Portraying Jesus in film: Believing actors talk about the personal impact

An estimated 2.38 billion people — representing almost a third of the global population — hold some kind of belief in Jesus Christ. Across various denominations, many believers practice various forms of worship designed to draw their hearts and minds closer to the Savior.

Long before the first movies in the 1880s or television’s invention in 1927, Christians have been drawn towards dramatic portrayals of Jesus’s ministry and life — including in the “ Passion plays ” that became prominent starting in the 15th century in Germany and Austria, a theatrical reenactment of the final week of Jesus’s life that originated in Catholic ritual.

Since the first film about Jesus was released in 1898 — “La Passion du Christ” (The Passion of Christ) — many other film portrayals have been created, including at least 34 films about Jesus and 80 where the Savior is featured in some way.

In recent decades, higher quality film production has created experiences with deeper impact on viewers who witness close-up what it may have been like for Jesus and his early followers. Yet those individuals who play the role of the Savior have a far more intensive experience of immersion and empathy in the life of Christ. What is this like for these actors, and how does it impact their lives and faith?

Alongside explorations of what it’s like to paint Jesus and create songs about the Savior , the Deseret News gathered published comments from six individuals portraying the Savior over the last two decades, including three Latter-day Saints and three other believing actors: Tomas Kofod ( ”The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd,” 2000 and “Finding Faith in Christ” 2003 ), Jim Caviezel ( “The Passion of the Christ,” 2004 ), John Foss ( “The Life of Jesus Christ,” 2012-2014 ), Diogo Morgado ( ”The Bible,” 2013 and “Son of God,” 2014 ), Anthony Butters ( “Christ Appears in the Ancient Americas,” 2023 ), and Jonathan Roumie ( “The Chosen,” 2017-2024 ).

Picking the right person

“Casting Jesus is incredibly difficult,” remarked Rob Gardner, who helped produce the outdoor, 450-cast member pageant “ Jesus the Christ “ in Mesa, Arizona— suggesting it’s easy to lose half the audience right up front when they say, “That’s not what he looks like … not what he sounds like.”

“I have never seen a depiction of the Savior I liked,” said Gordon B. Hinckley, former president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as Kieth Merrill was preparing to shoot “ The Testaments .”

Like most modern films, the casting process is famously comprehensive — whittling hundreds of candidates down to a sizable group of screen tests and even fewer for intensive testing. Even after this exhaustive process, senior leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints told Merrill that “none” of his final picks was accepted.

That eventually led the film team all the way to Denmark. While every other actor explored in this article was raised in an active religious family, Tomas Kofod was baptized at the age of 23 after starting acting school in Europe. Soon after, Kofod was offered parts in two different plays that would have required him to act in sexually explicit scenes.

Despite having no other work, the young actor turned both parts down. Within a few weeks, his wife got a phone call about another opportunity in Utah. “The minute we hung up,” said Kofod, “I was totally overwhelmed by the Spirit.” Even without knowing the role referred to Jesus Christ, he said, “I sat down on the couch, and I cried like a baby, and I did not know what hit me.”

Jonathan Roumie described leaving a secure job in New York to find his way as an actor in L.A. For a time, he had to drive rideshare, and work in catering to help pay the bills. Yet he reached a point of having $20 in his pocket and one day of food left. “I was out of even government assistance for food,” he said .

“And the only thing I hadn’t done at that point was the thing that was left to do, which was to get on my knees and surrender my entire life, and my career, and everything that I had up to that point over to God because there wasn’t anything I realized I could do on my own.”

“And for the first time, I actually meant it,” he added – admitting this was “something I had never even considered before” and describing many years when he “thought I was in charge ... had no concept of including God in my plans.”

“Weight lifted off immediately. It wasn’t on me; I didn’t have to worry about it,” he later told students in a commencement speech. “My circumstances were no different – I was still broke – but my disposition and my heart for Christ completely changed. I entrusted everything to Him.”

In the weeks that came, Roumie started seeking roles he felt God was calling him to, rather than what would further his acting career alone. Three months later, he was selected to play Jesus in “The Chosen.”

Luke says Jesus was “ about 30 years of age ” when he began his ministry — with most of these actors similarly aged during the filming (Tomas Kofod was 31, Diogo Morgado 32, Anthony Butters 34, Jim Caviezel 35). The exception is Jonathan Roumie, who was 43 when he began the Chosen, and turned 50 this year.

