Jesus in the Negative World

The star of The Chosen meets The New York Times

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“I’m not the real Jesus. Let’s just get that out of the way. [points at self] TV Jesus. [points at sky] Real Jesus. TV Jesus, real Jesus.”

This was how the Catholic actor Jonathan Roumie introduced his keynote address at last year’s March for Life. It was the first time he’d ventured into the political realm after becoming an overnight breakout star on The Chosen, a serialized TV show dramatizing the life of Jesus. The show currently has an estimated worldwide audience of about 200 million, which has catapulted Roumie to a level of global fame he couldn’t have imagined seven years ago as a broke, “struggle busing” actor. He now enjoys elite Catholic celebrity status, regularly addressing audiences of thousands. He also leads live prayers on his social media and narrates the popular “Hallow” prayer app. In the eyes of The Chosen’s fast-growing fandom, he’s the closest to Jesus they will ever get.

The show is not my tea, personally, with no offense to readers who love it. I have no 2nd Commandment reservations about depictions of Jesus, I’ve just never really picked up what The Chosen is artistically laying down. I’m one of those curmudgeonly types who winces at well-meaning attempts to render biblical stories into a casual contemporary idiom without a good ear for how language works. But for those who like that sort of thing, it’s the sort of thing they’ll like.

However, despite the show’s writing and direction, I’ve always been impressed by Roumie as Jesus. Even when he’s delivering lines that make me cringe, he brings an impressive range and depth of feeling to the performance. He also impressed me as the tragic charismatic evangelist Lonnie Frisbee in Jesus Revolution (even though it required some suspension of disbelief to see him cast as a young man in his 20s). Certain actors just have an indefinable extra “something,” an authentic quality that keeps me invested in whatever they’re doing on the screen. Roumie has “it,” and I predict his career will have places to go after the show completes its run.

Christian-made art generally operates on an ignorable scale of success, but The Chosen is now a big enough phenomenon that The New York Times took notice and dispatched veteran celebrity interviewer David Marchese to see what all the fuss is about. His interview with Roumie dropped the other day. It’s a fascinating watch. As a member of the secular media elite, Marchese seems a little unsure precisely what to make of his subject. Here sits Roumie, a transparently nice, thoughtful, charming fellow, who also happens to be a right-of-center Catholic. You can almost see the unspoken question in Marchese’s mind as the interview progresses: “How?”