Jsu Garcia, co-writer / co-producer (with Dr. John-Roger), and star of Spiritual Warriors spoke recently at The Institute for Spiritual Entertainment, Los Angeles. In the article below, Jsu talks about his experience with Spiritual Warriors:
I don’t really look at Christopher Finn/Jesse Fonseca as a character—it’s too close to my personal reality. In a very real sense, I play myself, so I had to work to not caricature-ize the role. I have a great love and respect for my co-writer/co-executive producer Dr. John-Roger, and I did this movie for him. (He’d probably say he did this movie for me.) He’s one of the most unique and amazing people I know, and this movie dramatizes some of the principles in his book Spiritual Warrior: the Art of Spiritual Living.
As for locations, all the foreign sites were places I have traveled with Dr. John-Roger and a group of people on a sort of spiritual workshop to sacred places in the holy land. The Utah locations also had special meaning. I have been to Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens in LA on numerous occasions and found it a really magical place. I was pleased to be able to shoot there both for what it adds to the movie and to be able to expose this place to the world.
Having the opportunity to work with a wizard (and I mean that in many senses of the word) like Robert Easton was another great benefit for me. He is an amazing actor and an amazing person. He looks like Gandalf and fit the role to perfection.
This is admittedly a low budget film, populated by people who, in many ways are my community, my family. The people who have been working on Spiritual Warriors are not just doing it for the money because there is no money to speak of. They’re doing it because there’s a love for the ideas presented here.
I’ve worked enough in films to know it’s hard work. But until I did this film, I didn’t realize the extent of the hard work. I probably bit off a little more than I could chew. Maybe my ambitions exceeded my talent. I say all that but, you know, if you don’t risk you’ll never know what’s possible. I don’t want to go on in my life being scared of things. So I’ll take a risk. And, if it fails, it’s on me. During the process of being a principal in a movie you get to feel like you’re somebody. But you’re not. At the end of the day, you go home and you take out the trash.
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