MANILA, Philippines — Being cast as Jesus Christ reportedly has its pros and cons — and among the cons might be being stereotyped as such, just like Daniel Radcliffe is forever Harry Potter to many, and Christopher Reeve is the first face to flash when one says “Superman.”
In a 2011 The Guardian interview, Jim Caviezel claims "The Passion of the Christ" made him a Hollywood outcast. The actor who played Jesus Christ in Mel Gibson's 2004 film said he was shunned by the film industry since taking the role.
“No, for me, it’s a career-giver,” Jonathan Roumie quickly retorted when Philstar.com asked the Jesus actor in “The Chosen” on his reaction that being stereotyped as Jesus was rumored to be a “career-killer” in secular Hollywood.
“I have no qualms or any belief that there is any kind of stereotype or prevention of some sort of a wide-raging career because of that ‘Jesus effect.’ In fact, it’s the opposite. Because I’m playing Jesus, because I’m committed to it, God has given me a career that is now starting to reach outside of it. It’s all in His time,” he added in a roundtable interview in Shangri-La The Fort last week.
“When you accept the fact that putting God in-charge, in any aspect of your life, whether it’s career, your personal life, your love life, whether it’s with marriage, whether your children, whether it’s your financial problems or debts or burdens or family members or any kind of trial, struggle, and when you realize that you’re putting any of that in God’s hands, you’re only increasing your chances of getting through many of these perceived obstacles. Because that’s all they are, perceptions of struggles, perceptions of an obstacle. They are not real,” he said.
“Because when you’re devoted to God and you completely trust in Him, He will get you through anything. There are no obstacles! It’s just perception of obstacles. And so the minute we give Him control, we stop trying to think of ourselves. That one is being taken cared of. You might not like it, but you are being led around the obstacle course.”
According to him, before he was booked in “The Chosen,” he was tapped for “nearly as meaningful” roles that were not Jesus.
“But as I’ve said before, none of them lasted. They were just an episode here, there, in a TV show. This (“The Chosen”) has been the greatest gift to me in my life, in as much as for professional reasons are concerned. And this continues to open doors to new relationships,” he affirmed.
As proof that playing Jesus has brought him more blessings than otherwise, he teased having a new “non-Biblical” project since “The Chosen.”
“Actually, I just shot a romantic comedy with a comedic star in the United States, Catherine James. It’s a romantic comedy, so the talks were so real, and had nothing to do about Bible stories or anything like that. It’s going to be a great, wholesome, family-friendly journey where I’ll be playing this kind of a wacky character. And that came from my relationship with Kevin, which came from doing a retreat with him for men. Like we prayed together and that’s how our relationship started. God brought us together and then brought me this movie that had nothing to do with faith stories. But it’s there… and I get to play a character that I could be a faithful person. I might not have preaches or sermons in the movie, but that’s okay. I’m getting more opportunities to do things than ever before.”
When asked how he balances the divinity and the humanity in playing Christ, he said: “I just leave it to God to do the heavy-lifting. I can only bring my humanity to the role for as long as I’m not lying on any aspect, whatsoever. I offer everything that I do onto God, especially this role, and I ask Him to guide me throughout every scene. And I ask for wisdom, discernment, guidance for every scene, episode, every line, and He does the rest.”
Years of portraying Christ, however, has made Roumie see himself more as an “apostle” than the Messiah himself.
“I just see myself as a missionary, a media missionary, a media apostle. When I look back at it, all the seasons we dropped along the way, from 2013 to 2018 when we first started filming ‘The Chosen,’ the number of times I was cast as Jesus, after the fourth time, I said, ‘Now, hold on! Wait a second! What were You trying to tell me?’ And He was like, ‘Oh, you just wait!’ And ‘The Chosen’ kind of put into focus exactly what my mission is to be in this stage of my life – to spread Jesus’ name far and wide as best as I can,” he said before last Friday’s premiere of “The Chosen” Christmas special “Holy Night.”
Set to premiere in the Philippines on December 11, “Holy Night” tells the story of the nativity, with worship music integrated to be part of the film, including the rare duet of father-and-son Andrea and Matteo Bocelli and the Philippines’ The Feast Worship.
“It’s about Christ as the reason for the season of Christmas,” Roumie said.
When asked what other Biblical character he would like to portray apart from Jesus, Jonathan said he rummaged his mind over characters in the Old and New Testaments.
“I thought about Samson because of the hair. But he’s quite the built, so it would take a little bit more training to get to Samson. But maybe one day, David will be pretty nice,” he said, earning loud cheers from the crowd.
“But Moses, he was kind of an underdog. And the stuff that he saw, the things that he did, were just absolutely incredible… So, between Moses and David, one of those would be pretty cool!”
Related: From jobless, ‘deep in debt’: Jonathan Roumie shares ‘miracle’ before playing Jesus in ‘The Chosen’
For “Mr. Pure Energy” Gary Valenciano, who was among the Filipino celebrities that graced the “Holy Night” premiere, “The Chosen” somehow changes people’s stereotyping of Jesus as the series “serves as a different perspective of who Jesus is kasi you get a perspective from the people around Jesus.”
“It resonates a lot with me because ever since I was a child, the way I felt Jesus was talking to me is exactly the way Jonathan portrays him to be – you know, very tender but very firm; very loving but with authority with every word that He says,” Valenciano said in a teal carpet interview prior to the “Holy Night” screening in SM Megamall.
“Jesus was human, and that’s what you see in ‘The Chosen’,” the devout Christian enthused. “If you watch ‘The Chosen,’ you get a different perspective of who Jesus can be to you. The reason that I said ‘can be’ is because He is, but the choice is yours as to who you want Him to be to you.” — Video by Deni Bernardo, video editing by Anjilica Andaya
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