"The Chosen" actor Jonathan Roumie told "The View" on Monday that he has heard from fans who were "lifelong atheists" who converted to Christianity after watching the show, as he discussed how his relationship to Christ brought authenticity to his character.
"The Chosen" is a drama that follows the life of Jesus Christ, who is depicted by Roumie, and stars Elizabeth Tabish, Shahar Isaac, Noah James and Paras Patel, among others.
Co-host Ana Navarro asked Roumie, "Do you think you could play that role if you weren't as spiritual and religious as you are?"
"I don't think it would have the same kind of authenticity. I think what I bring to the role is my relationship to Christ, is my relationship with Jesus, and my love for him. And so, by taking on his love for humanity and trying to recreate that, it's made me a better person. It's made me want to love people," Roumie said.
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Co-host Sunny Hostin asked him about specific anecdotes in which "The Chosen" has changed people's lives.
"Every so often, I randomly go through DMs on Instagram, for instance, because that's the platform I'm most active on and I just randomly will just pick - I pick two different people and both of these people that wrote to me happened to have been lifelong atheists and never had any interest in God and somehow somebody sent them the show and all of a sudden it's like that first episode just kind of grabs hold of you. And if God wants to, He will find you. He will follow you. He will go after you," Roumie said.
The actor said the two people became interested in the Bible and started attending church before they converted to Christianity.
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"To me, that's remarkable," he said during the discussion.
Co-host Sara Haines asked earlier in the interview why filming the sixth season was so difficult for him, as it follows Jesus' crucifixion.
"I think as an actor, you're always looking for truth in a character and to be able to find that and to play a character authentically you have to enter into whatever that character's truth in the story is and for Jesus it becomes doubly intense because I'm now trying to enter into the truth of what it meant to go through torture and crucifixion. And so it's not just the physicality of recreating that, it's the emotional impact that that has, it's the mental, the psychological impact of entering into Christ's crucifixion and his torture, that once you participate in that, and I asked God to allow me some sense of what that would be like, and He didn't disappoint. And it's something that I'm still actively processing right now," he said.
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The sixth season of "The Chosen" is set to premiere in 2026.
