Aimee Semple McPherson: Finally A Film

Edited by Madelyn Miller, the TravelLady The Aimee Semple McPherson story remains one L.A.'s most compelling mysteries.

[Gina Morton]

I saw Richard Rossi, the director, writer, and actor in this film portray Elmer Gantry on stage at the Stella Adler Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard a couple years back, and in Long Beach. An amazing performance. The executor of the Richard Brooks estate was in attendance and came up on stage and gave Richard Rossi the Oscar from the 1960 "Elmer Gantry" film and said Richard Brooks would be proud. One of the best nights of theatre in LA ever.

[Nikki Carlson - Bel Air]

Thanks to Richard Rossi and his stage performance, my boyfriend and I broke up. Richard Rossi was so dynamic as Elmer Gantry on stage at Stella Adler theatre in Hollywood, he vacillated between various instincts - sexy and lustful, to childlike impulses. His Pentecostal sermon scenes were electric. At the end of the play, when his girlfriend Sister Sharon died, Rossi broke down crying. It wasn't in the script, because I saw him do the play before and I knew actors who knew Richard Rossi. One of them told me it changed the whole ending and they all had to improv their way out of it. Rossi literally was so in the belief of the moment, he started weeping and convulsing for several moments of anquish on stage. A few of the actors did not know what to do it was so real, his catharsis and pain. So honest the audience was crying or had goosebumps. Very nuanced and powerful stage performance. I saw it with my then boyfriend at the time who was a pretty boy wannabe actor. We got in a fight at the Whiskey a Go Go after Rossi's play because I had a few drinks, loosened up and told him my boyfriend he would never be the actor Richard Rossi was that night. I told him he may have the perfect abs and OC looks, but he didn't have the soul and the natural gifts Rossi displayed. He cussed me out. Needless to say, we're broke up now.

[Ashley in Brentwood]

I found the website for the film by Richard Rossi. It's www.aimeesemplemcphersonmovie.com

[Devon Fox]

Was it really fair, though, for Richard Rossi to be so out of control emotionally as an actor, that the entire cast had to respond to his breakdown on stage and change the lines they had rehearsed? I think he is dynamite, but explosives can be very disruptive if other actors are conventional and want to stay on the book. If one-tenth of the rumors about his past are true, Nikki and her boyfriend probably are not the first relationship his erratic behaviour has broken up.

[Joey in North Hollywood]

I've been in several productions with Richard. He is not only a great actor but a great person and caring friend. Don't listen to gossip and insinuations. People are jealous and will slander those who shine a bright light like Richard Rossi.

[Rachel in Sherman Oaks]

Aimee Semple McPherson is screening this Saturday, June 17th, at Stella Adler Theatre. Reservation line is on the website www.aimeesemplemcphersonmovie.com

[Lynda in Malibu]

Screening was wonderful. Richard Rossi and several actors from the film were there. Not to be missed.

[Adrienne Sennett]

I read in Variety and Hollywood Reporter a couple years ago that Richard Rossi was remaking "Elmer Gantry." Shirley Jones could do a great cameo. I wonder if Rossi shelved this in favor of "Aimee Semple McPherson," since they are very similar stories.

[John Tashner]

Aimee Semple McPherson Definitely Deserved the award it got from IGFA

[Chris Lindley]

Congratulations to "Aimee Semple McPherson," voted Best Guerrilla Film by the IGFA (International Guerrilla Film Association)on list of top 100 low budget films.

[Brandon Levy]

"Aimee Semple McPherson," "Eraserhead," "Detour," and "Plan Nine From Outer Space" are my favorite guerrilla movies.

[Melanie Cullen]

Like Bergman, Rossi shows us the beauty of a woman's face, her hands...in shots that are almost claustrophobic showing Sister Aimee's lonliness and isolation.

[Jackie Mays]

Richard Rossi has given us such a gift with this film, I hope the movie continues to find new generations of audiences in the future and the cult following grows and grows.

[Melanie Cullen]

I agree, Jackie. I have a feeling it will be an evergreen classic because of the subject matter and the heart and purity of Richard Rossi an an auteur.

[Jackie Mays]

I'm curious to see what Richard Rossi can do with a larger budget. He made a masterpiece with no money.

[Andrea Stockman]

Richard Rossi is a very versatile actor. I just saw him in "Judy",(prequel to 'Vertigo')in which he plays a British man who is homosexual, a completely different character than his Gantry.

[Carmen Lawson]

Richard Rossi is a wonderful writer, I think the script of "Aimee Semple McPherson" is the primary reason for the film's success as a guerrilla film.

[Abraham Johnson]

I look forward to the release of this next year.

[Christi Mahoney]

The way Richard Rossi shot this was so artistically amazing, especially considering the no-budget circumstances. The film is very profound, and shows that a person with a deep relationship with God and call on their lives can never go back, despite the sins they commit or the sins committed against them.

[Jill McManus]

I am from the same hometown as Richard Rossi in Pittsburgh, and his faith to move west and subsequent success has inspired me to follow my dream as well. I arrived in L.A. two months ago and just booked my first acting job.