Playing the role of Simon Peter’s younger brother Andrew in The Chosen had “completely shaped” American actor Noah James’ understanding of Jesus and the disciples.
Mr James was recently interviewed by Auckland Catholic diocese ministries for young people manager Sam Brebner over Zoom and Facebook Live as part of Project Lift Up / Whakapiki ake. The project’s aim was to provide people a lift through prayer, speakers, music and faith-filled online content, particularly during the Covid-19 lockdown.
The Chosen is a new streaming series on the life of Jesus. Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus, is a Catholic.
Mr James gave glimpses of what it was like behind the scenes of the television series that has set records for crowd-funding of such a project. The Chosen has about a quarter of a billion or 240.73 million viewers on its free app and more than three million subscribers on You Tube.
“When you get to 100 million (viewers) . . I don’t take that in. I try not to take that in,” he said.
Mr James, who was infectious, exuberant and energetic during the interview, said he believes coming from a secular background is “a gift”.
“I don’t come with pre-conceived notions. One of the things I try to bring to the show is a clean slate perspective,” he said.
He confessed that he was “guarded” when he first came into the show.
“There’s a fear that I think we all have sometimes. Oh, maybe we’re not going to get along or maybe they’re going to do something to me or change me. That guardedness for me went away,” he said.
Mr James said working on the show has shaped his view of Jesus and the disciples.
He said that, coming from a secular background, where Jesus’ teachings are filtered through the popular media or “people in the news”, his work in portraying Andrew meant going directly to the “source material”, which is the Gospels.
“I feel I have much better understanding from the source, from the Gospels. Playing them out, learning the lines and speaking them . . . it does have that effect, it is sort of opening my eyes. I’m really grateful to have that experience and to continue,” he said.
Mr James spoke of his first scene, which was when he ran up to Simon after seeing Jesus for the first time.
“It hurts me to watch it,” he laughed, recalling how he started out “pumped-up” at 6.30 in the morning, and how his body shut down eight hours later.
He also told of how, in the ‘miracle of the catch of fish’ scene, they had to literally pull out of the water a huge and heavy green burrito that the show’s creators can put the special effects on. They were in a boat on the lake in winter for 15 hours shooting that scene.
“That gives me chills thinking about it now, because it means so much in the moment to us as characters that our lives are going to be okay, to put it mildly,” Mr James explained.
“But to also accomplish it as actors was a beautiful meeting of real life and what the characters were experiencing. When we pulled that green burrito on that boat, some of us were yelling and some of that makes it in the final cut.”
“In that moment, I was just like screaming to Shahar [Isaac who plays Simon Peter], ‘I told you! I told you! The Messiah has arrived! This is true!’,” Mr James recalled. “And that was just a beautiful moment for all of us.”
Mr James said he received some wonderful messages from viewers of The Chosen as well as some “aggressive, almost attacking” ones for being secular. He said he just treats the negative ones with empathy.
Mr James said he is also frequently asked which moments in the Gospel excite him.
“I’m like excited for all of it. I get to live it out, and so things that I would think would go one way, that is not the way it was at all. And I love them.”
[…] background and didn’t know much about Jesus Christ until he became a part of The Chosen. According to him, the series has given a better understanding of Jesus and his […]