Luke Wilson Thinks Jesus Rocks

Why the star of the new movie Henry Poole Is Heresays Glenn Frey pops in the flick

By Marc Malkin Aug 15, 2008 7:35 PMTags
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Who's that old-time musician making a cameo as Jesus in Luke Wilson's new flick, Henry Pool is Here?

Eagles rocker Glenn Frey—well, sorta.

Lemme explain: Without giving too much away, an image of Jesus on the side of a house plays an important part in the movie, but when Wilson first got a look at it, he didn't exactly see the son of God...

"I said to myself and apparently out loud one day that I thought it looked like Glenn Frey," Wilson admitted last night during the American Cinemateque screening and Q&A at Santa Monica's Aero Theater.

"I thought the woman who was in charge was going to hit me. I didn't even mean it in a bad way. It just looked like him from the '70s." (He sure does look like J.C. in the inset pic above!)

Director Mark Pellington assures us Mr. Frey was not the inspiration—a simple grocery-store prayer candle was.

"One day we were in the grocery store...and I walked past an aisle that had prayer candles that all had Jesus on them," Pellington explained. "I bought one, ripped the label off and told the guys to Photoshop it and then tweak it from there."

—Additional reporting by Alexis Brunswick