*EXCLUSIVE* Interview w/ Jonathan Roumie and Dr. Scott Hahn

my faith story so i was baptized greek orthodox i was born in hell's kitchen of all places in new york city and uh raised in queens and the suburbs of new york in a place called long island so i think half of you here from long island i yeah yeah destination zone florida for long islanders it's uh it's florida or florida that's where people end up um yeah so then uh so we moved from the city to long island and there weren't a whole lot of greek orthodox communities there so my father was raised going to catholic school in egypt and so he was very familiar with it they they went to mass they you know they received communion and eucharist and and and did everything as catholics during the week when he went to school and then on the weekend he was greek orthodox as his family uh practiced uh but my mother is is irish catholic roman catholic from ireland and so when we moved and realized there weren't too many communities nearby that we could attend we decided just to go to the church down the block which was a roman catholic church and i made my first communion and my confirmation as a catholic did you ever leave the faith did you ever leave the practice of the catholic faith or was it pretty steady throughout those years you know i don't i wouldn't say that i left it but i think like every teenager into college years that's not well catechized it just kind of falls by the wayside i always had a relationship with jesus i always talked to him but my faith was wasn't at the place where it is now and it's it's only really grown much more deeply in the last several years even before the chosen playing christ and passion plays and another project i did for this company called saint luke productions they do these traveling shows about the saints i the first time i played jesus was depicting him in the story about saint faustina and divine mercy this is leonardo da vinci correct oh yeah take note this is great and they're supposed to be coming out with a filmed version of that play using my original footage from eight years ago which i'm like can we not can we re-edit can i go back and reshoot because it's not exactly what it is now i think god gave me uh i was fortunate that god gave me quite a uh a trial run on several occasions to to figure out how to approach this character in in as best a way as i can now you're part of a team and the team consists of dallas jenkins and the writers who are obviously students of scripture i mean i'm sometimes astounded almost invariably pleased with the way in which the writers script the drama from the gospels in a way that is not necessarily what is stated on the page but it really gives a plausible background so you have a sense that you know the the catch of fish you know peter's is something that is related to his own life experience and perhaps a personal crisis what's it like working with a team like that i mean it's it's amazing dallas is you know a genius in his own right and the fact that nobody's ever done this before and he's always done this in smaller uh formats so i started working with him seven years ago this past march when we did a short film together called the two thieves which is actually you can find it on amazon and it's about it's an origin story a plausible story about how the two thieves came to be crucified alongside christ and and the ark of the penitent thief what what might that have been like so i i think paying attention to detail in scripture um as an evangelical which dallas is [Music] is is uh it's aided in fact by he's i think subconsciously also taking this ignatian approach to the spirituality of the show and imagining well what would it be like and well how do i get it right i can just imagine but how do i make sure it's accurate and so having historical research biblical research we have a first century expert in jewish theology and and you know life who are this messianic rabbi rabbi jason sobel you may you may know him and so he kind of fills in what the day-to-day could be like what the what were a lot of the uh problems and conflicts for you know jews of first century judea like what were they dealing with what was the roman occupation like who was in charge what were the power struggles in the systems um that were set up and and how could you know a jew work for the roman occupation and kind of willingly desert his own people in the way matthew does with without for you know some time because they all these we you know all of the disciples were much younger than we've seen them depicted in reality they would have been much younger and so how long was matthew working for the roman occupation when did he start and what kind of a personality would be so meticulous based on his writings of the gospel based on his attention to detail with names and such and and a person that could be face to face with his countrymen every day knowing that he was essentially the the greatest enemy in their midst and so putting those plausibilities together and trying to weave interesting stories that have emotional um you know compelling emotional arcs that's what we hope makes good entertainment and also inspires people to to read for themselves what were the actual words in scripture did this happen or like well let me go see you know and it's meant to inspire people to go to scripture not to replace scripture not to be a substitute for bible reading and just be like oh i know about jesus i watch