Transcript of 'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.

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From the New York Times, this is the interview. I'm David Markezi. It's common, maybe even natural, for audiences to blur the lines between actors and their famous roles, to assume that a beloved on-screen doctor might know something about medicine or that an action hero is a tough guy off-screen, too. But Jonathan Roomey is dealing with an unusually charged version of this dynamic in his role as Jesus Christ. And yes, this is our version of Christmas season programming. Since 2017, Roomy has been the star of the global hit series The Chosen. The series takes a prestige TV approach to the story of Jesus, full of sharp dialog, interpersonal drama, unexpected humor, and high production values. That slickly appealing modern style, centered on Roomy's warm and relatable portrayal, has helped the show to become a massive success. It's been watched by more than 250 million people and will return for its fifth season under Creator Dallas Jenkins next year. That success has also helped turn Roomy, a devout Catholic, into a public faith leader. At public events for the Chosen, he's swanct by fans looking to, as it or touch the hem of his garment. He gets asked to speak at faith-based events, and in the online world, he has a partnership with the prayer app Hallow, where listeners can hear him read scripture and lead meditative reflections.

As Rumi is well aware, his is a complicated and just plain unlikely situation for an actor to be in, but it's also, he believes, part of a greater plan. For me, as someone who is sincerely curious about faith, and even if I'm being honest, a little envious of those who have it, his belief is something I wanted to understand. Here's my conversation with Jonathan Roomy. You've been playing Jesus on The Chosen for five seasons now. What conversations did you and Dallas have about the Jesus that you wanted to show? Because your Jesus, it's a very different portrayal than Jim Caviezel's Jesus in The Passion of the Christ, or Willem Defoe's In the Last Temptation of Christ, or you know what else is a good one, but also very different than yours is Max von Seedau. Oh, yeah. The greatest story I've ever told. But Oh, those Jesuses or jesai, I don't know what they are. There's a solennity to them. And your Jesus is a much more, in some ways, contemporary feeling Jesus?

I think what makes it feel like that, that we have, that all those other portrayals didn't have access to was the format of time to build characters and build relationships over episodes. You're seeing the nuances of his character, his quirks, the humanity of these characters, the day-to-day of these characters. If you believe they existed, and I do, they were human beings. So theology aside, nobody's ever explored that humanity. Nobody has ever wondered, well, what would it be like to crack a joke with Jesus, to have a glass of wine with Jesus, to see him dancing at a wedding? Because if you're human, laughing and joking and frustration and the the entire spectrum of emotions are part of the human process, part of the human journey, part of the struggle. He went through all of these things that we do so that we would have somebody to relate to as we're going through these trials ourselves.

Did you have any apprehension about showing a version of Jesus that isn't one that's typically shown?

I didn't because I think he has to feel human. If he doesn't feel human, most people won't relate to him. Granted, there might be scenarios from time to time where, and I've shared this with Dallas, where he and I may not have exactly alignment on like, Well, I feel like if he says it like this, it's just a little too casual. He then may come back to me and say, Yeah, but here's why. Then he goes through it. I'm like, Okay, I get that.

Just in my head, I was thinking of the It's a cliché of an actor saying, Oh, what's my motivation? In your case, the answer was, You got to bring about the salvation of the world. Play it like that.

Saving souls. I got to save more souls.

The decision was made that you were going to do the chosen. Before that, maybe scuffling is too strong of a word, but you were just a jobbing actor.

Struggle bussing.

Struggle bussing. How does it happen that a struggle bussing actor makes big playing Jesus?

I think that the path to that is absolute and uncompromising, surrendering to a higher power, things that are beyond my control. Because that's what it took, I believe, for me to get to the place where I was ready for an opportunity like this. I had moved to LA, and then I struggled for eight years in Los Angeles only to realize that I was trying so hard to control my life, to control my destiny, to do the things that I thought needed to be done to have a successful career as an and they weren't working. I was on government assistance. That ran out. I woke up completely broke one morning, six and a half years ago. And I was literally in... I didn't see any way out that I could figure out how to make work. I literally said, God, you take this from me. It's in your hands now. It's not up to me, and I'm not going to worry about it. I was relieved because I really felt now it wasn't my choice. Then three months later, the chosen comes along, and I thought, okay, I just needed to submit.

