Stephen Baldwin Details the Role His Faith Played in Mainstream Hollywood Exit

At 60, the actor can look back on a résumé packed with cult classics and awards-winning television. Yet somewhere along the way, he chose a different spotlight entirely.

Stephen Baldwin is opening up about deliberately putting distance between himself and Hollywood at what was arguably the peak of his career. Beginning in the mid-80s, the longtime actor built a steady and recognizable presence onscreen.

After several small parts in shows including "Kate and Allie," "The Lawrenceville Stories," and "Family Ties," he landed his first major role in the 1988 war drama "The Beast of War."

More followed with 1989's "Last Exit to Brooklyn," the same year Baldwin was cast in the coming-of-age western series "The Young Riders." The show, which ran for three seasons from 1989 to 1992, earned two Primetime Emmys.

In the years that followed, Baldwin shifted his focus almost entirely to film, and bigger roles followed. None, however, would surpass his turn in 1995's "The Usual Suspects," where he played the hot-tempered thief Michael McManus.

Three decades later, the film still holds cult-classic status, and Baldwin relished the success it brought him. "I probably could have pointed myself in the direction of becoming a big star," he said of the acclaim the movie earned him at the time.

"But that wasn't me. I didn't want to be Tom Cruise, and have to make $100 million at the box office. I'd rather be a schmuck from Massapequa!" he joked with a laugh. "I'm good at that!"

He went on to star in another cult favorite, 1996's "Bio-Dome," along with 2000's "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas." His momentum in mainstream Hollywood slowed not long after, but he insists that was a deliberate choice rather than the fallout from any flops.

In 2001, Baldwin embraced born-again Christianity and spent the following decades devoted to ministry, particularly a skateboarding youth outreach program. By then, he had already been sober for more than a decade following a period of heavy drug use and partying.

Shortly after, he married his wife, Kennya.

"After the birth of our daughter Alaia, my wife hired a woman named Augusta from Brazil to come over and live and work with us and help out. She didn't speak English, she only communicated with my wife, who is Brazilian, in Portuguese," Baldwin explained.

"One day, Kennya and Augusta were talking and she said, 'I think it's funny you believe I'm here to clean your house,'" he continued.

Augusta went on to explain that she'd experienced a prophetic vision at her church in Brazil, where she saw a notice that an American family was looking to hire help.

"My wife tells me, 'I just spoke to Augusta, and she said the real reason she's here is because God spoke to her, and she said in the future you and I will become born-again Christians and have our own ministry,'" Baldwin recalled.

The "Threesome" star admitted he was skeptical at first. "I said 'Hun, we're from New York but we're in Arizona and I think you need to go back into the air conditioning and lie down.' Because it was just so absurd," he said.

When their younger daughter Hailey was born in 1996, the family relocated back to New York, and Baldwin attended an evangelical event in Syracuse alongside his sister Beth, who had already become a born-again Christian.

The festival featured gospel artists including Kirk Franklin, whose music Baldwin admired. He later attended another evangelical festival in Fort Lauderdale, where he found himself captivated by a skateboarding ministry.

"Down on the beach, they had built a skate park on the sand with plywood," he recalled.

"And these funky, super committed, cool, tattooed, pierced skateboarders were there and they'd skate, stop, pick up a microphone and start preaching evangelistically, and like 5,000 kids would be around watching because of their interest in the skateboarders. I felt a calling."

Baldwin approached Kevin Palau about producing a skate video carrying a Christian message, merging punk-rock-style Christian music with skate culture. The project became the Christian skateboarding video "Livin It."

"In the first six months we'd distributed 10,000 copies. Then one of the bigger churches called and asked what it would cost to bring the skaters from the video to their church for a live event. So that's when I left Hollywood," he explained.

"I went to 125 churches over four years," he shared of touring with the skate ministry and connecting with people whose lives were touched by it. "Jesus and the holy spirit fascinated me."

Though he stepped away from mainstream Hollywood, he hasn't disappeared from the screen entirely. Baldwin now channels his talents into spreading his faith through film, while also making use of his social media platforms.

"I get a lot of DMs from people who tell me how my work has touched them and that's all that matters. I'm happy to be where I'm now at 60. I'm so blessed. And I absolutely believe that the best is yet to come," he said.