A Catholic Lens with Jonathan Roumie

greetings everyone i'm sister nancy and i am here with you for a catholic lens sharing the journey of catholics in media i'm a daughter of st paul and i'm also a board member of catholics and media associates as well as the director of the pauline center for media studies so you may be seeing this in all different platforms and welcome we're so glad you could be with us this evening i have more than a special guest with me tonight i'm so pleased to invite to this special series a catholic lens a dear friend of mine and also a fellow board member of catholics in media associates um and i want you to all welcome now with me my dear friend jonathan roomie hello welcome jonathan thank you thank you for having me how are you sister i'm doing awesome it's so great to see you it's been too long way too long absolutely absolutely oh we're so happy you could be with us and i know you're squeezing us in to many other things because you're very much in demand lately not make room for my friends if you don't for your friends you won't have any so but you always have us as your friends daughters of st paul love you i love you guys you you you ladies have been so wonderfully supportive and and just um just awesome friends to me so i'm so blessed to be in your company well thank you and thanks for joining us and uh we're gonna have a wonderful conversation everyone we're gonna just have a little conversation with jonathan about his life as an actor um his experience on the chosen this amazing streaming tv series and uh but before we begin we we always start with the prayer so catholics and media associates have so let's begin with the prayer and i have a prayer for us this evening that's going to be praying for true communication so let's begin in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen jesus our way by washing the feet of your disciples you provided a meaningful expression of your love for them this gesture challenges us to look into our own lives and evaluate our love in light of yours to be a true communicator we need to empty ourselves in order to be filled with love for our brothers and sisters lead us to always more selfless giving may we realize that we will discover your face precisely in true communication and service to others jesus our master way truth and life have mercy on us in the name of the father and the son and of the holy spirit amen it's from our book live christ prayers for the new evangelization and because we work in media obviously his daughters of st paul known on social media as hashtag media nuns we write prayers and our founder has prayers on the media culture and caters within the culture today where can people get that book sister uh well you can get it from i'll give you a yeah i know you're awesome paulinestore.com onlinestore.com yeah he's got to post that up there you know yeah um yeah so these prayers uh help us in the communication world and those who work in the media industry to really be true communicators and jonathan that's what you are you're a true communicator of christ not only because you play the jesus and the chosen quite pointedly a communicator of christ in that way i guess but you're a communicator of christ by how you love and treat others how your your presence that shows forth the truth goodness and beauty of god without ever even communicating the name of jesus true communicators do that by how we live our lives and um and jonathan you're just an awesome example of that and i know everybody who's watching live which i know there are many who are joining us um you're an example in so many ways for people of how to live that communication of christ and i just wanted to start with a few questions sure something basic early on how did you even want to become an actor where did that come from um well practically speaking once i knew actually what an actor did and how to go about finding work as an actor i i didn't i never really wanted to be an actor i think i think though the spirit of that um spirit of wanting to entertain and to make people laugh was always kind of within me and i always had a knack for for impressions and um voices and things like that and so uh from the time i was a kid i was just always imitating things and people and and i remember i think i remember being i mean tell you how old i am but being a child and seeing president reagan on television and being and doing impressions of president reagan and and people being people looking at me and saying that that's actually pretty good you know like for a kid i'm like that's that's pretty good i'm like cool and i kind of i kind of had a um an ear for that sort of thing and then after i got out of well while i was in college i studied acting as a prerequisite uh as a film major um i thought you know i think acting on screen or on stage was never gonna be my thing i said if anything it would be you know maybe doing voices for for animation or you know things like that but video games at the time weren't even people weren't doing voices for video games now that's a huge thing and it's a huge part of what i do as an actor when i'm not on cameras i work on video games and now i'm doing some more animation and stuff um so i thought maybe that would be if anything i would be cool with that i'd be comfortable not being seen but being heard and getting to kind of try out all the wacky voices in my head um but little did i know that god had other plans so yes he did yes and we'll be getting to that in a few minutes um we have many other questions for you before we even get there but tell us a little bit about what led you to hollywood what led you to come to los angeles specifically