In a clip of the movie, Fireproof, Kirk’s character, Caleb, is a fireman trying rescue a woman trapped in her car on train tracks as a speeding train approaches. In this high-tension scene, firefighters gather around the car and carry it off the tracks just in the nick of time.

“Wow. Very exciting scene,” Dr. Phil tells Kirk.

“Yeah, that was close, huh? A train that big, that fast, anywhere close by, is close enough,” Kirk says. 

“We especially feel that now in L.A., with what just happened recently,” Dr. Phil says, about a two-train collision that killed 25 people in Los Angeles on September 12. “So, you are very passionate about this movie. Why was this so important to you storyline-wise?”

“Well, storyline-wise, I’ve been married 17 years,” Kirk says. “I married my on-screen girlfriend, Chelsea Noble, and we have six kids. So, I’ve got a big life myself. I know what it’s like to be gone from home a lot, traveling, and marriage is the number-one priority in my life. And I want to do a movie that’s going to be able to reach out beyond just me and my family and touch other people, to heal marriages.”

“You’ve talked to many firefighters about their marriages. What do you hear the most?” Dr. Phil asks.

“A lot of what we’ve been hearing on this program today,” Kirk says. “With the job like a police officer, or fireman, you have two different lives that start to come to the surface. You realize it’s no longer the two as one flesh, it’s like two different people getting further and further apart, living separate lives, separate friends, separate experiences and then not being able to turn it off when they come home, unmet expectations, and it’s disastrous for so many.”