Catholic actor Jonathan Roumie was brought to new life by Jesus, and now he’s bringing Jesus to life on TV’s The Chosen, writes Jason Osborne
‘Phenomenon’ is a term often overused in the realm of movies, TV shows and books, but in the case of TV series The Chosen, it truly comes up short. Boasting hundreds of millions of views, rave reviews of 9.6 out of 10 on IMDb and 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, and recently experiencing major seasonal success at the box office with their Christmas special, The Chosen is breaking ground that religious offerings don’t often reach.
Jesus is at the show’s heart, and at the heart of the show’s Jesus is Catholic actor Jonathan Roumie. A daunting role to take up at the best of times, Mr Roumie’s portrayal of Jesus is reaching more hearts than it’s ever been possible to reach, lending credence to the idea that the hit show is a form of evangelisation never seen before.
Faith
Taking time out of his hectic Christmas schedule, Mr Roumie spoke to The Irish Catholic about bringing “the best person who ever lived” to life on an unprecedented scale. But before that was possible, Christ had to bring him to life.
“I was baptised into the Faith initially as Greek Orthodox and then when we moved out of New York City, we were sort of limited in our selection of Greek Orthodox communities and my dad, in Egypt, having gone to Catholic school as a kid, and then my mother being Irish Roman Catholic, it was an easy transition to just go to the church down the road and so we did that and my sisters and I made our First Communion and our Confirmations as Catholics,” Mr Roumie tells this paper.
“It just kind of stuck. We didn’t see it as, ‘Oh, we’re converting, oh, we’re this’. We were like, ok, the theology’s pretty similar and at the end of the day, for us, it was about Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit, and of course the Holy Family is a big part of it. And so, there were no issues to just go down the street. I think maybe in my early 20s, I thought the romance of the Orthodox liturgies had me curious about revisiting it, but I never felt compelled. I didn’t feel God calling me to go back and revert or go to a different community, and he just strengthened my faith.”
Journey
“Then I had a much deeper conversion a few years ago where I essentially just surrendered my will to God’s will for me, which took coming to the precipice in my own journey as an actor emotionally, physically, spiritually, financially, coming to and hitting a wall, and then having nowhere else to go but to ask God to show me the way, and he did. Three months after that moment, Dallas Jenkins, the creator of The Chosen, called me to reprise the role I had played for him in short films with a, at that time, limited four-episode series that may or may not go anywhere. Two seasons and a Christmas special later with, God willing, five more seasons to go, it seems like people are responding and I might just get a few more episodes out of this thing,” he says self-deprecatingly.
What’s not usual, is to be asked by God to do that before the eyes of hundreds of millions”
Reaching rock-bottom, opening up to God and being restored to new life is a tale as old as our Faith. It’s part and parcel of conversion, and the continued conversion in every believer’s life, that greater and greater efforts are made day after day to imitate and embody Christ – to become alter Christus, ipse Christus, as St Josemaría Escrivá put it – another Christ, Christ himself.
What’s not usual, is to be asked by God to do that before the eyes of hundreds of millions. Usually, we follow him in our own little circles and among a familiar circle of family and friends, elevated to fame only if God wills it. To be asked to embody Christ by embodying him on-screen, brings the worlds of sainthood and acting clashing together. Mr Roumie tells me what that’s like, and where he drew inspiration from.
Most influential
“I have my favourite Jesus movies and stuff that I’ve seen over the years and the most influential for me as a child was watching Robert Powell in the Jesus of Nazareth miniseries,” he says.
“And so I know, I’m quite aware of the power that media has, especially in the realms of faith, when done properly. I trust Dallas and the writers to steer the ship into the direction of authenticity and believability and faith, really. To be a part of that has been nothing short of mind-blowing, life-altering, life-changing, in so many ways, especially when we witness how God is using the show to affect people’s lives for the better, only for the better. It’s been a humbling, humbling gift for me.”
