Personally Speaking ep. 56 (Jonathan Roumie)

this week on personally speaking our guest is jonathan rooney a wonderful actor who portrays jesus christ in the wonderful series called the chosen the chosen is so popular around the world that each segment has had about a hundred million people watching stay tuned as we talk to jonathan rumi [Music] [Music] do [Music] hello and welcome to personally speaking i'm your host monsignor jim lisanti and actor jonathan rooney joins me now jonathan currently stars in the popular television series the chosen playing the role of jesus christ the chosen is the first multi-season series about the life of jesus and is the highest crowdfunded media project of all time with 100 million views previously jonathan played jesus in several other films including the two thieves a touring multimedia project about the life of saint faustina jonathan grew up in new york city and long island the child of an irish mother and an egyptian father he currently resides in los angeles where he's an active member of his catholic church the church of the good shepherd jonathan serves on the board of directors for catholics and media and heads up a faith-based ministry called the good shepherd professional entertainment fellowship a community of catholics in the entertainment field who come together to talk about how their faith informs their personal and professional lives jonathan is here with us today to tell us about his life his career his catholic faith and values and what it's like to portray jesus joining me now i'm so pleased to welcome to personally speaking the actor jonathan rumi we'd like to thank jonathan ruby for being with us jonathan i i want to begin by sharing something that i read about you i found it interesting mother is catholic from ireland fathers from egypt his grandfathers from syria raised greek orthodox converted roman catholic tell me about the miracle of how all those people from all sorts of parts of the world came together in a love relationship that produce you uh ask god that question i don't know i don't know i can explain how that all came together i just know that uh it did and uh here i am um and i'm grateful for the uh really grateful for the environment that i grew up in and the variety and the the multiculturalism that was sort of a staple of my household growing up having the irish side and the egyptian side and right um half my family still greek orthodox and and um you know the other happens catholic and uh it's just been um it's been pretty wild so you know the um family of origin it seems to me is always very important in who we become when you look back at your parents what did they do right in raising you i think they you know led by example in the realms of faith i think that was the biggest impact that they had on my life is that they took us to church and they wanted us to understand the the story and the reason why we go to church and and um our need for communion literally and and you know metaphorically with god um and uh i think that just kind of stuck with me but it was never like do this or else you know it was just like this is what we're doing and you know and um like any teenager i was like i don't want to go to church this week or you know and then like but i never never fell away or anything like that yeah it was always there was always something there just a sea that was planted and i want to talk about what you're saying in terms of leading by example um if i drive badly which i do often um if i'm dressed like a civilian i don't really much care that i drive terribly and maybe a little rudely but if i'm wearing this collar i know i'm conscious of the person in the car next to me when i cut them off is going to remember the collar when you play jesus how does that impact on your daily life in terms of you know that people are making some kind of evaluation of not just jonathan the actor but jonathan who plays jesus man you know it just kind of puts you in that spot where i think ultimately and i've said this but that's a very um it's that's a very acute way of of describing why i say it's made me a better person because it forces me to be a better person on a day-to-day moment-to-moment you know to to to catch myself when i when i want to yell something out the window if somebody cuts me off or you know or just somebody throwing i saw i was on the southern state parkway yesterday and i saw somebody chucking beer cans out of the window on the parkway i'm like oh and they were like finished your camp wow okay so uh on the 405 we'd expect that the 405 yes in california like yeah i've actually not never seen anybody throw anything out the window on the 405 oddly enough i think anything that distracts from driving is so dangerous on that highway it's for anybody that doesn't know it's the biggest highway in i mean los angeles maybe in the state and uh it's it's it's like six lanes and it's like it's crazy yeah but uh yeah i just it uh it's just made me be more um aware of of uh who i'm portraying and the example that i have to lead as a not just an actor but as a human for myself more than for anybody else rex reed i don't know if you've heard of him he was a film criticism i think but um he observes the right for the new york observer and a bunch of other places but we were together one night at the dinner i said let's do a show about uh religious films because you evaluated them and you know obviously i have an interest in me said it would be a terribly boring show i could see where that was going he said before he said because they're all predictable he said they're all stilted he said we know how they end he said and they're usually badly made i mentioned that because the chosen on the other hand has this following 90 million people around the world who take an interest in your show what is there about the chosen that has made a religious film so-called not boring not tedious not predictable i think uh i think there's a level of um relatability that we're able to bring in a tv series that you that you don't get from a two-hour movie you know or uh even a six-hour mini-series might my favorite has been jesus of nazareth that it's been hugely impactful on me and it's loaded with just incredible you know uh uh just genre genre defying actors and performances and and uh um so much so that it rendered me speechless obviously there but uh that even then with six hours you could only tell so much of the story you can only connect