Drew Waters on Living Your Ultimate Life
Drew Waters has appeared in "Friday Night Lights" and "Breaking Bad" and recently starred in the new film "The Ultimate Life," a sequel to "The Ultimate Gift." The new movie picks up just three years after "Ultimate Gift" and focuses on learning from the past in order to deal with the present and future. Waters plays Red Stevens, a young man bent on being a success, no matter the cost. Waters took time to speak with The Christian Post about life, success, and living the ultimate life.
Your character, Red Stevens, lives for the idea of success. What is your definition of success?
It was the same as Red's; I thought that the more money you had, the more successful you were. When I started this project, it was the same as Red's. But now I see it as the positive footprint that you leave on society. There have been three projects that I've really learned about myself and God's hand put in the right place at the right time. And Red Stevens, I put a lot of me into him, just from experience. I grew up in a small town and I started working when I was 12 years old. I wanted to get out, so I joined the military; I found myself in a position to travel the world further and eventually I came home and opened several businesses. I was successful, making money, but I was stressed out of my mind. I thought if I had enough money, all the insecurity would go away, but it only got worse. I decided to take a chance on myself and chase a dream; I did a commercial in Tokyo, japan, and the rest is history.
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"The Ultimate Life" is a type of redemption story. Do you believe everyone can be redeemed?
Red's problem is that he got caught up in being successful and didn't realize that he was pushing everything in life and that was supposed to be important to him away. One thing that was never really touched on was the racial relationship between Red and Hamilton; it was an underlying message given the fact that it was an interracial relationship in the 50s and 60s. He didn't realize how messed up he was making his kids until Hamilton was hurt; and then he finally gets the message.
I think if a person really wants to be redeemed, it's possible. There's two things I have very little sympathy or pity for, though: if you take advantage of someone or you hurt a child. But if you're struggling and trying, I think as society, it's up to us to be aware (especially if you're friends) and try to help them. Don't turn a blind eye. I grew up in an alcoholic family; my brother and I would beg our father not to drink. Unfortunately, my brother followed in our father's footsteps; it's an on- and off-again situation.
I think sometimes we numb ourselves and shut down. A lot of times, these people just want to feel loved and feel like someone actually cares. Take a look at our veterans – they served our country and fought for us – and they come back lost. The biggest thing they say is that no one knows what they've been through; we're working on a new project to share stories of veterans and people that do know and discussion to continue healing.
What is your definition of the ultimate life?
I think it doesn't matter what you have (the materialistic things or money); it's happiness and true love. Where if you lost everything tomorrow, you're still okay; you're centered in your life. As long as you have love around you, you can accomplish anything.
As for future products, we're in pre-production of a new movie, "The Prodigal," which is scheduled to be released next Christmas and also working on "Nouvelle Vie," a film about the curveballs life can sometimes throw at us.
"The Ultimate Life" is available in stores and online now.
