Oscar winner Octavia Spencer has just been chosen to play God in the upcoming movie adaptation of William P Young's bestselling novel The Shack.
Young's self-published novel has sold over 18 million copies and has even been translated into 39 different languages, reports Variety. Lionsgate Studios obtained rights to make it into a movie back in 2013, and production will start this spring with Stuart Hazeldine as director and Gil Netter as producer through Netter Productions together with Brad Cummings.
The role of God has typically been given to male actors, including Morgan Freeman and George Burns. Even The Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons will be portraying God in the broadway comedy An Act of God.
Spencer admitted to USA Today that she has "huge shoes to fill" and only hopes to do the role justice.
"Morgan Freeman has done it and he's been quite effective. I'm just going to try to bring some wisdom to it. It's overwhelming, it's like, 'Oh, my God! Someone is playing God," she said.
The actress clarified that the role is only a manifestation of God, and how the author or the director sees God. She said her role in The Shack is "not necessarily how or who or what God is."
The story of The Shack revolves around Mackenzie Allen Philips, a grieving father whose daughter Missy was abducted and then brutally killed in an abandoned Oregon shack. Four years later, engulfed in feelings of bitterness and grief, he receives a note from "Papa" instructing him to return to the shack where his daughter was killed. There he meets God and finds unexpected healing.
Spencer admitted she is not doing any special in preparation for such an enormous role: "You don't prepare for God."
Oprah Winfrey, Forrest Whitaker, and Idris Elba were earlier linked to the film, but there have been no further confirmations regarding the rest of the film's cast.
