The late horror film director Wes Craven did not have an upbringing made for success in Hollywood. And yet, that is where he made his fame and fortune.
As a child raised in a strict Baptist community he was directed, with a red leather Bible in hand, to find lost souls and save them.
Until he was a young adult his community’s code of life prohibited movies and dancing and a host of other sins.
It was a life not of this world, he tells us.
When he finally did enter this world, he wound up married, with children, broke, in debt, his car repossessed, sleeping on the couches of friends.
Come to think of it, maybe this was the way to prepare a man for his particular genre of Hollywood films, which take us to the deepest darkest woods to confront his worst fears — and ours.
As you’ll hear in our conversation, which was conducted in 2012 for the radio program I hosted — CNN Profiles — this master of fear turns out to be unusually uplifting. But first, you must follow him into the woods.