Star of “The Chosen,” Jonathan Roumie, took some time to discuss the role that he plays as Jesus Christ in the hit Christian show and to talk about the struggles that he feels as he tries to depict The Son of God. The 49-year-old explained what it is like to be an on-screen depiction of Jesus on television for millions of folks to see.
Roumie, whose new show “Jonathan and Jesus” is now available on Amazon Prime, Spoke candidly to The Christian Post about the pride and struggle that comes with playing one of Christian television’s most important roles of all time.
Roumie, a devout Catholic, opened up about some of the struggles that come with depicting Jesus. To him, the most important thing is that people think of him as an actor and that they remember that what is happening on their screen is only a theatrical depiction of the events from the Bible.
Roumie explained, “It’s not really my job to control what they think or how they react; the only thing I can do is remind them that I’m not Jesus. I’m Jonathan. I’m a person. I’m just a dude. I’m playing this role, and I have a deep, deep, deep devotion to Christ. I think letting people kind of see behind the curtain helps clarify that distinction and that separation and hopefully will give people a better understanding of what the challenges that I have.”
Roumie also hopes that by opening up about his life he could regain some of the personhood that he felt has been lost since his fame took off. He noted how fans treat him as a star and that he dislikes the way that they treat him while he is out to eat, for example.
He said, “You could be at a table, and they just kind of come up and snap a selfie while you’re in the middle of taking a bite of food. … Very rarely does something like that happen, but it just kind of makes you think like, ‘Wow, OK, there’s a distinction that needs to be made.'”
Roumie then went on to explain that he finds prayer to be the best way to remain humble, given his massive fame that came nearly overnight. He says that he takes inspiration from Jesus when times get hard, sneaking off to find quiet, alone time to pray and spend time with God.
He also understands the precarious situation that he is in. He makes sure to remind himself frequently that he is not Jesus, that he is only an on-screen depiction of the man. Roumie attempted to explain this struggle, saying the following, “If I were to believe any of the hype that anybody might write or believe or let any of the compliments go to my head, then I’m in dangerous territory. So as long as I stay in prayer and connected to my faith, it allows me the vehicle to be able to stay surrendered to God.”
Featured image: The Chosen press photos (press.thechosen.tv), CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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