the show i know what his deal is like that no that's that's not enough the word is the living word so you know when you look at the title of the series the chosen it's noticeable that it's not the chosen one because it's not just about jesus it's about those that jesus chose right and so we often kind of confuse foreground and background you know like just just keep jesus front and center and you know you're often out there doing miracles and that sort of thing but it's one of my favorite parts of the series now to recognize that jesus chose these men and what a motley crew you know you have a zealot you have a tax collector you have fishermen but a tax collector what was he thinking yeah yeah sell it well that's got to be a lot somewhere you know you know but the way in which matthew is depicted you know has reinforced uh perhaps it was intentional i suspect it was inadvertent but when you show that matthew was levi the scribe the tax collector the record keeper he would have been meticulous in being able to keep accounts as a scribe and his scribal activity would have been professional before it was apostolic but in the patristic tradition matthew is always the first evangelist to be writing a gospel in my own modern formation it was always mark mark and priority you know and you wonder why would mark write the first gospel when he wasn't one of the twelve whereas matthew was and a scribe and a tax collector and you can just sense that his own uh i mean he probably fits somewhere on the spectrum yeah you know in terms of being a savant of sorts but it just reinforces what we already know from the unanimous testimony of the early church fathers but i i want to switch from matthew for a moment to the blessed virgin mary because even though it might not be exactly what we as catholic christians would like with the immaculate virgin and all of that we can see that the evangelists are themselves reticent about putting her front and center and so even though she's not up there as one of the 12 i know i saw kimberly walk in about 20 minutes ago she had an hour and a half commitment that kept her from joining us and now she's back i think this would be your question you know first of all the presentation of the blessed virgin mary it's subtle perhaps more than we as catholics would prefer but in some ways less is more it just strikes us as a highly effective way of showing you know not the the deep catholic marian devotion but on the other hand not the protestant mentality that we shared my wife and i that she was sort of like the maternal figure almost like the carton you know and then when emptied of its contents it's still special but it's nothing really special you know whereas their relationship the tenderness her attentiveness and you know the way that she has the kind of access that peter would never have that only a mother should have what's your take on mary in the chosen well i i love the way that she's written and portrayed and i love how much it does sort of speak into you know the catholic uh fondness and and devotion to mary in in a not obvious way it's beautiful yes and i think a lot of that is stems from the perspective of what how would a mother act with her son right it's a mother and a son you're seeing a mother and a son hopefully the relationship between these two people and so when i um there have been things in actions that i have incorporated that i do with my own mother so for instance in the uh episode of the wedding at cana when i come in with the band of brothers there and sister sisters or sister actually just mary magdalene at that point when i come in with them and i pick her up and i hug her and i spin her around that's something i do with my mother and they're about the same height so and i just made sure that vanessa who plays uh mother mary so beautifully that she was okay with it and then i just checked with dallas i said i'm gonna i'm gonna do something here that i do with my mom when i embrace her that is that okay he's like yeah whatever you know and then if he if he thought it was weird he'd be like you know what it's it's weird for blocking or it's just it looks strange but it was wasn't anything that you know would have been no we can't do that so it's it's hopefully just trying to bring the uh the the reality of this relationship between a mother and a son and then for me in my mind as i'm playing it it goes further than that right in our conversation yesterday you know i was reflecting upon how god has called you professionally but also gifted you personally to be a bridge builder you know not only by playing jesus and in the chosen you know working with evangelicals working with mormons working with jewish people too providing background as the messianic you know jewish rabbi uh it seems to me that it's gone beyond just the series now the documentary that you're doing but also the conversations that you're having it reminds me of our mutual friend matt marr you know who is a devout catholic and yet a bridge builder and so this kind of crossover with evangelicals non-denominational independent christians and all what has it been like not only on the set but outside you know off-season for you to engage with non-catholics as true brothers and sisters in christ i mean we call them separated brethren but i think we ought to put the accent mark on the brethren because they our brothers and sisters through baptism they often serve the lord generously and sacrificially and that's