The immense weight of playing Jesus

I felt completely out of my element for that scene because all of a sudden now I'm saying these words that Jesus said to these people who are like looking at me and I'm there and I'm like, what am I doing? Here, so here we are, it's about time, yeah, and we haven't talked about this publicly. There are ears and some people might be surprised to hear me use the term years in plural because this whole thing about Jesus the Director did not begin some time before the chosen ones. about how long was it six years ago, five years, five years ago I was selecting a short film for my church's Good Friday service and I was mainly focused on finding the two thieves and you auditioned for one of the thieves on the cross and I.

It seems to me that we don't have a Jesus, we don't have anyone to complete Jesus, but I saw something in Jonathan that seems to have the tenderness that I'm also looking for, so let's see if maybe I should audition for Jesus and you came. Also, Jesus and about seven seconds into the audition I made a decision and then I remember when we were filming and we'll get to that in a second because I want to hear from your perspective on this, but when we were filming. I remember thinking to myself that this is the best representation of Jesus I have ever seen, it is exactly what I always imagined: masculinity combined with tenderness.

Five years ago we ended up doing several vignettes since then for my church again, little scenes and all that. We always approach it from the perspective of trying to show the same story but from different angles and perspectives, so tell me your perspective on this because we haven't talked a lot about the beginning, we talked a lot about the process, but yeah, well. Going back to the two thieves that was, I was really interested in that movie and in reading for the part of the thief, the repentant thief, and I thought I had a pretty decent audition and then when I got a call a couple of days later, already You know what to read for Jesus, my first reaction was like, oh, he's like five lines, okay, like he's in the supporting role, dimas, like he's like it's all about his arc Mike, huh, but I love a bit of Jesus, so I'll read his Jesus and I had played Jesus once before for a multimedia project literally for the first time like six months before.

I read it and then I got it and I was like, "Okay, this is actually pretty amazing, it's a pretty awesome culmination to that movie and I was really lucky to have that experience and then to be able to go back and do those vignettes that you talked about." where I thought, well, this is great, you know, I get to and then that. Seeing the reactions of the people in the church when we were shouting, you know, the movie is on. I think I was there like Maundy Thursday when we showed the movie like seven different, you know, five different screenings it's not like, we had, yeah, because my The church had for Good Friday, we would have about 15,000 people over the course of two days, so we did four or five on Thursday, yeah, on Thursday and then a few more on Friday, Friday, yeah, and then I started people starting to connect with similar people who saw the movies in the vignettes in the audience for the first time it was like wow, this is really, this is really, you know, having an impact on people in a way that I couldn't even have anticipated and then I cut two.

Years later, when we're getting ready to do the first season of The Chosen, you called me, you know, that's how it seemed, it's like we were taking the show on tour, yeah, but yeah, come on, let's go. all the way with this now and I think you know that and when you first talk to me about this it was probably mid-2018 and you're like, hey, we're thinking about this and you like

playing

it. very close and nothing was written yet and I was like "okay man, yeah, if it happens, it happens, that would be great. I'm willing to do a multi-season series about the light of Christ, why not?

I'm an actor in active that most of which are not working during, you know, during the year, so I wanted to finally get the scripts and say this is real, it was like wow, these are really good, well, you're reading a third one. Jesus He only has five lines basically at the end and I have like four lines, well at least episode two will be different, no, no, he shows up at the end too, yeah, okay, I think I say hello, get married, but alright, I give her a wink and I feel sad about what she's doing to me here, you know, and episode three was like "okay, now I get to Dallas's finally come to her senses, she's finally okay, so I feel like some of those vignettes and The short film The Two Thieves was in many ways a test case.

We were figuring out some of the things we're doing now and I'm so glad we did. Yes, that's where we discovered our first Jesus joke. in that vignette where you're sitting around the campfire and you call Peter Peter for the first time and before that we tried this idea of ​​the disciples hanging out and joking and fighting and Thaddeus defeats Andrew in an upset I can. I don't believe it, even I didn't see it coming. Jesus says I didn't even see him, yeah, and I remember walking past my wife when I first thought, would it be funny if he made fun of his own deity? and she said, we'll see, yeah, I'm not sure and I remember when we were in the room looking at it and there were two thousand people and I remember the laughter that came when you said that and it was a different kind of laughter, it was a warm laugh and I remember that people came up to me afterwards and said thank you so much because the humor made Jesus more real to me and it was so unique and so different, so I want to talk a little bit about the humanity of Jesus versus the deity we believe Jesus is God and man ;

However, the man part seems to be diminished in most depictions of Jesus in favor of God's mercy part. Some of the most famous representations of Christ are a bit of him. more stoic, a little more pious and one of the things we loved about the Passion of Christ are those scenes with Jesus and her mother where he mocks her and splashes her with water because that turned Jesus into a man, you as an actor. I want to go into it later, we'll talk about Jonathan

playing

the role of Jesus and the

weight

that that has, but first let's talk about the character.

