The approach has earned Roumie 412,000 Instagram followers and another role as the troubled Jesus lookalike, Lonnie Frisbee, in the new film “Jesus Revolution” from Lionsgate and the faith-based Kingdom Story Company. The movie tells the true story of a large-scale conversion of hippies in a coastal California town.
Brent McCorkle, one of the film’s directors, told RNS Roumie was their No. 1 choice for Frisbee.
“We couldn’t have predicted how popular “The Chosen” has gotten at this point. So I think on a commercial level, it’s turned out to be so great,” said McCorkle, adding that Roumie’s “intense” personal faith adds authenticity to his portrayals.
That faith is central to Roumie’s public appearances as well. At the March for Life, he urged attendees to pray the rosary and also hosts live prayers on Instagram, some of which have been viewed nearly 100,000 times.
“I know who I am, and I know my identity in God, and my faith helps keep me on track,” Roumie told RNS. “For me, Mass is a part of that. The sacraments are a part of that.”
Roumie has said he spoke at the anti-abortion rally because he sees it as a “social” issue, not a political one. But abortion is undeniably a divisive topic in the U.S., and Roumie’s choice of speaking venues signals a political slant — including Liberty, a Christian school with deep ties to Republican politics and former-President Donald Trump.
Roumie’s forays into conservative politics echo the activism of Caviezel, who made headlines in 2021 for speaking at a conference associated with the conspiracy theory-driven QAnon movement. In remarks that fused versions of a Ronald Reagan address and a speech from another Gibson movie, “Braveheart,” Caviezel railed against abortion, masks and Pope Francis.
Jim Caviezel speaks at the “For God & Country: Patriot Double Down” conference in Las Vegas. Video screen grab
Roumie may be carving out a less strident form of political engagement compared to Caviezel. “The Chosen” actor will headline this year’s National Men’s Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio — a Catholic conference that lost its sponsorship from The Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 2022 due to concerns about the “baggage” carried by keynote speakers, which included Caviezel.
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Even so, the two actors are already teaming up: During Lent, Roumie and Caviezel will read Thomas à Kempis’ “The Imitation of Christ” on Hallow, a Catholic prayer app.
Both men are following a path blazed by Charlton Heston, who portrayed multiple biblical roles over his career, including Moses and John the Baptist. Heston, a friend of fellow actor and former Republican President Ronald Reagan, eventually became the head of the National Rifle Association in 1998, serving until 2003.
According to Diane Winston, the Knight Center Chair in Media and Religion at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the overlap between actors who portray Jesus and conservative politics often reflects the theology or politics of people behind the camera. She noted “Passion of the Christ” and its direction by Gibson, who has long attracted controversy for voicing conservative and even antisemitic views.
“He had a very strong Christological sensibility and portrayed Jesus as empathetic but basically as a paragon of suffering and took a conservative religious and theological perspective to heart in framing his picture,” she said. “That’s going to, in general, attract a different kind of audience.”
Mel Gibson, right, directs Jim Caviezel in his portrayal of Jesus for “The Passion of the Christ.” Photo by Philippe Antonello/Icon Distribution Inc.
Winston contrasted Gibson’s depiction of Jesus with earlier big-budget productions such as 1973’s “Godspell” and 1988’s “The Last Temptation of Christ,” which were more representative of liberal-leaning counter-cultures than conservative Christianity. Whereas Gibson’s film was produced after the rise of the religious right in the 1990s, other portrayals of Jesus, such as Willem DeFoe in “The Last Temptation of Christ,” spoke to a different time.
There are always multiple social movements operating at any time, she said, but movies about Jesus often at least partly reflect “the era in which a film is made.”
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Not all actors who play Jesus end up on the Christian celebrity circuit. DeFoe is perhaps better known for playing Spiderman’s nemesis than Christ, and Victor Garber, who performed the role of Jesus in “Godspell,” is more recognizable as professor Callahan from “Legally Blonde.”
