When you get knocked down, get back up
By Carol Badaracco Padgett
“Never give up.” These three words come straight from renowned director Sean McNamara when you ask him what message he hopes people will take away from his films.
“Whatever you’re passionate about, know that you will get knocked down, and that’s OK,” says the award-winning director of inspirational films Soul Surfer, The Miracle Season, Hoovey, Raise Your Voice, and countless others that give viewers a Rocky-Balboa-eye-of-the-tiger kind of high.
“People don’t know how to get back up,” McNamara reiterates. “Before we get better at anything we get knocked down a lot, and we have to get back up.”
Take chances, too. That’s another piece of wisdom McNamara shares from his days as a paperboy for Disney. “Mom encouraged me to go knock on the door,” he describes, “and I was like, ‘Mom, that’s now how it works.’” But it turned out to be where he got his first job in the industry.
Fast-forward to 2022 when the director was busy working on another phenomenal story of perseverance despite the odds, MGM’s On a Wing and a Prayer starring Dennis Quaid. The film was produced by Roma Downey and Atlanta’s Autumn Bailey-Ford, with Downey’s husband, Mark Burnett, executive producing.
Like many of the scripts McNamara gravitates toward, On a Wing and a Prayer tells a true story—of a 2009 Easter Sunday airplane trip where Doug White (Quaid), his wife (Heather Graham), and their two daughters were returning home on a chartered plane following the burial of White’s brother. During the flight, the pilot dies, leaving White to land the plane and save his family.
The emotional tale definitely had “Sean McNamara” written all over it, and how he came across it is an inspirational story on its own. The baby of six kids (five big sisters), McNamara recalls how one of his sisters, Colleen, once gave him a little unsolicited film industry advice, saying, “You should call Roma Downey.” To which McNamara replied, “That’s not how it works.”
Then one day while he was at MGM Studios he ran into Roma Downey in the hallway. She had seen Soul Surfer and The Miracle Season and she said she’d been wanting to talk to him about a project (On a Wing and a Prayer). “I looked at her and said, ‘This is the weirdest thing. My sister said I should call you,’” McNamara said. And Downey replied, “Yes, you should’ve.”
He read the script Downey gave him, written by Brian Egeston, and had an immediate reaction. “I was on the edge of my seat. It touched me emotionally, and that’s how I knew.” This type of response is exactly what McNamara looks for in a project, along with themes of people working hard and fighting through things.
In the time since On a Wing and a Prayer was released in theaters in 2023, McNamara has brought audiences Reagan (also starring Dennis Quaid) in 2024, along with Bau: Artist at War and TV series Shadrach.
Thinking back again to the early days when he was just learning to follow his heart and persevere, McNamara reminisces. “I flew to Ireland with my dad and mom and sisters. And dad got me a 35mm camera.” He’d shoot films for his class at school and their positive reception drew him in.
“You have to go for it … keep going after those dreams—and you’ll find them,” as the McNamara mantra goes. @mcnamara6262