A Snapshot of 'Sarah's Oil' with Zachary Levi

Zachary Levi and Naya Desir-Johnson in 'Sarah's Oil' | Amazon MGM Studios
In the early 1900’s, a young African American girl named Sarah Rector, who was born in Oklahoma Indian Territory, believed there was oil beneath the dry, dusty land she had been given. While no one believes her, Sarah’s faith paved the way to reveal that she was right.

The funny thing is people did believe her. They just didn’t want her to know that beneath her feet was an oil reserve that would eventually make her the richest woman in America at the tender age of 11. As greedy oil sharks circled her in a quest to gain control of untold riches, young Sarah turned to her family and friends to maintain control of her untapped fortune.

Based on Tonya Bolden’s 2014 book, Searching for Sarah Rector: The Richest Black Girl in America, Sarah’s Oil is a new movie opening in theaters nationwide this weekend. Starring Zachary Levi (Shazam!, The Unbreakable Boy), Naya Desir-Johnson, Sonequa Martin-Green (Space Jam: A New Legacy), and directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh (The Young Messiah), the film is more than just a story of how one person acquired her wealth. It is an inspiring lesson about courage, community, and the gritty determination to fight for what is rightfully yours.

I recently sat down with Zachary Levi, who portrays her business partner Bert, a man sympathetic to young Sarah’s plight, to discuss the importance of finding self-worth through faith, and the value of never backing down when you truly believe in something.

For every actor, there always seems to be a moment where you say to yourself, “I have to be a part of this movie! It is non-negotiable!” For Sarah’s Oil, what was that moment for you?

As soon as I read the script, I had an amazing God moment in that I was flying from Austin to Tulsa, where the story takes place. Right before the plane took off, I got an email from John Shepherd, one of our producers. At that point it was just he and Cyrus (Nowrasteh), and Betsy Cyrus's wife, who co-wrote the script with Cyrus. They were the only ones who were attached to the project. And John, who I'd known for years, sent me the script. He said, ‘Hey man, I really think I'm supposed to send this to you. I think you'd be interested in this. Let me know. Look at the role of Bert. Let me know if you're interested.'

And I could not put the script down. It was so well written, the story was so unbelievable, and so compelling. It was a story that no one knew. I had never heard of most people. I didn't know anyone else who had ever heard of it. I thought that was wrong. This is a piece of our history as Americans, especially black history and just the history of our country. It was so inspiring and unbelievable and yet all true. And I thought, it's a travesty that more people don't know this. And in that moment, I said, I will absolutely come alongside and I will help make this happen whether I play Bert or not. As an actor, sometimes scheduling doesn't work out. But I was determined to make sure that the audiences got to see this movie.

This is such a story of courage, community, and belief in your own self-worth. Why are those qualities so important to convey to audiences in the times we are living right now?

I think in large part, it’s because we've lost each other. We've lost connection with ourselves, with each other, with nature, and with God. The concept of community has been lost. We used to be a tribal people. We knew each other. We knew our neighbors. We trusted our neighbor. We co-labored and co-created with our neighbor. But in the last 100 years, in the industrialized world, we've all kind of splintered off to go chase the American dream. You have to have your own home, in this neighborhood, with your own yard and a pool. You need to make the right amount of money. Your kids have to go to the right schools and all of these things. And if you do all of these things, somehow, you'll be happy. But when we did that, we all disconnected from ourselves and from each other. I think that is one of our greatest losses in these many years. We have lost touch with each other, what it means to rely on each other, and understand each other. There's a lot of those elements that are represented well in this film that I think are important for people to take away from.

What elements of faith shine through in Sarah’s Oil?

Sarah and her family are really the beating heart of faith in this film. Sarah, obviously most poignantly in all of that, to recognize that sometimes despite all odds, and all of the odds were against her, to believe that there was oil in her land, simply because she prayed over her land and God said, ‘There is oil here.’ There wasn’t any real evidence until they started to kind of uncover more of that. She never wavered in her faith. Faith the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain. That she was able to continue to persevere in that faith and for this to be the fruit of that, for her to have the largest, purest oil reserve in North America, and to become the richest woman in America as an 11-year-old black girl in a very still racist and segregated part of the country; that's massive. So massive. That is one of the biggest pieces of faith that you can extrapolate from this film.

WATCH A TRAILER FOR SARAH'S OIL: