Latest / The Lila Rose Show / E305: Michael Iskander On The Cost of Playing David | Lila Rose Show

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E305: Michael Iskander On The Cost of Playing David | Lila Rose Show · The Lila Rose Show

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  You started your life in. Egypt, you go to church and you
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  don't know if you're gonna make it out.
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  And so at a very young age, I found myself asking the
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  question, What is this religion? What am I dying for exactly?
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  The whole reason David's important is because of Jesus.
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  If the prophecy was not given to David that from him will come
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  the Messiah, David wouldn't be David.
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  I torn my shoulders. I couldn't sling for all of
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  season 1. And you think that the guy who
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  plays David could sling? There's been no sex scenes.
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  No which I. Think is awesome.
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  It's also proof that sex doesn't sell 100%.
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  People will still watch. People will show up to the the
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  theater for a good story. Can you sing a little?
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  I was obsessed with the Chosen. My family said to me, you know,
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  well, you're an actor, so who would you play if you want a
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  show like that? I would love to play young King
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  David. That would be a dream country,
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  maybe for a scene or two. You started your life in Egypt
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  and then at 9 you came to the United States.
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  What was that like? Yeah, I moved, you know, my
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  entire life overnight. And I didn't know English, so
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  mom put me in school and she said sink or swim.
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  And I was like, all right. When about 3 days I was starting
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  to understand people, three weeks I was putting sentences
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  together. And I remember it like this,
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  this kid, he, you know, I would be like, what is this, you know,
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  And he'd go necklace and I'd go home and practice necklace.
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  And the next day, like a bracelet.
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  OK, bracelet. And then one day as he was, he
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  was leaving, he said, all right, see ya.
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  I was like, see ya. So I went home practice, see ya,
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  see ya, you know, and I'm trying to like put it together and go
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  back the next day. T-shirt, OK, T-shirt.
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  And he says see ya. And I said see ya.
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  And he went along as if nothing happened.
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  And I was like, yes, you know, and that's, that's kind of how I
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  would learn. And then within about a year, I
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  tested out of all my English second language classes and I, I
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  was, I was fluent. What?
• 1:57
  Yeah. Took you one year to become
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  fluent in English when you were in when you were nine years old.
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  Yeah, I mean, it was, I say English is pretty easy.
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  So I just, you know, it's, it's definitely not Arabic is tough,
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  you know, and all the letters are, are weird, but but English,
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  yeah. What was it like culturally to
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  go from Egypt to and where? Where did you move to when you
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  got to the US? Well, we, we moved around a bit,
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  but you know, we found home in California and, and then I kind
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  of moved all over the place. I went to New York, lived in
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  Greece for a bit. But yeah, I think California was
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  home. But you know, it was definitely
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  a challenge because, you know, it's one thing to understand the
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  language, but it's a whole other thing to, to understand the
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  culture. And the culture is very
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  different. So I found myself like, as I was
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  growing up, there was, you know, obviously a lot of bullying.
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  And, you know, kids, they see somebody new, it's, you know,
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  they don't know how to react. And so there was a lot of that.
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  I got in a lot of fights, been suspended.
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  So you would fight back with bullies who would make fun of
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  you because you look you look different or sounded different.
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  You at least you know you spoke native Arabic.
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  Yeah, and I punched the guy one time.
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  It's just am I allowed to talk about?
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  This Hey, it sounds like a good story.
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  And well, in middle school, there's a kid who was kind of
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  giving me a hard time for a year, you know, non-stop.
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  And one day I just lost it. I lost control and I punched
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  him. He was twice my size.
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  And I was fully expecting, you know, he's he's going to come
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  for me. It's, that's it, you know, but
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  he just kind of looked at me and then he went and told the
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  principal and, and I got suspended the next week.
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  He got suspended because like he broke some kids jaw or
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  something. So that's, that's the guy that I
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  was up against. But you know, it's, I'm glad I
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  got suspended because it taught me self-control.
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  You know, there are consequences for actions and I, I need to, I
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  need to hone in this. I need to hone in how I, I react
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  to anything, whether it's somebody who's picking on me or
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  whatever it is. But it definitely, it was kind
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  of tough, You know, I, I had to, to, to learn about myself as I
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  was learning about the culture and, and learning how to deal
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  with kids. And I, you know, I'd like to
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  think that I, I, I grew into my own and learned how to deal with
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  this extreme shock, you know, of, of changing my people and my
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  country and my language overnight.
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  Why did your parents choose to come to the US?
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  You know, there was a, there was a revolution in 2011.
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  So it was, it was tough for a lot of people, especially, you
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  know, being Coptic Christian, it was not the easiest.
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  So we were lucky and, and you know, my family, my family was
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  very strong. I think it's you look at any
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  immigrant story, you know, the, you're leaving your entire life
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  behind. And so I have immense respect
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  for my family, for, you know, for, for leaving their entire
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  lives to, to give a better life for me and, and my siblings.
