How God Prepared Jonathan Roumie for His Role on THE CHOSEN
By Movieguide® Contributor
From a broke actor to a worldwide phenomenon, God used everything in Jonathan Roumie’s life to prepare him to take on his biggest role as Jesus on THE CHOSEN.
Roumie was interested in acting from a young age. Growing up in a Christian household, many of his role models were the actors who played Christian heroes on screen. After watching Franco Zeferelli’s JESUS OF NAZARETH, Roumie reenacted the crucifixion in his backyard.
“That’s the power of media, that’s the power of the image, and when you have an image, I think with the JESUS OF NAZARETH, I really feel that Zeferelli was inspired by the Holy Spirit. I think it had such power to reach in,” Roumie explained while recalling the event. “When you go to some of the religious bookshops and they have portraits of Jesus and it’s Robert Powell’s face, and even seeing images of my own face, to me is shocking and bizarre and I don’t know how anybody ever reconciles that, especially playing Jesus.”
Roumie would go on to study acting at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, graduating with a BFA in film and video production. With these skills, he was able to begin landing small roles on shows like CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH, LAW & ORDER, THE MINDY PROJECT and THE GOODWIFE. Meanwhile, he took on odd jobs to supplement his income.
Unsatisfied with the acting opportunities in New York, Roumie made the big move to L.A. to improve his chances of hitting it big. He was, however, met with the same routine of landing small, inconsistent roles. Eventually, Roumie ran out of money and was desperate for a change.
He had given acting everything he had, so Roumie committed his career to the Lord. In that moment, he felt the peace of the Lord come over him, and trusting that God would take care of him, he took himself out to breakfast, spending the last $30 he had in his bank account.
“I was at the lowest point in my life without any glimmer of hope or aspirations of change,” Roumie wrote in an Instagram post commemorating that day. “All I would do in this moment was submit to Jesus my existence and my purpose. By the grace, mercy, and mystery of God, through an act of complete surrender, my life would be changed forever, mere hours later.”
Roumie came home to find multiple royalties checks in his mailbox, many from shows he had not received money from in years. In comparison to where he was that morning, Roumie was rich. He also had assurance that God was on his side and any success he would have in the future would not be his own doing but the Lord’s.
A few months later, he was asked to join a small faith-based show, which would go on to become THE CHOSEN. Everything in his life had led up to that moment, allowing him to humbly portray Jesus on a show that has reached half a billion people and counting.
“Everything was in God’s hands, with no guarantees. And we were all OK with that,” he said about the early days of THE CHOSEN. “It’s still astonishing to see how far we’ve come in that time, but an undoubted testament to the power of submission to the Lord and how much further He will take you if you let Him into your life, and specifically, your trials.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Roumie:
In an interview with Movieguide®’s Evy Baehr Carroll, Jonathan Roumie of THE CHOSEN said he feels his journey was “designed” by God.
“I believe that God has had this plan for me from the time I was 12 years old,” said Roumie of playing Jesus in the breakout hit series THE CHOSEN.
Movieguide® previously reported how Roumie had next to nothing when he was about to give up his dream. It was when he surrendered everything to God that the Lord provided even more than he could imagine.
Now, Roumie said, “I found my mission, so I don’t stress about how I’m being taken care of, even in a pandemic I put all my faith, my trust in God.”
The actor had always had faith in God but revealed that his faith grew “exponentially” while working on THE CHOSEN.
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