By Marc Massery
Thirty years ago, after watching the television series “Jesus of Nazareth,” 12-year-old Jonathan Roumie of Massapequa, New York, felt so inspired that he grabbed a couple of two-by-fours, hammered them into a cross, and reenacted the Passion narrative.
“I would process around the backyard,” he recalls. “I would plant the cross in the garage in a cinder block to hold it up, and then I would stand on the cinder block with my arms outstretched.”
Thirty-three years later, he’s doing that for a living.
Jonathan stars as Jesus Christ in the streaming series “The Chosen.” Directed and produced by evangelical filmmaker Dallas Jenkins, the series has become a motion picture miracle unto itself.
A pilot episode of the series, released in 2017 to gauge interest, garnered more than 15 million views and inspired 15,000 people to donate a total of more than $10 million toward the creation of more episodes. Eight of those episodes were released this past year. All told, this has reportedly made “The Chosen” the highest-grossing crowdfunded media project in history, with potentially enough excitement and committed donors to see it through to six or seven more seasons.
“I can’t tell you how many people have said, ‘[This show] brought me back to Jesus,’” said Jonathan, whose credits include appearances on NBC’s “Chicago Med,” “Law & Order,” and “Parenthood”; HBO’s “Ballers” and “The Newsroom”; and the films “Revolutionary Road,” “Once We Were Slaves,” and “Dead Bullet,” among others.
A Divine Mercy devotee baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church, Jonathan has won a growing following on social media, too, where every day at 3 p.m. (PT) he livestreams a holy hour from either his Facebook or Instagram page, leading hundreds of souls in the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and sharing intimate details about his faith.
Through his interest in Divine Mercy, he and Fr. Chris Alar, MIC, director of the Association of Marian Helpers, have become fast friends. The two hosted a special livestream program, “A Night of Mercy for Everyone,” on July 30, from Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Homewood, Alabama (see sidebar).
“Jonathan and I met in 2016 in California,” recalled Fr. Chris. “He came to a parish mission of mine. We were introduced by the actress Maria Vargo, who starred in the Saint Luke Productions traveling show ‘Faustina: Messenger of Divine Mercy.’ It’s been a real pleasure for me to watch him grow as an actor and as a Christian.”
A ‘vessel’ of the Holy Spirit
Jonathan first played Jesus in the production of “Faustina: Messenger of Divine Mercy,” a role that he said “solidified my love, respect, and devotion for Divine Mercy.”
That role also prepared him for “The Chosen,” which stands out among other Gospel retellings mostly due to the detail and backstories given to each character.
“Because of the significance that the disciples and the apostles played as evangelists over the years, there’s been this natural tendency to feel they are distant from us somehow as people,” Jonathan said. “What this show strives to do is reconnect people with the humanity that these major players in our faith history truly had and possessed.”
With “The Chosen,” Jonathan is among a cast and crew of mostly Evangelical and Protestant Christians. He said he relies on his Catholic faith and devotion to Divine Mercy to direct his steps.
“I try to empty myself out as much as I can in the process for this particular role and pray the Holy Spirit uses me as the vessel to say these words and to experience the compassion and the mercy and the love that Christ had for humanity in every moment possible on set.”
Indeed, playing Jesus Christ is far more than just a job for Jonathan; it’s a calling. He believes God has been preparing him for this role for a long time.
“He has a design behind all of this,” Jonathan said. “He had a design from when I was 12 years old reenacting the road to Calvary in the backyard.”
A westward leap of faith
A first generation American of Egyptian and Irish decent, Jonathan, 46, said his early interest in music and drawing led him to study film in Manhattan.
In the 1990s, he took a job as a set-builder, working on several seminal hip-hop music videos featuring pop music icons such as Biggie Smalls and P. Diddy. He was also a location scout for the blockbuster “I Am Legend,” starring Will Smith. He’s taken jobs as a voiceover artist, was a recurring character on some television soap-operas, and landed some “small roles in some other big films.”
In his 30s, he took a leap of faith by moving to Los Angeles to try to fulfill his dream of making it there as a full-time actor.
“If I had known how hard it was going to be, I may not have been so decided on moving out here,” he said. “But it’s allowed me to really be comfortable with who I am as a person and an artist. The trial of fire of coming out here has really shaped my faith journey and brought me to a place now that I’m just trying on a daily basis to surrender my will and go where He leads me.”
