![]() ![]() I think they did have a very close relationship. “Even directing conversation toward Justin Bieber, you could see the tension. When Lee sat down with Carl, she says that both she and her subject had to break through that façade.Ĭarl was also reluctant to discuss Bieber. The reality is, none of us would be talking about this story if it didn’t have Carl Lentz at the center of it.” ![]() But it’s like, the performance versus who you are the rest of the week? Was this just a façade? That was a large part of the journey we went on with Carl. His way of real-talking church in a way that felt like he was talking to you specifically was very powerful. “You can be from any walk of life or spiritual belief set, and listen to sermon and feel a human connection,” says Lee. Footage from his sermons, which seemed to resemble arena rock concerts more than church services, capture the pastor’s charisma. The docuseries proves why Carl was so compelling to the masses. The journey you go on with Laura as to whether she’s going to stay with Carl, her thought-making process about what a healthy relationship looks like-this guy’s cheated on me, who’s to say he’s not going to do it again-felt like fresh insight.” I wanted to empower her side of the story, and for there to be a sense of strength in what she’d walked through and experienced. They see everything, they’re at the heart of it, but they have so little of a platform to express themselves. “But I think the loneliest person in a church is quite often the pastor’s wife. “Carl’s the glittery, shiny one-the person that everyone wants to hear from,” the filmmaker says. Lee notes that it isn’t common to get such truthful testimony from a betrayed party. They were mutual adult decisions by two people who lied profusely, mainly to my wife.” He also admits, “I’m responsible for that power dynamic…and I failed absolutely miserably.” ![]() “Any notion of abuse is categorically false. “I am responsible for allowing an inappropriate relationship to develop in my house with someone that worked for us,” he replies. The filmmaker asks Carl point-blank about those particular allegations in the docuseries’ second episode. “We are talking about incredibly damning accusations…not things that you can just walk back.” (Lentz was not charged with a crime over the allegations.) When pitching the couple on the docuseries, “we wanted to make it clear that they would have to walk through the fire and answer for a lot of the accusations from that 10-year period that were problematic,” says Lee-like the allegation that Carl sexually abused his family’s nanny, who was also a member of the Hillsong community. They figured out their own personal dynamics, their family, what was going to happen with them and their kids.” When she approached the family members, she says, “they were trying to think about what the next part of their life would look like.” “Rather than come out and give their perspective on every accusation, they disappeared. “It had been almost two years since they were very abruptly fired,” explains the filmmaker. When The Secrets of Hillsong director Stacey Lee filmed Lentz with his family for the docuseries this year, the ex-pastor was living an under-the-radar existence in Sarasota, Florida, reporting to a run-of-the-mill advertising job in a nondescript office. His life looks much different than it did about 10 years ago, when Lentz was the charismatic figurehead of New York City’s fast-growing Hillsong outpost-lording over rock-concert-like sermons, serving as spiritual adviser to Hillsong’s most famous disciple, Justin Bieber, and sitting for interviews with the likes of Oprah Winfrey. Lentz speaks with surprising candor in the four-part investigative docuseries, premiering May 19, which advances Dan Adler and Alex French’s definitive reporting of the Hillsong scandals for Vanity Fair. The decisions that I made, the pain that was caused, the betrayals involved…I take responsibility for those.” ![]() “I’m tired of putting people I love through pain. Speaking for the first time about his public fall from grace three years ago-when he was ousted from his position as the titular church’s celebrity pastor and his extramarital affairs came to light-Lentz looks back on his rock-bottom realizations. “I’m tired of this damage,” Carl Lentz announces in the new FX docuseries The Secrets of Hillsong. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |