What Zachary Levi Learned About Forgiveness from These Movies

Published: January 1, 2025

a scrabble type block spelling out the word forgiveness

What Zachary Levi Learned About Forgiveness from These Movies

By Movieguide® Contributor

SHAZAM! star Zachary Levi tries to keep an attitude of forgiveness and empathy towards everyone, something he learns from movies.

“I did a film called THE MAURITANIAN, and it was a true story about this guy who was ultimately, you know, cleared of this accusation but that he was involved in the 9/11 thing,” Levi told podcast host Glenn Beck. “They put him in Guantanamo, and they tortured him and all the things that they did to him, and he, in all, of that found forgiveness for those American soldiers that were again caught up in this culture. They were fed like, ‘These are the villains and these are the monsters and these are the bad guys and we got to humiliate them and we got to do this, that, and the other thing. Look what they did.’ And he found forgiveness.”

The pair also discussed what the movie UNBROKEN teaches viewers about forgiveness.

“I mean [Louis Zamperini’s] story is insane,” Levi said. “They got lost at sea and he survived that long and then gets picked up by the Japanese. Then he’s put into one of their internment camps and tortured and all of these things, and for him to find the forgiveness in his heart transformed by God, obviously, like it’s so powerful, but it’s something that we have to remember.”

Movies that champion themes of forgiveness can change our perspective as we interact with people in real life.

“It’s so easy for us to want to froth at the mouth to go get justice,” the actor continued. “We want justice, we want to go get these people, but if were willing to at least take a moment and just look at someone and see the 5-year-old in them that had all the promise to go anywhere in the world but they then they had those parents and that community and that society and whatever it was that they were raised in which then guided them into that decision-making, that’s where the beginnings of grace and mercy and forgiveness and empathy [are].”

Faith is important to the actor, and he says God called him to acting.

“I knew that God was like, ‘You’re going to be an actor one day.’ I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to go do this thing,'” Levi told Relevant. “And I am, but it was also partly because tenaciously I never gave up on it because I really, really believed in that. I believed in that promise or that feeling, or whatever that vision or whatever that dream is.”

“I’ve wanted to be a dad since I was literally a kid. I’ve always felt that call on my life. This desire in my heart. A strange feeling of incompleteness by not having that level of love and responsibility in my journey. That the best years of my life would be on the other side of finally being a father. But deep down I knew that there were things in my life that needed to shift before I was ready for the blessing of something so special and the responsibilities that come with it,” Levi posted on Instagram.

“So last November I started to make some shifts in my life. Shifts that ultimately came down to loving and valuing myself more. Prioritizing my own health physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. And lo and behold, immediately things started to manifest for the better. And very quickly God brought a brilliant, honest, grounded, and deep love into my life thru the angelic form of @maggiekeating. A wonderful woman on the same journey of self discovery and love, ready to step into a new and amazing chapter of life with me. So, we did. ?”