Yes, I hate to use that term because he was a person, but he is a person, but as an actor. For the sake of this product, since he acted as an actor approaching a character, you can't exactly play God, the divinity of that, we can't really capture that on film and what's going on in the mind of Jesus, so talk about how you approach it when You're reading the scripts and when you do you know this is very personal and I usually get there right before you know it, take one from each of these seasons, you and I step aside , we hug, we talk, we could cry a little feeling the

weight

of what we are about to do but the humanity of Jesus how you approach him as an actor versus the deity you talk about it a little well I think that one of the things that separates the chosen from the other projects I mean, there are several things I can talk about that, but what allows us to delve into the possibilities of what the humanity of Jesus could have been like is the fact that we have time, we have space, you know, episodes and pages. and we're not limited to two hours to try to take it all in and I think that's a lot of what I've noticed in a lot of depictions of Jesus that have been super stoic, well, they're limited to how long they have the gospel lines of Scripture and then they have to go ahead and tell this story in a very limited period of time, while we have the opportunity to let this breathe a little bit, so for me I think it's knowing that and Then, I just try to empty myself of everything that I am to be open as a channel for Spirit to come and work through me and essentially up my game as a human being to be the best version of myself with everyone. moments on set is how I approach the humanity of Jesus, how he would have interacted with people and how he deals with conflict and how he deals with humor and surely a man who had such an intense ministry during those last three years in his life earthly had to have been gifted with a human sense of humor to be able to deal with all the characters and everyone you meet, the corks of the disciples and the people he met and the people who are constantly asking him for things and healing and you know, and he would get tired like us, he would get off the road and go into the mountains and try to get away from the crowds because you know he was in a physical situation. body, so he reacted like physical humans do and I think dealing with people like Peter, I mean hey, this is Simon Peter, you had to have a sense of humor to deal with Peter, you know there was no way around it, so in my opinion this is Off topic for a second, but one of my favorite moments in the first eight episodes is when you talk, even when you're there, it's such a beautiful moment when you say "I see you" and I want you to recognize that You have a role in all of this.

And it's a very, very precious moment that I remember when we came up with the idea. My wife and I were crying at the thought of Jesus speaking to a wife who might not feel like she had a role like many women. I felt back then and even sometimes today when their husbands are doing ministry, but because I love doing it, I love inserting humor into really emotional moments and when you say to Eden, do you think you know Simon, the real Simon, normal Simon, is that difficult enough? I think I want to deal with a worried Simon and she's like no, when you go home, no, I don't know, it's a great moment and we'll talk about the humor in just a minute, but two moments that come to mind when I think about The Humanity of Jesus and how we portray it that has significantly impacted people is episode three, when you're getting ready for bed and we see you bandaging a wound, stretching and making a fire, and the irony of the fact that for us to say that.

The scene is just about the humanity of Jesus, it's how much people have said that it has brought them closer to the deity of Jesus so you would think people would say oh, I don't like seeing Jesus as a normal human being, I want to think. . of him as God has been the complete opposite so when you were doing a scene like that I remember you know you're trying to make the fire and that was real I mean you had us hello yeah that's what you had what to be. it's really hard to live as a person in the first century, you know the world of the first century anywhere, like you're making your own fire, you're trying to fend for yourself.

I mean, it's hard enough now, but if you had to do it literally with just sticks. And you know, those boys and girls had to be whole, there's another layer of thickness to their skin. I think today we don't have the right thing because they had to be, you know, and that would have been Jesus, that's what. true, Jesus was a craftsman, he was not exempt from that right and the fact that we have people commenting on social media as if he could have asked the fire to come down and light the fire, but he was still doing it himself and you. and I talk, we have a running joke throughout all of this, which I'll also get to in a second about how we overcome some of this weight by making jokes, but we had this part of Jesus that I can bring up. the dead but I can't light the fire, you know, but those moments are effective, no problem, just impossible, but that episode of seeing Jesus bind up his own wound instead of touching it and healing it magically, we, you and I have talked .

This, as our theological belief, is that Jesus diminished his Godhead for the good of humanity so that he could legitimately say to people I feel what you feel I know what you know now even saying diminish was probably the wrong word because he was still God. but but and leaving that aside to feel the pain, I imagine that helps you a little because then you don't have to be thinking all the time as an actor, how do I act like God? Yes, I never think about it. of this like how can I act like God would?

Because I can't, I can't understand that it's just that it is, but I know what it's like to bleed and so did Jesus and you know and in much greater depths and I will ever know, but even just having that, you know, that first experience, I mean skinning his knee when he was a kid, you know, I mean, I'm sure that happened a few times, you know, and having that as a reminder to you know potentially what the future holds and what it will be in ultimately his sacrifice for humanity. I don't think he would have shied away from that.

You know, I think it's like it's a constant reminder of why he's here. Yes, avoid it. cutting himself because he says I have a lot of that coming. I'm going to save that for later, but the other time this happened several times, but this example comes to mind of being in the moment as an actor and playing Jesus in episode 8 when You were with the Samaritan woman and It didn't say in the script that Jesus got emotional at the end, but when she says, I'll tell everyone and he got so excited and started running away, you couldn't do it without getting emotional.

I mean, I rememberevery time your eyes would glaze over and get excited thinking about it, yes, because she was so beautiful in her portrayal of the joy she experienced when she saw the Messiah, so talk about it because that's the part I can't. Relating to the writing and talking to you about the character and getting ready for the scene, but some of those things that happened in the moment as an actor praying playing Jesus, what's happening there, what was happening to you, what's in your thought process when Vanessa, who plays that character, is giving that performance and you.

You're just reacting in a way you didn't expect from me. In other words, what was happening at that moment was that this woman who wanted to know the infinite and eternal love within me suddenly opened herself to the possibility of receiving love and receiving the spirit and receiving Christ and accepting a messiah who has converted his heart and taken all this pain and now given him a reason to spread joy, you know, and to transform the circumstances of his life into something that I believe is God. she wants for all of us and to be filled with this spirit of joy is contagious and because she comes from a place of deep love and acceptance and just watching her embody that as an actor is like you can't, you can't help. but she reacts to that and you know she's so full of joy like a renewed spirit and renewed strength and hope and I think you know we're living in times where we need hope and we need faith through that.

It's not as bad as it seems, at the end of the day, if we have our sense of faith and if we really tap into who Christ is and what he means, what he can do for us, no matter what the circumstances are like. No matter how bad things get, no matter what the falls, there is always something beyond our understanding and something bigger that will sustain us through all of this, yes, do you feel that exactly they will say at that moment that I Was it the character I felt? was that person is a little different a little uncertain err when you play Jesus when you've had those especially unexpected moments you've described this and I think this has happened and this has happened on set so many times where The Spirit is present and is guiding us, whether it's leading me in directing, leading you in acting, but you'll probably never feel like I felt like Jesus in that moment, where does that line begin or end in terms of? the moment I felt that moment I was in, I got emotional in response to her, how do you navigate?

I never feel like I've managed to be, hell, it's at that point for me, that's impossible to achieve, I think it's especially when you play a real person, a human like a, you know, a biopic or something, try experimenting is an impossible goal as an actor, so what I'm looking for is to just try. Getting the closest possible feeling that Jesus could have had and even then trying to understand what that would be is difficult, so the best I can do is try to experience everything, every emotion that I think is necessary for a scene. on a much more intense level, so whether it's mercy or compassion, I try to have exponential amounts of mercy and compassion for the person in that scene and I try to feel that as an actor towards my scene partner and whether it's humor and love or joy . or something surprising, it's about trying to, I think, experience humanity on a much more tactile scale than I walk as Jonathan, everything, that's the best way I can describe it, it's like I've achieved it, it's because I've accomplished. in the scene, especially if you have emotional limitations or there is something that needs to happen emotionally.

I feel like I've succeeded when my best attempts at what I think that emotion is, I can feel them myself and if that happens, I feel like I've done my job, but that's not what Jesus was, yeah, you know what I'm getting at. I mean, it's more like this is what he might have felt and I hope we can get to that point, which is cool, yeah, which is cool, but we've seen it. If it happens, I'm going to say at least 10 times that we're a daytime performer, for example, a daytime player, someone coming in for a day two movie, which is a very difficult job, or one of our regular customers has been in a scene with you. and they didn't expect to be excited or they didn't expect to have goosebumps or whatever, but we've seen it happen a lot, especially when they're doing a scene where they're on camera and you're on camera.

They don't and you just stand close to the camera and watch them as they say. I felt something. I felt the spirit, including people who are not believers, even you, and I've talked about this before about people like they feel compelled to share their story with you, I mean, you'll come to me and say yes, I was talking to so-and-so. So, he's dealing with a lot of things in his life and he, he, God is doing something in his life right now. and this happens so often and again it might start to cross the line and people think I feel like I'm looking at Jesus and when we're acting out a scene, it's good that you want people to be in character. make you feel uncomfortable sometimes.

I think first of all, thanks for sharing because I didn't know that players have people in scenes that get goosebumps. I'd never heard that before, so it was new, it's new to me and it's really interesting. For me, and that's for me, that's the presence of the Spirit at work, you know, it touches people's hearts, but we also remember some of our regulars, like in the scene. I will not name names to protect his own personal story that the actor tells. He told us that he couldn't, he couldn't tell you a certain line without crying every time and that he was trying not to cry because he was trying to get the words out and it often happens when actors do lines that they actually express what they believe in that moment in the that the character is having a change of heart or an acceptance of Christ somehow something happens to their bodies that I think God is doing at that moment, you know, so I didn't want to ramble on. about it, but no, no, but that field makes you feel almost uncomfortable or you have assumed it.

I mean, it's extraordinary to know that people are experiencing that and that's being any kind of thing that goes beyond any kind of role that I think any of us have ever played or had any kind of experience working in this business. in this industry doing this job that can talk anyway, I know I never understand that or come to grips with it. I think it's one thing to feel that and experience it and channel it, where it gets a little surreal is when you meet people off set, you've seen the show and they've seen the show, like you know them.

There were some, I think we ran into some investors in Texas when we were out and we were having lunch and interesting stuff, but all of a sudden it was like there was a little bit of awe happening and I'm not used to that and I don't know how anyone gets used to that. it, but I've gotten used to it, yeah, well, I've been meaning to talk to you about it, so, you know, he's not like everyone here, my favorite character like there. This other thing in some people's eyes is like wow, yeah, you know, and they say, whoa, what's going on and for this particular role something different has been taken.

I guess it's a little scary sometimes because you want people to know that I'm human. I have all my flaws. I'm probably one of the most flawed people in this whole project, but here I am because this is where God put me for reasons unknown to me and all I'm going to do is show it. get up and try to serve him and be the best representation of his love on earth. I may be right, we decided in episode 3 we really wanted to introduce Jesus in a full episode where, unlike all the other episodes, we're just getting to know Jesus and we thought one of the best ways to get to know Jesus was, as well as being alone with him, watching him interact with the kids, so we gave this prelude to Jesus' ministry a preview of Jesus' ministry with these kids and then there's another look in episode five when everyone's talking. , hanging around and drinking wine or whatever in Jesus is with the kids and he's doing tricks.

We received feedback on episode three of one of our favorite moments. when the children are praying the Shema and the notion of Jesus listening to a prayer to his father and him being recited by these children and with their children at that moment and then seeing Jesus listening and getting emotional was something that that day At that moment you something similar to the later scene happened when you are teaching the children and little Joshua raises his hand and says Isaiah after you quote why you are here. I come to bring good news to the poor. he says Isaiah and you say, I say, and there's this emotional moment that's made easier by working with kids who are so fresh and in the moment, I think so, I think it absolutely is.

I also think about those specific scenes and hearing the children read the scriptures and essentially revere God in their language and praise God and worship God. I think that's why we were created to want to choose God, you know God made us and he wants us to choose him, do you know and when do we do it? It's like this, it's this, it doesn't get any better than this, it doesn't get any better than this, and in my mind, Jesus is reflecting that idea that, just like these kids, they're doing what they were created to do and they're choosing to do it and they're doing it. you're doing very well and that's what to me is what God wants, you know, it's what he wants and he's getting it from these kids before life has a chance to get its claws on them and people have a chance to influence them. and change them, but right now it's the purity and perfection of the praise and worship that these magnificent, incandescent souls bring, one of the reasons we haven't done much BTS footage with you, not even on-set footage what we try I don't want to show too much of you playing with the actors and all that, because we're not fucking with the actors, of course, it's not perfect, but we are trying to protect them a little bit in some way, protect them because there are some audience members who do. .

