was.

“She asked if I planned to marry and have children. Then she challenged me to think about what kind of a man I wanted for my future daughters, and then asked me why I wasn’t being the man that I envisaged for them.

“For me, I was like a greyhound. Have you ever seen the greyhound races where the dog catches the rabbit? The dogs can never race again after that. I was like one of those dogs, chasing lies that I thought were true. I began to ask myself ‘Who am I chasing? What is truth?’

“My English teacher opened my eyes in many areas – both spiritually and personally. She asked the question, ‘Are you assuming the responsibilities that you have as an actor? How are Latinos stereotyped in Hollywood? They are always depicted as drug dealers and gangsters. And yet, you can change that so that they can be heroes’.”

Eduardo was left with many questions as a result of these encounters, and one day, upon leaving his class after a strong challenge from his teacher, he found himself sobbing in the corner of his room, reflecting on his past and on the women he had hurt.

“I made a promise that I would never again do anything to offend God, my faith, my family or my Latin culture. However, I didn’t realise that this would mean I wouldn’t work for four years!!”

Although he had grown up in a Catholic family, he admits that he attended Mass only once a year.

Today, Eduardo attends daily Mass and says a daily Rosary. His faith is at the centre of his life and all that he does.

“I don’t attend Mass each day because I am a good person, it’s because I am not. Mass is a hospital for sinners. I say to Jesus every day, ‘Give me what I need so I can become the best version of myself’.  I need the grace of God every day.”

In the first months following his conversion, Eduardo began to consider other ideas apart from continuing in Hollywood.  After making a long confession, he felt cleansed and renewed and filled with missionary vigour. He found a project in the Brazilian jungle, and started making plans to become a missionary there. However, with his bags packed and ready to go, he spoke to his spiritual director.

“Why do you want to go to Brazil?” asked the wise priest, “Hollywood is a much bigger jungle! There is more poverty here than there!” he said.

“My plan was to go to Brazil. So, like I say, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans,” said Verástegui.

Eduardo Verástegui ended up staying in Los Angeles, and growing in his faith, and although he spent the best part of four years not working, he admits that he found himself with a strange kind of peace; trusting that God had him in mind and that God’s plans were infinite.

Over those four years, he met three others who had similar experiences of conversion and they created the production company Metanoia Films. The company aims to create films that have a message of faith.

Bella was their first project and is loosely based on a true story. The main characters of the film are waitress, Nina, and chef, José (played by Verástegui), who find themselves spending a day together discussing Nina’s unplanned pregnancy.

With a powerful and poignant pro-life message, one wonders where this passion comes from. Although his faith had become important in his life, Eduardo wasn’t aware of the pro-life movement or of the suffering of women in this area.

“For me, I didn’t really know about a pro-life movement or anything before doing the film. One day, we went down to an abortion clinic to do ‘research’, to try and talk to women,” said Eduardo.

“I know now how innocent that was. I had no idea how much it would affect me seeing 13 and 14 year old girls walking into this clinic.

“There were a group of people speaking to women as they went in, and they came across a Latino couple who couldn’t speak English. They had been planning to terminate their pregnancy.

“Because I could speak Spanish, I spoke to them. We spoke for an hour about everything: Life, culture, food, everything. They ended up losing their appointment at the clinic.

“I called them day after day to follow up, to make sure they were okay.”

Eventually, the couple gave birth to a baby boy and named him Eduardo, in gratitude for the way that Eduardo had walked with them during the early days of their pregnancy.

Eduardo describes the experience of holding “little Eduardito” as another moment that changed his life.

The movie Bella was an extraordinary success for such a low-budget film, and won an award at the Toronto film festival. It also had a different, more important kind of success.

“More than 1,000 babies have been saved as a result of this movie. To this day, I still receive letters from women who have been about to terminate their pregnancies, and have somehow seen the film.

I have held some of those babies. When you know God uses you as an instrument to save another person, there is nothing like it. Like Mother Teresa always said: ‘God does not call us to be successful, God calls us to be faithful'”, he said.

Eduardo has been able to contribute much of his passion to development projects also, and one which is particularly dear to his heart is the Guadalupe Medical Centre, which he founded in a Latino barrio of Los Angeles.

So, moved to do something about a situation which had allowed 10 abortion clinics within one mile, Eduardo set up the pro bono clinic which provides medical advice, ultrasounds, counselling and support for Latina women who face unplanned pregnancies.

Eduardo speaks humbly, and admits that he is not a big fan of public speaking. Indeed, he is actually quite shy.

What he realises, though, is that the message he has to share cannot be hidden under a bushel. He speaks fervently about life and faith, and shares an extraordinary conviction.

Having completed films Bella,  For Great Glory and most recently working on Little boy, Verástegui has more than enough work to keep him busy. But he does not forget what led him to this point.

“I now realise that I wasn’t born to be a movie star or a producer. I wasn’t born to be famous. I was born to know, love and serve Jesus Christ, and to make all of us saints.

“One of the quotes that I like is this from St Faustina:

‘Our sins are just a drop in the ocean compared to God’s mercy for each one of us’.” – CNS