Not long after Jonathan moved to Los Angeles, God opened doors for him to portray Jesus.
The role in “Faustina: Messenger of Divine Mercy” felt like a spiritual homecoming of sorts for him. Jonathan’s father had been praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet since the early 1990s. And as a graphic artist, Jonathan had long been intrigued by the Divine Mercy Image, given to the world through St. Faustina in the 1930s. In fact, when he was still on the East Coast, Jonathan had experienced a small “Divine Mercy miracle” that would be a sign of things to come.
He recalled thinking, “I love the Image of Divine Mercy, but I wish I could find a version of the Image that was in the style of a Greek Orthodox icon, because I had never seen anything like that.”
So he prayed for something nice and small that would fit on his wall.
“And three days later, an icon about 4 by 10 [inches] showed up outside my door on top of the mailboxes,” he said. “It was the Divine Mercy in the style of a Greek Orthodox icon.”
He told the story to Leonardo Defilippis, the creator of “Faustina: Messenger of Divine Mercy,” who promptly responded, “Well, clearly, you’re the guy who has to play Jesus in the story about Divine Mercy.”
A struggling actor surrenders
Just six months after landing that first role as Jesus, Jonathan auditioned for a short film called “The Two Thieves,” produced by Dallas Jenkins, which tells the story of the two men crucified beside Christ. Jonathan wanted the lead role as one of the two thieves, but once again he was cast as Jesus.
“I was slightly disappointed because Jesus only had five lines,” he said. “But, you know, it’s Jesus.”
Playing Jesus in this role for Jenkins, of course, would set Jonathan up to take the lead as Jesus in “The Chosen” a few years later.
Until that breakthrough role, though, Jonathan would struggle to make his dream working as a full-time actor a reality.
“I was juggling seven different side jobs, voiceover coaching, dialect coaching, I did work as a care provider,” he recalled. “I was a caterer in two different companies. I was just finishing driving up for a rideshare company. I was painting houses. Anything I could cobble together to make money, I did it.”
Eventually, this way of living led Jonathan to a breaking point. In May 2018, he found his bank account overdrawn $80 and had just $20 cash in his pocket.
“So, I literally was on my knees in prayer on a Saturday in May two years ago. I said, ‘If this is what I’m supposed to be doing, You need to show me. You need to step in and take these problems, these obstacles out of my life right now, because I don’t know how to think them out myself. I’ve tried, but I’m done. So, I’m just going to surrender it all to You, and now it’s Your problem.’”
That afternoon, Jonathan received four checks in his mailbox, acting residuals he hadn’t been expecting.
“That cleared all my bills coming up, put food on my table, and literally changed my life, just by God merely answering that prayer. I was so dumbfounded. I remember looking up at this crucifix that hangs over my kitchen, saying, ‘So this is how it’s going to be, huh? Complete surrender? OK, You got it.’”
Three months later, he was confirmed to play Jesus in “The Chosen” series.
“It’s pretty profound, and I have A n’t had that nature of stress since,” he said. “I don’t allow anxiety to affect me in that way anymore because of my commitment to surrendering … . Even amidst this pandemic, I’m not stressed because I’ve given complete and utter trust, and as I’ve done that, God has been so great and taken such great care of me, it’s profound.”
Stirring conversations
Since “The Chosen” went viral during the nationwide lockdown in the spring, reaching more than 50 million views, Jonathan has been using his popularity to spread the Gospel message outside the context of acting.
As to his daily holy hours on social media, he said, “I’ve gotten so many Protestants asking about Divine Mercy, you have no idea. Thousands of people have been tuning in over the last several weeks.”
“One guy said, ‘I’m not Catholic, but I have been saying the Chaplet. I used to have anxiety attacks and these attacks have stopped since I started praying the Chaplet.’ I could send you screenshot after screenshot of people thanking me for saying the Chaplet and that they never prayed it before.”
And what’s the future for “The Chosen”?
It has secured funding from crowdsourcing to make the first five episodes of season two, which Jonathan hopes will start filming by the end of 2020.
“What really makes this different from anything else is the conversations that are being had,” Jonathan said. “It’s stirring up these ecumenical conversations and trying to foster unity among Christians that most other projects have never done before.”
To watch the “The Chosen,” download “The Chosen” app on your smartphone or find the show on YouTube.
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