Jonathan Roumie
Appearances
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
And so in many ways, you have a gift for humanity that, that you might not even be considering in that light. You know what I mean?
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
No, but it's absolutely true because we're not just, I don't think we're just meant to be here to just eke out a living and get a job and maybe have a family, make some money and then die. Like we have a conversation and some sort of fruit comes comes out of that for somebody else hearing this interview. And all of a sudden, the trajectory that they were on all of a sudden changes.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
They learn something or they had misconceptions about Christians or Catholics or, you know, non-Christians that they didn't before. And now they have a better dialogue. It's like, that's part of, I think, what we're all here to do. I don't give my political opinions out publicly.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
Well, here's what I'll say about that.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
Yeah, it's a pro-life rally. It's, for me, and I was on the fence about speaking there because I recognize that for so many people, it is only political. For me, it is only spiritual.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
So if I come to a conference like the March for Life and they want me to share thoughts, well, I'm thinking like, well, what do I believe as a Catholic? I believe in the sanctity of life from the moment of conception. That's what we believe as Catholics and Christians. And so for me,
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
It's a spiritual thing that has been usurped and turned into a political weapon that divides people in such a way where they no longer see the spirituality of the issue. It becomes completely about right or left, conservative or liberal. I don't understand it. So for me, that That wasn't politics, that was spirituality.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
You can't cherry pick the aspects of your faith you like and dispense with the things you don't like. You said it yourself, I came not to bring peace, but to bring a sword. You know, fathers will divide themselves against their sons, mothers and daughters. Because of things like this, these kinds of issues that I think for Jesus, it's like, if you're going to follow me, it's not going to be easy.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
It's going to be really hard and people will hate you. Get used to it.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I mean, I do do that. In fact, I was just in Tanzania and Rwanda visiting these children that I support and their families, which I had been doing even before The Chosen. A year before The Chosen, I found this charity called Unbound. And I saw the work that they were doing and they were amazing. They were changing not just the children's lives through sponsorship, but entire families.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
So I'm doing as much as I can. And I weigh every opportunity that comes to me to speak on these things very carefully. And I also... I also know that there's only so much that I can give of myself. Do you know what I mean? It's a lot. It's a lot for me physically and emotionally. It can get really, really taxing at times.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
And so I'm trying to do things like just take better care of myself and try to go on more vacations. But it's hard to find time these days. But, you know, sleep when you're in the ground, right?
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
Well, let's see how this goes.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
It's super dark.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I think we've reached a point now in culture where... Seeing depictions and images and symbolism of Satan and Satanism and demons and witchcraft and the symbols that's related to all of the occult are so frequent and regular that it's so easy to become desensitized. I think your mind just filters it. Like, oh, I've seen that so many times now. It doesn't even register anymore.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
And if you go back a couple of decades ago, you would never see anything like that. And I've seen it more, I think, in the music industry. Demonic imagery in music videos and immodesty and all of these things that the youngest of our society are subjected to and shouldn't be, I don't believe. I think, for me, remembering that speech...
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
My heart was for the kids that see certain things like on music videos and then they reenact them themselves or they wear what they're seeing because it's what's popular and fashionable and they don't have any idea that
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
Some of the imagery or the symbols or the words that are being used are, from a spiritual standpoint, really, really damaging and really dangerous on a level that we've never seen before.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
Oh, I'm a huge Iron Maiden fan. Iron Maiden. Number of the beast. I'm like, well, you know, I can't really wear that t-shirt so much anymore.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
So my question for you is, but you're also referencing like that, like black, like rock and, and the imagery from, from those bands in that time are different than some of the more modern. I'd like if, if certain, I think it's much more graphic and sexualized like sexuality and, is so much more prevalent in the media, especially in music.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
The display of sexuality and the dark images connected to sexuality are so much more blatant than they ever were 30, 40 years ago.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I mean, I think it could be a combination of a number of things. I think it could be how society at large has framed faith and religion and banished it from visible culture, you know, from areas in the culture where you used to
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
see more people i think framing their faith within the context of what they do or like even presidents and people would invoke just in their speech would invoke god in the way that they don't do that anymore and i think it doesn't seem like there's a shortage of politicians talking about but not without a negative connotation to it put it this way um i'll speak for myself
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I had a conversation several years ago about the discussion of faith in the workplace. They were a non-actor. It was a sort of a production member. And I know we shared a similar faith and we hadn't really talked about it, but there was a spark of a conversation that made me think, oh, let me ask them about this. And They went on to carefully admonish me like, hey, just be careful.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
You really shouldn't talk about these kinds of things because a lot of people are biased against Christians in this industry. So you might want to just kind of keep a lid on that. And I thought, but it's just us talking. Do you know what I mean? And I think...