so deeply what we get to do in a multi-season tv series we're now in the middle of releasing our second season is take our time building up the the back stories or you know the imposed back stories that for us are scripturally derived and hypothetical but based on you know archaeology based on history based on you know uh authenticity to what these characters were like uh from scripture and and what they might have been like in their everyday life and to just get to know them in a way where if if they're experiencing christ's humanity uh and being affected by it then maybe if we get to see christ's humanity through them in their lives and how their lives are affected then maybe we can be changed as as audience goers you know so i think having time the time and and the the breadth of the detail that we're able to uh explore in a multi-season series every season is going to be eight episodes thurs uh seven seasons planned and so we'll have we'll have a whole i mean 56 hours of of time to explore jesus's life and the people that were most affected by it some of the people who've evaluated it also talked about the richness of the fact that you get into jesus as a person of humor or person of joy this is a hard question for you to answer maybe it's more directed to me but i find a lot of very religious people take religion so seriously that there's no joy in them i often say when people come up for communion some folks look like they just lost their best friend and i would think there should be a spirit of this is great i'm getting to receive the body of christ do you have any idea why people make of jesus someone devoid of humor or or happiness when in fact the richness of his character as you portray him is that he was again normal down to earth regular which meant he had a sense of humor you know it's interesting monsignor because i i when i was in texas finishing up filming season two this year and must have been early march end of end of february early march i i wanted to find a mass we could just move to a different location so whenever i get to a new location i always like to find the church like a catholic church nearby so i can go to mass or get confession if i need it or to receive the eucharist and the only the closest one within miles was a community that was specifically latin mass like like old school like i've never seen this kind of latin mass or where everybody's like receives communion on their knees there's kneelers and i sat in there i sat down and i looked around and everybody looked miserable they all looked upset god the fathers were like you just sit still yelling at their children like everyone i'm like what is what's going on what's up with this community like why why why where's the joy where's the birth where like i i just picture jesus walking in there being like guys lighting up it's like we won like i won yeah like you're you're good you know you're good right like there's a reason to be happy there's a reason for the joy and i i think maybe it's because sense of humor was never really written about it's never on display in the bible so i think people just focus on the severity and the teaching and the and and you know the the things that would change a person's life and offer them salvation as being life or death literally spiritual life or death uh and then forget that but he was a human first you know he was 30 years in obscurity working as a human being if he we truly believed that he was 100 human fully human well part of that is laughing and crying and dancing and being silly as a kid and even as a like who knows you know like everything that we experienced he would have had to have experienced he was not without joy i i fully believe that he could not have experienced humanity without experiencing the the rainbow of emotions that we go through as people so i think because it's not obvious from reading the gospels that he had a sense of humor that he danced at the wedding of cana you know but he was at the wedding of cana and we he did say that you know people would accuse me of being a drunkard because i drink wine you know and john my cousin didn't drink wine so we're like oh well he he had wine oh you know like so that we get only that little glimpse of like he was a normal guy aside from everything else and then once he started his ministry then the revelation of who he truly was was revealed that's the only thing i can think of i don't know if you guys have recorded the up that scene with the woman uh uh i guess she's kanan either some other religion and and she says to him well i'm not married and he says you're right you've been married five times and the man you're living with is not your husband but i thought he can be funny sarcastic yeah that's great but i don't think people think of him that way no until they saw jonathan rumi as jesus you know maybe maybe and and i think even in that scene like because we did the end of season one culminates in the with the woman and uh at the well in samaria okay and so we do um i'd be curious to see what you think of it now that that you know like what that it's there uh and there is a little bit of like tongue-in-cheek kind of like yeah so what's going on you know and then uh where that scene leads it's actually one of my favorite scenes uh to have done in in the show uh this sort of bookends is that seen in the first episode and the scene in the last episode of season one and that actually culminates season one for us so i get into trouble when i say this but i believe it i i think he teaches us by growing in front of us how to actually live so a thing that i've preached about often enough is uh when he's with the woman who says you know she needs a healing and he says well i'm here for the you know the children of israel not the dogs of other lands and the fact that jesus would call someone a dog or another land and of course her response even dogs are entitled to the scraps that fall from their masters tables but some people say how could you even suggest that jesus was imperfect enough not to know all things and and say the right things but i i think maybe it's a teachable moment that he's showing us that if i can evolve that prejudice is uh not for any of us yeah is that one of the scenes you've done yet we have not done yet okay now i'm going to ask you how many episodes have you seen how many episodes have you seen any episodes yet no no no i've been hearing about this but i haven't letters i'm on lots