Well, I don't necessarily want to see Jesus acting like Jonathan and we're going to have to do that. I mean, one of the reasons I'm having this conversation with you is to get it out there and just go. Alright, at the end of the day, guys, this is the show, it's not scripture, right, we say that all the time because we don't want to be a replacement for the Bible, but this is a show and it's played by actors and Jonathan is. an imperfect human being who is playing Jesus and one of the things that makes him as effective as Jesus is the humility of being willing to become a broken vessel and when you are a broken and empty vessel, that allows the spirit to use you even The biggest thing that brings me to something that I've loved you and that I talk about occasionally is your own personal relationship with Christ and how that has grown or changed as you've played this role because when I met you five years ago and we were doing The Two thieves, I wouldn't describe you as attuned and as close to Christ as you are now.

Is it true that they were coming closer to Christ through this absolutely in recent years after having played Christ before? this specific project, but with the work I have done with you and two other cases, I feel that God prepared me to go deeper by putting these projects in my life. I've done a lot of secular projects on various TV shows and stuff like that and I do a lot of voiceover work and they're not faith based or faith friendly even some of them are not anteye but there's just no , you know, with that in mind, completely different types of characters and I think part of this has come from my own kind of personal retconning about myself about a year and a half ago brought about just through life and you know the circumstances of life and pain and heartbreak and all kinds of things that destroy you and I reached a point in my life where I literally decided to give up everything I had.

I realized that I was at a point where no matter how much I tried to control my circumstances, it was just the way it was. It was not enough. I did everything I was supposed to do. I went further. I'm a bit of a workaholic and so I could keep finding things to do. I had like all of these. I was putting all this effort into all these other things. well that wasn't even related to the industry just to survive and it wasn't working and finally I literally got on my knees and said God if you want this to work if I'm doing the right thing if I'm here doing what I'm supposed to do on this planet I'm in the right place you have to help me because I can't do this alone I've been trying I've been trying I've been trying to do everything that I think you're telling me to do and it's not working so you know what I am.

I just turned it around now you have to step in and take the reins and that same day a couple of things happen that changed my life circumstances and made me realize that okay, this is how it's going to be filming and I haven't had the same types of stress, I have not had the same types of desires and if I have had financial circumstancesremotely similar, I haven't dealt with them in the same way, I don't worry about any of that anymore, none of that because it's not up to me, that's what this project has done for many of us and my story is also available on other videos I've talked about, I think.

It sounds like you're saying something similar, and you get to that point where you realize it's not my job to feed the 5,000, it's just to provide the loaves and the fishes and I mean, it's the same for me in the last anus. For almost two and a half years, the way I handle stress or negativity or whatever is that I am a different human being and this project has done that to me and to you and within that to so many people, our partners in the Project to the producers and all that a number of times in their life over the last year and a half have been faced with something important or pressing that has been pressed upon them by the Lord.

This is not your job to feed the 5,000 people. provide love some fish and also that God brought the Israelites in the Old Testament to the Red Sea, brought them to this place of extreme danger just as he got it, it sounds like Jesus made the people hungry after three days of preaching so that the only thing left was a miracle and understanding that God is as much in suffering or pain or confusion as he is in victory is life-changing and I think that is what has allowed this project to be successful so far. that we're kind of like, yeah, we don't know why it's working, we're just ships that show up, yeah, yeah, we're passengers on the train, just like you are, and I think I think the audience can I feel like on that note There was a day on set when we were filming episode six, all that happened is a friend's house, the healing of the paralytic who came to the end of a hearing preaching, teaching and sharing with the people whose five days of filming and heat extreme and there was a moment when you were about to film the sequence in which you preach to the crowd and in the script mmm and in the scene we visually do not see you on the screen.

To a large extent, the preaching is mostly in the background because that scene, like many scenes in the Chosin, has less to do with the miracle and less to do with what Jesus is saying, but with the response to him, so I wasn't taking that scene we were in I'm about to shoot you just as seriously because it's like I'm not even on camera much. This is more about people's reactions, so we rushed and you stopped me and said, can you please slow down for a second? that you know how difficult this is for me and when we talked about it because I said why is this difficult and you talked about the weight of preaching, this is the first time on the show that Jesus is going to preach and I, Jonathan Rumi, do.