because you are from new york correct yeah born and raised in new york city and the suburbs of new york and um the thing that led me to los angeles was quite literally after you know the decision to become an actor on camera um full-time i had been uh so once i actually i started getting some work as a voice artist very early on and then through the the the same casting director that cast me in my first job as a voice actor offered me an audition to be on camera for the uh music awards i think in like in 2000 yeah um and uh and i thought you know i'm sure i'll i'll try it i was a little more comfortable comfortable performing and so i'm like okay let's you know i know what auditioning is now a little bit so let me let me see what an on-camera audition is like and uh i went into their offices at mtv in midtown manhattan i had to essentially i think there were a few lines that i had to say and then i had to kind of just like kind of improvise some stuff and then they just wanted to see me dance i'm like you're sorry what do you mean they're like we're just going to play some music you know just just just show some moves and i didn't have any moves i wasn't known for my moves i just like i'm a drummer you know i was a drummer but i'm like i keep that behind the kit i don't show that to people that's not that doesn't come out in my body so i was like ah so i'm just like kind of awkwardly like i don't even know what i did they're like okay thanks i'm like oh and i couldn't get out of there fast enough well i booked the job and i thought what the like maybe okay maybe i should rethink my concept of of what i think i should do as an actor so after i did the job it went really well i worked with uh reverend run from run dmc he was in the uh he was inspired he's like you're pretty good at this man and i said oh thank you so i thought oh well well reverend runs i'm okay so maybe i should actually maybe i should look into this and and as i was working in production and i was working the film industry as a location scout at the time um i i started to like you know submit my my headshot my photo and resume which had nothing on it to like casting directors for the movies i was scouting locations for they're like oh yeah because by the time i would finish scouting the movie would then start production i was usually involved in the pre-production phase so i would know you know there would be a little bit of crossover i would know who the casting directors were and then by the time i was ready to leave they would start filming so i drop off my my headshot and resume and uh and occasionally i would get a call and be like hey why don't you read for this role and then i started booking small roles and some decent sized films and then um slightly bigger projects commercials came into play i did a couple of uh my first stage shows and once i did theater and realized that you know this uh i realized that acting was something that i really wanted to do um i then had to make the decision which came after the housing market collapse to reassess where i wanted to be and what i wanted to do with my life and where i felt that i was meant to go and i just felt god calling me to to examine you know the west coast and i thought well it wasn't as now i see it as god calling me then i was just like well you know if i feel drawn to it and if i really want to know what it's like to i really want to see if i got what it takes to make it actually you got to go to la if you want to be on film or in tv go to la you want to be on broadway you stay in new york right broadway wasn't my thing so i decided okay i'm going to come down late and then i had a little bit of a a about a year delay set back out of some family stuff that came down and i had to just attend to that and then pushed my uh my arrival by about a year and then ended up here in beginning of 2010. and started from scratch all over again my credits so yeah they don't tell you that when you're going to la that like get ready to start at the bottom right because you know you figure like oh my credits will transfer like literally like my my movie credits not not not my college credits but my i figured my film credits and the tv credits would would interest somebody and i before i came to l.a and moved officially i did like this uh this uh like a a week-long meet and greet with like 30 agents and managers and i got signed by one of them so i was like all right i'm on my way yeah then i got to la and i i i was with this agency for eight months without a single audition without one audition on camera i got a couple of voiceover auditions which i booked one of them which i booked and then they cancelled the show they canceled the scene they scrapped the scene so i didn't get to do that right which was for wizards of waverly place my friend now david henry who i probably would have met then but i didn't meet him because i never they never they scrapped the scene so i never got to do the job um funny enough 11 years later we'd meet and then but i never got out and i thought to myself oh gosh and then once i left that agency i was looking for other agents to work with and nobody would touch me they're like you don't have any credits i'm like i got a couple of team credits a couple of film crystals here we don't it's not a series so nobody cares so uh yeah that that began the the eight year struggle before actually getting a break and it's uh on our previous episode when we uh interviewed director ted melfi the director in figures and also um uh which is on netflix if you haven't seen it it's a great film st vincent as well that's his thing yeah i talked to him when he was at catholics and media associates uh the