3 minute read
Dean Cain
Actor Dean Cainʼs Most Heroic Role Yet:
FATHERHOOD
by Michael Scott Overholt
“JUST BE THERE.”
That’s the advice actor Dean Cain, best known for his role as Superman in the ’90s television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, gives to fellow parents. Be there. Be present. Be near. There’s a scene from Lois & Clark that Cain may have taken his cue from. After the two have been dating for a while, Lois expresses concern that Clark’s Superman persona is changing him. How, after all, can someone live two lives and not have one role detract from the other? Clark’s response is iconic: “Superman is what I can do. Clark is who I am.”
I would not risk not being with my son.
That dichotomy is exactly what Cain employed as a father in Hollywood: acting is what I can do; being a present father is who I am. For Cain, a single parent, “being there” meant he’d let go of any project that kept him from playing an active role in his son Christopher’s life. Because his parenting values transcended career values, the actor admits he felt “very limited in the projects I could take, the roles I could play.” A television series after his son was born was simply out of the question because, as he says, “I would not risk not being with my son.” But upholding this value wasn’t easy, even for Superman. There were bills to pay. “I was off ered a series where I would have been one of the highest, if not the highest paid actor in television in the one-hour fi eld. But I would’ve had to move to Vancouver.”
It would’ve been easy to rationalize spending a few months away on set to shore up the coff ers. Wouldn’t he be doing this for his son? Isn’t that fi nancial stability what he would’ve needed? But Cain refused, choosing instead to believe God would provide for him if he took another path. And the fruits from this choice, choosing to stay present with his son, are most evident when Cain made the movie God’s Not Dead while his son was in high school. “The whole school went to watch it,” he remembers, “and the kids knew me because I was around, and I coached. I was always there.” And that job in Vancouver? It would’ve turned into six years.
From Cain’s own life, there appear to be two sources that inspire his parenting. His adoptive father’s example is one. Cain’s father, the respected director and writer Christopher Cain, played a pivotal role in his early years. When Cain’s mother Sharon Thomas, an actress, moved to Hollywood from Detroit, she met and married Christopher, who adopted four-year-old Dean and helped direct his life.
“If I didn’t have my dad, I would’ve made so many wrong turns,” the actor says. “He corrected my journey sometimes with a fi rm hand, sometimes with a harsh word, but I needed both. Over time, I realized where I would be without my dad: nowhere.” The second source that inspires Cain’s parenting is his gratitude practice, spurred on by a faith that came to him later in life. “It wasn’t until my son was born when I was in my thirties that faith really hit home. I think being a parent changes you, because you’re no longer the most important thing. So every day, I wake up and think of fi ve things to be thankful for. And I’ll thank God for those fi ve things before I start any part of my day." That sense of gratitude permeates the way that Dean refl ects on his father’s presence in his life, and it’s with that same attitude of gratefulness that he aims to be present in his own son’s life. “He’s my favorite human being in the world. He’s 21 years old, running around being a college kid, doing what you’re supposed to do. When I see him turning down the wrong way a little bit, I still have to give some dad advice and try to guide him back in. But I’m just thankful to see I’ve raised a wonderful kid and a very positive human being. I’m just so grateful.”
Dean with his son, Christopher in Los Angeles
To learn more about Dean’s latest projects, follow him on social media.
Adapted for print from the Jesus Calling Podcast. Put your phone in Camera mode and hover over this code to hear more of Dean’s story.
