Hardly is there a man on the face of the earth who loves playing the part of Christ more than Jonathan Roumie, the lead star on Dallas Jenkins’s series, The Chosen. The serialized depiction of Jesus has been the object of much critique and for good reason. On screen, the series adds entire stories to the biblical narrative that are both ahistorical, modernist, and “CW” level storytelling. Off screen, the show has attracted much controversy for defending pride flags on their set which were prominently featured in their promotional material.
The longer The Chosen goes on, the more fruit of the series is revealed to be destructive. Already, there is a hefty theological debate surrounding whether depictions of Christ are in themselves sinful—a foundational grievance undergirding the Protestant Reformation. Yet it was argued that even if some depictions were permissible, the artistic liberties of The Chosen go beyond historic or memorial renderings.
And while Dallas Jenkins has borne the brunt of the most controversies, the lead star Jonathan Roumie is quite the character himself. To many viewers, Jonathan Roumie is Jesus. When they think of Jesus, they see Jonathan Roumie. The docuseries, Jonathan and Jesus, seeks to explore “the undeniable impact of Jesus Christ on the world throughout history, and how the immense weight of playing the Son of God personally affects not only fans but Jonathan himself.” The series debuted on Amazon Prime and consists of four episodes.
The trailer portrays a variety of interviews, fan interactions, and thoughts from Roumie regarding the impact of his performance as Christ. Yet even the trailer dishonors Christ repeatedly throughout, with a Darwinian psychologist calling Christ “a really iconic character.” Then the trailer unironically makes the 2CV argument by including snippets from popular media that are irreverent towards Christ, including the “baby Jesus bit” from Talladega Nights and a clip from Family Guy. After the first minute the trailer pivots to the impact on Roumie, where he said, “I meet people that tell me that when they pray to Jesus, they see my eyes.” The trailer featured a voiceover that stated that people’s perception of God would be based on Roumie’s portrayal of Christ.
The various guests include secular and nonsecular voices, with several celebrity musicians featured. Theologically, the religious guests are all over the place and skew liberal and/or Catholic. Roumie has already been known to partner with Hallow, a catholic prayer and meditation app, and his Instagram prayers generate massive views.
Episode 1 of the documentary is rather boring, focusing on Roumie traveling to Rome and sightseeing before focusing on his home life. Nevertheless, the first episode conveys that Roumie more than plays the role of Christ but takes on Christ and forms memories with the other disciples. The documentary states, that when playing Christ, Roumie is “forming memories, and feelings, and experiences with the actors that play the apostles. In his mind, he has memories of the apostles as we would with any of our friends…a moment for him, they’re real people.” This goes beyond method acting into something more irreverent.
Although he is an eccentric actor who rose to fame through The Chosen, to Roumie, the role of Christ is more than a role, and he inappropriately makes himself the image bearer of Christ not only in his own mind, but for countless viewers of The Chosen.
