So we do get some criticism and I'm sure there will be
more, it just doesn't matter because we've already made the decision. Hey, it's Dallas, time for
another Director's Vlog. Thank you so much for joining me today. And I have got today
a couple of questions, these are some questions that
we got at a recent screening where people filled out a bunch of cards. And so, I've got this stack
and I've grabbed a few of them for this vlog and I'm gonna
do that throughout the year, grab a few questions and just occasionally do a bit of a Q&A, some of your most commonly asked questions covering a wide variety of topics. I'm especially excited about today's vlog because I did an interview
with Brandon Potter, who plays Quintus, the
guy that you love to hate. I am excited about, I had a
great conversation with Brandon that I'm looking forward to you seeing. As always, please hit the subscription or notification bell below this video. We recently passed 100,000 subscribers. Thank you so much for that,
that really means a lot, and it's basically double what we had just a couple months ago. So this channel continues to
grow and you are a part of it. Oh, by the way, currently, these are back, my favorite sweatshirt. This is so comfortable. I love this sweatshirt, I wear it seriously a couple times a week. This is available right
now at thechosenmerch.com, www.thechosenmerch.com. If that's your first time
hearing that jingle, I'm sorry, it will stick with you but it's become a little
bit of a fan favorite, I'm sorry to say. www.thechosenmerch.com. Allow you to get this,
our Binge Jesus gear, this is also in the form of a T-shirt. We've got some wrist bands and we've got a whole bunch of cool stuff. So check out thechosenmerch.com. All right, I'm gonna get right into it. So this is one of the
questions that we got at this recent screening, "When you were filming early
on, was there any doubt "that the project would
not do as good as it did? "Did your faith carry you?" From the beginning, I rarely
believed that the project would be a big success, I had no idea. In fact, I kind of got out
of the prediction business. I've really learned early
on after the failure, box-office wise of my previous film, "The Resurrection of Gavin Stone," that it's not my job to feed the 5,000, it's only to provide
the loaves and the fish, and in fact, I end almost
every video with that message. I got kind of out of
the prediction business. I don't really know or care
whether the projects that I do are going to be immensely successful or immensely disappointing, I just do whatever is in front of me. Was there doubt that
the project would not do as well as it did? I mean, it's become somewhat
of a popular story that when we first started the crowd fund, I thought we'd be lucky to raise $800. That's a bit of an exaggeration but I certainly didn't expect
that we would be able to raise 10 million dollars in
crowdfunding and shatter the all-time crowdfunding
record, I just had no idea. My partners over at VidAngel and my partners within The Chosen, they were much more optimistic. They kinda come at this with a typical entrepreneurial
mindset, very optimistic. But I wasn't skeptical
or optimistic of this, I really didn't have any idea,
wouldn't have shocked me. Well, what's happened with the show? I mean, I wouldn't say
we're successful yet. When we get to the point where the show starts paying for itself, then I would consider that successful. But the fact that we're in
every single country right now, the fact that we've had
the impact that we've had. I mean, that's all been, that's exceeded at least
my expectations somewhat but I will be honest and say I haven't had many expectations. This question, "why do the Apostles appear so young especially Matthew?" Well, that's because
the Apostles were young. The 12 Disciples that
Jesus chose to follow Him were very likely younger,
they were probably teenagers. Simon was likely the oldest one because he's mentioned
as having a mother-in-law which means that he was married. He was probably the only
one who was married. I mean, we don't know that
for certain but it's likely 'cause he's the only one who's
mentioned as being married. Students who had the ability
to just follow a rabbi around tended to be teenagers because they weren't yet
providing for their families. When I started to do the
research for season one, it seemed like the most likely scenario was that the disciples were young, that Simon may have been in his 20s and maybe James and John and
Andrew were a little older because again they were
fishermen at the time that Jesus called them. There's lots of research
for all these issues, what they wore, what they
look like, how old they were. And so, my job is to
kinda look at all of that and find the consensus and
then run that past scripture, of course, more than anything else, but also to talk to some of our experts. But sometimes it comes down
to what makes the most sense and the articles that
indicated that the disciples were younger made the most sense, and I think that's probably most likely and I think it's also interesting. "Do you think you can
get Joan Collins casted?" That was actually a question. No. "I have watched these episodes
literally dozens of times..." We've got a few people over
at The Chosen Fan Club. If you go to Facebook and you