I don't feel worthy of filling those shoes and convincing and leading a large crowd of people if you talk about it that day and that moment because I think it reflects how you felt a few times the weight of this part when I think about it clearly, I mean that gets to me, there's a part of me that just wants to get it right, it's so important to me to get it right and I felt completely out of my element for that scene because all of a sudden, now I'm saying these words that Jesus said to these people that They're like looking at me and I'm there and I think what am I doing here?

No, I shouldn't be here, I felt like I am like this you know and I told Mike this just feels bad at the moment and but I know I'm here for a reason I'm here to say this for a reason I'm here and someone else is No is here so I have to know that I have to keep that in mind and know that God has also trusted me to represent his son in this project and so I can't dishonor that, but the initial weight is like, wait a minute , I am? I say like now I'm supposed to try to look like I'm teaching these people even though I'm not on camera, it doesn't matter to me, your camera could be two miles away if this scene has to do it.

Go on, I have to be convincing, I have to try to teach these people and they have to look like they are following, they are receiving teaching, instruction and life-altering information, things they have never heard before, what am I doing? here saying remember what I told you probably not because you were in your own space but you said I'm struggling to feel worthy and I said me too and I said this is true this is the story of this project and I said you're not worthy and neither am I and that It's the point is when we recognize it and if we can we can really accept it and then when I was in Israel last year doing research and I'm in Magdala where Mary from and I'm at the Western Wall and I'm in the temple and I was there for the first time.

It must have been overwhelming, it was overwhelming because I knew we were going to tell the stories that took place here and my wife. I was saying how is it going or how the hell is it and I said it's hitting me, it's hitting me and I was like that and you just said that for some reason God has trusted me to portray his son and I felt that for some reason God has chosen me to telling his story is the series of his people in a way that hasn't been done before and if that's not humiliating, that's a major problem you have, you have much deeper problems, it should be humiliating and that's why when I think What you were expressing to me at that moment was what I felt in Israel.

Oh yeah, I can't make you feel better now. I don't like it, I'm sorry, I can't help you if you sit down. unworthy I have nothing for you because I am not worthy of my number, but I think I did. I think it helped. It's like, don't try to feel worthy of this because it's not, but you can't, yeah, here's the The good news is something that God pressed very hard on my heart when he was in Israel. I felt this very, very strong feeling of "I'm not going to let you ruin this." They thought she wasn't going to let you go broke.

Yes, yes, God. It is not like this? Yes, you have been chosen to do this and yes, I want you to be faithful and I want you to listen and I want you to obey. I want you to sleep and be healthy and be kind to others. but I'm not going to let you ruin this if this is too important, you know, that's why I think I've been able to be as relaxed as before, although I still fail every day and I feel the pressure and I feel the responsibility of that, but that's not will allow you, Jonathan, to ruin this.

Thank God, yes, and that has been a that, that should be comforting, but at the same time my wife reminds me once a week that when I read the Old Testament it is not in the low moments when you should be most afraid , it's actually when you're doing the best because you look at the Old Testament kings that fell or the leaders of the Israelites or Moses or Joshua and Moses didn't see the Promised Land, you know, God, God held it to a pretty high standard, so I think we should remember to be humble every day, that's the point and we should feel unworthy, yeah, every day, well I can check that box pretty good, yeah.

Yeah, in that sense, feeling the weight of it, I think one of the ways that you and I deal with it is with humor and I'd love to talk a little bit about that because I'm not sure I can do any of that, maybe. It's just giving people a little peek behind the curtain of some of our jokes on set for some reason and you know, I'm pretty sure God is okay with it, but we have these jokes that Jesus can lift the dead man, he can heal the sick, but he is horrible with instructions, instructions are not his strong suit, so for those who haven't noticed at the end of episode 8, at the end of the credits, there is a little easter egg of this alternate take that we made incredible, yes. there's the scene in episode 8 where Jesus meets the other disciples at the south fountain and you even told Nicodemus to meet me at the south fountain and that we would leave and really for our ministry and you did, where, where , What happened? that take, so I thought it wouldn't be funny if he got there because we were actually in this take that we were doing, it was just me and Jordan who plays little James and we were like Yvonne Yvonne is here and then and then there was no one else there, I think the sign hadn't been announced or the actors hadn't come out yet or something and I said it wouldn't be funny if they just didn't show up.

