Jonathan Roumie
speaker
264 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Mar 2025
Jonathan Roumie’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
They don't often, nobody really releases figures in streaming for viewership and any of that kind of data. But we do because we're like, well, we don't care. We want to tell people like it's been estimated right now that about 280 million people have seen the show globally.
In the first season I did, there was this moment, especially, which I've kind of talked about at times where, and it's still, I think it's still sort of affects me. I actually like telling the story because it's a reminder for me to remember what it's all about and who I'm serving as I endeavor to portray this role. And so we were about midway through the first season.
And the time came for me as Jesus to start preaching, you know, full on sermons. And we started filming sermons. And then as I was going through these words, I suddenly, it's like I kind of felt I was outside of myself, listening to myself preach to a crowd outside the doors of, in our story, Zebedee, James and John's father, Zebedee's house.
And there was a crowd of people that was growing, a crowd of onlookers, you know, our wonderful background actors that participate in the show, and many of whom have participated for years. This crowd starts growing outside the house as Jesus begins preaching, and the scene's not specifically about Jesus, it's about other stuff that's happening in the background,
that becomes the foreground of the story. And in the background, Jesus is preaching, but I still have to preach. I still have to say these lines from scripture convincingly and try to mesmerize and galvanize the people that are listening to me and get their attention. And they seemed really attentive, so much so that it made me really self-aware. And I thought, what am I saying?
What are these words? Like, these are holy, holy words set by the holiest being that ever walked the face of the earth. I shouldn't be doing this. This, this feels wrong. And so I would have those feelings and then, you know, we would stop and then move on to the next setup and put the camera in a different place. And then as it, as it went on, I just had to stop
the production for a moment to talk to the director, to Dallas Jenkins. And I said, can we just slow down a second? And he said, what's going on? And so I took him aside. I said, listen, man, I'm having a hard time right now. Like,
I was starting to feel panicked and overwhelmed, almost like they'd be, I've only had one panic attack in my life and, and it started to feel like it was creeping into that. And I didn't know what, why, or how, well, I kind of knew, I thought I knew why and, and what was going on, but I just said, can, can we slow it down? And he said, what's, what's going on?
And I said, I'm saying these words and it's, and hearing them, hearing myself say them, I don't feel worthy to be saying them. This is why I tell this story, because it drives home the point of the gift that I've been given in playing this role. And he puts his hand on my shoulder and he says, brother, none of us are truly worthy. But here we are. I mean, it's you and me. Here we are.
We're doing this so that the world may know his story. Those who haven't heard his story. me know the impact that he's had on the world and on our lives personally and i'm slightly paraphrasing because it's been many years since since we shot that but that that was the essence and it settled my spirit and and i thought you know he's right he's right for whatever reason god saw fit to put
for whatever reason, God saw fit to put me in that role and not somebody else. Nobody else auditioned. There weren't auditions for the role. He had just called me up and said, do you want to do this again? And I said, yes, of course. I didn't hesitate. But then when we got to that moment, it started to dawn on me the weight of what it was that I was being given to do
and would then inform the encounters and the experiences that I would have as the show progressed and as we now arrive here at season five, the dawn of season five.
Oh, yeah. I was raised Christian. I was baptized Greek Orthodox. We lived in New York City. And then when my family moved into the suburbs, there weren't really Greek Orthodox options. So my dad, having gone to Catholic school in Egypt, and my mom being Catholic from Ireland and raised in the faith as well, were more than happy to just go down the street to the local Catholic church.
It was familiar to my dad and part of my mom's upbringing. And for myself and my sisters, it just didn't feel different. It just felt... Right? And so I'm in my first communion and my confirmation as a Catholic. And probably when I got into my early 20s, I was revisiting the idea of my Orthodox roots as cousins and family members were getting married in the Orthodox Church.
I so admired the beauty and the sanctity with which they approach the liturgy, which is quite different than Catholicism for the most part. I mean, there's Eastern Catholic rites, which are more similar to Greek Orthodox, but it was different. But it didn't draw me to go back completely. Because I think I just felt like, no, this feels like the truth as I understand it, in God's eyes.
This seems true. And it's the church that Christ himself ultimately started. And for... for the reasons God knows, and despite every effort to thwart it, especially the largest empire in the world at the time, despite the Roman Empire's attempts to stamp it out.
Yeah. It didn't happen. It's still going. And that means something to me. And so doing this show, playing the character of Jesus, working with the Halo app, you know, doing all these prayer and meditation challenges with them, learning more about other stories of faith, other people of faith through like the challenges that we have coming up for Lent here. I've grown deeper in my faith.
It's drawn me closer to the church to want to know more about the aspects of the church that I didn't necessarily grow up learning. I went to public school. So I had the Tuesday afternoon catechism or whatever the day was where you went to catechism. CCD. CCD after school. And I didn't learn any of the things that I've learned in the last several years because that's just not designed that way.
And the church has such a rich history and tradition. It's so vast. It's such a storehouse. There's so much to know and to learn. And through the experiences of playing Christ and getting to force myself to go into
prayer and meditation prior to every season, through these periodical prayer challenges, like we just did one in Advent for Halloween, and now we're doing the Pray 40, which starts today, Ash Wednesday. It's forced me to just spend more time in the presence of God, and it wants me to get closer to Him.
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