look up The Chosen Fan Club, it's something that you'd really love. There's over 25,000 people now, all people who love The Chosen, tons of great stuff discussed
over there, questions asked, we have some content that's
exclusive to the fan club. A lot of those people
have watched the show literally dozens of times,
it's crazy, it's awesome. "...as writers, how are you mentally and emotionally preparing for the inevitable crucifixion
event in Resurrection?" Great question and we see in the fan club people saying this a lot like, "Oh my goodness, I cannot even think about "the crucifixion season now without crying "because I've gotten to
know these characters." I mean, that's exactly why we did this. We thought ahead to the end of the series and we knew that the last season was gonna be about the
resurrection and the aftermath, the season before that was
gonna be the crucifixion. And one of our goals was to
make sure that that season about the crucifixion
was as heart-wrenching and as painful and as
horrifying to watch as possible, and then of course, the final season as joyous to watch as possible. And the way to make that happen was to really set it up properly, and I think that we're doing that so far and I hope we continue to do that. And so, we don't think
about the crucifixion itself and the resurrection itself, that's too far off in the distance and I don't think it would
make sense for us to write, constantly thinking about that. We wanna make sure that each season and each episode is as good as it can be and that if the show
ended after season one, that that would still be effective. But we do write in the
sense of wanting to earn those moments as much as possible. And so, we're trying to
set up these characters and write them in a way that makes you fall in love with them and really feel their
pain and feel their joy when they experience it. And so, hopefully that by the time you get to season six, seven, eight, the emotional peaks and valleys are at their highest and lowest. That the show is so resonant with you that by the time we get to the seasons, it's just even more powerful. How much criticism do you receive for writing extra-biblical dialogue? Out of a hundred comments
that we get on the show, either from who've seen it or
people who haven't seen it, three or four out of of 100 are negative. Criticizing the fact that
we are writing things that are not in the scripture. I don't mind that because
I knew that was gonna come, obviously I wouldn't have done this show if I wasn't prepared for criticism and prepared for people
who wouldn't like the fact that we were showing
things or portraying things that weren't in the scripture. I have a whole other video about that, it's called Can You Trust the Chosen? We have other videos
that talk about the fact that we have things that aren't
in the Bible in the show, so you can check those videos
out to get more detail. But in general I would say, when you listen to a
sermon on a Sunday morning and the pastor reads the
passage from the gospels and then talks about what's
going on in the culture, what was going on in history and it gives you all of this context. You don't sit there and go, wait, that's not in the scripture,
I don't want to hear it. Having scriptural context
has always been a way to enhance your
relationship with scripture. Now this is a little bit
different because it's fiction, some of the things that
we're adding to the show are fictional or at least we
hope that they're plausible but they're not necessarily known. It would be a shame if the
only shows that could be made about history were outside
of first century Galilei. That you can make a historical show about any major historical figure except those who lived
first century Galilei because scripture exists, and therefore, nothing else
can exist about those people and I just don't agree
with that philosophy. I think that it's important
for us to follow the character and intentions of scripture and I think it's important for us to be as faithful as we can to scripture. So when we show something
from scripture, it's accurate, we don't change it, but
when we're adding things and adding some of the context
historically and culturally and adding some artistic imagination and backstory for what could
have led to those moments. As long as we're fitting
within the intentions and characters of scripture and are doing things that are plausible, and are especially careful
with our betrayal of Jesus, I just don't have a problem with it. Obviously if I did, I
wouldn't have done the show. So we do get some criticism and
I'm sure there will be more, it just doesn't matter because we've already made the decision. But we do run these things past our historical and biblical experts, we do bade them in prayer and I do have accountability
with my partners and with my wife and with
our biblical scholars to make sure that we are as
faithful as humanly possible. All right, I'm gonna get
right into our interview with Brandon Potter, I
think you'll love it. He's a really cool dude,
and so, check this out. All right, so I am here
with a friend of mine. We didn't know each other
actually until The Chosen but has since become a
friend and collaborator. I consider you, Brandon, this
is Brandon Potter, by the way, who plays Quintus.