While there is a heritage and a precedent of Christ on the screen, Mr Roumie’s portrayal of Jesus has been lauded for the warmth he brings to the role; a compassion and humanity that are at odds with the often austere, otherworldly depictions of Our Lord. Mr Roumie alludes to the fact that actors’ characters influence them, depending on how well they enter into the role. What is that process like, then, when the goal of your profession and of the spiritual life align?
“Well, I think when you think about the sacrifice that Jesus made on behalf of humanity, that has to come from an infinite depth of love and mercy and compassion. If you’re meeting somebody in the flesh and you are the embodiment of compassion and mercy and love, how wouldn’t you embrace people? How wouldn’t you want to make them feel like they’re the most important person in the room or in the tent, or at the pool of Bethesda, that you’re talking to in that moment,” Mr Roumie says.
“I feel that Jesus had to have been fully present at every moment with every interaction that he had because of who he was. My goal is to try to embody that in whatever limited capacity I can as a human being living in the 21st Century on this Earth. For me, it’s how can I experience the emotional spectrum as deeply as Jesus must have?
“For me, that means trying to have as much, and beyond even my own usual daily attempts to feel, love for my neighbour as I can. In the scenes that I have with these actors, I try to feel that as Jonathan for Shahar, for Noah, for George, playing Simon-Peter, Andrew and John respectively.
“The role forces you, if you’re trying to live it and play it truthfully, and that’s the goal of any actor, is to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances, you can’t help but be affected by the character you’re playing. And in this case, he just happens to be the best person who ever lived, point blank. I just hope it rubs off on me long after I’m done playing the role, and that I can continue to bring that into the world,” he says.
The question takes a darker turn then, as I ask him about which scenes he’s either most looking forward to filming or most daunted to have before him”
It’s hard to believe Thomas a Kempis could have imagined this spin on his famous spiritual treatise and method, the Imitation of Christ, but it seems to be having the same effect on Mr Roumie as a rigorous spiritual exercise. A key piece of evidence of this is that he says he’s found himself more susceptible to spiritual warfare since taking on the role.
“I find myself much more subject to spiritual warfare than I ever have in my life, but I also find myself exponentially sensitive to it. Now, just having a renewed interest and love for my faith and the vastness of it. The depth and history of the traditions, the history of sacramentals and the meanings behind them and how they have become a daily part of my worship routine makes it that much more easy to know what to do when I am feeling challenged spiritually,” he says.
The Chosen is a hot topic of discussion among Catholics in Ireland, and no different to most TV series, the question of favourite scenes often arises. Given the chance to ask the main character his, it seems foolish to turn it down.
“You know, I can never narrow it down to one scene. There’s a triumvirate of scenes, I would say, that come to mind. First and foremost, I think because they were the early experiences and they left such an impact on me, having played them and having then watched them, sort of, objectively and how they affect people. They’re kind of in chronological order, almost. The first one is my initial appearance at the end of episode one. That encounter was just – I can’t watch it without, just being affected by it myself,” he admits.
Holy Spirit
“It’s as if I’m not doing the scene, it’s as if somebody else is doing there. I think the Holy Spirit is, I’m sure the Holy Spirit is because to have the reaction and knowing that I acted the scene, and for it to still affect me after I’ve seen it one or two dozen times, is inexplicable. There’s no logic to it. That doesn’t happen with other things that I’ve done. So that’s number one.
“Number two I would say would be the end, sort of a bookend, of season one, episode eight, with the Samaritan woman at the well. It was a similar kind of a thing. It was just such a beautiful moment. When she runs away just full of joy, it literally just brought me to tears of joy, just watching and imagining the joy that Jesus must have felt having this impact on these people and seeing their lives just turn around like that.
To answer your last question though, daunted, I would say probably the crucifixion will be the most daunting”
“And then I’d say thirdly, one of my favourite scenes with the legendary character actor, Erick Avari, who plays Nicodemus, was the John 3:16 up on the rooftop and having that exchange. Just seeing that exchange fleshed out by this teacher of the law, who in our storyline – not necessarily biblically-inferred – but in our storyline, on the verge of deciding whether or not he should go follow Christ himself, because we know he was a disciple, a follower, but in secret, so what did it look like to be a disciple in secret? What were his challenges? And so having that conversation with him and trying to explain to him what it meant to be reborn in the Spirit was just a beautiful encounter. I just loved working with Erick because he’s just so good.”
