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Ernest Hemingway’s Granddaughter Finds Peace in New Movie
By Movieguide® Contributor
Mariel Hemingway, Oscar-nominated actress and granddaughter of novelist Ernest Hemingway, has turned ashes into beauty and found peace with her dark past. Now Mariel is sharing her story through Pure Flix’s new film, GOD’S COUNTRY SONG.
In GOD’S COUNTRY SONG, Mariel plays the mother of Noah, a charming yet troubled country singer who is determined to make it big. However, while on the road to success, he’s informed he has a 5-year-old son, J.J., he didn’t know existed. The boy’s mother, who Noah barely remembers, has died, and he’s tasked with raising the child alone. Struggling with a dependence on alcohol and a fractured relationship with his own father, Noah is faced with an ultimatum: Should he raise his child or leave his family behind to see his country music dream fulfilled?
“’God’s Country Song’ is such a wholesome story, but it deals with… addiction,” she said. “You know, using alcohol to self-medicate the pain we go through in life or things we can’t deal with. I think the reason why it felt so touching to me is that I do a lot of work for mental health… And any time you can get the message out there, especially through scripted work, it just seems to land really well… There are so many superhero films out there that are wonderful, but I think a more family-oriented story connects with me. And I think it connects with so many others, too,” Mariel.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Mariel shared, “I had depression probably most of my life… My belief in God has been a cornerstone for me… It has helped me understand the things that I came from. I come from an amazing family, but there was also a lot of addiction, alcoholism, depression and suicides. And very serious mental illnesses that I was deeply afraid of.”
Despite winning a Nobel Peace Prize and writing famous works such as “The Old Man and The Sea,” Mariel’s late grandfather Ernest Hemingway committed suicide at the age of 61. The rest of her family seemed to follow suit. Her father passed from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 57, and her sister Margaux Hemingway took her own life when she was 41 years old.
As Mariel Hemingway grew up, she witnessed her parents’ difficult relationship entwined with alcoholism. Within her family, some turned to drugs, and Mariel herself suffered from an eating disorder from ages 16 to 40.
“It was all about control, control, control. I’ll control food, I’ll control exercise, I’ll control what I think,” explained Mariel. “It took a long time to get through these different journeys of obsession. Obsession with food, obsession with exercise, obsession with [the idea] that somebody’s going to fix me – until I realized that I was the only person that could fix me.”
With the help of God, Mariel was able to find her true value and face her insecurities head-on. She stopped worrying about how others viewed her and worked on herself for her.
Mariel later revealed, “My belief in God and my belief in prayer and connecting with the God within and your inner voice – that has always been… a saving grace for me and a good path for me. It reminds me that all of this is so interconnected.”
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