banquet that year that he was honored wow yes brilliant i mean and he said the same thing he's like yep i slept on couches when i went to l.a so he says for years uh that's how it starts you start at the rung at the lowest rung and you work yourself no joke and i i i met jonathan a long time ago right some of that right in the midst of some of that that struggle that time when it's it's just challenging oh yeah you're in l.a you know me when [Laughter] um but it's awesome to see where and how things are for you right now and that's the question we're going to be going to because i know all these people watching or watching you because they know you specifically from the tv streaming series the chosen and before we get into it i think it would be great to show the maybe we'll just show the uh trailer from season two because now you're gonna be planning season three soon so we have to watch season two so we're gonna watch this little trailer and for those who haven't seen the chosen this is going to give you an idea of what it's like and jonathan's role as jesus okay so here we go i'm preparing something to share with the world [Music] these things will make sense to some but not to others [Music] i'm here to start a revolution [Music] just one more chance [Music] his care is for women for the vulnerable blasphemy is not harmless well the pharisees were pretty upset sometimes you gotta stir up the water [Music] that martyrs with a persecution complex [Music] i want to kill him [Music] do you want to be healed [Music] i have something that's open to all people get up and walk if he was supposed to be healed god would have done it himself that's an interesting point your fame is spreading the good kind you have certainly livened things up around here more travels fast [Music] fellow cousin my heart is yours my life is yours john the baptizer was taken into custody jesus of nazareth we finally meet david goliath maybe there is hope for the little what we're doing here will last for generations i want my people to participate in the healing of the world i do not feel very much worthy who's worthy of anything you the one comfort we have is to know that we're doing it together i'm here to preach the good news of the kingdom of heaven i make a way for people to access that kingdom in this world bones will still break hearts will still break but in the end yeah the light will overcome darkness hey there it's dallas i'm the creator of the chosen and if you haven't seen season one or if you want to see season two you gotta get the chosen app it's free it's easy it connects directly to your streaming device you don't even need a subscription go check it out we had a little piece of dallas at the end right yeah where do we find this right where do you find it got it gotta know where to send people that's right that's right um so let's talk about the chosen you know it's it's a series that has really taken off and it's kind of amazing because it's a biblical series that is light by catholics and protestants alike which is very unique in that sense um and and what's so unique about it is it's a it's a streaming series so it's the first series in the life of christ ever made it's the only uh crowdfunded series ever made the largest crowdfunded series ever made but what's so interesting is that jonathan this is my opinion personally but i think there's such a blend that you bring to the role of jesus of the human side of christ but also always respecting the divine like always showing forth that there's something more to this person of christ in this series so um how how do you find playing jesus i mean what does that mean to you well thank you for for the lovely um set up there and um for watching the show and for for having me on here to talk about it um you know i the and and for also pointing out you know that hopefully my goal has been to show that balance between the human and the divine um on on the paper in the script in the series um you know it very much it very much tries and endeavors to to humanize uh christ and make him accessible in ways that we haven't seen depicted previously and in ways that are um not you know not completely lucidly evident in scripture you know jesus's personality you don't really get a sense of his you know the humanity of his personality so but we know being completely human fully human and fully divine that he had to have a personality it's just part of being human it's part of being human condition you laugh you dance you cry you you uh you know you have fun you have friends you have you know sorrow there's pain so i i think showing the human side of him has been um so revelatory for so many people that only had this one um very stern uh paternalistic uh father figure authoritative father figure that that was the the the judge of all humanity and which he is rightfully so but but it's sort of stopping at that because that they didn't have uh enough of a personal relationship to to imagine what it might be like to to have you know a father of humanity on earth living with us bleeding with us wedding with us so for me any opportunity i get through this very humanized um portrayal and and character sketch uh you know in in the series um any chance i get to to uh to bring out the notes of divinity or moments or looks or glances or or bring in the divine life i i for me it's it's super its priority to have that present in everything in every scene whenever possible even while a human i i do do it to the best of my limited human abilities um but i can't really know what it's like to play divine or be divine i can just try to think those thoughts as i'm saying certain words you know or or try to you know feel