Every aspiring actor has the dream of being plucked from obscurity and becoming a celebrity. That literally happened to Cybill Shepherd. In 1966, she won the “Miss Teenage Memphis” competition. This led to some high profile modeling gigs which led to her feature film debut in 1971’s highly acclaimed classic, The Last Picture Show, and she hasn’t looked back since. She recently sat down to discuss her latest project, Do You Believe. Do You Believe, from the creators of God’s Not Dead, is about a dozen different souls—all moving in different directions, all longing for something more as their lives unexpectedly intersect. Do You Believe co-stars Mira Sorvino, Sean Astin, Alexa PenaVega, Delroy Lindo, Andrea Logan White, Ted McGinley and Lee Majors.

Does your character believe in miracles?

She doesn’t believe in God. It kind of reminds me of my mother. When her mother died, my mother said, ‘I don’t believe in God. If there was a God, He wouldn’t have taken my mother that way.’ My mother kept telling me that I had to see my grandmother and I felt that my grandmother was almost gone. It turned out she wasn’t gone. I went to visit her and she didn’t seem to [recognize] me, but then she passed a little while later. It’s funny how these things work out. It’s like, go see your grandma. I’m a grandma now so I know about that.

Was she waiting for you to say goodbye?

I believe so.

Many of us don’t get that chance to say that final goodbye.

When my mother died, she was in hospice and she was having [the final days] she wanted; she was comfortable. Then my brother called me in New York where I was doing a Broadway play and he told me, ‘you have to come home because mom will recognize you.’ So I packed up and left the Broadway play. She recognized me and she recognized her granddaughters and their little dog. I think she was more excited about seeing the little dog [laughs].

Have you had another experience in your life that might qualify as a miracle?

I had a near death experience where I felt like my soul went up in a star. I said, ‘wait a minute soul. Come back here. I have three kids and I have to be here.’ I was aware though I was in excruciating pain.

What made you take the role?

The script was very moving. I didn’t matter that it was faith-based. I thought my manager was saying ‘face space.’ It was [a kind] of part I never played. It gave me a chance as an actor to play [a different] arc. There were some great actors [attached] and it was a great script-very moving. I didn’t feel [the script] was very proselytizing at all. I feel the message it’s sending is very solid. It’s about people helping each other-about doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. You see so many people helping each other in so many different situations. One of the things that’s amazing about it is that people are going out of their way to help other people in need. My character really resists that because I’m [overwhelmed] in my grief of losing my daughter and I hadn’t really processed that yet. They call it the five stages of grief, but no one really goes through [the stages] the same.

How was working with Lee Majors [her on-screen husband]?

He’s a consummate professional. He knows as much about directing as many directors. We had a [short hand] way of figuring out the scenes together and it didn’t take much discussion. It was a great experience working with him and I’ve known him a great, long while [laughs]. I had met him when he was on The Six Million Dollar Man and we happened to be on the same [studio] lot. He remembers it that he came to my dressing room, but I remember it that I went to his dressing room.

Do tell us more.

It was just really fun to talk to him at that time. I think he told me that one year of a television series ages a woman ten years.

Is that true?

I hope not [laughing]. You just keep working. I had a chance to work with Jason Robards and he said to me, ‘you know Cybil, acting is with the eyes, not with the face.’ So I’ve had a few amazing opportunities in my career.

How did you actually get started in the business?

They started taking pictures of me and there was a particular photographer who would photograph me for editorial pictures. There was a modeling agency traveling around and they stopped in Memphis. The photographer gave them eight or nine names of some young women. I ended up going to New York and I was very fortunate.

When you see a script, what is it that makes you want that role?

First, it always starts with the script and then you keep your fingers crossed on the director.

The Last Picture Show is a classic and might be as powerful today as it was then if it were remade.

That’s impossible. Where are you going to find [deceased star] Ben Johnson? Another of the favorite films I’ve done is Chances Are. It was directed by Emile Ardolino and that was one of my most wonderful experiences with a director. [Some time later] I called him and didn’t get a call back and it turned out he had died of AIDS [in 1993]. He was part of that generation where they hadn’t figured out how to keep people alive.

Besides some of your professional gigs, what else have you been up to lately?

Being a grandmother. It’s so exciting. It’s the most thrilling thing in the world to have a grandchild. It’s like everything people say. You get to play with it, you chase it around and it wears you out and then it goes home [laughs].

This movie deals with spirituality. What is your take on spirituality?

It doesn’t really matter what the religion is. Anytime you study any kind of religion, you open up part of your soul.

I’m totally going off the subject, but I recently watched your Law & Order: SVU episode.

That was really amazing.

It looked like you had fun.

I did have fun with that. It’s quite a grisly story to think of myself playing a Paula Deen type person. That show is done so well. You go on the set and the set is better than almost any movie set [because] it’s so professional. I was able to see the little girls of all ages waiting outside to see Mariska Hargitay. I had the opportunity to say to her, ‘you’re doing something really important here. You’re playing a character who doesn’t rely on her looks, even though she’s gorgeous, and she’s a very strong woman. What a great influence on women of all ages.’

You did that 20 years ago [in Moonlighting and Cybill].

Yes, but it’s always good to have more [positive female role models]. Sure I did it too, but it’s always good to thank people when I see something remarkable like that.

Is it better for women in television and film now than when you were starting out?

There was a time that I like to call the Bermuda Triangle when a bunch of women’s shows went off the air. Roseanne went off the air, my show [Cybill] went off the air, Brett Butler [Grace Under Fire], Candace Bergen [Murphy Brown].

Designing Women.

Why didn’t they [cast] me in Designing Women [laughs]?

What do you want people to take away after they see you perform?

I do one-woman shows and I’m working on another one now. My job as a performer singing live is to not cry. With a live audience, you don’t want them thinking about Cybill Shepherd crying. You want them to think, ‘how am I [the audience] feeling?’ There are some songs that I sing and I just starting [crying].

Since you brought it up, what songs make you cry?

“The Last Time Ever I Saw Your Face” [by Roberta Flack].

What’s next for you?

I want to visit family in Virginia and visit friends in DC. Maybe see a Broadway show. I’m dying to see “On the Town.”

Do You Believe opens in select theaters March 20.