No, so it turns out that Jesus actually told them the wrong source the mistakes which is the wrong corner yeah, you said you said it so yeah, so you're like something source okay and then and little James and when you guys did it without losing the pacing just because no, no, you said the source of the north and this notion of I did it again, so that became a running gag of almost every scene that involved travel, you always turned left instead of right. the right, the disciples always came this way, no less than his cock, yes, it always turned.

So Jesus can't get the right directions for their lives and then he can't get a joke that we had because we had, you know, a joke, well, it came because in the scene with Matthew and him at the house party. Matthew at the beginning of episode eight, a very famous story from the Bible where Jesus was dining with tax collectors and sinners and we had a scene where everyone was joking with each other and everyone was saying oh, I. I thought the Pharisee would trip over his robe and I was laughing and OH, looking at the look on your face is priceless, everyone laughs and then and then Rifka says I thought they were going to arrest me and everyone laughs and you say with your luck. you know, that's good, that's what happened and it was always that the actors just didn't react at all, they just failed, they just failed, it's for you like nothing at the same time.

You can literally hear me in one of the outtakes laughing off camera. because it was every time you tried to say something and we said look, let's try different, why do I change if Adler is there a little bit and I try to say something funny and every time it was just crickets, just crickets, so you say I can heal. So sick, but I can't give a joke. God, why couldn't you give me the ability to know? But you get healing, that's all you get. Yes, but for me, that has helped me during filming. Oh yes, he gave it to us.

Like it's helped me free myself from the waiter, sometimes because I think too much about some of the scenes we're about to portray, it's overwhelming. I mean, I remember when we were going to film the scene at the end of the episode. one with Mary Magdalene and you, you, Liz and I were in separate corners. The applause ran across our faces as if we knew we were about to do the most important scene of the show and we felt the weight of all that to cut, it's you too. I know six under, but I think for me the jokes have been the constant riffs and the alternate universe we've created of Jesus so bad with directions and bad with punchlines and I thought it helped you, yeah.

I think I think for the same reasons that it helped you and me to specifically play Jesus because it can be overwhelming to think about what we're doing so we can have a very harmless and gentle way out and, you know, I. I imagined Jesus like he would shake his head, you know, I think he would appreciate it and I think he would think he was funny and if he didn't do it or if he thought he would be offensive or in some way harmful. to the image of him as if he wouldn't, but for me I want to say that this is as good-natured as any of the other jokes that are written in the show and that's what I think is part of the humor that we've explored.

The camera has been helpful in informing some of the jokes we make and we hear from people all the time. The Jesus humor on the show is one of my favorite parts of it because you know it by winking at Barnaby when Barnaby says and good things may come. of Nazareth and you wink at him and it's like it's okay and everyone's like yeah, yeah, music and it's okay, yeah, and in episode seven or eight, when Simon says, you know what's in my head and you come out , everyone knows what's inside. your head isn't needed for Westham look, that's what I mean, you know that anyway Simon, everyone here knows what you're thinking most of the time, it doesn't take the wisdom of God, mmm, that guy of things, I think they help, they don't just do it.

They help alleviate the burden of the program. I think they actually enhance the weight of the show and sometimes because it makes people more connected to Jesus, which brings me to a very important question. Have you already thought about what will come in future seasons? We are doing this one season at a time. I know some of our fans are starting to say things like when I think about where this show is going, it's almost too much to bear when I think about it now that I've seen Jesus joke and I. I've seen Jesus with his mother and I've seen Jesus with the disciples laughing and I've seen him in rolled up dresses when I imagine what I know is coming in a few seasons, it's almost too much to even imagine and I can't imagine how.

It's going to be difficult, look at that, have you thought much about the crucifixion? I mean, the few times it's crossed my mind. I just know it will be heartbreaking for everyone involved. It's going to be extremely. It's hard to get over it, yeah, I think it's one of those things I choose not to think about right now because I really imagine all of them.these relationships that Jesus has with these people in these first eight episodes and then all of a sudden not having that and even the prelude to the crucifixion and the feeling of abandonment and you know he's breaking up with these people. pan with now that you know and yeah, we give little hints even in the first season when you talk to Eden and she says it hasn't been easy or it won't be easy and she says well, that's not our people.

