“It’s nice to play someone nice,” said Anna Grace Barlow, the Birmingham actress who provides one of many Alabama connections to the new film “Jesus Revolution.”

She’s waited a while for things to turn that way. A decade ago, she was being profiled on AL.com for her role in a Red Mountain Theatre Company production of “Legally Blonde.” Since then she’s built a broad catalog of appearances in films and TV series, popping up in such diverse shows as “Scream Queens,” “Bones,” “The Fosters,” “The Young and the Restless,” “The Goldbergs,” “The Big Leap” and “Supernatural.”

A little big of a theme developed: “Always the mean girl, mean or calculated,” she said.

“Jesus Revolution” is different. The latest project produced by Birmingham natives Jon and Andrew Erwin, and co-directed by Jon Erwin, it tells the story of an evangelical movement born at the end of the ‘60s, when young Greg Laurie connected with hippie street preacher Lonnie Frisbee and older, more conventional pastor Chuck Smith in Costa Mesa, California. Barlow plays Cathe Laurie, Greg’s wife and an influential worship leader in her own right; Joel Courtney plays Greg Laurie and Smith is played by Kelsey Grammer.

“It’s been sort of a journey but it’s been really fun,” Barlow said of her career so far. “This is by far the most mainstream, actual, biggest thing I’ve ever done and I’m really proud of it. And I get to play nice in it, when I usually play villain characters.”

“It’s my first time ever doing a love story and it’s just been so much fun,” she said.

Greg Laurie is an experienced producer and filmmaker himself; Jon Erwin previously told AL.com that having him involved had been nothing but positive. Barlow said the same of Cathe Laurie.

“I can’t tell you how welcoming and supportive both of them were, and involved in the process,” she said. “They were available to me via phone before we went to film, and I called Cathe, and her and Greg were at home so they spoke to me on the phone and told me about their relationship from the beginning, things that weren’t in the script. Their favorite songs, you know, the real details that you don’t usually get as an actor when you’re playing a character. It’s all things you kind of have to figure out for yourself. But they kind of provided such context and lots of subtext for the scenes.”

That was particularly true of a key baptism scene, Barlow said.

“She was like, ‘I remember exactly what I was thinking, these were the thoughts going through my head,’” Barlow said. “And to be able to go into that as an actor, to have those thoughts in your head is really cool. I feel like it brought another level to the performance. And it made me even more impressed with Jonathan Roumie, who plays [the late] Lonnie Frisbee, because he didn’t have the real person and he still created the most detailed character and has such an incredible performance in it.

“But Cathe and Greg were on set all the time and they’re the best people ever,” she said. “They were so kind. And they seemed really happy with it. As long as they were happy with what was going on, I was happy. We wanted to do their story justice.”

Looking back, Barlow said Alabama connections didn’t have anything to do with her appearance in the film, though she likes to think a kind word from a former co-star didn’t hurt. She and Ser’Darious Blain had appeared together in “The Big Leap,” a show that ran for one season on Fox in 2021-22. She knew he’d appeared in “American Underdog,” the Erwins’ biographical film on NFL quarterback Kurt Warner.

“So when I had a couple of auditions for ‘Jesus Revolution’ I texted him,” she said. “I was like, ‘It can’t hurt … If you know Jon Erwin, can you put in a good word?’ And he texted them, which is so funny. Andy Erwin told me at the premiere, ‘Yeah, he texted me.’ By the time I told Jon, Jon was like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re way ahead of you.’ But it was so nice Ser’Darious put in a good word.”

“It feels very full circle to get to film in Alabama and be with Birmingham people and Southern people [in general], everyone else was pretty much from Tennessee,” she said. “It was really special, really cool.”

Most of the project was filmed in the Mobile area, which means people on the coast will see some familiar locations and faces.

“I loved it,” Barlow said. “We started right at Mardi Gras [in 2022]. So I got into Mobile right before Mardi Gras, I got to watch all the parades. And we only had one tornado warning, where we were in the basement of the hotel. Other than that it was really, really beautiful. Long days, but so fun, and the crew was amazing. I think pretty much everyone was local and it was awesome.”

“It looks so beautiful,” she said of the finished film, with its late ‘60s-early ‘70s palette. “Our director of photography, his name is Akis [Akis Konstantakopoulos], he is just so talented and there is a color to it that feels so vintage and cool. I just love the final project, and the music they chose.”

“I think it will be inspiring for people and will give people hope,” Barlow said. “It serves as a reminder that we’re not all so different at all, once we listen and accept each other and love without judgment, which is just the theme of the movie. Hopefully it can give people some common ground, some perspective, and make people want to open up a little more to things they might not understand.”

The Mountain Brook High School graduate said she still enjoys coming home to Birmingham for holidays and may visit more following the birth of her older sister’s second child. Another lure: Being a “guinea pig” for beauty treatments done by her mom at her parents’ Northport clinic.

And it won’t be long before fans see her again on the small screen.

“I did a big, fun episode of ‘NCIS: Hawai’i’ that I can tell you airs March 20 on CBS,” she said. “Then I’m just looking, trying to be a little picky and see what I want to do next.”

“Jesus Revolution” is now playing in theaters.