The Daily Signal - ‘The Chosen’ Actors on Joys and Challenges of Portraying Biblical Characters

Episode Date: February 16, 2024

The Bible provides readers with glimpses into the personalities of Jesus' Twelve Apostles, but little is know about the details of their lives. That can be both a challenge and creative opportunity for the actors and writers on the set of the hit series “The Chosen.”  “We know he's known as ‘Doubting Thomas,’” says Joey Vahedi, the actor who plays Thomas on the multiseason series. But the question that Vahedi says he has the opportunity to answer is “why is [Thomas] that person?”  The writers of the show, Vahedi says, “take such great liberty with bringing this human perspective to all the characters, because we got to remember they're not saints yet.”  The character of Thomas is significantly developed in the first three episodes of season four of “The Chosen,” which are in theaters now.  Season four picks up right where season three left off, and “I think you get to see a much, much sweeter and kinder side to Thomas,” Vahedi says. “He's out of his shell, finally feels comfortable. He's ready. And on the flip side of that, Jesus' message is getting so much more radical, to the point where it is dangerous for everybody now.” Even outside of the Apostles, the latest season of “The Chosen” shows how the message of Jesus is affecting everyone who hears it.  Kirk B. Woller, who plays the role of the Roman soldier Gaius, says his character is “toying with” the message he's hearing Jesus speak.  “There's just great responsibility to me in all of this” to portray his character accurately, Woller said. Woller and Vahedi join “The Daily Signal Podcast” to share their own stories of how they became a part of “The Chosen” cast, and the hardest and most rewarding parts of playing their roles as they develop further in the new season.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, February 16th. I'm Virginia Allen. The Chosen is a TV series based on the life and ministry of Jesus and his disciples. And right now, season four, the first three episodes of season four, are available to watch in theaters. And I am so honored that today we are sitting down with two of the cast members of the Chosen to talk about their experience of playing biblical characters on the big screen. We sit down with both Joey Vahiti. He plays Thomas in The Chosen, as well as Kirk Woller, who plays the Roman Guard Gaias. They share their experience on set, some of their favorite parts of acting, and Thomas gets into details of what it's like to be labeled Doubting Thomas.

Stay tuned for our conversation after this. Hi, I'm John Carlo Canaparo. And I'm Zach Smith. And we host Scotus 101. It's a podcast where you'll get a breakdown of top cases in the highest court in the land. Hear from some of the greatest legal minds. And, of course, get a healthy dose of Supreme Court trivia. Want to listen?

Find us wherever you get your podcasts or just head toheritage.org slash podcasts. Case is submitted. All right. Well, Joey, I'm going to toss it over to you first. Thanks off first for being here. Go ahead and share with us. You play Thomas in The Chosen. Was that the role that you attach?

audition for? This is a good question and thank you for having me. So Thomas was not the first role I auditioned for. In fact, a lot of us auditioned for different parts. The first person I auditioned for was Simon. I ended up sending a tape for that. Obviously, I think they realized that my muscles were too big for the role, which is why they gave it to Shahar instead. Obviously. And it's meany. Obviously. Yeah, exactly. So I auditioned for Simon, you know, didn't hear anything at all. So I figured, oh, they moved on and they started shooting it already. And then nine months later, I get a callback notice for Thomas.

And I thought it was a mistake because I hadn't read for him. Went in, got to meet Dallas and got to meet Beverly, the casting director. And, you know, it was really surprised to hear Dallas say, like, you know, I really liked your tape. And I had been watching it, wanted to bring you back in. And, you know, that's not something you hear too often in the entertainment world, which was really cool. And here we are playing Thomas all the way into season four about to stay. start season five and it's been really wonderful. I watched an interview in which you were introduced as doubting Thomas.

Does that bother you that you get that label sometimes right away? You know, what's funny is I was keeping count of how many times people would either say that or make a doubting joke. And I told myself, I'll put a dollar into a jar every time someone says that. I can't keep up with it anymore. Honestly, it's been scrapped from how many times people say it. I will say, I think it is an unfair title that he gets because he's not someone. that doubts. I think he's someone who questions things because he loves Jesus so much. And I think a lot of

human beings can relate to that because when you love someone or something so much, of course, you want all of the answers and you want to make sure you're doing right by them and you want to make sure you're the best person that you can be. So I think it's more curious Thomas or questioning Thomas than doubting Thomas. I like that perspective. I think that's healthy. Kirk, you play the role of Gaius. This is a really interesting character. You're playing a Roman soldier. How did you first learn about the Chosen series? How did you get pulled in? I've had the great fortune of being friends with and I've worked with Dallas for 23, 24 years now. So I've been blessed to be a part of everything he's made and we were making short films and films and I was sleeping in his

basement, not in poverty or something, but I was in his basement. We'd be shooting a short film and no one paid attention. So in those days, and now, as I say, Dallas is a 25-year overnight sensation. The guy's been making, in my opinion, really great content, really great stories, always character-driven, always not stereotypical characters, always heartfelt, character-driven, and character-motivated everything. And so I heard about it, though, he said, he gave me a call and said, hey, I'm doing this. He said, he called. He said, he's still acting.

I had a point where I was sort of doing some other things. And I'm like, yeah, of course. And so anyway, I auditioned. Like everyone else, he didn't have all the say. It had to go through other people as well. But I was blessed enough to get the role. So, yeah, that's how I heard about it. It was a phone call from Dallas.

So cool. The first three episodes of season four are out in theaters, right? now. And both of you have really significant character development in season four. We're going deeper into your worlds, into your thought processes, into hardships, into challenges. So let me ask you both for season four, what has been your favorite part of developing that character further and what has been the most challenging? Joey, I'll start with you. Sure. I really like that season four picks up where season three ends, specifically. specifically with Thomas.

I know in season three, we have that shot at the very ending where you see Thomas and Rama both looking up at the same moon from completely different places, miles apart from one another. Season four picks up right where that leaves off. And I think you get to see a much, much sweeter and kinder side to Thomas. He's out of his shelf finally. He feels comfortable. He's ready.

And on the flip side of that, Jesus' message is getting so much more radical to the point where it is dangerous for everybody now. now, right? We are starting to get surrounded by more Pharisees. We are seeing Rome really taking notice and taking action. And I think not only with Thomas, but with the disciples and even with the Romans, this really has a huge effect on them. And without giving any spoilers, we see how that starts to boil over. Yeah. Kirk, what about you? In terms of what exactly did the direction? Well, yeah, the character development that we see in season four, what was your favorite part of developing that character further in season four? And were there any major challenges as an actor of really elevating that character even more this season?

I think what's great about what's happening with Gaius is the journey I'm on, meaning I was one way and perhaps becoming another or certainly toying with another, looking across the street and seeing what's going on over this Jesus camp that I think started. with the sermon on the Mount where I was really taken by what he had to say. So the continuation of that and where it leads in season four, I think it just really starts to, I'll take your word, Joey boils over. Clashes, I think it comes to a head. And I guess the word I would use, there's just great responsibility to me in all of this. A great responsibility first and foremost, I think, to honor how, However, Gaius is portrayed biblically.

I think he's an accumulation of characters, but to honor the writing, to honor Dallas, to honor this story, I just see it as a great responsibility. And I take that with, you know, with great concern and it's just all about hard work, you know. So I would say responsibility. That's beautiful. Well, and it is, as you allude to, it is a challenge because we don't have full fleshed out stories in the Bible of these individuals, of these characters, and even the disciples, we have some information, but we don't know their backstories.

