Paula Patton shares a lot in common with her latest role.
The actress plays Faith, a woman who struggles with addiction and her beliefs in the wake of a personal tragedy, in Lifetime’s new film Finding Faith. On the third hour of Today‘s Thursday, August 7, episode, Patton opened up about how her own sobriety and journey with faith influenced her performance.
“I had been dealing with challenging events in my life, right, and I had stress and I had anxiety. And I’ve always dealt with anxiety. I did, I should say,” Patton, who is seven years sober, shared. On the day she had learned about the film Finding Faith, Patton said she asked God to give her one week where “everything’s working out in my favor, [and] that there’s nothing to worry about.”
“And I did it, and I felt this peace wash over me. I was just light on my feet, going about my day, it was wonderful,” she said, noting that she dropped her phone after being called about starring in the movie. “I thought, ‘This is unbelievable. How, on this day?’ But I knew. I knew that that was God. I knew that was the universe talking to me, that it’s time.”
On Today, Patton noted that the character of Faith’s journey in the film very much “mirrored” her own life. “I thought, ‘How can I not be honest about what I’ve been experiencing, that seven years ago, I got sober. I know what it is to be in chaos and find your way out,’” she explained. “But going back and having to play being inebriated when I hadn’t been inebriated for seven years, I was like, ‘How am I gonna do that?’”
Though it was “scary” to revisit her past struggles, Patton did so with the support of her family and friends. “I called people I knew during that time. I was like, ‘Can you remind me how I was?’ And I listened to the music that I would listen to at the time,” she said. “And then, there was a young woman who had recently gotten sober and she helped me remember that mindset. And it’s kind of a victim mindset.”
It was through the prep and filming process that Patton was able to “forgive” her former self. “I was able to give myself grace and just say, ‘You were doing the best you could at the time. You didn’t know any better. And so, now you do better, and it’s okay,’” she shared.
She went on to credit her 15-year-old son, Julian, with being a beacon of hope for her through her sobriety journey. Patton shares her son with her ex-husband, Robin Thicke, to whom she was married from 2005 to 2015.
“He’s my best friend. When I got sober, it just changed my life. He and our neighbor … they were my two best friends. And I got to live life again, like a kid through him and her, and it gives you all the reasons to want to live,” she said.
Finding Faith, Movie Premiere, Saturday, August 9, 8/7c, Lifetime.