Stephen Baldwin has no regrets about stepping away from mainstream Hollywood in order to dedicate his life to his religion.
After gaining wider recognition for his performance in the 1995 thriller The Usual Suspects, the actor became a born-again Christian in 2001, which altered the trajectory of his acting career as he prioritized faith-based projects over fame.
“I probably could have pointed myself in the direction of becoming a big star,” Baldwin, 60, told People in an interview published Sunday. “But that wasn’t me. I didn’t want to be Tom Cruise, and have to make $100 million at the box office.”
“I’d rather be a schmuck from Massapequa!” he joked, referring to his Long Island roots. “I’m good at that!”
Baldwin, who decided to get sober in 1989 before marrying his wife Kennya the next year, said he began to pursue ministry after the family’s housekeeper prophesied that the couple would become born-again evangelical Christians.
In the following years, the actor said he felt called to lead a skateboarding youth outreach. He has since spent decades touring with the skate ministry.
“I went to 125 churches over four years,” the Bio-Dome actor said of his evangelistic work, adding, “Jesus and the holy spirit fascinated me.”
Baldwin, who is the father of Hailey Bieber and Alaia Baldwin, said that he is no longer interested in fame the way he once was.
“I’ve done 100 movies, I’ve made more money that I could have wildly imagined, and I’m married to the hottest chick I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said about his wife. “Jesus is my rock. My wife is my anchor. I’ve had the most amazing life and I’m only 60. I’m so blessed. I’m just waiting for more doors open that I’m supposed to walk through.”
Baldwin has opened up about feeling disconnected from the entertainment industry in the past, sometimes blaming his distance on clashes over his support of Donald Trump in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 presidential elections.
Recently, the producer criticized the movie industry by saying he felt “castrated comedically” on the set of romantic comedy The Object of My Affection with Jennifer Aniston in 1998.
He claimed he was fired from the film because he was funnier than Aniston, and that he had similarly lost jobs in the past because he had a different interpretation of a script than the writers had in mind.
“So I get there and I’m me. Jennifer’s cute and whatever. I got a girl. I’m good,” he told TJ Miller on his podcast, One Bad Move with Stephen Baldwin. “After lunch, this producer comes to my trailer and goes, ‘There’s a problem. You can’t be funnier than Jennifer.’
After Miller, who worked with Aniston on Office Christmas Party in 2016, said that the comment probably didn’t come from Aniston as she is “really funny,” Baldwin continued: “I don’t know. This isn’t to shred anybody. This is just simply to say ‘Hollywood is Hollywood’.”
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