So, Joey, for you is you're crafting, how do I portray someone like Thomas and how are the scripts written working with the writers and Dallas? How are you focused on really crafting who Thomas should be? You know, I want to say I love that you mentioned that there's no real information about these people because it is true, you know, Thomas has maybe a couple of sentences written about him in the scripture. You know, I know the book of John mentions him the

most, which I think is kind of cool to see the relationship between John and Thomas, you know, but the thing that's so lovely is, is the writers do such a great job at fleshing out who this person is and who he's going to become. We know he's known as doubting Thomas, but the question now becomes, why is he that person, you know, but what's going on with him that eventually leads him to this journey? And the right. writers take such great liberty with bringing this human perspective to all the characters. Because we got to remember, they're not saints yet, right? They're not stained glass windows.

They are people just like us, incredibly flawed people who do not great things, you know, and are called by this person to follow them. So it's really just about the writing, trying to bring your perspective to what you think it is and collaborating with Dallas and everybody else and just listening to the people around you and I think that's what tends to make really beautiful art. In the few minutes we have left,

I would love to hear from both of you if you've had a favorite episode out of all the seasons that you have filmed. Kirk, I'll throw it to you first. As I always say, I'm a horrible person with favorites. I don't even have a favorite song, color, food. Oh, no. I'm bad. Sorry, very boring.

I will say that one scene that was very, very fun to play was the follow me scene where Jesus, where, you know, old street preacher walks by, this guy's causing me all kinds of problems and says, follow me. And Matthew just gets up this young man who has, he locks his door five times, suddenly leaves his whole life, his beautiful home, his relationship with Quintus. Like, no other Jew, I think I actually say it, no other Jew lives as good as you do. So what was great about that scene is the scene starts off kind of, Hey, talking about the footwit races and who was running last night. So it's this kind of shooting the breeze kind of thing where Matthew is horrible at,

but hey, you're going to be fine to street preacher walking by, to me wanting him to move on into Matthew just walking away from everything and me trying to stop him. And then he walks away. So there are so many emotional things to deal within that scene. It was just very, very fun. It was very complete. It was like an entire sort of lifetime in one scene. Wow.

It was spectacular. And I also say the scene with Shihar at the Cistern, the eight-page, not-tying scene, was really fantastic. Yeah, so beautiful. Joy, what about you? I really love season two, episode three, which is the campfire amongst all the disciples when Jesus is off healing. Not just cinematically because it's most of that episode is shot in one shot, which was really fun to do. it felt like a live theater piece in a way. And I guess from a literary perspective,

it's really lovely because it's the first time the disciples are really opening up to one another. And, you know, just like a Thanksgiving dinner stuff does not go well and the gloves come off. You know what I mean? Which I think is one of the first times in the show, we see these suppressed feelings of everybody now no longer able to be suppressed anymore.

And I think a lot of people can relate to that sort of experience. So that's one of my favorites. I just love ensemble and teamwork stuff. Absolutely beautiful. Well, thank you both as a fan of The Chosen. Thank you for your work on the show. And thanks for joining us today. We really, really appreciate it.

Thank you. Thanks so much for having us. Well, with that, that is going to do it for today's episode. I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Joey the Heddy, who plays Thomas in the Chosen, and Thomas Woller, who plays Gaias again. Season 4 is out in theaters, the first three episodes. So if you're looking for something to do over the long weekend, if you have Monday off, go ahead and check out this latest season in theaters. And you can catch all the previous seasons of the Chosen on the Angel Studios website.

The Chosen also has an app that you can download for free and you can watch the previous three seasons of the Chosen on that app for free. But with that, thanks for being with us today. We encourage all of our listeners to take a minute to leave the Daily Signal podcast, a five-star. rating and review wherever you like to listen. Quick update on Monday, since it is President's Day. We will not have any podcast. We will not have a morning show and we will not have a top news edition. But we will be back with you for our normal podcast schedule on Tuesday. Have a great weekend and we'll see you back here Tuesday. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Luey and Kate Trinko.

Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheras. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geine, and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com.