the weight of god's authority as i understand it um as i'm saying certain lines on the page and hopes hope that the you know the holy spirit kind of translates that experience to people watching and um i it seems like the holy spirit has been able to do that uh you know uh despite my my sort of efforts to just muck it up as a as a very very flawed sinful human being uh playing this this iconic um role uh so uh and and glory to god that that people have been able to to have that experience watching the show because it that part certainly doesn't come from anything that i'm doing it's just me trying to get out of the way and and um yeah do my best to just channel what what's there yeah actually oh yeah just just like how we prayed at the beginning a communicator is where christ work it through us as an instrument and that's what you do because that's what comes across in the show and you know you're you're a stage actor on the like you've also played jesus uh in the passion place as a stage actor and on film so on the chosen um what's the difference for you in playing it on stage you know in a passion play or playing jesus on on film um well the timeline is a lot shorter for the course of events and also with the passion play we're dealing with the events that we haven't addressed in the series yet which is his passion and death and crucifixion uh and to some extent in the play um hints of the resurrection um but we don't we we've never dealt with the resurrected christ you know on on stage at this stage at this point um so i think the thing because it's it's kind of hard to compare i can uh because we're dealing with different time periods but what i can compare is the experience of the theater the live experience versus the the film experience and um in a play you're you're sort of hopefully getting to enjoy the organic uh um uh flow and um progression of a character's arc or emotional life at the very least and you're experiencing it in real time and so you get to you know if if you're um if you're doing your job properly if you're meant to be distraught and and and come out of that into a feeling of peace or whatever the is on the um is in the script you you hopefully try to get to a point in the the craft and in the telling of the show where you're experiencing those emotional uh those moments freely and organically and in a progression and it's it's chronological and with tv and film uh oftentimes it's never chronological sure often it's it's you're you're shooting the end before you shoot the beginning and you have to emotionally have the end figured out and know where the beginning starts and how you got there and then try to keep track of it when you're shooting things all out of sequence so um that is uh for me that is the the biggest difference between film film tv and um theater and and also you have the energy of the uh the audience to work off of a live theatrical production which which you don't get on television you have a film crew but it's a different thing and i really miss theater because of that you know i haven't done theater since since that last play we did i think we did lasted it live in uh 2019 live yeah so this year will be you know 2022 will be three years since i've done any live production so i really i miss theater a lot for that reason well in in one way in season two you did have a very large audience when um yeah the frozen chosen we had about so how was that experience since you don't have that kind of audience but you had that that was extraordinary i mean that's a that's a once twice in the lifetime because i kind of know where the storyline is going they haven't that this isn't anything that's not been publicly advertised i mean we're going to be doing the feeding of the 5000 for season three yeah season three and uh and now they're they're sort of raising money to to get people to be extras for that and um i think they're almost already have you know i think you have to donate or you have to contribute at a certain level to be invited to be a an extra for that scene and i think they've already given out 3 000 invitations out of 5 000 so that the next one is even going to be even bigger um and it's it's unfathomable it's it's like it's i mean it's cinema it's recent cinema history because nobody's done anything like that in in decades you know for like to have that many extras you usually just you know digitally generated you take people yeah cgi just pop people in different place do different plates and the next thing you know but uh yeah it was uh it was overwhelming there's a documentary on the app uh i think that that goes into that talks about you know that the scene and for the test run for one of the uh trial um yeah basically like a rehearsal with the camera we have this giant crane that kind of follows and then it goes up over the tent and you see uh everyone um like as as it was tracking me i think for the rehearsal i opened the curtain for the first time to see everybody and it was it was overwhelming i had to just turn around for a second because i was just overwhelmed with the side of it and just thinking like what i was doing and how how blessed i was that god had put me in that position to get to reenact you know one of the most famous and important bits of scripture in all christianity um and so it was truly um yeah it was unlike anything i've ever experienced that's awesome i uh we're going to be inviting some of our viewers to post your questions or any uh you know thoughts you want to to send to jonathan and um so that'll be coming shortly but i have one more question for you sure and before we go to all the questions that are being posted right now um i have a question