why i want to just thank you for building those kinds of bridges but also for maintaining a catholic witness i mean for leading the rosary online the novena as well the divine mercy chaplet i mean it's not exactly like you're hiding it but you're also not shoving it down their throats yeah what's it been like career killer i was a half-truth i was being interviewed by fox news at one point for this internet article and they asked me they said are you ever worried about being blacklisted by hollywood like for playing jesus and i thought first of all my first thought was like i don't think hollywood knows i exist so it's not really an issue number two assuming that or fearing that would would assert that i believe that my my destiny is in the hands of men and i do not believe that my destiny is in the hands of men that's in the hands of god and if god wants to provide opportunities like he has in secular hollywood up until the last three years that's all i did very sparsely and sporadically not consistently and now i realize well he was saving me for this if he wants me to do secular work then he'll provide those opportunities and with discernment and prayer as long as they kind of fit into where i feel he's leading me i'll i will do them i will continue to do them there's i also do a lot of voiceover work and there's a number of projects that are going to be are going to be coming out the next several months to a year from now that aren't faith-based they're popular culture their their comic book culture they're fun stuff and they're they're game-changing in their own right now i never had the the level of those projects before the chosen right so this you know i think i think what i'm seeing is god is looking to use me especially to reach the younger culture through the modalities of media and entertainment that they consume in order to get them interested in maybe me as a performer and direct them to some of the other stuff that i did maybe the chosen and then they watch that and all of a sudden there's the wheels in their heart are now turning and like what's going on i'm having this reaction to this character you know so i feel like i'm this sort of trojan horse apostle in the entertainment community um that that i think god is using uh using me in in in such a profound way and i've prayed for that because i i think that right now that's that's what we we need is we need people in entertainment to to not be afraid of uh to to proclaim their faith and to be a witness you know you know i want to just again emphasize what i think i sense and a lot of other people sense and that is you're a faithful catholic you're bearing witness to non-catholics through friendship through professional work uh you're doing it in a way that also points people to the divine mercy chaplet to novenas and the rosary to hallowed you know other things but you're a mighty fine actor thank you professionally i mean you know it would be surprising to see you blacklisted but it would also be surprising to see hollywood rolling out the red carpet because they wouldn't know what to do because of how deeply secularized hollywood is but at so many levels the chosen is a breakout i mean in terms of finance sponsorship filming in utah texas you know and and how you're working within a budget you're also generating a massive amount of popular excitement but you're doing it with some of the best writing and best acting and so thanks be to god and it's please i want to encourage all of you to not only watch this if you haven't but if you have and you know what we're talking about in terms of the professional quality but also the apostolic potential spread the word you know i remember when we were watching during the uh holy week of 2020 and i just put this up on facebook uh i mean it just it just it took off i mean i could not believe the response on the part of catholics that i would have assumed and heard of this you know i i think your response in one of the comm boxes was you know it's nice to have the catholics finally showing up at the party you know my reply was well it's not a party until the catholics show up you know and so you know thank you so much jonathan and thank you all for joining us in this conversation i think we have to begin wrapping it up so i want to thank you and just ask for the lord to bless you in the name of the father and of the son of the holy spirit amen almighty god our father in heaven we thank you for jonathan rooney and for his assistant jay and for lisa and for all of the people behind the scenes who made these days possible but above all we thank you for dallas and for the team that is doing the chosen we ask that you would pour out your holy spirit upon them not only in the supernatural areas but also in the natural and the professional the marketing that this message might meet might reach more and more people and lord we ask you that you would place all of these concerns under the protection and the mantle of the blessed virgin mary as we pray hail mary full of grace the lord is with me blessed are our thousands and blessed is the fruit of thy womb jesus holy mary mother of god pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death amen in the name of the father the son of the holy spirit amen thank you all [Music] you

Channel: St. Paul Center

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Id: W84qXA6WwZQ

Length: 18min 20sec (1100 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 07 2022