Imagine two actors sitting down, one who’s spent years embodying Jesus and another stepping into the sandals of a young King David. That’s exactly what happened when Jonathan Roumie, star of The Chosen, and Michael Iskander, lead in House of David, got together for a heartfelt conversation. What unfolded was a mix of humor, vulnerability, and deep faith—two guys navigating the wild ride of bringing biblical icons to life. Let’s dive in.
A Playful Start: Fourteen Generations Apart
The chat kicks off with a laugh. “So, I guess I should probably start by saying hello, great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather,” Jonathan quips, leaning into the biblical genealogy that ties Jesus to David. Michael jumps right in: “That’s right. Fourteen generations, right?” Jonathan nods, “Fourteen generations. Hi, great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandson. This is strange.”
“Two worlds colliding,” Michael adds, and you can feel the excitement crackling between them. They’re not just actors—they’re stewards of stories that span millennia, and they know it. Jonathan tosses out a fun idea: “How do you feel about a crossover?” Michael’s all in: “I’m down. Is there a flash-forward somewhere?” Jonathan chuckles, “Okay, I should keep my mouth quiet,” but Michael’s quick to counter, “I think that’s why we’re here—to open our mouths and chat.”
Dreaming of a Crossover
Michael’s got a pitch he can’t resist sharing. “I was going to say I wanted a crossover,” he says. “I was talking to John, and I was like, ‘What about a crossover? Like Psalm 22 vibes, you know what I’m saying?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know.’ So, I’ve pitched it.” Jonathan’s optimism shines through: “Well, where there’s a will, there’s a way.” It’s a light moment, but it hints at the creative passion driving both of them—could we see Jesus and David share the screen someday?
The Weight of Playing Jesus
Things get real when Michael turns the spotlight on Jonathan. “What does it mean for you to play Jesus? How does it change your life spiritually?” he asks. Jonathan takes a beat. “Yeah, that’s not a small answer. It’s a big question. You’re going straight for it—let’s start with the easy ones, right?” he teases. Then he dives in: “What does it mean to play Jesus? I think for me, it’s the role of a lifetime, much as I imagine playing David is for you.”
He didn’t expect how deeply it’d hit people—or him. “What I didn’t expect was just how impactful and personal it was going to be for people on a daily basis,” Jonathan shares. “Encountering people everywhere—from grocery stores to department stores to church, everywhere. Even in cities like New York City, where I’m from, and Los Angeles, where I didn’t anticipate that kind of impact.” He’s still shocked when fans recognize him in places “known to be a bit more culturally removed from the faith identity.”
For Jonathan, it’s more than a gig. “I’ve come to realize that playing this role is part of God’s mission for my life, and it’s one I’ve chosen to accept,” he says, listing “the joys of playing the character, the pain of playing the character, the isolation” as The Chosen nears Jesus’s crucifixion in Season 6. “It’s forced me to reconcile with every aspect of Jesus’s humanity to a degree I’d never meditated on before,” he admits. “I’m grateful for it. It’s changed my life in so many ways.” But it’s not all easy—Season 6 looms heavy. “My attachment to the character is so deep now that it’s the first time I’ve had fleeting thoughts where I don’t want to film this season because it’s going to be brutal,” he confesses.
Michael’s Journey to David
Jonathan flips the script: “When you got cast to play David, what was the first thing that went through your mind? Was there pressure?” Michael’s eyes light up. “It’s been a dream of mine, specifically to play David,” he says. “I was watching The Chosen—almost four years ago—and I saw an ad for it on Instagram. I was like, ‘What’s this?’ I checked it out, and I was weeping every single episode.” He got his family hooked too, earning a “You’re welcome!” from Jonathan.
The dream took root over dinner with his family at 19, right before moving out for an off-Broadway gig in Kimberly Akimbo. “My dream has always been TV and film,” Michael explains. “They said, ‘Well, that’s the type of stuff you want to be doing. Who would you play?’ I thought for a moment and said, ‘Maybe King David. Like a young King David.’” The idea stuck. “The name ‘David’ kept showing up in many different ways,” he recalls. Then came the audition email. “I was like, ‘Wait, this is the David?’ I called my mom: ‘You’re not going to believe it.’ She said, ‘You better do a good job on this one.’”
The process was a rollercoaster—rejections, re-auditions, and a nudge from his mom to “start fasting and praying right now.” It paid off when Jon Erwin met him in New York. “We ended up hanging out for three or four hours,” Michael says, grinning. Erwin’s advice? “I need you to do the work.” Michael promised he would, and after a nail-biting wait, he got the call. “This is not over,” he realized. “The role is here, but the work is so much more.”