for you um you're a deeply religious man uh you pray uh regularly with all your social media followers and it's it's really heartwarming to see that to see a public figure such as yourself an entertainer such as yourself who prays publicly with people and how how do you think how does this affect your life personally but also how does this influence your life as an actor well uh i mean it influences it affects me greatly um i will have to admit that you know in the last couple of months i i haven't been able to pray as regularly with fans and on my channels just because i'm i'm committed to all these wonderful and beautiful events and and experiences and so um and just work when i'm here in los angeles it becomes impossible to to to carve out the time to be able to do what i used to do um in that way but whenever i do get the opportunity i will sit down and i'll kind of throw up the uh the phone and and uh and sometimes it's when i have these like um uh prayer challenges that i work do for the the hallow app um that we'll we'll do we'll sit and you know with one of the members of the team there and we'll do a live prayer and that's kind of like oh i get to do that again and um it's uh it it's it's something that i that gives me a lot of peace and a lot of uh healing and a lot of comfort um and i i think i think in the world that we're living in now there are so many wounded people uh there's so much pain and there's so much suffering in the world especially with the with all of that just came out recently about the church in france and yes yes it's really heartbreaking how badly we need prayer um and and so it just forces me to to try to in whatever way i can as i can um if i'm not doing it whether or not i'm doing it even publicly to just say okay like there's no greater weapon that we have right now spiritually than prayer we're we're we are and i've said this before we're spiritual beings that live in in this earthly state and and god has allowed evil in the world to to be the ruler of this world and you see it you know you see it taking place everywhere and especially i mean the church has been a target for 2000 years satan's been trying to take down the church for two thousand years and what better way to do it than to create this most diabolical scheme and you know and i see that and i'm like you know for anybody else that's watching and and sees that how can you not go like well i was thinking about trying to go to church but not that church like that's that's not the church that's the enemy operating within the church using the broken human vessels we're all sinners the the the sinners within the church we're all sinners but using the weakest and most vulnerable sinners like marionettes to just do his bidding and to try to undermine the foundations of the church and he's never going to win he's never going to win but the damage is irreparable on so many levels and so the least that we can do is is to just pray for the church pray for the the victims first and foremost and those who have been so hurt and and and for for the leaders in the church that they that they can root out all of those influences and um and really try to just continue to to build healing back in into um the foundations of christ's church you know uh i i mean what what do you say to people when when they they say to you how does how does god allow for this kind of thing especially when it's like children and minors like what do you say to people like what i mean i'm not and i'm asking you that just as it for for the advice like how how do we explain that why god even allows that especially in his church right well why does god allow evil at all in the world and that that is one of the big existential questions of humanity why is there even suffering in the world and it it's goes back to the recognition that there is evil and that there is the reality of the devil and and some people may diss that and say oh that's not real well this kind of just proves that it is this proves that there is evil and we as human beings god leaves us free god leaves us gives us free will and gives us freedom to choose to choose what is the best of who we are or to choose what the evil one is enticing us towards which is to just fulfill our and desires basically our human desires and god's but god's always offering us the grace at the same time to choose him to choose the good to be the best version of ourselves and when we're the best version of ourselves we are the most christ-like because we are most authentically human in christ exactly what authentic humanity looks like yeah he's divine but he also shows us what nothing divinity is so there is no excuse to give to anything and anyone in the church who perpetrates such violence and horror uh but the only thing we can do is pray pray that we ourselves we ourselves are choosing always to follow the way of grace and beliefs for those who who maybe have been broken by by those that are in those positions of authorities and and to absolutely and to pray and to pray always for them yeah and to ask for forgiveness even though we're not perpetrators personally we can ask forgiveness from the church as a whole amen that's what pope francis gives us as an example as he asked for forgiveness for things he hasn't done but that the church has done for all its history yeah and that's beautiful and that's all and that's that's what we can be we can be that presence of grace and um i know so many people on this channel that right now who are follow you on your prayer tim are saying what a resource you have been for them during this pandemic especially and they're so grateful for your time of prayer and um so i'd like to invite tim on