I know that you're a practicing Catholic Catholic. What does your faith allow you to give to the role that a non believer or a non Catholic might not be able to give?

I feel that it lends an authenticity to the role that allows me to understand more of why Jesus did the things he did and said the things he did than somebody who is completely unfamiliar. I think I struggled to follow Jesus like anybody else who considers themselves a Christian. But the struggle is part of it. I think God knows what we struggle with, but we're still challenged to do what he would do in those situations. I think because I actually believe that, that seems to have lent me a credibility and an authenticity in approaching the character that maybe people haven't seen It's interesting because you're saying that who you are allows you to play the role of Jesus with a particular authenticity.

Do you feel that someone who is a non believer could credibly and authentically play that part?

I think they could. I think if they had a real understanding of what he represented and why he was so much of a revolutionary to his time and even to today, I think they could. But they would have to, I mean, in layman's terms, you'd have to do your research and drop into the character and go Daniel Day Lewis on it and for three months, go live as a rabbi in a kibbutz or something like that. I don't know. But I think with a character like Jesus, I think a lot of people do reduce him to a really great teacher, really cool guy. He becomes a sandaled hippie in a lot of people's minds. They're like, Oh, he said some cool stuff and some cool things. And it's like, I think he was a little more than that.

Yeah. He came to be a sword.

Yeah, yes.

When I watch videos of you giving talks for crowds, you come out Very often, it seems a wave of applause, really an overwhelming response. The idea that you're getting that attention combined with the fact that you're getting it for playing Jesus, strikes me as a potentially, psychologically and spiritually combustible situation. Does it feel that way to you?

No, because I recognize that none of this is about me. I don't matter in the grand scheme of things. I recognize that when I come out to those speeches and people react the way they do and people yell out, Jesus. They're seeing me as the face of the guy that they've had this response to, this reaction to, while experiencing the show. I'm the closest thing to the real Jesus that they probably will ever see in person. I think, psychologically, they know I'm not Jesus, but they feel they want me to be the next best thing. I, of Of course, I cannot go anywhere near that reality. But that said, if I believe everything I believe about my faith, I'm in this position for a reason. I was cast as Jesus and somebody else wasn't. Why? God only knows why.

You're saying essentially that you become a human icon for people. The thing that I don't quite understand is how you separate the idea that, as you said, you're nothing here. You don't matter.

Dust in the wind.

But then also feeling like you've been put here for a reason. You're saying there is something special about you. Those seem to me like somewhat contradictory ideas. How do you reconcile them? Then also, there was never some small part of you that's like, Oh, I am special. None of that little ego gratification temptation ever creeps into your head?

I think if I said there wasn't anything at all, I'd be lying. Do I allow it to become my reason for doing what I do? No. The paradox that you're describing, I guess it is hard to make that distinction. Yes, there's for me a sense of mission, but the mission is about Jesus, in this case, with the chosen. It's about God. That's what this experience is in playing this role when I meet fans who come out. I was just in the Philippines, and It was nuts, man. I've never seen anything like it. They were tremendous. They're just so intense. And everywhere I go, they're giving me stuff and little articles and notes and things like that. So I'm playing this character that people, for the most part, they already love him. They have a relationship with him. Then I come in and I fulfill their idea of who that person is to them in their life. I'm also one of them in that I have a relationship, and a lot of them know that, and a lot of fans know how I feel about Jesus and God and faith and all of those things. I think all of that combined, I think it's the reason for my career.

You go to these events, and like you described, thousands of people are cheering or coming up to you. You also are asked to come and speak at things like the National Eucharistic Congress, or you gave a commencement address at Catholic University of America. You spoke at the March for Life in Washington last year. These demand on your time and on your being. Do you feel like you're being asked to give more than you have to give?

It can be draining. If I'm meeting you at one of these events and something has moved you to to come and have this individual moment that oftentimes happens at some of these things where they'll have VIP groups that there are certain people that get to have some one-on-one time, but there's 700 of them. That takes time and it takes energy. A lot of the times it's emotionally charged. And better or worse, that catches up with you after 700 encounters.

Was there a particularly difficult encounter that comes to mind?

I was at a conference in a stadium of about 40,000 people, and I came off the stage, and shortly thereafter, I got to the little green room where they had us hanging out. And security comes into the room and says, Hey, there's a lady outside who's got a child in a wheelchair. Is it okay? She wants to know if she can say hello. I came outside and I met the lady and her son, and she was already overwhelmed And she then went on to tell me, she said, Our favorite episode is the episode where Tamar, one of the characters lets her friend down on a stretcher in through the roof of Zebedi's house, and Jesus heals him and he can walk again. And she says, So I just thought, Wouldn't it be great if the same thing happened to my son? And I said, Yeah, that would be amazing, but I got to be honest with you, as far as I know, I don't have that gift. But I would look to pray with you if that's okay. So I just stood with them and I prayed with them for a minute, and they were so gracious and thanked me, and I walked away and then I just burst into tears.

Because I thought to myself, Man, on some level, I must have let them down. But they know what I do. They know I'm not a healer, I'm not a I'm not sure. Once I got through that line of thought, I recognized that. I said, Okay, I can't be what she maybe wanted me to be. I can only be who I've been made to be.

There's a way in which experiences like that call to mind for me a... You could almost call it a category error about the position that you find yourself in where you're an actor. And because you play this role, you are put into positions that probably an actor shouldn't be put into. It seems like increasingly, you are becoming a figure of authority. When you're asked by people to come talk to groups of Catholics, what do you think they want from you in that setting? And is there a part of you that thinks, This is Mesta, I'm an actor. Why ask me? Ask a theologian, ask a priest.

That's a great question. I think first and foremost, the category era thing is funny because I think all of us are not the sum total of what we do. I think you, by what you do as an interviewer and the questions that you ask people and the things that you bring out of people shed light on humanity in ways that other people wouldn't know how to do. And so in many ways, you have a gift for humanity that you might not even be considering in that light. You know what I mean?

I 100% agree with everything you just said.

No, but it's true. No, but it's absolutely true because I don't think we're just meant to be here to just eke out a living and get a job and maybe have a family make some money and then die. We have a conversation and some fruit comes out of that for somebody else hearing this interview. And all of a sudden, the trajectory that they were on all of a sudden changes. They learned something or they had misconceptions about Christians or Catholic or non-Christians that they didn't before. And now they have a better dialog. It's like, that's part of, I think, what we're all here to do. I I don't give my political opinions out publicly. Well, not quite true.

I mean, talking at the March for Life.

Well, here's what I'll say about that.

Which I should explain as a pro-life, also call it, anti-abortion rally that happens every year in Washington.

It's a pro-life rally. For me, and I was on the fence about speaking there because I recognize that for so many people, it is only political. For me, it is only spiritual.

Tease that out for me.

If I come to a conference like the March for Life, and they want me to share thoughts, well, I'm thinking like, Well, what do I believe as a Catholic? I believe in the sanctity of life from the moment of conception. That's what we believe as Catholics and Christians. For me, it's a spiritual thing that has been usurped and turned into a political weapon that divides people in such a way where they no longer see the spirituality of the issue. It becomes completely about right or left, conservative or liberal. I don't understand it. For me, that wasn't politics, that was spirituality. You can't cherry-pick the aspects of your faith you like and dispense the things you don't like. You said it yourself, I came not to bring peace, but to bring a sword. Fathers will divide themselves against their sons, mothers and daughters. Because of things like this, these kinds of issues that I think for Jesus, it's like, if you're going to follow me, it's not going to be easy. It's going to be really hard, and people will hate you. Get used to it.

Why is abortion the issue where you chose to make your voice public and not other things that are central to Jesus's teachings, like in treatment of the poor, for example?

I do do that. In fact, I was just in Tanzania and Rwanda visiting these children that I support and their families, which I had been doing even before the Chosen. A year before the Chosen, I found this charity called Unbound. I saw the work that they were doing, and they were changing not just the children's lives through sponsorship, but entire family. So I'm doing as much as I can, and I weigh every opportunity that comes to me to speak on these things very carefully. I also know that there's only so much that I can give of myself. Do you know You know what I mean? It's a lot. It's a lot for me physically and emotionally. It can get really taxing at times. I'm trying to do things like just take better care of myself and try to go on more vacations. But it's hard to find time these days. But sleep when you're in the ground, right?

