Cheryl Ladd Talks Prayer & “The Perfect Wave”

Part Three of The Perfect Wave Interview Series

[Note: Part One featured an interview with Rachel Hendrix; Part Two featured an interview with Ian McCormack]

If you’ve ever experienced the power of a praying mother — or a parent who really intercedes for you with fervent prayer — then you have something in common with Hollywood star Cheryl Ladd.

People know Cheryl as the actor who’s done it all: starred in the legendary TV show Charlie’s Angels, played the lead role of Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun on Broadway (taking the place of Bernadette Peters, no less), starred in a long list of feature films, and recorded a Top 40 album. And that’s just scratching the surface of a long, fruitful career.

But what you might not know about Cheryl is that she is a fervent follower of Christ. When the script for the film “The Perfect Wave” landed on her doorstep — a movie that tells the true story of a surfer’s miraculous encounter with Christ — it was a match made in Heaven. As Cheryl said to another journalist before I interviewed her: “The Perfect Wave movie changed my life in a very profound way. Knowing Ian McCormack [the surfer who inspired the film] has been a gift.”

I had the great joy of speaking with Cheryl briefly over the phone about her role as the mother of Ian McCormack. Although our conversation was short, it was meaningful and enlightening:

In The Perfect Wave, the power of a praying mother really takes center stage as a theme in the movie and in the true story. As you prepared for the role of Ian’s mother did you draw from your own experiences as a mom?

I did. It’s interesting that Ian’s mother had a very profound thing happen to her while she was praying for her own mother, and I had an experience very much like that. And, obviously, I pray for my daughters and my granddaughters all the time. It’s very hard to let the birdies fly from the nest as a mother because all you really can do is pray for them and love them and, yeah, I was very affected by that and related to it in a big way.

The movie is a compelling wake-up call in many ways especially in regards to the power of prayer. How do you keep your prayer life active and engaged with God?

The reason I was in The Perfect Wave is because every morning when I walk my dog I talk to the Lord, I pray, I count my blessings, and if I have something that is bothering me I talk it over with Him. But also I had been getting scripts to do, and they were just…blech…nothing I want to do, and they were just dark and, you know, I just kept praying when I was getting this kind of material. I prayed every day that He would send me something that He wanted me to do, something that would uplift the world and bring them closer to God, and this script arrived. So I knew this was what He wanted me to do.

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The film The Perfect Wave comes out on DVD today (Tuesday, September 16, 2014). My full review of the film is here, and you can purchase it online at WalMart.com or learn more about the movie at its official site.