and tim o'neill is also a catholics and media associate uh yeah welcome no thank you hello jonathan hello sister nancy and uh tim has been like checking out all the questions and comments that have been coming through and so jim can you pull out a few questions for us absolutely well i first have to say the uh the comments have all been an outpouring of love and appreciation not just for the chosen but for what you're doing on social media jonathan uh it's just overwhelming and wonderful to see how everyone is responding um we have a question from kathy mullen uh via social media how do you this is a question for both of you how do you both think that we the church can do better in the media world which would be you know in regards to both film and television in general print sister you take this come on now oh wow this is about you not about me but you know you're part of the media question is for both of you why don't you both take a shot can we be in the presence of of grace how do you both think we can do better in the media world how can we improve in the media world uh we are honestly being who we are i think the most important thing in our culture now is to be authentic christians and you know we're all struggling as we said we're all sinners but we're all struggling to to choose the good to be christ's presence in the world and i think just being authentically that communicates more than we can even imagine and and what can we do you know what just be there be present on on the media in every form of media and catholics tell some really good stories right and you don't even have to preach jesus sorry jonathan but you don't even have to be preaching jesus necessarily you can tell really good stories stories that communicate authentic humanity the goodness in humanity forgiveness love reconciliation mercy compassion those are what it chose to be authentically human authentically christian right jonathan yeah i i couldn't have said it better we must have another comment to that absolutely uh i mean i mean the other thing i would add to that is that you know those of us in the media i couldn't you know how could we um i think i think by by just being by using the gifts that we've been given um and if you're in the media apply them to the media and try to be the best version of a person of faith in the media and you know for me it's like playing jesus is one thing um it's not the only role um i'm going to play uh or that i am playing and not all the roles will be anywhere remotely as good as the character of jesus um not just qualitatively but i mean like you know in in who they are as people as characters in a piece of entertainment um some of them will have uh massive flaws some of them might be bad guys um but still how i live my life off screen um publicly as as a person of faith as a catholic as a christian i think just speaks just as loudly you know and i think it's important to kind of be that presence of christ in in the media off-screen as well as on-screen in my case literally as christ absolutely thank you sure we have a question from uh jill self and she uh has an interesting question how do you jonathan how do you handle the lack of privacy uh lack of freedom a loss of downtime that you've lost with the popularity of the chimps um i'm learning on the job nobody gives you a handbook um celebrity yeah there's no real kind of like end point where you like cross the finish line somebody's like all right you're a celebrity now a celebrity now here you go here's a here's a book read this so you'll know what to do no it just starts to kind of slowly happen at times and next thing you know uh you know people are kind of helping you get to a car because there's no other way to do it on your own you know and for me when i've been at um these events where there's a heavy christian and catholic presence um you know there's a lot of people that obviously know me from from my work and from my prayer time and um and people want to share with me which i'm so graced by and so humbled by um but when there's you know a couple hundred people in a line it makes it very very difficult to try to get to all those people and i'm the kind of person where i i will spend time with people i i like to listen to people i like to hear people i want people to know that um even if i'm not meeting you that i i appreciate you and i respect you and your journeys and and because i i've been there myself and um and so we're we're all on this big rock together and so i i'm happy to give my time but it's at a point now where when i do certain events i just i i physically can't give enough time to everybody so it's kind it's kind of difficult in a lot of ways um and so i think that's one of the reasons why i'm not online so often is because i i've just been traveling so much and doing all these kinds of things so um you know but i still read comments i still you know will comment on things from time to time so know that um i'm seeing some of the messages i'm not really reading um mailbox you know direct mail sent to me very much anymore it's just there's just too much of it um but i do see comments and and i'm so grateful for all your love and support and encouragement and i love every one of you out there so thank you so much for all that you've given to me great it's really wonderful uh there's been a few uh comments um in regard i'm gonna try to combine this into sort of one question um watching the show when uh jesus performs a miracle we see something we haven't seen in portrayals of jesus uh when he performs a miracle he smiles and there's a there's a sense of uh joy there is a sense of especially with the disciples there's a sense of camaraderie