I realized you just made a comment about trying to find relaxation as a peace of mind. But I have another question about the Mars for Life.

Well, let's see how this goes.

There's one moment in the speech you gave there where you pivot and say, you know about the world of entertainment. I'm paraphrasing all of this. If I'm misremembering, just correct me if I'm wrong. I'll help you.

It's super dark.

Yes. You're diagnosing the cultural landscape and you say there's just an increase in occult imagery, depictions of witchcraft, It's just a little bit of a concept. You say some of this is even subliminal and you know it when you see it. I don't know exactly what you mean. Can you give me examples of the stuff you're talking about?

I think we've reached the point now in culture where seeing depictions and images and symbolism of Satan and Satanism and demons and witchcraft and the symbols that's related to all of the occult are so frequent and regular that it's so easy to become desensitized. I think your mind just filters it. I've seen that so many times now, it doesn't even register. If you go back a couple of decades ago, you would never see anything like that. I've seen it more, I think, in the music industry, demonic imagery in music videos and immodesty and all of these things that the youngest of our society are subjected to and shouldn't be, I don't believe. I think for me, remembering that speech, my heart was for the kids that see certain things on music videos, and then they reenact them themselves or they wear what they're seeing because it's It's what's popular and fashionable. They don't have any idea that some of the imagery or the symbols or the words that are being used are, from a spiritual standpoint, really damaging and really dangerous on a level that we've never seen before.

It's funny because I said, I don't see it. And of course, it's like, I enjoy the music of Black Sabbath and Judas priest.

You know what I mean? I'm a huge Iron Maiden fan.

Iron Maiden.

Number of the Beast. I'm like, Well, I can't really wear that T-shirt so much anymore.

But to me, that imagery, it feels benign to me. It's on the same level as science fiction movies or horror films. It's like, this is entertainment. My question for you is- But you're also referencing rock and the imagery from those bands in that time are different than some of the more modern I like if certain...

I think it's much more graphic and sexualized. Sexuality is so much more prevalent in the media, especially in music, the display of sexuality and the dark images connected to sexuality are so much more blatant than they ever were 30, 40 years ago.

But do you think the iconography you're talking about is the natural outcome of a corroded culture, or do you think it's the intentional result of darker forces?

I think it could be a combination of a number of things. I think it could be how society at large has framed faith and religion and banished it from visible culture, from areas in the culture where you used to see more people, I think, framing their faith within the context of what they do or even presidents and people would invoke just in their speech would invoke God in the way that they don't do that anymore. And I think- It doesn't seem like there's a shortage of politicians talking about God these days. But not without a negative connotation to it. Put it this way. I'll speak for myself. I had a conversation several years ago about the discussion of faith in the workplace. They were a non-actor. It was a a production member. I know we shared a similar faith, and we hadn't really talked about it, but there was a spark of a conversation that made me think, Oh, let me ask them about this. They went on to carefully admonish me like, Hey, just be careful. You really shouldn't talk about these kinds of things because a lot of people are biased against Christians in this industry, so you might want to just keep a lid on that.

And I thought, But it's just us talking. Do you know what I mean? And I think what I recognized is that there was such a deep fear of being, quote, unquote, found out that they had a sense of faith, that it was not okay to possess that. For me, that's not okay. It's not okay to be told I can't practice my faith or express it, especially if I'm not going around saying, Here's the Bible. Do me a favor, just read that. I'm not asking anybody to convert. I'm not. I've never once said, Do me a favor, you should convert. I just live out my mission here. I be who I am. If people want to ask me questions or invite me to come talk to 200,000 people and share my thoughts about certain things, I'll pray on it first, like with March. The weeks leading right up to it, I didn't want to do it. I thought, This can't be good for an actor. But then I got to this moment that I had when I first completely surrendered everything to God before I booked The Chosen. It was the same feeling of, you know what?

