THE CHOSEN Star Shares How Her Role Impacts Her Faith
By Movieguide® Contributor
Elizabeth Tabish recently shared how her role as Mary Magdalene in THE CHOSEN has impacted her personal relationship with Jesus.
“Living with these scenes and living with the words of these scenes…I’m thinking about it all day long,” she explained. “I’m thinking about the character, the goal for the character, of what they’re wanting in the scene…And it starts seeping into my own sort of consciousness. It becomes sort of an ongoing meditation almost on these themes.”
“That influences you,” the actor continued. “When you’re living with it for so long, you start almost thinking that [way], which I think is a gift when you’re working on shows like [THE CHOSEN], because I’m constantly thinking about Mary Magdalene’s love for Jesus and that shifts into my love for Jesus.”
Movieguide® previously reported on how her role in THE CHOSEN transformed Tabish from a skeptic to a believer.
“God has been there the whole time,” Tabish continued. “There are these moments in the show where I’m actually saying that: ‘In the depths, in the heights, You are there.’ So there’s been these really sweet, sort of idiosyncratic things for me personally throughout this show that are constant reminders that God’s love is real. It’s a real thing and I’ve been slowly opening up to it.”
Additionally, Tabish recently started shooting for Angel Studios’ upcoming movie THE SHIFT, a sci-fi movie loosely based on the book of Job.
She added that she feels “lucky that I get to live in those mental spaces with roles that are really life-affirming and hopeful,” reflecting on her roles as Mary Magdalene and in THE SHIFT.
These roles have also allowed Tabish to explore the hardship that comes with following Christ.
“The reality is it gets harder, because you’re still living in this world and you’re clinging to values and believing in values that are unseeable,” she said.
“It’s this intangible thing that you know in your heart and to act those things out is difficult when, yes, the entire world is like, ‘Do the easy thing, do the cheap thing, do the thing that gives you a shortcut to what is perceived as maybe the good life,’ but it’s devoid of joy sometimes, because it’s also devoid of the struggle.”
“I think the struggle is what makes us who we are,” Tabish added. “I think it’s the struggle that creates stronger faith, which is exactly the theme in season three of ‘The Chosen,’ the last two episodes.”
“It is that—Jesus creating the storm to strengthen your faith, and that’s an interesting concept and I think it’s a challenging one, too, and a little truer to real life experience,” she reflected.
Movieguide® previously reported on how THE CHOSEN impacted Tabish’s faith:
Elizabeth Tabish, one of the stars of THE CHOSEN, recently revealed how appearing on the hugely popular show about the life of Jesus changed her from a skeptic to a person of great faith.
Tabish plays the role of Mary Magdalene in the show, and her time on set shifted the way the actress viewed Christianity.
“I try to be very rational about things,” she started. “It’s been really hard to ignore that there’s something really special about this experience for me. I feel like I wasn’t able to — I wouldn’t have been able to connect with the Lilith portion of [Mary Magdalene] had I not gone through some painful things.
“Because of that, I’m realizing … God has been there the whole time,” Tabish continued. “There are these moments in the show where I’m actually saying that: ‘In the depths, in the heights, You are there.’ So there’s been these really sweet, sort of idiosyncratic things for me personally throughout this show that are constant reminders that God’s love is real. It’s a real thing and I’ve been slowly opening up to it.”
Tabish also spoke about the lessons she has learned while working on THE CHOSEN.
“You’re going to make mistakes,” the actress stated. “The beautiful thing about that, though, is you’re always still loved, no matter what. And the further you go into accepting that, the less painful those lessons have to be. So I feel like she’s constantly teaching me it’s about growth, it’s about continuing, it’s about being in a process instead of being perfect.”
“And what a relief that is,” Tabish concluded, “To just do your best. You don’t have to change the world, but you can change yourself.”
- Content: +1Share:
- Content: +1