That is an excerpt from TV Information Journal’s The Chosen: Particular Easter Situation. For a deep-dive into the wildly fashionable collection and its upcoming fifth season, choose up a replica of the problem accessible on newsstands and order on-line right here.
Have you ever met Jesus? Effectively, we’ve met actor Jonathan Roumie, which feels fairly near the true deal. Although he’s fast to level out that he’s not, in truth, the Son of God, the gracious star of The Chosen has given followers all around the globe the reward of one of the crucial well-rounded portrayals of Jesus in TV and film historical past. He jokes with the Apostles, He dances at weddings, He performs ball — and we need to comply with Him. We additionally see the anguish behind His eyes at what’s to return. Just like the olive within the press, Jesus feels the burden of the world, and in Season 5, that stress continues to squeeze.
The Chosen
Roumie takes the daunting job of portraying Jesus’ Crucifixion onscreen significantly, and although Season 5 will solely take the collection so far as the Backyard of Gethsemane, it’s at all times looming. However as we sat down with Roumie in July 2024 on the Midlothian, Texas, set, his spirits have been excessive. The Catholic convert celebrated his fiftieth birthday earlier that week and had lately returned to the Season 5 set after spending time together with his household.
And the way might life be something however good? Other than starring on the mega-hit, Roumie was awarded an honorary Physician of Effective Arts diploma for his dedication to his religion in March 2024. He’s met the Pope on multiple event and been nominated for a papal knighthood. “It may be surreal at instances,” he advised TV Guide Magazine in 2023. “[Playing Jesus has] utterly deepened my religion and affected my relationship with God. It makes me need to be a greater model of myself and the perfect human being doable. I’ve been put right here to play this character for a purpose, I imagine. And if that’s to permit folks to get nearer to their religion and to develop a relationship with God, what extra might I ask for as an actor?”
Roumie talks about choosing up the whip and teases the drama to return.
Paul Archuleta / Getty Photographs
You latterly turned 50, however you play Jesus in His thirties so convincingly that most individuals watching don’t even notice that there’s an almost 20-year age hole. What’s your secret?
Jonathan Roumie: I don’t consider myself as a specific quantity. I don’t really feel my age. I believe, biologically, I’m most likely a lot youthful. I believe it’s what permits me to move because the age of the character. So I believe God knew what He was doing. [Laughs] You understand, I dwell a fairly clear life-style, so I believe that’s all helped, and genetics assist as properly.
I’m grateful that I get to play this position, which has been one of the crucial impactful and unbelievable roles an actor can ever play. It’s one of the crucial advanced I believe anyone might ever play. So I really feel very, very lucky.
There are some heavy scenes developing in Season 5. Jesus goes to lose His mood, and we’ll see the cleaning of the temple from Scripture. Did you must do any whip coaching for these scenes?
I did. I skilled with a legendary whip grasp named Anthony De Longis, who skilled Harrison Ford for one of many Indiana Jones movies [2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull] and Michelle Pfeiffer for Batman Returns. As soon as I knew that there was some whip craft wanted for Season 5, I wished to ensure that I knew what I used to be doing, and I didn’t injure myself. I spent a whole lot of time with [the whip], and it’s now a brand new ardour and a interest. I adore it.
What’s occurring in Jesus’ head when He picks up that whip in The Chosen?
I believe He’s calling out injustice. He’s on the restrict of his tolerance for injustice due to how the poorest of the poor are being handled by the so-called non secular authorities. And He, being the last word non secular authority, calls them out, and He calls them out in a method that irrevocably adjustments His destiny on Earth. In order that’s one thing that’s simply been actually a pleasure to get to play.
You’re a lot of the method via capturing the fifth season. What’s your mindset by way of getting ready for the Crucifixion in Season 6?
It’s getting nearer and nearer. We’re actually on the doorsteps of the Crucifixion scenes, and narratively, chronologically, we’re inside 24 hours of that coming to achievement. And so, I’ve to start out fascinated with it just a little bit now.
In the meantime, Jesus continues to be making an attempt to clarify what’s going to occur to His disciples — and it’s not going properly.
Our conversations in Season 5, largely, are centered round Jesus making an attempt to impress upon the considerably hapless disciples the gravity of what’s to return within the subsequent a number of days [seen] all through the season, and them wrestling with not really fairly getting it. He’s actually making an attempt to talk very plainly, and it’s simply not registering. And it doesn’t, as we all know from Scripture, fairly register till the Resurrection.
The Chosen, Season 5, Premieres in Theaters, Friday, March 28