As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, Jon Erwin and Kelsey Grammer are on a mission to encourage audiences to set aside political divisions and rediscover a sense of wonder about the nation’s founding story.
Erwin’s upcoming historical drama “Young Washington,” which opens in theaters July 3, follows the formative years of George Washington before he became a Revolutionary War hero, the nation’s first president and one of the most recognizable figures in American history.
“This is our love letter to the country itself and its first founder,” Erwin told The Christian Post in a recent interview alongside actor Kelsey Grammer. “I hope that we can all put away our arms for a minute and celebrate the story of America together.”
Directed, co-written and produced by Erwin, the film stars William Franklyn-Miller as a young Washington and features an ensemble cast that includes Grammer as Lord Thomas Fairfax, Ben Kingsley as Virginia Lt. Gov. Robert Dinwiddie, Andy Serkis as Gen. Edward Braddock and Mary-Louise Parker as Washington’s mother, Mary. For King & Country star Joel Smallbone also appears as William Fairfax, a rival to a young Washington.
Rather than focusing on Washington’s presidency or military triumphs, “Young Washington” (rated PG-13 for sequences of strong war violence and some bloody images) chronicles the future founding father’s early adulthood, including the setbacks, failures and personal losses that shaped his character.
The story follows Washington as an ambitious young surveyor and military officer whose actions helped spark the French and Indian War. After suffering devastating failures on the frontier, he is forced to confront his own shortcomings and discover the qualities that would eventually define his leadership.
Erwin, who previously worked with Grammar for the hit film “Jesus Revolution,” said he was drawn to this lesser-known chapter of Washington’s life after becoming fascinated with the American Revolution.
“I think failure is the great teacher, and it’s the courage to endure that counts,” Erwin said, quoting Winston Churchill.
“I became so enamored with the American Revolution, and then with Washington himself, and he’s just such a carved-in-stone mythic figure that I began to ask, ‘Who’s the person underneath the myth, and where was that legend born?'”
The answer, he discovered, was a story far more relatable than many Americans realize.
“You get to this season of his life and this hero’s journey that so very few people know about,” Erwin said. “What was so relatable about it to me was that he was forged in things that we all relate to — loss, failure, hardship, the adventure, the risk, the frontier, trying something you don’t know how to do.”
“It was his endurance through that that made him the leader that he became, and that was very revelatory to me and personal to me, and I wanted the audience to have that same experience.”
The film’s emphasis on Washington’s struggles rather than his accomplishments is one reason Erwin said audiences will connect with the story. While historical figures are far too often viewed through a political lens, the “House of David” creator said he wants audiences to see Washington as a young man learning through mistakes.
“I came away from that experience with a true sense of awe and wonder and gratitude,” Erwin said of his years researching the founding era. “This is the American experiment and it’s not perfect, but it is worth celebrating, and it’s worth us all trying to make it more perfect.”
Grammer, who plays Washington’s mentor Lord Fairfax, said he immediately embraced the opportunity to join the project. The Emmy-winning actor, who previously hosted and executive-produced the Fox Nation historical docudrama “George: Rise of a Revolutionary,” which chronicled Washington’s early life, said that stepping into the role of Fairfax offered a different perspective on the future president’s development.
“Well, I’m not sure I ever wanted to do that,” Grammer said with a laugh when asked about portraying Washington through the eyes of a mentor. “It wasn’t on my bucket list of, like, ‘I’ve got to play this guy that was a mentor to George Washington.'”
But when Erwin approached him about the film, Grammer said the decision was easy.
“When the occasion arose and Jon calls and says, ‘Would you want to take a trip to the moon real quick?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’d be delighted to. Let’s go ahead.'”
Grammer joked that another Churchill quote perfectly summarizes the film’s central message: “‘When you’re going through hell, keep going,'” he said. “That’s exactly right. That’s the movie. That really is exactly it.”
For the veteran actor, however, the project reflected his admiration for Washington and an appreciation for the freedoms Americans enjoy today.
“It was just a charming opportunity to invest some of my time in a story I love,” Grammer said. “I love the story of George Washington.”
“I feel a personal sense of debt to him for being in this country that I love because of what he did for me,” Grammer said. “I’ll never forget it, and I will always praise it, and I stand in admiration of him for my entire life.”
He added, “I hope my children do as well. I intend to pass that on, and I think this movie will also pass that on.”
The timing of the film’s release was not planned around the nation’s semiquincentennial, but both men emphasized that the Independence Day debut as fitting.
“I can’t believe the movie is opening on the 250th anniversary of America,” Erwin said.
After years spent researching Washington and the Revolutionary era, Erwin said he hopes audiences leave theaters with a renewed appreciation for the nation’s origins. He added that, as Americans prepare to mark 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, “Young Washington” offers audiences an opportunity to revisit the story of a young man whose failures helped prepare him to change the course of history.
“My sincere hope is for the audience to go on the same journey I went on when I started learning the story,” he said. “I just got hooked on several books and on the American Revolution.”
“There was so much I didn’t know. … We are the stewards of this thing,” Erwin said. “There is so much that we hold in common and so much to celebrate.”
Watch the trailer for “Young Washington” below.
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]
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