‘The Chosen’ Star Jonathan Roumie Previews Jesus’s Season 5 Challenges as Crucifixion Nears

This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s The Chosen: Special Easter Issue. For a deep-dive into the wildly popular series and its upcoming fifth season, pick up a copy of the issue available on newsstands and order online here.

Have you met Jesus? Well, we’ve met actor Jonathan Roumie, which feels pretty close to the real deal. Though he’s quick to point out that he is not, in fact, the Son of God, the gracious star of The Chosen has given fans all around the world the gift of one of the most well-rounded portrayals of Jesus in TV and movie history. He jokes with the Apostles, He dances at weddings, He plays ball — and we want to follow Him. We also see the anguish behind His eyes at what’s to come. Like the olive in the press, Jesus feels the weight of the world, and in Season 5, that pressure continues to squeeze.

Roumie takes the daunting task of portraying Jesus’ Crucifixion onscreen seriously, and though Season 5 will only take the series as far as the Garden of Gethsemane, it’s always looming. But as we sat down with Roumie in July 2024 on the Midlothian, Texas, set, his spirits were high. The Catholic convert celebrated his 50th birthday earlier that week and had recently returned to the Season 5 set after spending time with his family.

And how could life be anything but good? Aside from starring on the mega-hit, Roumie was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree for his dedication to his faith in March 2024. He’s met the Pope on more than one occasion and been nominated for a papal knighthood. “It can be surreal at times,” he told TV Guide Magazine in 2023. “[Playing Jesus has] completely deepened my faith and affected my relationship with God. It makes me want to be a better version of myself and the best human being possible. I’ve been put here to play this character for a reason, I believe. And if that’s to allow people to get closer to their faith and to develop a relationship with God, what more could I ask for as an actor?”

Roumie talks about picking up the whip and teases the drama to come.

You recently turned 50, but you play Jesus in His thirties so convincingly that most people watching don’t even realize that there’s a nearly 20-year age gap. What’s your secret?

Jonathan Roumie: I don’t think of myself as a particular number. I don’t feel my age. I think, biologically, I’m probably much younger. I think it’s what allows me to pass as the age of the character. So I think God knew what He was doing. [Laughs] You know, I live a pretty clean lifestyle, so I think that’s all helped, and genetics help as well.

I’m grateful that I get to play this role, which has been one of the most impactful and incredible roles an actor can ever play. It’s one of the most complex I think anybody could ever play. So I feel very, very fortunate.

There are some heavy scenes coming up in Season 5. Jesus is going to lose His temper, and we’ll see the cleansing of the temple from Scripture. Did you have to do any whip training for those scenes?

I did. I trained with a legendary whip master named Anthony De Longis, who trained Harrison Ford for one of the Indiana Jones films [2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull] and Michelle Pfeiffer for Batman Returns. Once I knew that there was some whip craft needed for Season 5, I wanted to make sure that I knew what I was doing, and I didn’t injure myself. I spent a lot of time with [the whip], and it’s now a new passion and a hobby. I love it.

What’s going on in Jesus’ head when He picks up that whip in The Chosen?

I think He’s calling out injustice. He’s at the limit of his tolerance for injustice because of how the poorest of the poor are being treated by the so-called religious authorities. And He, being the ultimate religious authority, calls them out, and He calls them out in a way that irrevocably changes His fate on Earth. So that’s something that’s just been really a joy to get to play.

You’re most of the way through shooting the fifth season. What is your mindset in terms of preparing for the Crucifixion in Season 6?

It’s getting closer and closer. We’re literally on the doorsteps of the Crucifixion scenes, and narratively, chronologically, we’re within 24 hours of that coming to fulfillment. And so, I have to start thinking about it a little bit now.

Meanwhile, Jesus is still trying to explain what’s going to happen to His disciples — and it’s not going well.

Our conversations in Season 5, mostly, are centered around Jesus trying to impress upon the somewhat hapless disciples the gravity of what is to come in the next several days [seen] throughout the season, and them wrestling with not actually quite getting it. He’s really trying to speak very plainly, and it’s just not registering. And it doesn’t, as we know from Scripture, quite register until the Resurrection.

The Chosen, Season 5, Premieres in Theaters, Friday, March 28