How Rock Hill trio fulfilled ‘a dream’ and made it onto movie screens in ‘God’s Not Dead’
Three York County journalists whose work in front of cameras made them local household names never imagined their work would lead them to movie theater screens.
So when the opportunity to play journalists in a movie popped up, they quickly sent their head shots to movie producers.
The three journalists are CN2 News anchor and WRHI co-host Lucas McFadden, former CN2 reporter Renee O’Neil and former anchor of WBTW in Myrtle Beach Nickie Huckabee, who now lives in Rock Hill. All three played journalists in the movie “God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust,” the fifth installment in the series of films “God’s Not Dead.”
“There’s a lot of reporter scenes and that’s kind of how Lucas and I got involved,” O’Neil said.
The plot involves pastor David Hill running for Congress against incumbent Peter Kane, who wants to enforce rules about separation of church and state. Hill believes government should not exclude God from public policy.
“The fight becomes a beacon of hope for people seeking moral leadership in a divided world,” according to the IMDB summary of the movie.
The movie premiered Sept. 13 and was shot in York, Chester and Mecklenburg counties, including scenes in York at a church and on Congress Street, Tillman Hall at Winthrop University, downtown Chester and at a studio in Charlotte. People can now watch it online through Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV.
O’Neil and McFadden were in a row of seats at the RedStone Theater in Indian Land soon after the movie came out in theaters, yelling and clapping after their scenes. When the movie ended, movie-goers in the rows behind them said they recognized the duo.
O’Neil said she appeared three times in the movie as an anchor, giving commentary about comments Hill made at debates. O’Neil’s character was named simply “pundit.”
“Hill drawing a line in the sand…we’ll see how Kane responds” she said in one scene.
McFadden’s character — “reporter number one” — shows him leaning over a gaggle of reporters at a location in downtown Chester with a microphone in his hand.
“The information in the press leak, did you know it was fabricated?” he asked in the movie
McFadden has been an anchor at CN2 News for 19 years and has been with WRHI for 7 years as co-host of the Palmetto Mornings.
Huckabee retired in 2020 and moved to Rock Hill when she married Watts Huckabee, a York County councilman. She found it was easy to be in character in the movie because she had been a reporter for nearly 34 years. When she moved to York County, she started a podcast “The Conversations with Nicole Show,” which allows her to still connect with people, she said.
Huckabee has played an extra in movies before.
“I thought, why not do something different in this season of your life,” she said. “I found it intriguing.”
O’Neil said she found the experience eye-opening.
“It’s something that I’ll always have…we will always be in this movie,” she said. “You know, we played such a small role, but just seeing yourself in a theater is really cool.”
O’Neil worked at CN2 for 11 years and now works in communications.
“I was a reporter before and I think I just went there talking as a normal anchor,” she said. “I didn’t think I needed to act because I’ve done it before.”
McFadden and O’Neil said they waited for hours to film their scenes. O’Neil said she reported to the set at 2 p.m. on a Friday and didn’t leave until nearly 1 a.m. Saturday. She also had to take her own clothes.
McFadden said he was at the movie set for about eight hours, but the scene took 30 minutes or less to film. He wondered if his scenes would make the cut.
“We edit for a living, so we know when things sometimes don’t look right or won’t fit into the culture or the tone of the movie, things are edited out,” he said. “All three of my lines made it just as we shot it, which was pretty cool.”
O’Neil said she enjoyed seeing her name in the credits.
“It has always been a dream of mine to be a movie star,” she said.
This story was originally published November 14, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
