Sam Worthington has discussed his role in his new movie The Shack, a dark and dramatic film currently out in America and awaiting its roll-out in Europe in the coming months.

“The movie is about forgiveness, how to forgive everything wrong that is done in life, how to forgive God for letting it happen, and learning how to forgive yourself. I think that’s a very important message.”

In the movie, 40 year old Australian actor Worthington plays Mack, a family man who suffered abuse at the hands of his own father when he was younger and suffers the disappearance of his youngest daughter in the present day during a family camping expedition.

Sam WorthingtonSam Worthington is the star of 'The Shack'

“He discovers that, as well all do, he’s been holding onto a backpack of anger, resentment, frustration and bitterness towards things. He’s built these things around him – just like ‘the shack’ – and he learns how to dismantle that and move forward.”

Mack also apparently learns that healing is “not like pushing a button, it’s a process. God may not have any of the answers, but he’s there. That can help us through things, and in turn, that can help other people through things. ‘We can’t all do it alone’, is a great line in the movie, and in the book [the 2007 novel of the same name by William P. Young].”

“I couldn’t tell why I wanted to do it. I read the script, and I was just viscerally affected. I think when that happens, you invest in the journey of making the movie a bit more. There are many reasons you can choose to do a movie, and with this one it was an emotional response.”

The Shack also stars Octavia Spencer, Radha Mitchell and Tim McGraw. It is already in theaters in the United States, but it released in Britain on June 9th.

More: Octavia Spencer says Sam Worthington was “perfectly cast” as muddled dad in ‘The Shack’