Soul on Fire actors break down the full circle storytelling of John and Dennis O’Leary’s father-son relationship.
John Corbett and Joel Courtney star in Soul On Fire, which is inspired by the true story and 2016 bestselling book On Fire by John O’Leary. The film follows his miraculous recovery from a near-death accident when he was 9 years old, and eventually, his mission to better the world and encourage others to do the extraordinary. I spoke with the duo about the experience of playing a real person, which quote resonated with them most, and more.
On honoring the real family while still bringing themselves to the role.
“I haven’t played many real people, so to have the guy 10 feet away from me that I’m playing, it was a little uncomfortable for me a bit. But they also knew that I didn’t do a deep study with Denny(Dennis) to try to replicate him. I will say this, when I watched this guy playing John O’Leary, I was surprised how much of John he picked up from spending a little bit of time with John,” Corbett commented. “You picked up so much of John O’Leary just in everything you did. It was bizarre.”
“The reason I was able to do that is because he has hours and hours and hours of speaking engagements, and so I put them on replay. I watched tons of hours of John, and I would listen to his book. But Denny’s not as public as John was, and so there wasn’t as much for you to find publicly. But John is everywhere,” Courtney explained. “I watched hours and hours of John, but Denny was much more private. He didn’t have that public life that John had, so there’s also that accessibility.”
Watch my full interview below:
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Sophia Soto
Sophia Soto is a writer and interviewer with a passion for all things entertainment. She is a Senior Reporter at The Nerds of Color and contributes to Awards Radar, What to Watch, Screensphere, Nerdtropolis, and Temple of Geek. You can see her past work on Den of Geek, Yardbarker, Remezcla, Young Hollywood, Looper, Paste Magazine, Primetimer, Soundsphere, Brit + Co, and Starry Constellation Magazine. Her current favorite TV shows include Outer Banks, Tell Me Lies, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Additionally, she is a complete Marvel nerd! Connect with her on X (@srsoto26) and Instagram (@srsoto264).
