Late last year, actress Stefanie Butler got on her knees and prayed.

She prayed to get a job in a movie that could bring glory to God. If possible, she prayed, she wanted it to be a period piece. And she prayed for it to be a love story that her fiancee could be comfortable with.

A month later, she was offered the job of playing Ruth Bell Graham, the wife of Billy Graham, in "Billy: The Early Years." Her prayers were answered.

The film, which opens tomorrow in Richmond, stars Armie Hammer as the young Billy Graham, whose dreams of becoming a baseball player are put aside when he finds religion at a tent revival. He attends Bible school and then Wheaton College, where he meets the woman who will share his life for almost 64 years.

Later, he meets Charles Templeton, a prominent evangelist preacher. The two become fast friends, until Templeton suffers a crisis of faith, asserting that if God were real he could not allow evil in the world.

"I think the point of the film is to let people know about who Billy Graham was prior to becoming the big evangelist," Butler said on the phone from Dallas, where she was promoting the movie. "More than that, it's a love story about the Lord and Billy Graham, a love story between God and people in general. It's a love story between Billy and Ruth and it's a love story about friends, Billy and Charles Templeton."

People who watch the movie are likely to come to it from either Graham's point of view or Templeton's, and the film will make them think about their beliefs about religion, she said.

Butler is the daughter of the former Eveline Balac and Brett Butler. Balac is a native of Richmond and graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University who met Butler when he was playing baseball for the Richmond Braves. Brett Butler later went on to a stand-out career as a center fielder for five Major League baseball teams, most notably the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Brett Butler came out to visit his daughter on the set one weekend, which led to one scene being included in the film. Father and daughter were playing a game of catch, which was witnessed by the director, Robby Benson. Benson thought it would be a clever idea to stage a conversation between Billy and Ruth Bell Graham, which had been written for another setting, during a game of catch.

It made sense, because Graham had wanted to be a ballplayer, and before Ruth Bell Graham's father became a missionary he had played in the minor leagues, Stefanie Butler said.

One thing that made the movie so much fun for her was the opportunity to wear fashions of the 1940s, she said.

"Oh my gosh, it's so funny," she said. "If you talk to anyone who knows me, they will tell you I swear I was supposed to have been born then. I love the hair and I love the clothes. I got to wear these beautiful, beautiful clothes."

The costumers, hair and makeup people all did research on the era, which Butler appreciated on a personal level.

"They were able to find the best hairstyles," she said. "Every day, I said I don't want to take my hair down and wash my makeup off. It was totally girly."