Kevin Sorbo is an Extraordinary Actor
on an Extraordinary
Journey!
Hollywood Actor, Author, Director, Family man and whole lot
more! Celebrity English is truly excited to present a 3-Part
Feature on Kevin Sorbo!
Kevin talks to Celebrity English about his inspirational
book TRUE STRENGTH, “THE REAL HOLLYWOOD”, the
critically acclaimed film ABEL’S FIELD, and his wonderful charity foundation A
WORLD FIT FOR KIDS.
Part One
Kevin Sorbo Talks about True Strength
Alex Graham: Good morning Kevin Sorbo!
 |
| True Strength by Kevin Sorbo! |
Interview
Alex Graham: Good morning Kevin Sorbo!
Kevin Sorbo: Hello Alex. Whenever you are ready!
Alex Graham: Great! I am just going to dive into it! Today we are talking about Kevin Sorbo’s
inspirational book
In part of the title for
your inspirational and motivational book you wrote,
…“and - How Nearly Dying
Saved My Life”.
Can you tell us more about
that time in your life?
Kevin Sorbo: It was the end of season
five. You know I lived in New Zealand for 7 years filming Hercules for a 7th
season. But they edited out a lot of season five because I was having all kinds
of problems with my left arm. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. And I was coming back to America to do a
movie in Atlanta. So I stopped in LA and I was actually going to do a press
tour for Kull the Conqueror which was my first big feature film of the prequel
of Conan the Barbarian. And umh. I went
to see my doctor and he found a lump in my left shoulder. And he wanted to do a biopsy on it. But
before they could do a biopsy on it. That lump ended up being an aneurism in my
left shoulder clavicle, which opened up and sent half of the clots to my left
arm and I was told they might have to amputate by someone at the hospital. And
then those 3 clots unfortunately went up into the brain and I suffered 3 stokes.
So it was a …a bit of drag.
It was a
long road to fight back to get to a place in my life where things were going to
be 'ok'.
The title True Strength
really comes from, all of us are going to hit that roadblock. And we all have that one common denominator death
for all of us and we just don’t know when or how it is going to come to
us. So you react to that when it
happens. So it is sort of a play on
words with Hercules. Hercules, you
know… on Hercules they had a bunch of stunt guys making me look good. But I did do most of my own stunts but still
I can’t throw a guy a 100 meters. The
True Strength title really came from defining the own true strength within your
own life. When bad things happen to you, how do you react, how do you deal with
it? And in terms of saving my life… you
know…it made me realize what was important in life. I was pretty self-absorbed. I have never really considered myself
a jerk, I am pretty out going with people but it made me realize what is
important. And what is important is
family, friends, and your health! Those
are the most important things.
Everything else, you know, if you like what you do for a living and I
hope everyone does but I know a lot of people don’t. But you know if you do
then you are blessed and fortunate.
Just enjoy what you have!
Alex: You really open up to the
readers about life in Hollywood, and your excruciating mental and physical
health challenges during this time in your life. You basically lived through a nightmare! What kept you going in
your darkest days?
Kevin: You know what, part of it
was, I have a very strong will. I am a very strong willed person. When I moved
to Hollywood I didn’t know a person out here.
I knew nothing about Hollywood. I just knew that I wanted to be in the
movies and television. I had every door slammed in my face over and over again
but I learned early in life from my father and people I met that were
successful people were saying, “Failure is a positive thing! Always look at
failure as a positive thing. You can always learn from failures!” And that is
the biggest thing that holds people back.
I am a big proponent like FDR (American President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt) when he said,
“The biggest thing to fear
is fear itself.”
That’s what holds people
back in their lives. And for me, you
gotta keep pushing on. And that is what
I did. I just kept pushing on. And my wife was certainly by my side pushing
me on as well.
Alex: I
noticed in the book, and I thought it was brilliant, that you let some other
people tell your life story. Where there any surprises when you saw what these
people had written?
Kevin: I was very honored. My
wife started saying things to me and has better recall memories for me on a few
things. And I said,
“You know what, why don’t
you write a chapter?”
“Why don’t you write your
perspective
of what I was going through?”
You know the before and
after. And right then I decided to further and include Michael Hurst who played
Iolaus, Eric Gruendemann who was one of my best friends down their and the only
American producing the whole time with me, and John Mahaffie, and my mom. I
thought why not have people put these things in there. So people can really get a sense of this is
the voice of other people telling you:
“This is what I had to
overcome.”