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
What I recognized is that there was such a deep fear of being, quote unquote, found out that they had a sense of faith that it was just, it was not okay to possess that. And for me, that's not okay. It's not okay to be told I can't practice my faith or express it, especially if I'm not going around saying, here's the Bible, do me a favor, just read that. I'm not asking anybody to convert.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I think what makes it feel like that, that we have, that all those other portrayals didn't have access to, was the format of time to build characters and build relationships over time. You're seeing, you know, the nuances of his character, his quirks, the humanity of these characters, the day-to-day of these characters. And so, if you believe they existed, and I do, they were human beings.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I'm not. I've never once said, do me a favor, you should convert. I just live out my, my, my mission here. I, I be who I am. And if people want to ask me questions or invite me to come talk to, you know, 200,000 people and share my thoughts about certain things, I'll pray on it first. Like with the March, I didn't even, I, the weeks were leading right up to it. I didn't want to do it.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I thought this can't be good for an actor. Uh, But then I got to this moment that I had when I first completely surrendered everything to God before I booked The Chosen. And it was the same feeling of, you know what? I'm asking you to do this and not worry about it. And it was like this wave of peace just kind of swept over me. And he said, just speak from the heart.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
No. No, I think one of the reasons that we're successful and It's one of the priorities for both Dallas and myself, and I think everybody involved, is that we recognize first and foremost, this is a TV show. It's based on scriptures, based on the gospels, but there's stuff that we've had to take creative license in certain situations to be able to tell a more well-rounded story.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
But if the vehicle of this story is anything less than top quality, if it's not a great TV show first, than anything else that any of us might want to have people take away from the show from a personal perspective or a faith perspective, none of that's going to matter. You know what I mean?
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
Like if you take a piece of gold and you wad it up in a ball of trash and you throw it on the sidewalk and say, you should pick that up, like, no, get lost. You know, nobody's going to want to even touch it. They'll just walk by it. So it's the same thing. Like if the message behind the show is a little piece of gold wrapped up in a wad of garbage, forget it. You're done. Next. Move on.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
So, yeah, it still has to be a great TV show first. And then everything else from that can flow.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
Yeah, no, I'm not. And it's really true, David. Like, whatever happens, man, whatever's meant for me will be mine. Do you know what I mean? If I did nothing else for the rest of my life as an actor on camera, but Jesus and the Chosen, and that's all people remembered me for. Well, the fact that they remember me at all, that's amazing.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
Like, I'm good because the show is just a vehicle for this point of human contact and this encounter that we're all meant to have with each other and with the divine beyond us.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
To get to the point now where globally it's one of the most watched TV shows in the entire world, and 30% of that audience is non-religious, I think that's pretty significant. And so I don't really know why Hollywood would be afraid of that.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
So, theology aside... Nobody's ever explored that humanity. Nobody's ever wondered, well, what would it be like to crack a joke with Jesus, to have a glass of wine with Jesus, to see him dancing at a wedding? Because if you're human, laughing and joking and frustration and the entire spectrum of emotions are part of the human process, part of the human journey, part of the struggle.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
Of course, it's my pleasure.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
Yeah, it's... It's been almost 100% secularized in terms of media and culture. I think it's hard to sort of see it being hijacked, but it's been like that for... I remember as a kid seeing these signs around churches around Christmas time. It says, keep Christ in Christmas. And especially now, any movie that comes out during the season that's about Christmas.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
There's no trace of Jesus in it at all. So it's unfortunate, but that's why guys like Dallas Jenkins are around to kind of give people the alternatives like, oh yeah, this is what this is about. And then however I can,
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
contribute in my own way like to remember that yes christmas is supposed to be joyful but at the end of the day you know the birth of christ is meant to ultimately lead us to the cross of christ to bring the world hope and salvation and and everything that comes with with that
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I don't know why, because I think when you look at the numbers with how The Chosen has performed and how other projects like Jesus Revolution have done with audiences, there's an audience that's there. But I think maybe because for so long there has been
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
a rash of media and content and films made under the guise of being related to faith that have just missed the mark in terms of excellence, or they read as so heavy-handed in their attempts to proselytize that essentially they're made for the choir. With The Chosen, it's like, well, we really see ourselves as a historical drama. And so 30% of our audience now is non-religious.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
Like, that's a lot. And for a show that the early adopters were Christians, to get to the point now where globally it's one of the most watched TV shows in the entire world, and 30% of that audience is non-religious, I think that's pretty significant. And so I don't really know why Hollywood would be afraid of that.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I think that's a great question. I think the simplest way to describe it is knowing or arriving at the position of where I recognize that my ability to control my destiny, my fate, my path, whatever you want to call it, ultimately I believe is beyond me. Yet I have to participate in the process of moving forward, of achievement, of trying to follow the direction that I believe I'm meant to go.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
He went through all of these things that we do so that we would have somebody to relate to as we're going through these trials ourself.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
When I came to the conclusion in that moment that we talked about, that moment of surrender, I came to the conclusion that for the previous eight years up to that point, I think that God had an idea or a plan for me, and then it's like He said, okay, this is, I've given you these gifts, I've given you these talents, do something with them.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