- Hi, everyone, I'm Brandon. - The one that everyone loves to hate. But I had to wear this sweatshirt just because I wanna show it off and I want people to want to buy it. - Oh, yeah. Well, I didn't get to see the back, can you spin around so I
can see the back again? - Yeah.
- Oh, yeah, that looks great. - So, yeah, but it's kind of a dumb move because it's making me hotter. So I'm actually just gonna
go ahead and take it off. - Okay.
- Mission accomplished. People are excited about the sweatshirt, now I can concentrate.
- Perfect. - All right. So, Brandon, the first
time that I ever met you was in the audition for Quintus in Texas, and we had actually done some casting sessions in Los Angeles. And there was a Quintus
that I had auditioned that I really liked and the decision had essentially been made until you walked in. I think within about 10 seconds, kind of took over the
room with your portrayal. Can you talk a little bit
about your perspective on that? How did this project
come across your desk? What did you think when you read it? But just tell me your experience
of just getting the script and what you thought of it and just the whole process of casting. - I'm an actor in Dallas, right? And I do auditions everyday
for all kinds of things and it varies from
whatever car commercials, to maybe big parts on a series, right? So, because of just this sort of vibe but I don't really talk
to anyone about auditions because nine times out of 10, it's a no anyway, you know what I mean? So you just sort of get
up, you do the audition, you hope to meet people or when the room, not necessarily the role, right? - Sure.
- What you're doing is really sort of burnishing your reputation when you go into an audition room, not necessarily kill or
be killed for the part. - Sure. - But as soon as I read this thing, I was on another shoot
for an eyeglass company that I do spokesperson work for, right? And as soon as I read the script, I talked to one of my
castmates and I was like, "Kanesha, I got this thing, did you?" And she's like, "Yeah, I got it." And I was like, "It's really good, right?" So we were both really taken
aback by just how good it was, how great storytelling was,
it seems really at home in the golden age of TV sort
of era that we're in, right? That the writing is literary, that the treatment seemed both visceral and you know sort of aspirational,
right, at the same time, it really, really stood out. And I remember talking to her about that and she felt the same, I was like, "Okay, "then I think this is a good
thing that's happening," right? - Right. - Which, obviously, I
wanna work on good stuff, but I don't know that it
got my hopes up at all. And if you remember those
original versions of Quintus, had him as kind of maybe a lush, right, kind of a party boy--
- Right. - Or something like that.
- Yeah, like a frat boy who was drunk for the first time and he's talking to Matthew
the first time we meet him. And yeah, I remember you came in and you interpreted the script accurately and then we talked and I
said, "I'm actually..." And I think I even said
this to you, I said, "I regret kind of how we wrote it "and I'm thinking I might change it, "so why don't you try this "and have him much more intelligent "and much more strategic and all of that "and take out the drunk stuff?" And I just remember how
immediately eager you were to play and eager you were... And I said, I didn't wanna make it cliche 'cause I felt like the young
frat boy, drunken Roman soldier was gonna be cliched. I just remember you
just jumped right on it and were willing to play right away. - You his escort centurion? So where you going? - [Man] Secure the passageway. - And there's an extra grape
for you inside, come on. I remember that and I remember having a
really, really good time. And one of the reasons is because we've seen
this sort of glutton, sloth Roman before, right? But the thing that is
lost in that translation is the extreme efficiency
that the empire was run with for so long, right? These folks knew what they were doing, obviously there was a reason
that it all crumbled, right? And that was probably decadent to play to a part in it, right? But for a long time, it wasn't that way, for a long time, they were
expert administrators, they were expert military, they were the best in the world, right? And as soon as you
mentioned that, I was like, "Yes, I think I understand
what's going on here." And that gave me a little bit of... Instead of just the sort of
leaning back party boy energy, it became a little bit
more forward, right? It became forward, it became
focused on like precision and getting the exact thing that you want from whoever's in front of you. - And that's what I think we discovered as we were working through the
scene, both in the audition and then on the day when we were filming was how intriguing Matthew
would be to Quintus because Matthew is actually
sharper than he is in many ways. He's actually more Roman
certainly than any Jew that Quintus has ever met. And in fact, more than most Romans, in fact, he has a line that says, "I've been searching the world for people "who are brave enough to
speak up and to be bold." And here you are doing it and we thought wouldn't it be interesting if Quintus actually really liked and
was intrigued by Matthew and kinda became like his little, like Matthew became his
toy that he could use but for serious purposes? - Yeah, he definitely has some
kind of brain crush on him. - Right.
