By Laura BennettMonday 5 Sep 2022Hope AfternoonsMoviesReading Time: 2 minutes
For more than 40 years, the Make-A-Wish Foundation has helped fulfill the wishes of children with a critical illness, initially starting in the US and now impacting kids in nearly 50 countries globally.
The story of its founder Frank Shankwitz is told in Wish Man, a movie taking us in to the backstory of the Arizona-based policeman and the young boy who inspired his philanthropy.
Australian Andrew Steel (The Justice Lease, Red Rabbit Lodge) stars as Frank, a man who “came from very humble beginnings”.
“His parents got divorced and he was in the middle of a terrible custody battle,” Andrew told Hope 103.2.
“But then he grew up and he went straight into the air force when he was 17, served there for a few years, then went into the police force, so his whole life has been a life of service.”
With a difficult childhood behind him and a number of vices he’d developed to cope, Frank often underestimated his ability to help others which is something Andrew thinks we call can do.
“We can be hard on ourselves,” Andrew said.
“We set standards for ourselves [that] often we don’t meet, because we set them so high.”
The point of Wish Man is to do what the tagline says and remind people that “everyone can be a hero”.
“You don’t have to have superpowers to be a hero, you can just do something kind for somebody else,” – Andrew Steel, Wish Man actor
“I think a hero is in the eye of the beholder,” Andrew said.
“You don’t have to have superpowers to be a hero, you can just do something kind for somebody else.
“I hope [viewers] can be inspired to make a simple act of kindness.
“You never know what ripple effect that’s going to have on somebody.”
Wish Man is streaming on Wonder from September 5 with 40 per cent of the proceeds from every rental going directly to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Listen to Andrew Steel’s full interview with Laura Bennett in the player above.