The question takes a darker turn then, as I ask him about which scenes he’s either most looking forward to filming or most daunted to have before him. As may have been guessed, the crucifixion looms before him as before all who faithfully try to follow God himself.
Crucifixion
“That’s a harder question for me to answer because we’re not even really told the specifics of the storylines for the seasons. I know that season six will revolve around the crucifixion, season seven will revolve around the resurrection. That’s as much as I know. I think there are some storylines in season three that I’m really looking forward to, but unfortunately, I can’t say anything,” Mr Roumie says mysteriously.
“To answer your last question though, daunted, I would say probably the crucifixion will be the most daunting. I don’t know how Dallas plans to handle that – Dallas, the creator of the show. I know he’ll probably do it in a way that hasn’t really be done before, so I’m eager and curious and nervous and just hesitant to think too much about it because I don’t want to impose my ideas on it and then it turning out to be completely different. I mean, he’s a great writer and, I mean, the whole writing staff is brilliant. The three of them: Ryan, Tyler and Dallas together just make quite a force.
“So I trust whatever they write, it’s going to be heart-breaking and I think people will experience Jesus’ sacrifice and his death in a way that will be unprecedented, because of the previous five seasons of building up Jesus as your friend, your best friend, hopefully. So, I think it’s going to be pretty devastating when that happens. I myself, I’m not looking forward to it because that’ll also mean then the show’s almost over, but God’s will be done at the end of the day.”
Rare privilege
Assured that The Chosen is in the safest possible hands between God, Mr Roumie and director Dallas Jenkins, the conversation turns to the earthly hands that the Church is in: Pope Francis’. Earlier this year, Mr Roumie had the rare privilege of meeting him in person – something he’d been in search of for a long time.
“Meeting the Pope was something that I had thought about as a kid, you know, most of my young life. I always wanted to go to World Youth Day and because my parents weren’t really keyed in on how to actually make that happen – I still don’t know who you talk to to go to World Youth Day,” he laughs.
Meeting the Pope was something that I had thought about as a kid, you know, most of my young life”
“I may have a few more contacts now to be able to make that happen, but I’m a little too old to be at the World Youth Day in any other capacity than as a guest speaker. But as a kid, it was like, ‘Oh man, I’d love to meet the pope’. The closest I got was in New York, back in, I think, when Pope Benedict visited New York and I had a friend, who was actually my acting coach at the time, who had connections with the visit being set up. So it didn’t result in any connection, but he told me what blocks I could see him on, so as he drove by in his popemobile, I just remember the popemobile passing and I’m just waving like, ‘Oh, he’s never going to see me’.
“So that was about a year or two year long process to actually have happen, that was made possible by a friend and journalist, Bree Dail, who I think was working for National Catholic Reporter, I think, at the time, and then she moved to Rome. She said, ‘Do you want to meet the Pope?’ And I said, ‘Wait, what?’ So she helped get that ball rolling and really followed through and made it happen and then I invited Dallas to come along and experience that with me, because how often do you get to meet the Pope? He was excited.
Pray for me
“Then we got there and the Pope came down the line, and I had a little card in Spanish of what I wanted to say, and I told him I prayed for him and asked him to pray for me as well because I was playing Jesus in a TV series and his eyes lit up. He said, ‘May you imitate him, may you find him and may he make you happy’, which was beautiful. Then he moved over to Dallas and Dallas explained he was directing the show that I was playing Jesus in and the Pope says to him, he kind of turns and he’s like, ‘He’s Jesus?’ And Dallas says, ‘Yeah’. And he’s like, ‘You’re Judas?’ And he said, ‘No, no, no, no’. It was very, very funny and the Pope had a great laugh and warmth about it. He was just very generous with his spirit and his time, so it was pretty cool.”
Speaking to Mr Roumie, you get the distinct impression that his portrayal of Jesus is bringing Christ to life as much in him as on the screen.
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