Jonathan Roumie, who plays the role of Jesus Christ on the hit Christian series “The Chosen,” recently sat down for a chat with newly baptized Christ follower Russell Brand, where he explained the many difficulties and complexities of portraying the Savior of the human race in a show that is loosely based on the biblical Gospels.
Can you imagine the kind of pressure that must come along with playing such an important role? Jesus is, without a doubt, the most important figure in all of human history. We’re talking about the God-Man, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, who died to save you and me from the power and penalty of our sins.
Not only that, but we even measure our time, as a whole society, on His life. Our calendar came from the Church. Hospitals and schools, as we know them today, were created by Christians who were influenced by Jesus.
It’s critical to get this right.
“I’ve been a Christian for a little while now, so I think it’s time to have some Christian friends on the show,” Russell Brand went on to say, as he welcomed Roumie to his Locals podcast, where he says he is planning to invite more guests on to talk about various topics related to Christianity.
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According to the folks over at The Christian Post:
Roumie said he doesn’t want “Chosen” fans to see him as the face of Jesus, but merely as a man who’s portraying pivotal moments from Jesus’ life as revealed in the New Testament.
“One of the things, I think, as humans, that we need, especially if we have a relationship with our Creator, or we desire a relationship with our Creator, it’s only human for us to want to put a face to who that is. And so, what do we have?” Roumie explained during the program. “We have the relegations of culture, and paintings and imagery. … People have been trying to depict our Lord and Savior because that gives us an opportunity to reference what it is and who it is that we’re putting our belief system into.
“I think we need to have a face (image of Jesus). And in the age of film and television and social media and popular culture … Robert Powell was that for the two of us. … Even now, you still see images of Robert Powell’s face as Jesus Christ,” Roumie added, referring to the actor cast as Jesus in Franco Zeffirelli’s “Jesus of Nazareth.”
“We were promoting season four (of ‘The Chosen’) in Mexico earlier this year, and I was in a church in rural Mexico, and I went in and there was a depiction of this scene with a particular religious person, like a priest or someone from the region, or it was a saint, and he’s in this painting with Jesus, and the image they used for Jesus’ face is Robert Powell. I think it’s the more saturated we are with certain kinds of images, whether it be my face, whether it be Jim Caviezel’s face, whether it be Robert Powell’s face, inevitably, your mind just naturally wants to go there. Because you’re like, ‘Oh, no, no, He was a person,'” the actor continued.
He then revealed that even his sister had a bit of a phase where she struggled with picturing him as Jesus while praying. And that is a huge, huge danger of portraying the Lord. We are not to use the face of an actor as that of Jesus during our prayer time. Because that would be elevating the actor to the level of God, which is idolatry.
“And for me, obviously, I’m not thinking of myself. But you know, if it’s not Robert Powell, I get images of renaissance paintings that come into my head, you know, or something by Carl Bloch will just pop into my head. And he’s one of my favorite artists who depicted Christ. And so, I want to have somebody to think of, to imagine, because He’s a real person. Jesus was a real person. He continues to be a real person,” the actor told Brand.
Unbeknownst to some, Brand and Roumie are longtime friends who have previously worked together in the entertainment industry. In a post on Instagram, Brand talked about his bond with Roumie, describing him as “righteous” and “clearly connected to Christian values.”
“My friend Jonathan [portrayed] our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But [he] was also my body double when I acted in HBO’s show with The Rock, ‘Ballers,’” Brand stated during this episode of the podcast. “So I’m able to say that Jesus was my body double.”
It’s very cool to witness Brand continue to grow in his faith. Let’s hope the Lord continues to bless him with a close relationship and a huge platform to share the gospel.