“This is what happened to me”.
Playing a guy who is
supposed to be the strongest guy in the world in his thirties. And I knew I was
in better shape then most athletes, most college athletes. I was in great
shape! And this still happened to me.
And you are like going: wow!” You know. And it has been amazing the reception
from this book. I get so many people coming up to me at these book signings.
All walks of life and have suffered not just strokes maybe whatever cancer,
leukemia, car crash, heart attack, all survivors saying my book motivated them
to push themselves harder to better recovery.
And that is really what I wanted the book to be about for other
people.
Alex: That’s
so fantastic you can help and inspire people!
And your book True Strength: My Journey from Hercules to Mere Mortal–and How
Nearly Dying Saved My Life is just flying off the shelves! I checked on Amazon earlier today and there
was only one left in stock.
Extraordinary!
Kevin Sorbo on Hollywood The biggest misconception about Hollywood is...
Part Two of The KEVIN SORBO feature at Celebrity English.
Kevin talks about “The Real Hollywood”, and the critically acclaimed
film Abel’s Field!
Language Learning Section
Natural Language
Vocabulary Boost! Medical Theme
Here are some high
frequency medical words from the Kevin Sorbo interview!
First, try to write down
the meanings or ideas for each word.
Next, try to guess the meaning from the context of the words you didn't understand. Then ask a friend or
classmate about the words that where difficult. Finally, check out the
expressions on the Internet. However, the answers are posted below. Just scroll your mouse over the black area under Vocabulary Definitions. Also, check out the LISTENING BONUS BELOW!
New Vocabulary
From Kevin Sorbo's
Answers:
Answer 1
doctor =
shoulder =
arm =
lump =
aneurism =
clavicle =
clots =
amputate =
hospital =
brain =
saving my life =
Answer 3
in great shape =
cancer =
leukemia =
heart attack =
survivors =
recovery =
Vocabulary Definitions
doctor = a person licensed
to practice medicine, as a physician, surgeon, dentist, or veterinarian.
shoulder = the laterally
projecting part of the human body formed of the bones and joints with their
covering tissue by which the arm is connected with the trunk.
arm = the upper limb of the
human body, especially the part extending from the shoulder to the wrist.
lump = a piece or mass of
indefinite size and shape; protuberance; especially : an abnormal swelling.
aneurism = an abnormal
blood-filled bulge of a blood vessel and especially an artery resulting from
weakening (as from disease) of the vessel wall.
clavicle = a bone of the
vertebrate pectoral girdle typically serving to link the scapula and sternum
—called also collarbone.
clots = plural form of
clot. A coagulated mass produced by clotting
of blood.
amputate = to remove by or
as if by cutting; especially : to cut (as a limb) from the body.
hospital = a place where
sick or injured people are given care or treatment and where children are often
born.
brain = the organ of the
body in the head that controls functions, movements, sensations, and thoughts.
saving my life = to stop
someone from dying; to rescue or protect from or deliver from death or
harm.
Answer 3
in great shape = in
good/excellent physical health; in good condition physically and functionally
sound and sturdy (Used for both people and things).
cancer = a serious disease
that is caused when cells in the body grow in a way that is uncontrolled and
not normal, killing normal cells and often causing death.
leukemia = a serious disease in which the body
produces too many white blood cells.
heart attack = a serious
medical condition in which the heart does not get enough blood, causing great
pain and often leading to death.
survivors = plural form of
survivor. a person who continues to
live, despite nearly dying. A person
who is able to continue living their life successfully despite experiencing
difficulties.
recovery = the process of
getting back something lost, especially health, ability, possessions, etc.
BONUS! Listen to Kevin Sorbo's video (below) where he talks about his book True Strength. You can hear a lot of the vocabulary that you just learned. Enjoy!
KEVIN SORBO Update! Sept ~ Oct 2013
Learn about Movie Making!
@ksorbs Fantastic Opportunity to #Work & #Learn with Kevin Sorbo on a #Film project Chronology http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1933428003/chronology
Sept ~ March 2014
" Latest Blockbuster featuring Kevin Sorbo!
Spring ~ 2015
Kevin Sorbo in The Secret Handshake!Have a great week and see you on the weekend! Keep trying to use all the new vocabulary you picked up from this great Celebrity Interview!
Alex Graham
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Always happy to meet new people!
Such an inspiring story and an excellent lesson!
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