- If you know what I mean by that.
- Right. - He's really, really fascinated by how all that machinery works. I am in need. You heard me right. I am in need of your machine. Quintus knows that it can be
used for something wonderful. Well--
- Exactly. - His mind, you know?
- Exactly. - And I think part of
the delight for Quintus is figuring out exactly
how to use it, you know? Exactly where to apply it.
- Exactly. So a lot of people are curious
about this kind of a thing, what you bring to the role yourself. There's kind of a myth through
the ages in acting circles that it's acting is you're
becoming someone else, and so, that's what your job is is to become someone else.
- Sure. - And when in fact, you
always need to bring a little bit of yourself to the character, there's a reason that you
were cast, each person is cast because of something of
themselves that they bring. But that's gotta feel
a little bit different when you're playing someone who is racist, who has done and will do
despicable things like Quintus. So I'm sure it's easy to do
the part that we've done, which is at least some of it, where he's smart, he's
funny, he's intriguing, that's gotta be easy to play. Well, not easy, but at least relatable. But what about when there's that scene where he gives that speech about Jews and how they are kind
of wired to be divisive and they're victims and
kind of some of the more anti-semitic cliches through
the years that he believes in? - I know a dirty secret. You people want to be ruled,
you want an excuse to complain, it's part of your nature. Do you understand that, Matthew? - I don't know. - I know you wouldn't. - What's that process
for you as the actor? - So when you're playing someone who does ugly things, right? It can be difficult to
advocate for your character but that is what you have
to do, that is the job. I don't have to become
a murderer to play one and I don't have to become
a racist to play one, but what I do have to
do is think about why, to what end are those things? To what end does he
engage in that behavior? And almost always, it comes down to they think
that that will protect them or the ones that they love or
perhaps it will garner love and affection from other people. So you start thinking in terms
of there's this gaping hole in Quintus' soul that can only
be filled by the adoration of his peers and that can only happen if he exerts total
control over a population, if he views them as less than humans so that he can exert that control. So in a strange way, instead
of in my mind the whole time going like, this guy is
an anti-sematic coward, he's a jerk, he's trying to
perpetrate a horrible crime. Do you know what I mean? Instead of doing that which
would not be for very good day on set for us, right?
- Right. - You know, instead of that, I think like if I can get
this guy to do what I want, if I can make him feel this big, if I can get him to do what I want, then maybe I'll get the
love that I need, you know? Maybe the energy to survive, you know? - Sure, no one wakes up thinking
I'm going to be evil today. - Right. - No one wakes up unless
they're a satanic, sociopathic, demon-possessed
something like that. - Sure, yeah. - Most people who, especially someone who would achieve what
Quintus has achieved, has what they would consider
to be rational feelings and two of the characters in movie history that I was somewhat inspired
by in writing Quintus with my co-writers, and I'm
curious if you had anything that you drew from when
you were playing it, where Ray Fiennes character
in "Schindler's List." - [Brandon] Of course. - And Christoph Waltz's character
in "Inglourious Basterds," two characters who were
demonically anti-semitic but who were intelligent, who
had reasons for their beliefs, at least reasons that they
believed were justifiable, and they found a way somehow
to dehumanize human beings. Which I think they had to do
to justify their behavior, and I'm wondering if
even just in the scene that you're playing with
Matthew, with Paras, for example, with Kirk
who is playing Gaius. Was there any of that? Or do you just kind of
turn that on and off when the cameras stop rolling? - I think the two characters
that you just mentioned are wonderful examples because
not only are both of them part of massive organizations
that have really strict codes for moral behavior, for
your daily schedule, for the schedules of the people
that they are subjugating. I mean, they are a real, real
powerful bureaucrats, right? Both of these organizations, that can appeal to a
certain personality type, I think, both of those characters, the head of the concentration
camp and this hunter, right, that Christoph Waltz was. But I think Quintus also will
never stop clawing his way to the top, even if he's at the top. - Sure.
