{"id":404182,"date":"2022-11-29T07:00:27","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T05:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=404182"},"modified":"2022-11-29T17:43:42","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T15:43:42","slug":"yelena-popovic-from-hollywood-to-faith-man-can-never-be-happy-if-he-doesnt-have-god-in-his-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/yelena-popovic-from-hollywood-to-faith-man-can-never-be-happy-if-he-doesnt-have-god-in-his-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Yelena Popovic, from Hollywood to faith: Man can never be happy if he doesn’t have God in his heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMan can never be happy if he doesn’t have God in his heart,\u201d says Yelena Popovic, who fled the war in former Yugoslavia and made herself a life in Los Angeles and an acting career at Hollywood. She discovered Orthodoxy in America, or, rather said, she re-tapped to her inner spiritual identity inherited from her Serbian family.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This spiritual breakthrough changed her life for the better. Now she has come to write, direct and produce a movie about the life of a saint \u2013 one much beloved by Romanians: St Nectarios.<\/p>\n

Yelena Popovic has recently sat down with Basilica.ro<\/a>, telling the story of her spiritual path: a girl born in a former communist country, she was not baptized before she fled to America. But she was raised by tapping into the spiritual treasure of the Serbian people\u2019s reverence for the saints.<\/p>\n

A relationship with the saints<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cI couldn’t say that I was Orthodox. I was not baptized, according to my parents, you know, at the time, communism was still very present and a lot of people feared the social consequences of going to church,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents were not against God, but they simply weren’t practicing Christians. However, for whatever reason, I always had faith in God, I always knew that He existed,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I left Yugoslavia, I did not know who Jesus Christ was, I did not know who the Mother of God was. But I knew who St. Nicholas was, because he was celebrated in Serbia. We had slavas<\/em>, saints celebrations. My father\u2019s family had, for many generations, celebrated St. Nicholas. So, I knew who the saints were. I also knew of St. Paraskeva.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a spring dedicated to her. I remember we were, 10-12, we will take a bus and go there to pray to St Paraskeva. I always felt there was this other world, but I did not know the details,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Basilica.ro \/ Raluca Ene<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cImagine I didn’t know who Jesus Christ was! I found that out in America. People that were Protestant gave me the first Bible to read. And I must say that I truly fell in love with Jesus at the time. He was always in my mind. I was very high on that love, you know.\u201c<\/p>\n

Life in Hollywood <\/strong><\/h3>\n

As a Hollywood actress, she became friends with a lot of artists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose were people that I liked hanging out with. A lot of them \u2013 and I’m not saying this from judgment, because I have a lot of love and respect for them \u2013 were into different substances. They would, unfortunately use drugs or alcohol. I personally didn’t have any desire for that. I like to be the way I am even if it doesn’t feel good,\u201d she confesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I used to be around them a lot. And I used to talk to them about Jesus. But they knew I really did it from my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

An improbable advice from a former addict<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cThere was a Serbian lady I met at that time, who unfortunately had a terrible substance addiction and used heavy drugs. A few years later, she called me and said, among other things: \u2018Yelena, where are you going to church? You need to come to the Orthodox Church. I remember you talking about Jesus all the time, but you need to be part of the Church,\u2019\u201d says Yelena Popovic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was 25 years old. Three years before, I had gotten baptized into the Serbian Church, because I wanted to do what my ancestors had done. But I didn’t really live an Orthodox life. I did that because I felt I had to be part of the Church, but I never went to Confession and Communion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to Father Peter in the Serbian Church of Saint Sava. And I said I wanted to have my first Confession and Communion,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came with a huge list. I have always been very honest. I’m not afraid to say it, I can say it in front of 1000 people. Maybe there’s something about me, I say it the way it is. So I just unloaded everything, without any shame.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Photo: Basilica.ro \/ Raluca Ene<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI mean, of course, I’m ashamed of my sins. But I said: Okay, if Christ is standing there, I will shame the devil big time right now. I remember till today, there was a spider that was going around the icon of Christ while I was confessing,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the first Communion, I experienced grace for six to seven hours. I was crying and laughing at the same time. When I called my best friend, Meredith, she thought I had gotten drunk for the first time in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doing good, fighting the good fight<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cFrom that moment on, I said: Now I am not looking back and I’m going full forward. I read all the books: the Holy Fathers, the Philokalia,\u201d remembers Yelena.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can share this with people, especially young people that get on this path: Once you get on that path, the spiritual struggle is so powerful. I asked my spiritual father why I seemed to be much worse than before.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said not to worry and that she was entering a different phase, when spiritual attacks come.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was year 2000 when my conversion happened and I was lucky because of my reading of Philokalia<\/em>. I fell in love with St. Anthony the Great because he was a warrior fighting the demons. We, Serbs, are warriors, too. When I heard there was a monastery of St. Anthony somewhere in Arizona, which is not far from California, I was obsessed to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always attracted to monastic life, not necessarily that I wanted to be a nun, but they’ve helped me to find my spiritual path. I think monasteries are very important, because not only they pray for us and for the whole world, but they can really help people,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

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With the leading actor, Aris Servetalis, on the movie set, in 2020. Photo: Facebook \/ Man of God Movie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI met Gheronda Ephraim from Arizona, I met the monks and until today I’m very close to them. My mind was shaped between them and my father who was closest to me in Los Angeles, where I was able to go every day. As a beginner, I needed to have a church nearby.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going through a lot of pain, a lot of suffering and a lot of struggle, so I really needed to get on my knees and pray and to go to religious services\u201d, Yelena Popovic explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut look, 12 years later after all this, I’m married and have another son, Nikolai.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, in addition to all that, she has become professionally accomplished, completing an Orthodox film which tells the story of St Nectarios of Aegina.<\/p>\n

A film connected to the memory of her father<\/h3>\n

She thinks the trigger was the memory of her father: \u201cHe never went to church, but was a very righteous man. He never transgressed God’s commandments. And I’ve heard all my life that he should not have done that\u201d.<\/p>\n

Her father was the chief civil engineer of Serbia, but did not want to steal or lie, which made him lose his job from the highly-corrupted communist environment. He worked a modest job in a very small factory after that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he died, in 2011, I couldn’t go to his funeral because of my immigration status. When I was able to go to Belgrade, in July 2012, I saw this book about St Nectarios in a monastery.\u201d<\/p>\n

She bought it to read on the plane. \u201cBefore reading it, I had never thought of making a film about a saint!\u201d<\/p>\n

But at the time she did know she wanted to make films \u201cto help the humanity, to bring light, to do something good as a Christian and as a person who believes in good\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to counteract all the darkness around and especially if you are in Hollywood, you would know what I’m talking about,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

This is how the \u201cMan of God\u201d movie came to being \u2013 a project that matured for eight years before becoming reality, with the support of Mount Athos\u2019 Vatopaidi Monastery.<\/p>\n

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The movie is released in Romania on November 29, 2022.<\/p>\n

See also:<\/p>\n