and there's a sense of humor that jesus has that we haven't seen can you talk about this portrayal that's so unique to what we've seen in other portrayals of jesus sure thank you for that question um you know i mean you go back to genesis you know the lord does any number of things on six days and at the end of the day he sees that it is good and so he takes delight i think god takes delight in his creations god takes delight in seeing his creations take the light in their lives that he has given to them so i i firmly believe that the god of the universe that made himself manifest in flesh and blood on this earth 2 000 years ago was given an opportunity to to kind of to kind of you know sit amongst the flock and smell like a sheep like oh so this is like you know it's like okay cool yeah i'm here i'm doing it like we're i'm in the mud with them you know and so i mean it's now it's not this untouchable um god that is completely like because we would not be able to withstand physical communication with god on the earthly level now he's in a form where he can have that with people and he can demonstrate that his love for us physically and and you know intimately and personally ultimately divinely by his act his final act on the cross and resurrection um showing just how much he loved us right but how how could you you could not have a complete human experience without any of those things that people are seeing for the first time in um in this series and the thing that i point out is that we have the luxury of time where most other depictions you don't have that time you don't know if you're doing a movie you've got two two and a half hours tops if it's an extended cut three hours if it's a mini series four to six ten hours you know if it's a tv series well this is uncharted territory so it's like well what are we going to fill the time with because there's only one paragraph about this this huge with you know nathaniel or whatever and like who was nathaniel what was his life like and how it would have looked like being on the road with jesus for three years must have looked like something and so we're just saying this is what we think that something may have looked like and it's it's in the spirit of the gospels it's not contradicting the spirit of scripture it's all endeavoring to support the spirit of scripture it's not trying to replace scriptures as we know it's not trying to you know say this is what really happened in the gospels you know what we're saying no we're taking what's there and we're basing a show around it and it's a tv show at the end of the day it's a tv show but i think what people are responding to what people are reacting to is the truth of christ that they see that they receive from the show the truth of the holy spirit yes echoing within their own spirit and saying ah i recognize that because it's true and it's beautiful and good absolutely i mean it's creative license because this is art you know the creative art of filmmaking and television it's an art and so we have to kind of fill in the storyline but i think what the chosen has done is so beautifully filled in that storyline line that makes everyone that we know from the gospels human and relatable and i think that's what's so unique about it you feel like oh i'm getting you know kind of like when we watch this tv as streaming series and you're like oh you get to feel with the character and you get to oh what's going to happen next you know down to naby everyone wanted to know what happened next you know and and you know why did matthew die oh no i remember one sister in the comments she was like all distressed that matthew died but we relate to the characters and i think that's what's so wonderful about the chosen is we're starting to relate to the characters of the scripture in a new way and and you know it says it's not a replacement for reading scripture but it supplements our spiritual life that's right it's all meant to supplement you know and and uh it's like how catholics see the sacramentals and and you know things that sort of help get us to you know um broaden our our spiritual life and and uh you know increase our our prayer life and and our our time spent with god i think it's it's it all brings us to the point and of course that being you know jesus is the center of of everything amen amen and he is the light absolutely is what we have a question from peter hill that echoes a lot of the general comments that people have been making about how they respond to the show and i think i think it's a really uh a good question for you uh what is the most touching moment you have experienced since taking the role of jesus oh i think it's meeting people in person i was just in philadelphia a couple of weekends ago for this catholic um faith and music festival called abby fest and uh a number of fans were there and a number of people that loved the show i got to meet a number of them and pray with a few of them and um just some of the reactions were just overwhelming and people breaking down and like what how their relationship with christ has been um just uh blossomed since discovering the show and just informed and and uh informed how their understanding of of jesus and who he was and what he might have really been like as a human and and uh it's overwhelming for them which becomes overwhelming for me and uh it just it's it's really it's kind of i don't think i'm going to really i feel the impact in the moment but i think until i'm away from it for a while will i because i'm in the middle of it and sometimes when you're in the middle of the storm you can't see how just how big the storm is right uh and in a positive sense it's like the impact