- And that could be because he's missing
something in his life, right? Like love, right? Or it could be that he
experienced so much pain when he was young that he doesn't know
another language, right? - Right.
- It could be either one of those things. - Right.
- But... - Well, we hinted that when Quintus is talking about one of his rivals and he says his father
gave him everything, your father gave you nothing, you know? And you're saying, we hint at Quintus'
father gave him nothing, you've had to work and crawl on glass to get you where you are,
you wanna get even higher. But whether that happens or not, you're going to make your region that you're in charge
of the best, cleanest. That's why you even say, "I don't even like crowds,
I don't even like killing. "It's dirty, it's messy." He's not interested in
killing people just for sport, it's inefficient.
- Right. And so, he's trying to
make it the best place that it can possibly be,
and so, in many ways, it gives your character
some rational goals. - That's exactly right. And the best way to get on
top of his opponent, right, his rival, is to show
plans for infrastructures, like nation-building,
you know what I mean? Which is new to Quintus, I think, and that really does
sort of further the case of always clawing his way to the top, even if he's already at the top. He was still in scramble-to-the-top mode and Paras' character says, "Wait a minute, "you're already at the top."
- Right. - [Brandon] Now just improve the top to show how kingly you
are up here, you know? How much you're better, just your presence is better
than these savages out here. You know?
- Right, right. And that's what's so cool about the scene is that you're getting this
brilliant advice from someone that you've been trained to hate. And that's why I think it's
interesting in episode eight when you find out that Matthew
has been taken from you, that he's found someone better,
someone he likes better. - Matthew left. He quit Dominus. - What do you mean, he quit? Why would you let him quit? - He is a contractor, I had no recourse. - Quit to do what? - He is to become a student. - Of what? Don't make me keep
asking questions, Prinem. - He is to study the Jewish god. He left to follow a holy man, the man from the Eastern ghetto. That is all I know. - Oh, I really don't like that man. - There's almost as woundedness like, well, dang, I, you know? Like you're really, you start
to get jealous in a way. - Absolutely, and I think that's... It's almost as though it were
written this way, Dallas, that from this point, there can be, because there is an actual
emotional wound, right? For this guy to go away,
like you said, jealousy, I think that that sort of
cerebral nature of Quintus maybe edged out by something
a little bit more raw, a little bit more
reactionary and visceral. There's the potential for
the chief rational guy to not be rational when his
emotions are in the way, when his emotions are at
play like this, you know? Or in play.
- Right. Well, and don't wanna
give away any spoilers, but we may or may not be
seeing Quintus in season two and he may or may not actually
encounter some of these people that he's been talking about. So we're working on that now and I'll make that you
know before the fans do. But we do have plans for Quintus, even though our team has left Capernaum. So I just have two more questions for you before I let you go. One is just the experience of
working with Paras, with Kirk, with Erick Avari and
Janis, Nicodemus' wife, all four of them are
probably more cerebral actors and I'm curious what it
was like working with them. Just what your experience
was like working on the set because you were so disconnected from every other character in the show. I mean, really your scenes
are with two people at most. Can you just kind of speak
briefly to your experience of working with Eric Avari, who's been killing it for decades? - Oh my God.