I'm asking you to do this. I'm not worried about it. It was like this wave of peace just swept over me. They said, Just speak from the heart.

If you think the work you're doing in terms of mission, how much of that mission feels to you evangelical in nature? If somebody watches the show and is merely entertained and nothing more, do you feel that something has been left on the table?

No, I think one of the reasons that we're successful, and it's one of the priorities for both Dallas and myself, and I think everybody involved, is that we recognize, first and foremost, this is a TV show. It's based on scriptures, it's based on the Gospels, but there's stuff that we've had to take creative license in certain situations to be able to tell a more well-rounded story. But if the vehicle of this story is anything less than top quality, if it's not a great TV show first, then anything else that any of us might want to have people take away from the show from a personal perspective or a faith perspective perspective, none of that's going to matter. You know what I mean? If you take a piece of gold and you wad it up in a ball of trash and you throw it on the sidewalk and say, You should pick that up, you're like, No, get lost. Nobody's going to want to even touch it. They'll just walk by it. It's the same thing. If the message behind the show is a little piece of gold wrapped up in a wad of garbage, then forget it.

You're done. Next. Move on. Yeah, it still has to be a great TV show first, and then everything else from that can flow.

Actors who have been on successful TV shows, I think it's not uncommon for them to have been typecast because of the familiarity that people had with the characters that they played. Sure. That's not even taking into account playing Jesus. Do you have any concern about the industry typecasting you in that role? Are you getting any clues out in the world about that?

No, I'm not. It's really true, David. Whatever happens, man, whatever is meant for me will be mine. Do you know what I mean? If I did nothing else for the rest of my life as an actor on camera, but Jesus and the chosen, and that's all people remembered me for. Well, the fact that they remember me at all, that's amazing. I'm because the show is just a vehicle for this point of human contact and this encounter that we're all meant to have with each other and with the divine beyond us.

After the break, I call Jonathan Roomy back, and he tells me why he thinks the Chosen should make Hollywood less wary of religion.

To get to the point now where globally, it's one of the most watch TV shows in the entire world, and 30% of that audience is non-religious, I think that's pretty significant. And so I don't really know why Hollywood would be afraid of that.

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Thank you for taking the time to do this again.

Of course. It's my pleasure.

Let me just ask a seasonally appropriate question. At this point in American culture, Christmas is like a secular holiday. Do you have feelings about how secular Christmas has become?

Yeah, it's been almost 100% secularized in terms of media and culture. I think it's hard to see it being hijacked. But it's been like that for... I remember as a kid seeing these signs around churches around Christmas time. It says, Keep Christ in Christmas. Especially now, any movie that comes out during the season that's about Christmas, there's no trace of Jesus in it at all. It's unfortunate, but that's why guys like Dallas Jenkins are around to give people the alternatives. I go, Yeah, this is what this is about. Then however I can contribute in my own way to remember that, yes, Christmas is supposed to be joyful, but at the end of the day, the birth of Christ is meant to ultimately lead us to the cross of Christ to bring the world hope and salvation and everything that comes with that.

You told this interesting anecdote about discussion with a crew member about how discussing faith at work was a no-go. What might account for why faith is tricky for Hollywood?

I don't know why, because I think when you look at the numbers with how the Chosen has performed and how other projects like Jesus Revolution have done with audiences, there's an audience that's there. But I think maybe because for so long, there has been a rash of media and content and films made under the guise of being related to faith that have just missed the mark in terms of excellence or they read is so heavy-handed in their attempts to proselytize that essentially they're made for the choir. With the chosen, it's like, well, we really see ourselves as a historical drama. 30% of our audience now is non-religious. That's a lot. For a show that the early adopters were Christians, to get to the point now where globally, it's one of the most watched TV shows in the entire world, and 30% of that audience is non-religious, I think that's pretty significant. I don't really know why Hollywood would be afraid of that.

You talked about the idea of surrendering to God. I think that for non-believers, the idea of surrender and what that actually means in practice, I think it can just sound like a well-meaning cliché, I think. In In the way that when you hear an athlete talk about, we just start taking it one game at a time and giving it 110%. It's not untrue, but it's not really helping you to understand what's going on. I wonder if you can try to explain a little bit more concretely about what it actually looked like for you to surrender and let go, because you're still a person walking around with ideas and you're trying to accomplish and you have judgments about things. So what does it mean in practice to let go?