A Revolution in Faith-Based Storytelling
Jonathan’s beaming. “You got the gig, bro! Congratulations!” he says. “I’ve seen the first two episodes, and you’re fantastic in it.” Michael blushes: “Thank you. Glory to God.” Jonathan’s impressed: “You’re so good from the get-go. You’re compelling, and I just want to see what you do next. It feels like you’ve made the role very personal.”
He sees a bigger picture too. “It’s this sort of resurgence—or I don’t even know if it’s a resurgence—I feel like it’s a revolution of the genre,” Jonathan says. “These projects tell stories of faith with a level of commitment and devotion to the source material that hasn’t been done with this kind of fervor for maybe 70 years—think Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur.” Michael nods as Jonathan adds, “It’s not just cheese or proselytizing—it’s excellence.”
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Staying True to the Source
Michael felt that excellence in the House of David scripts. “I knew I was going to fight tooth and nail for it to be what it should be,” he says. “I read it and thought, ‘I don’t have to do much fighting here.’” Jonathan gets it: “Isn’t that a relief?” Michael agrees: “To make something real, something that’s going to touch someone’s heart—it’s really hard. Thankfully, the scripts were amazing.”
He took it further, insisting on word-for-word biblical moments—like David’s pledge to fight Goliath. “I opened the Bible, didn’t even look at the script, and told them, ‘This is what I’m doing,’” Michael says. Jonathan’s all in: “I love that. What convicted you?” Michael’s answer? “We’re not replacing the Bible—we’re shining lights on it. How cool would it be if people opened the show and the Bible at the same time, and it’s word-for-word?”
Humanity Over Heroics
That humanity drives them both. “I love what you do with Jesus,” Michael tells Jonathan. “You’ve shown His divinity but also His humanity, which is why people relate to Him so much.” Jonathan nods, and Michael adds, “In the same way with David, I want to make him human—a human being with faults and mistakes, not to be glorified, but to teach lessons.”
Jonathan shares a lesson from filming: a scene where David’s father, Jesse (played by Elfara), quotes Joshua: “Be strong and courageous.” It echoed a moment from years earlier when his mom handed him an Isaiah verse: “Do not fear, for I am with you.” “That was one of the lessons for me in Season 1: to be courageous,” he says.
The Chosen
The Hardest Part: Letting Go
But courage isn’t easy. “The most difficult part was letting go,” Michael admits. Jonathan presses, “In what way?” Michael explains, “I was so used to wanting to be in control. But letting go and surrendering to Christ—saying, ‘This is for You’—was hard.” Jonathan relates: “Did things get easier after that?” Michael shakes his head. “They only got harder. I tore my shoulder, injured my hands—they got infected. I was crying to God, ‘Why does it have to be so difficult?’ But it was all to humble me.”
Jonathan agrees: “It doesn’t have to get easier to realize you’re in God’s will. He has a knack for humility with these roles.”
Jonathan’s Path to Jesus
Jonathan’s own journey started at 12, reenacting the crucifixion in his backyard after watching Jesus of Nazareth. “I’d forgotten that until I was in a Passion Play 30 years later,” he says. “It came flooding back.” Years of playing Jesus followed—short films, Passion Plays—until The Chosen exploded. “It’s been the role of a lifetime,” he says, balancing creative liberties with “Jesus’s truth” as his priority.
Creative License and Criticism
That balance sparks debate. “The Chosen has been out for a minute, and people have opinions,” Jonathan notes. “Are you anticipating those conversations?” Michael laughs, “Yeah, I have them daily—with my mom.” She’s no scholar, but “she knows her stuff,” he says. Her advice? “Fight for the truth, but live by the Spirit.” Jonathan reflects on The Last Temptation of Christ: “People rejected it before they knew what it was about—same with our show. It’s not about the letter; it’s about the Spirit.”
The House of David
Doing It for God, Not the Crowd
Michael sums it up with a story about a man, his son, and a donkey—pleasing everyone is impossible. “I don’t do it for them,” he says. “I do it for God.” Jonathan’s floored: “That’s wisdom beyond your years. It makes you the perfect person to play David.”
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Finding Rest in the Storm
But they’re human. “It must take a toll,” Michael says. “What are you doing to manage it?” Jonathan’s found solace in prayer. “How do you rest?” he asks. Michael’s still learning: “I’m constantly figuring out the value of saying no. If you can figure this out now, it’s going to save your life.” He adds, “When you’re weak, He is strong.”
A Brotherhood of Faith
Jonathan seals it: “You have friends at your disposal for whatever you need. I mean that.” Michael’s touched: “Thank you, bro.” Tears of relief begin to come down Michael’s face as his heart is fill with those words of friendship and brotherhood being spoken by Jonathan to him. “Whatever you need—it’s not all on you. You just show up and say, ‘God, give me the strength.’”
And with that, two actors, fourteen generations apart, remind us: it’s about faith, humility, and showing up.
Image: Screen Capture | Wonder Project | YouTube