of this i don't think i'll quite understand the impact of what this is doing for people until i stat step away from it for a little while because uh right now it's it's it's intense and it's like where am i going where am i going next and it's like these these these explosions of intensity along this journey you know which have been utterly humbling so it's been awesome meeting people in person it's just been overwhelming that's beautiful all right we're now um coming to uh towards the end and we've kind of gone over time a little bit but uh you know because we're not going to talk to you so often jonathan i know i'm i used sorry hang more and i'd come by the store and that's okay um i know there's been several other questions and tim i don't know if you have one but there's one last one that i know some several people have asked and that's like what's after this like what's after the chosen or for you well more chosen uh after season seven i i can't i can't say what's gonna happen after season seven um or is anything else still coming it's coming up in between oh yeah yeah um [Music] there's some so there's some of these projects that i alluded to earlier these uh animation projects that uh i'm probably going to be dropping some information about in the next couple of days i know they're starting to announce these projects now that are very very different from the chosen um um one of them is uh is outrageous it's just outlandish but it's by it's produced by um a very well-known catholic producer so um i i hope that uh because it's completely different to what people are i think used to what my current fans are used to seeing let me do um you know there's there's some language and things like that and i just have to remind people that i am an actor and i do work outside of projects relating to jesus and i hope people can just uh have uh give me a little bit of grace if they don't necessarily um you know if that's not their cup of tea but i have some really fun stuff that i think will make people laugh and uh have a good time and uh that i'm looking forward to um talking about so uh very very soon actually sooner than i thought so yeah so a couple animation projects uh some video games that i can't talk about just yet i might be doing a movie at some point so um yeah once once it's out in the trades then i can talk about it well you know we always pray for you thank you that everything else all right all the prayers i can so absolutely and i pray for you you guys as well you guys have been so instrumental you keep you keep those of us in media especially uh and not me but you know you keep those of us especially in the media really bullied by all of the prayers and stuff and and i'm just so grateful for you and for all the daughters of st paul and and and for sema for um for being just a champion of of catholics and media you know um there's a number of us out there and and i think if we can kind of galvanize and and join forces and and um we could have a real uh a substantial impact on our culture a culture that right now so readily glorifies the demonic um it's it's crazy how how uh available uh you know these these themes and this imagery is now the of the demonic and the dark and you know uh like i've never seen anything like it so it's it's the prayers from from every one of you watching now for those of us working in the media for lighter forces to prevail within culture within media to celebrate and support all these kinds of projects that support the light um you know films like the jesus music by my you know my friend the irwin brothers just did that if you can go see that it's in limited release right now and like supporting your christian musicians and artists and just you know really getting more of the light out there in the culture because that's how you change the cultures through the media you know media has such a huge impact on the culture so the more light we can get out there to snuff out the darkness the better the stronger we'll be as a society and we can transform the culture just by being who we are we're going to share a little bit about the next in this series at catholic lens i'm going to bring this right up i'm going to share a little bit about this yeah coming up next on november 4th at 6 00 p.m pacific time join us for a live stream conversation with megan harrington a talented documentary writer and producer for family theater productions her latest film is the house that rob built about the legendary women's basketball coach rob selvig from the university of montana and also be sure to check out last month's conversation with ted melfi you can also see uh his current film the starling currently streaming on netflix amen yes we have such wonderful things coming and uh in this series so we are so happy to have had jonathan with us this evening and you're just you're a light to so many people and you're a light to to me personally but to all of us at catholics and media associates uh you're a great friend and a great associate and um we love you and we hope to see you soon thank you guys so much it's an honor thank you god bless you see you soon bye guys thank you and thanks for everybody for joining us this evening for this wonderful conversation with jonathan rooney uh from jesus from the chosen if that's how you know him um and stay tuned for next month when we have more in a catholic lens sharing the journey of catholics in media thanks so much to all of you for joining us god bless you

Channel: Catholics In Media Associates

Views: 13,623

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Id: 5T3JSFqQvfc

Length: 57min 9sec (3429 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 08 2021