I think that's a great question. I think the simplest way to describe it is knowing or arriving at the position of where I recognize that my ability to control my destiny, my fate, my path, whatever you I want to call it, ultimately, I believe, is beyond me. Yet I have to participate in the process of moving forward, of achievement, of trying to follow the direction that I believe I meant to go. When I came to the conclusion in that moment that we talked about, that moment of surrender, I came to the conclusion that for the previous eight years up to that point, I think that God had an idea or a plan for me, and then It's like he said, Okay, I've given you these gifts. I've given you these talents. Do something with them. I'm like, Oh, okay. Let me go do something with them. Leaving him out of the discernment process when it came to certain steps to take to move forward. I did that for years and years and years. I think as a person of faith, you necessarily cannot keep God separate from any part of your life, especially in areas where you're struggling.

For me, it was in a moment of severe stress and anxiety and borderline fiscal destitution that I basically said, I can't do it on my own. I recognize I've been trying to do everything that I thought I was supposed to do, but it hasn't worked. What I realized is that I've never checked in and thought whether or not this particular action was the right move or that was what God might want for my life. So now it was essentially a prayer where I say, I want whatever you want from me because you know better than I do what's good for me. Whatever that is, show me what it is.

You're so firmly on your path now, but are there ways in which your faith is still being tested?

Constantly. God willing, I'm on the path, but that's part of the mystery of faith. God ultimately is unknowable.

But give me the nitty-gritty. Where are you being tested?

They asked Saint Paul about that, and he never really quite answered directly. He had a prayer. He's like, Lord, take this thorn from my side. Three times, he said, I asked the Lord to take this thorn from my side, and that God said, No, I'm not going to take that from you because my grace is sufficient. In other words, he needed Paul to have this thing, this weakness whatever it was so that Paul would always depend on God for everything that he got. I feel similarly with my own things. I'm not comparing myself to Paul in any aspect whatsoever, but we all deal with something. We're all suffering and struggling with something. I'm a woefully flawed human being, but I'm trying to do the best that I can with the gifts that I've been given. By me, even just walking taking the walk of faith publicly. It's not something that I ever intended to do. It's something that during the pandemic, I literally felt pushed to do, and I started doing it. I started praying live on my social media accounts, and I thought, What am I doing? This is career killer because it was like...

It would, first of all, out me as a Christian, and then in many cases, even more stringently, out me as a Catholic Christian, which people find even harder to take.

There's like a billion Catholics in the world.

There are, but I don't know that they're all here in America, and most of my audience.

The current President, Catholic.

But it just wasn't something I'd ever thought to do or wanted to do or felt that I should do. I'd always kept it separate. Then I just felt this thought this inclination, like you should do this because people are struggling really bad right now, and it's going to bring peace to a lot of people. I'm just trying to I'm just trying to go where I'm led, man.

Jonathan, thank you, and happy holidays.

Thank you. Likewise, David. God bless.

That's Jonathan Roomy. Season 5 of The Chosen comes out next year. This conversation was produced by Seth Kelly. It was edited by Annabelle Bacon, mixing by Sophia Landman. Original music by Dan Powell, Pat McCusker, and Marion Rano. Photography by Philip Montgomery. Our senior Booker is Priya Matthew, and our producer is Wyatt Orm. Our executive producer is Allison Benedict. Special thanks to Rory Walsh, Ronan Borelli, Afim Shapiro, Jeffrey Miranda, nick Hitman, Maddie Macielo, Jake Silverstein, Paula Schumann, and Sam Dolnik. If you like what you're hearing, follow or subscribe to The Interview wherever you get your podcast. To read or listen to any of our conversations, you can always go to nytimes. Com/theinterview, and you can email us anytime at theinterview@nytimes. Com. Next week, we're off for the holidays, but we'll share a conversation with Jeff Bezos from the New York Times Dealbook Summit, and we'll be back with more interviews in the new year. I'm David Marquezi, and this is The Interview from the New York Times.