of letters and emails but i will now as soon as this is over i'm going to see that well that is your penance it's not a petition i will say we have not shot that scene and we very well could shoot that scene i hope we do yeah because for me i always wondered about that and like how would i play just like with the wedding at cana when jesus says to his mother woman you know it is not my hour i'm like oh that's kind of you know my mother was smack yeah yeah yeah but then it's like well then when and we have uh we have a a rabbi who's one of our consultants we have a catholic priest a rabbi and a evangelical process just jason yesterday you had rabbi sobelop yeah you kicked me he was great ah he's amazing he's such a beautiful guy what you talking about a joyful person i celebrated with him this year oh he's one of my dearest friends he's a good man he's become such a close friend it's a friend of oz and she said you must have by jason yes he's amazing and just tying the old and the new together it's it's a good spirit happy spirit going back to that idea of joy and happiness he's the walking embodiment of it yeah he's he's amazing he's just amazing um got where i was going with my friends right now it's good because i'm a segway um we had years ago um oh let's make a deal what's his name monty hall remember yes okay and i said you know much of our religious practice echoes your show and he said what do you mean i said well i think most of us in our relationship with god let's make a deal i'll do this if you give me that instead of what it's supposed to be the key line in your prayer the one you invented the our father thy kingdom come thy will be done how easy is it for jonathan not playing jesus jonathan to say that prayer to mean it and to live it thy will be done i talk a lot about surrender and every day i'm reminded of it um in fact a few days ago i put i posted something on instagram which was essentially a three-year anniversary of my deeper conversion and that came through the fiat of my surrender it was at my lowest point in my life struggling in los angeles for eight years um juggling uh half a dozen jobs uh none of which side jobs unrelated to the entertainment industry not even able to make money doing regular jobs and finally being brought to my knees uh in prayer and just saying to god i surrender i i i can't try to control this anymore i can't i can't anticipate what my next move is and so i give it to you and i need you to take this from me and show me where to go and that day he literally just turned my life around i got four checks in the mail after being broke and like it was yeah and so all of that started with me completely um giving myself and every area of my life over to god and trusting him and saying i'm not going to worry about it anymore i'm not going to take that anxiety on to me because i i can't control it and i recognize that and so i'm free of that anxiety now and and he's like okay now i can start working in your life and then three months later i got the chosen you may know the story but it happens to be one that echoes that john the 23rd now saint john the 23rd comes to a point where he's overwhelmed by the job and he he writes in his diary um uh basically uh you know um it's your church i'm going to bed yeah that's what you did wow it's your world it's your my life is yours and any any uh capitulations the other way have you fallen back in what way questioning him uh i question them all the time like why would you have me do this why would you you know but i don't question why does it look like you watch the show yeah why would you set me up with an interview i have to give you um no but i i never question who he is or what role or importance he has in my life i might question the particulars of the the journey but i never questioned him in fact it's it's only it's only been strengthened my resolve like now little things like for instance just the the technical issues trying to make this happen this morning even i'm just like okay i'm just gonna go where i'm led so if this is what you want i'll i'll do it yeah you were very cool we had lots of technical problems to make this interview happening lisa my producer was having a breakdown jonathan wasn't i was just like all right i guess i guess i'm just meant to meet him in person i'm glad he knows what he's doing he knows what he's doing and like even the last several days even like i've just felt you know just waking up in the middle of the night just feeling like like something's was squeezing the air out of me and i i really feel that it's just you know the enemy as this thing gets bigger the enemy is just trying to get at me any way he can but it to me i i i'm so like so okay with it and i'm so resolved in in my commitment to god and i just see it now as a challenge like any of this stuff that happens and gets in the way i'm like bring it you're not going to stop me because i got him on my right right so there's no it's his work throw it at me and he's throwing it at me here and there you know and it's life is changing a little bit for me as a as a civilian now as as this thing gets bigger and um part of it makes me a little anxious you know as a human it's just natural to be like what is this going to mean and like the place where i go for sanctuary is now the first place i'm recognized you know what i mean so um that being churches so um it's it's tricky but i i'm not gonna lose i'm gonna try not to lose sleep over it because i it's what he wants so i just have to offer all of it up uh to the cross you've talked in other interviews about uh being sustained by the sacramental life both in the greek orthodox and roman catholic church and you're reminding me we talked before about my first interview 100 years ago was with the film director frank capra and he said coming as an american or a foreigner to america i i noticed that everyone who was successful was wasp there were these white anglo-saxon protestants here i was an italian immigrant catholic so he said i decided to leave the church and by leaving the church become protestant and by becoming protestant then i would fit in be successful and he said but every church i went to it was a hollowness in my heart and i finally he said through my lutheran wife was brought back to the catholic church and she said you'll never be who you're supposed to be until you go home but he said what he had missed the most was the real presence in the eucharist that that