And I'm kind of like, oh, okay, let me go do something with them. And sort of leaving him out of the discernment process when it came to certain steps to take to move forward. And so I did that for years and years and years, and I think as a person of faith, you necessarily cannot keep God separate from any part of your life, especially in areas where you're struggling.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
And for me, it was in a moment of severe stress and anxiety and borderline fiscal destitution that I basically said, I can't do it on my own. I recognize I've been trying to do everything that I thought I was supposed to do. but it hasn't worked.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
And what I realized is that I've never checked in and thought whether or not this particular action was the right move or that was what God might want from my life. So now it was essentially a prayer where I say, I want whatever you want from me because you know better than I do what's good for me. Whatever that is, show me what it is.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I didn't because I think he has to feel human. If he doesn't feel human, most people won't relate to him. I mean, granted, there might be... Scenarios from time to time where, and I've shared this with Dallas, where he and I may not have exactly alignment on like, well, I feel like if he says it like this, it's just a little too casual, you know? Yeah.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
Constantly. God willing, I'm on the path. But that's part of the mystery of faith. God ultimately is unknowable.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
Where are you being tested? You know, they asked St. Paul about that and he never really quite answered directly. He had a prayer. He's like, Lord, take this thorn from my side. Three times he said, I asked the Lord to take this thorn from my side. And that God said, no, I'm not going to take that from you because my grace is sufficient. In other words, he needed Paul personally
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
to have this thing, this weakness, whatever it was, so that Paul would always depend on God for everything that he got. And I feel similarly with my own sort of things. I'm not comparing myself to Paul in any aspect whatsoever, but we all deal with something, right? We're all suffering and struggling with something.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I'm a woefully flawed human being, but I'm trying to do the best that I can with the gifts that I've been given. And by me even just walking my, you know, the walk of faith publicly, it's not something that I ever intended to do. It's something that, you know, during the pandemic, I literally felt pushed to do. And I started doing it. I started praying live on my social media accounts.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
And I thought, what am I doing? This is career killer. Because it was like... It would, first of all, out me, you know, as a Christian. And then, in many cases, even more stringently, out me as a Catholic Christian, which people find even harder to take. You know, there's like a billion Catholics in the world. There are. But, you know, I don't know that they're all here in America.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
And most of my audience... The current president is Catholic.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
But it just wasn't something I'd ever thought to do or wanted to do or felt that I should do. I'd always kept it separate. And then I just felt this, you know, this thought, this, you know, inclination, like you should do this because people are struggling really bad right now. And it's going to bring peace to a lot of people.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
So, you know, I'm just trying to, I'm just trying to go where I'm led, man.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
Thank you. Likewise, David. God bless.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
And he then may come back to me and say, yeah, but here's why. And then he goes through it. I'm like... Okay, I get that.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
Struggle bussing.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I think that the path to that is absolute and uncompromising surrendering to a higher power things that are beyond my control. Because that's what it took, I believe, for me to get to the place where I was ready for an opportunity like this. I had moved to LA and then I struggled for eight years in Los Angeles, only to realize that
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I was trying so hard to control my life, to control my destiny, to do the things that I thought needed to be done to have a successful career as an actor. And they weren't working. I was on government assistance. That ran out. I woke up completely broke one morning six and a half years ago. And I was literally in, it was just, I didn't see any way out. that I could figure out how to make work.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
And so I literally said, God, you take this from me. It's in your hands now. It's not up to me and I'm not gonna worry about it. And I was relieved because I really felt now it wasn't my choice. And then three months later, The Chosen comes along and I thought, okay, I just needed to submit.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I feel that it lends an authenticity to the role that allows me to understand more of why Jesus did the things he did and said the things he did than somebody who is completely unfamiliar. And I think I struggle to follow Jesus like anybody else who considers themselves a Christian. But the struggle is part of it.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
And I think God knows what we struggle with, but we're still challenged to do what he would do in those situations. And I think because I actually believe that, that seems to have lent me a kind of credibility and an authenticity in approaching the character that maybe people haven't seen before.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I think they could. I think if they had... If they had a real understanding of what he represented and why he was so much of a revolutionary to his time and even to today, I think they could.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
But they would have to, I mean, in layman's terms, you'd have to do your research and drop into the character and go Daniel Day-Lewis on it and for three months go live as a rabbi in a kibbutz or something like that. I don't know. But I think with a character like Jesus, I think a lot of people do sort of reduce him to A really great teacher, really cool guy, you know, shared a lot.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
He becomes a sandaled hippie in a lot of, you know, people's minds. They're like, oh, you know, he said some cool stuff and he did some cool things. And it's like, I think he was a little more than that.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
No, because I recognize that none of this is about me. I don't matter in the grand scheme of things. And so I recognize that when I come out to those speeches and people react the way they do and people yell out, Jesus!