More than physical characteristics alone, of course, it’s the personal qualities that set each of these men apart. For instance, about Kofod, fellow actor Rick Macy said he’s “such a humble and Christlike man.” Tiffanie Wride said , “Tomas helped me love and appreciate more how kind and gentle the Savior is.” And director Mark Burnett said of Morgado, “Diogo is a beautiful person inside, a beautiful person outside, and very humble. He has the quality of a lion and a lamb.”

Preparing for the role

“How can I, as little useless man, radiate the kind of love that Jesus did?” Kofod told a Danish newspaper, recollecting the weight of the role.

Morgado said he initially panicked when he first imagined playing Jesus. ”I freaked out!” — admitting, “I was in shock; I was in panic because I knew the responsibility.” After traveling to Jerusalem prior to filming, Morgado felt even more “the importance of the story,” saying , “(It’s) so alive.”

“I was half exhilarated and half terrified, honestly. I felt that the whole way through,” Caviezel similarly said , describing how he reread the Gospels and studied Christian writings and other literature about Jesus’ final years to be more prepared. Kofod also pored over all the places in the Bible where Jesus appears and spent time meditating on it all.

Anthony Butters, likewise used the long pandemic delay in production to study the words of the Savior he would be playing, so he knew them by heart. In addition to “a lot of thinking,” this New Zealand native also described “a lot of waiting for answers” while still “trying not to get in my head too much about it — just trying to keep it light.”

“It’s basically just a lot of memorizing the lines and leaving the rest to the Lord,” Butters summarized .

When asked how he prepared, Morgado responded , “Love. You just make yourself available to be full of love. And to be truthful and honest, 100%.”

“To me, He is love” he continued , “the purest form of love, for me.”

What it’s like

“My main goal is to portray Christ’s heart and love for all of humanity,” said Roumie — which started with how he sought to relate to other cast members “and everyone around me with a much more open heart, a sense of compassion and kindness.”

When things naturally happen on or off the set that “upset” that balance of peace, this man continued, “I try to see it as an opportunity to rise beyond that and practice compassion, patience, and humility as often as I can.”

This isn’t easy, Roumie admitted. “As my walk with Jesus has gone deeper and gotten more intense so have the spiritual attacks.” During harder moments, he said , “when things get really tough, I employ the game-changing triumvirate, prayer, fasting and repentance.”

“If I’m feeling particularly burdened or attacked spiritually, I fast; and before I shoot a single frame, I take stock of all the ways in which I’ve fallen short in my life of late” — before turning to sacraments of his faith.

“By this, I’m granted peace. I’m given wisdom in areas of my life where I’m experiencing conflict beyond my human understanding. And I’m strengthened to go forward and to handle situations I am otherwise overwhelmed by.”

“I didn’t want people to see me. I just wanted them to see the Christ” Caviezel said , describing that “the key” to his film.

Morgado similarly described attempting to “build up that relationship between the viewer and Jesus” — hoping that for believers it’s “just another way of expressing and seeing on the big screen the Jesus that they love.”

“Over my life I’ve gained a personal relationship with the Savior,” Butters said . “I feel like I know him personally, so I’m essentially mimicking the Savior that I know in my life.”

“That’s my approach” he said. “All I can do is essentially mirror what I have experienced,” adding: “The Savior I know is full of love … isn’t intimidating … has been through what you’ve been through ... isn’t scary to talk to.”

The Savior was “probably formal in the right circumstances,” Butters said . But when one-on-one with someone, he was “personal” and “not formal,” adding with a smile, “the Savior I know gets it [and] has a sense of humor.”

“I grew up as a Christian and I always think of Jesus as someone right next to us, you know, someone really close, and I never actually saw that onscreen in a way that could be identified,” Morgado said , agreeing the Savior had a sense of humor. “How do I know? Laughter and joy are part of the beauty of life. That was something I worked hard to make sure was part of my portrayal. There’s a lightness and humor in how he behaves.”

Several of the actors described special moments they don’t feel comfortable discussing publicly. “There are things that I went through that I can’t even talk about,” Caviezel said . “I felt like a great presence came within me at times when we were filming.”

In an Italian magazine , John Foss spoke of “many beautiful memories” playing the role of Jesus a decade earlier — including an emotional moment filming the scene of Christ’s baptism in the Jordan. “It was a gloomy day, not exactly ideal for filming, yet the moment I entered the water and we started … the sun came out.”

Recording the Sermon on the Mount in one take was also “memorable” to Foss. “My favorite scene is The Last Supper ,” Morgado said . “The way we shot it is so unusual, I’d never seen it done that way before.”