- Same with Janis and Kirk and Paras, who are both, all four of them are just
very serious cerebral actors. - Yeah, well, first of all, it's a pleasure to work with all of them because they're
extraordinarily talented people and they have good words to speak and a great set to work on. So in that regard, it's just fun, right? You can show up and really
engage in that creative dialogue with people where you're
throwing the ball, right, they're catching it and
they're throwing it back. And like no clinkers, right? There's things that need to be directed, there's things that
need to be tried again, but it really is a delightful experience. In terms of being more or
less sequestered, right, because they all have
scenes different people and I sort of only have
scenes with a few people, it could feel like, you know, like if you're a character
actor or if you're a big player, whatever, you come in and
you have to do one scene and you leave, right? But this doesn't exactly feel that way because the scenes are meaty. What it feels like is every time I do it, it feels like... Like the kids are playing
in the garage, right? And you go out and like check on 'em, do you know what I'm saying? Like make sure they aren't
breaking their arms, make sure they're not scratching the car, like that kind of thing. So it feels... The fact that I'm somewhere else and I come in for these scenes where people are threatened maybe or there's the possible exercise
of power about to happen, right, it doesn't feel like a big thing, it feels like a hammer
waiting to fall in every scene or something like that. I really like that it feels special to just sort of walk in
with a couple of people and say this is how it's gonna be, this is what we're gonna do,
this is what we're about now. I guess, sort of set
the tone and then leave, do you know what I mean? Especially because a person
where they are so talented, right, and in the real world, they would be telling me what to do. But on the show, I get
to tell them what to do. It's kinda magical.
- Right. Well, I think the audience, I know the audience is looking forward to where I think we're headed
is where Quintus and Jesus ultimately have a conversation
and It'll be really fun because Quintus is gonna even
be fully up against someone who he's never experienced before. But on that note, this is my
final question is the fans, I know that you haven't
been quite as involved like in the fan club and whatnot. But the response to this
show internationally has been significant, there's
a fan club on Facebook that is now over 27,000 people, our main Facebook page
is over half a million, our YouTube channel just passed 100,000, and people often times post
memes about you, about Quintus and talk about how much
they're kind of a character, they love to hate him. Just curious and it's
okay if the answer is no, but have you experienced any fans, has anyone met you and said, "I recognize you from "The Chosen," have you been able to have
some friends and family who've seen the show and been able to capture your performance? - My friends and family watched the show and they really, really,
really enjoyed it. I have not been recognized out and about. And because I'm like an old
man shaking my fist at the new, I am not really on
Facebook, I have a profile and stuff like that, I'm not really on it. But you saying all of this
stuff makes me want to go check that stuff out though. So I think that's gonna be
my first order of business is to check out what sort
of Quintus memes there are, what are people saying about him? I don't even know.
- Right. - This is very exciting. - Well, I just wanna say before we go, Brandon, to you, the viewer. Brandon has been one of the
most fun actors to work with. I mean, our whole cast is terrific, we have an amazing cast and crew and this experience of shooting this show I think has been universally,
by the cast and crew, acknowledged as one of our favorites. But Brandon has been
just an extraordinarily, what we in the business
sometimes referred to as like a play partner,
some of the play with. Just so much fun and not
at all like Quintus-- - No, I hope not. - True joy to be around. But Brandon, to you, I wanna say thank you for your performance in season one. You really gave the show
in season one dimension that Bible projects rarely have. Bible projects are usually stiff, formal, they go from Bible verse to Bible verse, everything is very, very black and white and I think you've been so willing to kind of work within those shades and kind of rounding
the edges a little bit, making this show feel much more human and not like as you and I talked about the mustache twirling villain. - Right. - Comes on screen and we can
instantly boo and laugh off, but this is someone who actually feels like a real human being. And I think that's
actually even more scary than the more cliched villain, so thank you for coming
on today, for joining us. - Thank you, Dallas.
- And I hope you do get a chance to start engaging
with the fans a little bit. People really love the show
and love your performance. - Right on, thank you
so very much, Dallas. Thanks for having me on today and thanks for bringing me to
come and play on "The Chosen," it has been one of the great
joys of my professional life to work with you and the
rest of the cast and crew. - All right, thanks so
much, and we'll talk soon. And I just remember to the viewer, it's not your job to feed the 5,000, it's only to provide the loaves and fish. Please subscribe and hit
the notification bell under this video if you haven't yet and I will talk to you soon.