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
You know, that they're seeing me as the face of the guy that they've had this response to, this reaction to, while experiencing the show, and I'm the closest thing to the real Jesus that they probably will ever see in person. And so, I think, psychologically, they know I'm not Jesus, but they feel they want me to be the next best thing. I, of course, I cannot go anywhere near that reality, but
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
That said, if I believe everything I believe about my faith, I'm in this position for a reason. I was cast as Jesus and somebody else wasn't. Why? God only knows why.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
You don't matter. Dust in the wind.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I think if I said there wasn't anything at all, I'd be lying. Yeah. Do I allow it to become my reason for doing what I do? No. So the paradox that you're describing, I guess it is kind of hard to make that distinction.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
yes there's for me a sense of mission but the mission is about jesus in this case with the chosen it's about god that's that's what this experience is in playing this role when i meet fans who come out and and i was just in the philippines and it was nuts man like i've never seen anything like it um They were tremendous. They're just so intense.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
And everywhere I go, they're like giving me stuff and little articles and notes and things like that. And so I'm playing this character that people, for the most part, they already love him. They have a relationship with him. And then I come in and I sort of fulfill their idea of who that person is to them in their life. And I'm also one of them in that I have a relationship.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
And a lot of them know that. And a lot of fans know how I feel about Jesus and God and faith and all of those things. And so I think all of that combined, I think it's the reason for my career.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
It can be draining. If I'm meeting you at one of these events and something has moved you to want to, you know, come and have this individual moment that oftentimes happens at some of these things where they'll have like VIP groups that there are certain people that get to have like some one-on-one time, but there's 700 of them. That takes time and it takes energy and
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
A lot of the times it's emotionally charged and, you know, better or worse, that catches up with you after 700 encounters.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I was at a... I was at a conference in a stadium of about 40,000 people. And I came off the stage and shortly thereafter, I got to the little green room where they had us hanging out. And security comes into the room and says, hey, there's a lady outside who's got a child in a wheelchair. Is it okay? She wants to know if she can say hello. And, uh,
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
I came outside and I met the lady and her son and she was already overwhelmed. And she then went on to tell me, she said, you know, our favorite episode is the episode where Tamar, one of the characters, lets her friend down on a stretcher in through the roof of Zebedee's house and Jesus heals him and he can walk again.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
And she says, so I just thought, wouldn't it be great if the same thing happened to my son? And I, and I said, yeah, that would be amazing, but I got to be honest with you, as far as I know, I don't have that gift. But I would love to pray with you if that's okay. So I just stood with them and I prayed with them for a minute. And they were so gracious and thanked me.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
And I walked away and then I just burst into tears. Because I thought to myself, man, on some level, I must have let them down. But they know, they know what I do. They know I'm not a healer. I'm not a preacher. So, Once I got through that line of thought, I recognized that I said, okay, I can't be what she maybe wanted me to be. I can only be who I've been made to be.
The Daily
'The Interview': Jonathan Roumie Plays Jesus to Millions. It Can Get Intense.
That's a great question. I mean, I think first and foremost, the category error thing is kind of funny because I think all of us are not the sum total of what we do. You know, I think you, by what you do as an interviewer and the questions that you ask people and the things that you bring out of people shed light on humanity in ways that other people wouldn't know how to do.