A humbling experience

Kofod recalled Elder Neil L. Andersen, member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, watching the film preparation and asking the actor if there was anything he would like to adjust in his makeup to feel even more comfortable.

“I would like a little bit of shade on each side of my nose. I think the Savior had a little more nose than I have,” he said — recalling what happened next. “The makeup girl stepped in and added the shades of makeup. When she was done, she stepped aside, clearing the mirror and … I was totally overwhelmed, and the tears streamed down my face.”

“For a startling moment, I thought I was looking right into the eyes of my Savior. I looked like my expectations of what he looked like.”

“It was all in all a very humbling experience,” Kofod said — recalling getting sick the night before they were going to start filming, and pleading in prayer for help but initially feeling very little response. As the worried actor lay in bed, a voice came to his mind expressing compassion for his sickness, but stating clearly that this was the only way the actor would be “humble enough to hear.”

“It is a difficult role,” agreed Foss — adding that he had sought to do his best so as to make a difference. “I hope I succeeded.”

‘It wasn’t like acting’

Director Kieth Merrill reflected on the unique challenge of “project(ing) yourself into another human being ... to think what they thought, and feel what they felt, and respond as they would respond in given circumstances.”

“Those who do it best become absorbed by a dimension of reality it is hard for us to understand,” he said. “Can you imagine taking on the challenge of portraying the Savior?”

The director remembers the cast of “ The Testaments ” being “totally exhausted” at the end of filming days — recalling a profound spirit that was “always present” during the filming and “at times was so near” that their “hearts were tender to the edge of tears and deep feelings of reverence not easy to explain.”

Blair Treu, lead director of the “ Christ Appears in the Ancient Americas” series, described “a lot of sleepless nights” among the cast and crew, personally waking up at 3:00 in the morning, and asking himself, “Is this going to be pleasing to our Father in Heaven?”

“The feeling here on set is different,” costume designer Jacqui Newell said . “People are really patient and kind, especially those on set sitting there in the heat.” After visiting the set, Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said . “It feels as though the ground is hallowed … because of what you depict here.”

Charley Boon, playing the part of Philip the Apostle, described the emotional impact of working on the film. “It wasn’t like acting,” he said. “Immediately we were translated into another world, another time.” Suzi Brown likewise described her experience on set so far as “very real.”

Watching Butters on set with other cast members, journalist Ryan Jensen observed “some of the children who are acting as extras stopped to watch him answer questions. They pointed. They giggled quietly. They whispered to each other. Butters isn’t Jesus, but the children immediately knew who he was portraying.”

Gethsemane

“The most spiritual experience for me was the filming of the Garden of Gethsemane,” Kofod said . “It was the one scene I wanted to do right, to do perfectly, to honor my Heavenly Father. I was most anxious. I was not sure how to do it.”

During the filming, he thought back on when he was first baptized and ended up being isolated and sometimes ridiculed by classmates at acting school who learned of his new faith. During that scene of Christ in the garden, those early painful experiences gave him a small way to connect with Christ’s anguish.

One of the most moving scenes in “The Passion of the Christ” is the opening Gethsemane scene — with the later scenes of Christ’s scourging being what many viewers found hard to watch.

During the scourging scene, Caviezel was chained to a post next to a board designed to absorb the real blows. At one point, director Mel Gibson asked the actors playing the Romans to hurl their lashes overhand like a baseball. Due to their poor aim, one lash hit Caviezel’s back.

“I couldn’t breathe,” Caviezel said, noting that the stinging was so intense that it was “like getting the wind knocked out of you.” Turning around, he said to the Roman actor, “I may be playing Jesus, but I felt like Satan at that moment.” Within minutes, Caviezel was struck again, slicing a 14-inch gash in his back.

Calvary

Morgado described a surprisingly intense “lonely feeling” coming over him during the Crucifixion scene, in what he called “a truly overwhelming moment for me that I will keep with me forever.”

“Basically, that was the moment which everything is about, the ultimate sacrifice of God’s son.… For me, being in that place, portraying, even for a slight second … it represented to me a blessing. I felt so, so grateful to be the one, the lucky one and the honored one to be in that moment.”

Others described intense emotion during the same scene. “The day we filmed the Crucifixion,” the director of “ Testaments ” said , “I saw Tomas weeping. He sat alone on the crude pallet constructed near the place of execution. I was concerned we had injured him. I sat beside him. I put my arm around his blood-stained shoulders and asked him if he was all right.”