I walk and you say no, it hasn't been and it won't be and there's an expression on your face that's a bit of a harbinger of what's to come. I know the scene with Nicodemus, hints of sadness for what is to come, hints of sadness. that he will not be there with you and the journey that will drive Sanel with you and Nicodemus, but also hints of what is to come again by delivering the most famous verse in the Bible. God loved the world so much that he gave his Son and everyone he believed. in He Will Not Perish just a little hints of you know what the future holds but we again don't want to be you can't play that 4 5 C knows that every time you meet someone they say I'm going to die soon yeah It's going to be a little difficult and I think you also know that Jesus was someone who was probably one of the most present people anyone could ever meet.

To really know people, there is a certain level of presence. that he has to be at all times and you know, I think that he and again this is my choice, while he will reference and predict, I choose, I make the decision that he does not spend his time thinking about the crucifixion right now because he's building his ministry now, he's still getting to know these people and seeing how in the more immediate future what positions these people are going to play in his ministry, maybe even beyond his resurrection, so I can't, I almost don't. I don't want to allow myself to think that far ahead, you know, but when I need to I can go a little bit there along the lines that suggest that, but when I've sat down and thought about it, I think I might even have said this. for you at one point like you know with what we're doing here now that it's going to be the last season, it's going to be horrible for people to see it, you know, it's like knowing we were talking about this before, it's like getting to know a friend for a long time. years and all of a sudden you see him go to die and you willingly like him and you're like you're trying to understand what you're trying to do, you're trying to come to terms with the death of a friend after several years there's nothing you can do. can do around the house, nothing you can do and you have to accept it, you know, and yeah, that's, yeah, I, uh, I don't know, I really don't even know how to approach that right now, so I want to talk. , we'll close here in a few minutes, but I want to talk about your favorite scenes so far from the first season.

You know that most of the most iconic scenes in Scripture involve Jesus, so now you've had a chance to look back on the season. one that we have, you know, from water to wine, we have the miracle, the fish, we have the Shabbat visit, the redemption of Mary, the Samaritan woman, the call of Matthew, the call, I mean, it's a long list of great hits, yes. you have a part you have a favorite I think one of my favorite moments was my entrance because it's such a raw introduction, if you're really paying attention you can see that exit in the fabric of my elbow when I stand up. getting up from the table at the bar to meet Mary, you know, just drinking, her hand on top of her hand and then the cut, looking at her and then back at her and she said, what's going on?

Jesus just looks at her and he just knows everything about her in that case and they just said that's not for you and like the first ones, yeah, that's not for you, yeah, and in which, and now we know that it has a great amount of meanings as to why that is his first line and it is so Beautiful, I think for me and that scene is one of my favorite scenes because most of us can identify with some form of redemption in our lives through which God It's been a big part of, if not the reason, you know, I saw the scene. still and recently I was cutting my reel, my actors and I put that scene in there and I'm tweaking and fine-tuning and I've seen it like 30 times and every time I see it it's not and it's not me looking at myself, it's me looking at this internal exchange with these two characters in this scene and I still get goosebumps.

I wonder how this keeps happening and I acted like I don't understand it. I don't get it other than it's divine intervention at this point in the movie and it's still so impactful since the second half of our season here, there were so many great scenes that I enjoyed filming. I think that, on the other hand, it is difficult to choose, but if I had to narrowly choose it would be the scene of the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman at the well, mainly because of how that scene ends and simply because of the joy with which she He runs away and what he did to me at that moment. scene watching her run off with this new joy you just can't put a price on it is that you know it again still even thinking about it it was just so beautiful it was so beautiful to see what she was doing in - and in Vanessa and as an actress, just he handled it so beautifully and I couldn't help but be affected by our performance and they say that ensemble acting is the highest form of acting and so when you have those opportunities to be in a place with someone in a scene and they're both there and they're living that moment and it turns out there were cameras around capturing it, it's indescribable and what she did and how that made me feel and looking at her and now It seems like I think it's probably my second favorite.

Well, this last year of my career has been the most impactful and rewarding of my life without a second, a close second, working with you and doing these scenes of yours and exploring Jesus with you in a way. with the objective of presenting an authentic Jesus to the world has been one of the joys of my entire life and I would not want to do it with anyone else, and it has also been the reason why it has been the clarity of my mission to do this with you. and it's my honor to be a part of it and my honor to call you brother, yes, I love you brother, I will be a brother, yes, yes, yes, you.