sacramental life in the church was something that was irrepeatable for him anywhere else um you've talked about the power of the sacraments for you how does it work for you um it works it's really the thing you know like if i'm struggling if i'm uh anxious or if i'm you know upset about something and uh or really wrestling with a major obstacle in front of me i know that i need to double down on my prayer life and then receive the eucharist because it brings me sense of peace brings me peace it brings me balance it it stills my soul and it changes my disposition and um and when jesus is a part of you that's what happens yeah and to physically receive that i mean it's a it's a miraculous transformation that we can have the true presence in the the eucharist and so why wouldn't you want that yeah why wouldn't you want to feel that sense of peace and that sense of um just serenity um uh you know george from seinfeld's uh phrase comes to mind serenity now serenity and uh you know that's kind of what happens like serenity now amen you know so that's kind of what happens is like i get serenity now by receiving the eucharist my chalice that was given to me by my parents back in january of 81 has all the apostles and jesus around it and i've always been struck by that i use it for first communion with the kids because they're all invited to the last supper the first eucharist but in a few hours they're all going to desert them and deny them they're going to be useless which brings up the issue which is in some ways political we won't go into the specifics of politics people say you know people shouldn't go to communists they deserve it and i look back on that chalice and i say but none of them deserved it but he still invited them to the meal even judas is on the side of the chalice um i guess what i'm asking is is eucharist something we earn and deserve or is it just something we desperately need i think um saint francis i've been saying friend well maybe one day saint francis pope francis's word of words i believe it's the eucharist is not the prize for the perfect it's medicine for the sick and um i see that i i believe that and i think if it's somebody that needs it and wants it and they're not in a perfect state of grace before receiving it i don't think god is going to be that upset yeah um i know a lot of catholics and conservative catholics especially i believe would disagree uh i was one of them you know i was one of them now as i have a more fuller understanding um i prefer not to receive it but if i need it i'll get it but you can't expect somebody somebody that doesn't have the the deeper understanding of what the eucharist is uh to to to to to want to wait until they understand and then go through the steps uh sometimes they may not even be catholic you know what i mean they're like i just need to i know that's jesus and i need to receive him it's like what does he think god's gonna this is me in my mind is god gonna say like sorry you didn't check the boxes there can you just go to that fill that out and then come back i may let you back and i want to thank jonathan rooney for being with us and so that you don't get caught like i was um i hope you'll get into watching the chosen uh and and to help us know how to do that jonathan how do folks watching and listening to a program like this find the chosen follow the chosen and become part of the family of people who know what's going on the best way to watch the chosen is to download the app so if you have a smartphone uh whether an android or an iphone you can go to google play or the app store download the chosen app it's literally called the chosen it's the first tv show to premiere on an app which then through amazing technology that was invented just for this show you can stream it from your phone to your smart device if you have a roku fire stick chromecast you literally just beam it scotty right over to your tv or your smart device and watch it on your tv absolutely free so go to the the stores and download the app for folks like our parents yes um will this eventually come out in a format like dvd or things like that the first season is on dvd uh subsequent seasons will be released on dvd um uh if i think you can also maybe even watch it on your computer the chosen www.thechosen.tv okay you can watch episodes on your computer um but the most content and where future episodes are going to be released will be through the app they're trying to push everybody to through to the technology you're a technological and my promise uh before the good lord is that next time we have jonathan on i will have seen every chapter of the room the t-shirts the merch everything the hats have to go to confession thanks to jonathan ruth for being with us i hope you'll all watch the chosen and i thank him not just obviously for what he does on the program but for what he does as a person in terms of sharing openly honestly his faith his journey uh and it's wonderful to hear a guy who's uh not got a formulated answer not a canned answer but who is spontaneously sharing with us uh the ups and downs of his own life i thank him for his honesty and his goodness jonathan thanks for being on our program thank you monsigno as we end today's program i want to thank all of you for being with us if you have any questions or comments about the show you can reach me at personally speaking podcast gmail.com you can also go to past episodes by going to youtube and punching in personally speaking with monsignor jim lisanti and don't forget to click like and subscribe also personally speaking those available as a podcast on personally speakingpodcast.buzzsprout.com or www.closeencountertv.com or www.ollmp.org i'd like to thank all of you who are out there supporting our program personally speaking is also on facebook at personally speaking with monsignor jim sante please share and let others know about personally speaking personally speaking is made possible by the generosity of many i hope you'll be one of the people supporting our program i'm privileged to serve as host and executive producer of personally speaking our producers lisa jonavids thanks so much for joining us we'll be with you again next time on personally speaking

Channel: Personally Speaking with Msgr. Jim Lisante

Views: 26,132

Rating: 4.9674315 out of 5

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Id: 8gbeCWZSIwQ

Length: 28min 0sec (1680 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 04 2021