They wept together, sharing their feelings about what they had been filming. “I think the day at the Crucifixion must have been the high peak of my experience,” Kofod later said. “I didn’t understand the pain the Savior suffered, because I didn’t experience any pain that was comparable to His.”

Yet according to various actors, that specific day of shooting often involves unique discomfort and pain. As Kofod’s arms were held fast to the cross beams, for instance, the actor playing the Roman soldier struck the cross beam with his five pound hammer for added realism — which “severely jolted” the slender actor.

“There were many times it was unpleasant for me,” Kofod later said. “I came home with bruises all over from carrying the cross beam” — describing how his arms and back were “blue” from hanging in the harness.

“I had always thought of the pain, but in our attempt to reenact those terrible events, I realized the humiliation He endured” he added. “He was ridiculed, mocked, scourged, and spit upon.”

Caviezel also described the discomfort of dangling nearly naked on a cross in colder weather through weeks of filming. The actor had dislocated his shoulder carrying the cross, and that kept popping out of joint during the scene as his chest was constricted and his body was unnaturally stretched across the cross.

“I could barely get the lines out. My mouth was shaking uncontrollably. My arms and legs went numb,” he said. The actor was also suffering from pneumonia and a lung infection during the scene, due to the many hours of filming often wearing only a loincloth. Caviezel would encourage the filmmakers to move quickly so he could come down off the cross and get warm.

This discomfort “forced me to pray” he said. “It forced me into the arms of God. That’s the only place I could go,” Caviezel later recollected. “That’s when God’s voice came to me. ‘Hey, don’t you worry about it. Let me take care of it, and will you allow me to use you?’”

“And that’s when I just said, ‘All right, I’m going to let you perform, and I’m going to step out of the way.’”

Resurrection

Butters plays the part of the resurrected Jesus Christ appearing in the Americas — teaching these ancient people about baptism , blessing and ministering to their children , healing the sick and afflicted , and calling 12 apostles to teach His gospel .

In the very first scene depicting the epic Book of Mormon account where the Savior first appears to the Nephites, the other cast members were supposed to reach for him to touch his hands and feet. Yet the scene “wasn’t working,” said actress Carina Coria Zapata, as she described the complexities of many people moving together at the same time.

Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had asked the cast to keep the phrase “one by one” in mind as they do their work, referring to the scriptural text recounting how the people went “forth one by one until they had all gone forth.” After some new reminders and direction, the scene was successfully filmed.

“We finished and I looked around and everybody around me was crying” Zapata said. “Everyone was super quiet for a couple minutes until we processed the moment.”

Personal impact

“The role of Jesus has given me a lot, not only on a professional level,” Foss said. In addition to providing a “confirmation” of his faith, it has made him “much more aware” of the choices he makes in life.

“Whenever I have a chance to produce something about the life of Jesus,” he said , “it’s not difficult for me to consider. I’m eager to tell that story.” (In subsequent years, Foss has directed a new portrayal of the Nativity ).

“It has undoubtedly been a very big piece of my spiritual and personal development to be allowed to delve into such a role,” Kofod said of his own experience playing the Savior.

Merrill described the personal impact for him as a director. “I walked the streets of Jerusalem with him. I watched him heal the sick and restore sight to the blind. I was at the cross and watched him die. I wept with Mary at the tomb and then He appeared and light returned to the world.”

“Things I’ve read a hundred times in the scriptures I’m now understanding at a deeper level,” said Charley Boon, after playing the part of Philip the Apostle. “Being on the set, this amazing set, and in front of all the other cast members and everything” Butters likewise said — “It really just helps you to kind of see these stories that you’ve read all your life, to see them with fresh eyes.” He added , “It really is as fun as it looks.”

Caviezel describes how much of a profound effect the experience of playing Jesus Christ had on him — pleading with audiences to personally follow Jesus Christ and to love one another as Christ loves them.

“I really invested everything that I am,” Morgado said about his experience. “If the goal of an actor is to tell the best story ever, there’s no higher story than Jesus Christ.”

“I can’t even start saying how honored,” the Portuguese actor said. “And how blessed I feel by doing something like this,” he said, “something that’s gonna keep inspiring people and touching people.”

“Having the chance of doing something like that is overwhelming, it’s beyond words.”

Reflecting on his own life, Roumie again recalled his decision to “completely trust” God and “surrender unconditionally” as both “the hardest thing I’ve ever done” and “the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.”

“And it will be the most life-changing thing to ever happen to you if you allow it,” this world-famous actor encouraged those listening. “The more you commit, the deeper he takes you. The more you love Him, the higher you go. The more you seek Him, the wilder your journey gets.”