Hailey Bieber‘s dad opened up about why he traded Hollywood for ministry.
Stephen Baldwin said he never wanted the Tom Cruise career path.
A 90s leading man who once shared the screen with some of the biggest names in film walked away from it all. Decades later, he explained the moment that redirected his life, and it started with a prophecy from an unexpected source. His answer had nothing to do with flops and everything to do with faith.
Stephen Baldwin says ministry became his focus after getting sober
Stephen Baldwin never chased the kind of fame that follows an Oscar-winning hit. The actor, 60, told PEOPLE he could have ridden his 1995 breakout in The Usual Suspects toward the A-list. He picked something else instead.
“I probably could have pointed myself in the direction of becoming a big star,” Hailey Bieber’s dad said. “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!”
His Hollywood career ran hot in that stretch. He played Barney Rubble in The Flintstones in 1994, then joined Pauly Shore in Bio-Dome, which just marked 30 years. Brother Alec Baldwin saw disaster coming. “I think perhaps that could be the biggest career-ending mistake you could ever make,” Alec warned him.
Baldwin left Hollywood by choice rather than necessity. He got sober in 1989 and married wife Kennya the next year. Then in 2001 he became a born-again Christian, and a housekeeper’s prophecy sparked it. Augusta, hired from Brazil after daughter Alaia’s birth, told Kennya that God had sent her.
“She said in the future you and I will become born-again Christians and have our own ministry,” Baldwin recalled hearing. He laughed it off at first. “I said ‘Hun, we’re from New York but we’re in Arizona and I think you need to go back into the air conditioning and lie down.'”
An evangelical festival in Fort Lauderdale sealed it. Skateboarders preached between tricks to thousands of kids, and Baldwin felt a calling. His Christian faith turned into a skate video, Livin It, and eventually a touring ministry. “I went to 125 churches over four years,” he said.
Now he enjoys grandfather life. Grandson Jack, almost 2, belongs to Hailey and Justin Bieber. “I’m so blessed,” Baldwin said.
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