Kirk Cameron stars in new film 'Fireproof'

NEW YORK, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- Former Hollywood teen idol Kirk Cameron makes a rare big-screen appearance in the new Christian-themed relationship drama, "Fireproof."

As the star of the classic family sit-com "Growing Pains," Cameron's face graced the covers of countless teen magazines in the 1980s and 1990s.

Since then, the 37-year-old married father of six has devoted much of his time to spirituality-based projects such as his television program "The Way of the Master" and the "Left Behind" series of movies.

"Acting kind of has to come in between everything else that's going on," Cameron told UPI in New York Tuesday. "I love to act ... when acting fits in nicely to kind of do the things that I'm trying to do with my life, like tell a great story that has a great message like 'Fireproof ...' The whole movie is about restoring marriages. I married my on-screen girlfriend from 'Growing Pains' and we've been married 17 years, so marriage is real important to us.

"But, for us, our family and doing the things we love to do -- we run a camp for terminally sick children and their families, I speak and teach a lot at schools and churches and I do a kind of faith-based reality show, so all of those things have got a lot more substance to them than just, 'Hey, what's the hot new flick that you might want to do?' Which is great and fun, too. But I've been fortunate that I can be selective enough to do acting when it's really furthering what I want to do with my life, instead of just doing a job."