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  Were they afraid because of the revolution and you're Coptic
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  Christian, You're and you're a religious minority in Egypt?
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  Were they afraid of violence? Were they afraid for their
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  lives? I, I would say everybody was
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  afraid in the country. I think there's like an added,
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  of course, there's an added aspect of, you know, being the
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  minority. And, you know, at the time there
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  was a lot of persecution, I would say.
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  And and there is one attack against the church in Alexandria
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  where there was like a car bomb set up outside of one of the
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  churches and, you know, people leaving the Mass early and, you
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  know, it's, it was tough. And at the time, you know, you
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  go to church and like, you don't you hear about that stuff and
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  you don't know if you're going to make it out.
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  And so at a very young age, I found myself asking the question
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  like, what am I dying for exactly?
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  What is this religion that we all go to church and I, you
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  know, I go and it might not come out like what, what am I dying
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  for? And so I would do a lot of
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  research and I had a lot of questions.
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  I was the kid in Sunday school with them.
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  What about this? What about this?
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  What about that? And the Sunday school teachers
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  hated me, but I think it only strengthened my faith.
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  And you know, I, I don't want to be the guy that just memorizes,
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  you know, the Bible verse. And I need to understand what
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  this faith is about. And I need beyond that, I need
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  to understand what God wants. Why are we even here?
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  What's our purpose? And so, you know, in a very
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  young age, I found myself answering those questions.
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  What was the answer for young Michael growing up with the
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  church Christians being persecuted, Fear for your lives
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  was a real thing when you were a little kid and you had this
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  sense that God has a purpose. That's what my faith teaches,
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  and I need to discover what it is.
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  Well, there's many answers to that question, and I think
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  there's different answers for different people.
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  I think ultimately God's purpose is for us to be with Him.
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  And you know, right now we live in a world that is filled with
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  pain and filled with suffering and the only real answer that
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  God gives us kind of in the book of Job.
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  But you know, when you look at Christ, the Son of God, God
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  himself comes down and, and, and lives that life with us.
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  And he too suffered and suffered excruciating pain.
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  And instead of bringing down heaven and causing a war, he
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  went through it and defeated death with death and came back
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  to life. So to me, that's the answer.
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  The answer to life is to defeat death with death.
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  Christ says the greatest love we can show is to lay down one's
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  life for another. And the purpose of life for me,
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  I've found, is to show love, show love to those who show it
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  back to those who don't. We're we're children of God and
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  we're meant to be on this earth, to live that life that God
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  lived, to suffer alongside him and to carry a cross to store up
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  our treasure in heaven. And then the other side, we get
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  to be with him. We get to be with love itself.
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  It's very beautiful. Hey, if you're enjoying this
• 9:24
  conversation with Michael and me, make sure that you've hit
• 9:27
  that subscribe button on YouTube or you're following on podcast
• 9:30
  app. Also, please leave a comment.
• 9:32
  We read all the comments. Thank you so much.
• 9:35
  Did you believe that as a kid? So your faith became real to
• 9:38
  you? Like Jesus died for me.
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  My life is to be for him. That was a real experience that
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  you had growing up in Egypt. Yeah, it's, I think I didn't
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  have that level of understanding as a young age.
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  You know, I was just trying to figure out if he's real or he's
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  not real. And I just went through the, you
• 9:58
  know, the logical arguments and all the research.
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  I love science and I'm very like, all right, show me the
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  evidence and I will follow. And the evidence was this.
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  There is historical proof of a man named Jesus who lived 2000
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  years ago and he died on a cross and his followers showed up
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  later and said he came back to life and they all had nothing to
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  gain, lost their lives proclaiming the fact that this
• 10:24
  guy came back to life. So one of two options, either he
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  didn't really come back to life or I don't know if there was
• 10:32
  another option, I would have taken it.
• 10:33
  They were all crazy. Right, but it's even that's not
• 10:36
  possible because 12 people and more don't go crazy together.
• 10:39
  That's not how that works. They don't hallucinate the same
• 10:42
  hallucination at the same time. They don't all smoke the same
• 10:46
  weed and then all of a sudden have it just doesn't work that
• 10:48
  way. So I was like, all right, well,
• 10:53
  if this Jesus really came back to life, what does he say?
• 10:58
  And I looked at, you know, I looked at my faith, I looked at
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  other faiths, looked at science. And you know, I, I, I always
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  found science going hand in hand with Jesus.
• 11:12
  And the more I dove into science, the more I I dove into
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  nature and how the world works. Rather than disproving his
• 11:19
  existence, I found I was discovering more about God's
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  process. So in high school, you you make
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  it through, you make it out of middle school alive.
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  You have to deal with bullies. You hit high school around this
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  time. You have really your first
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  encounter with performing arts, which to me is crazy because a
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  lot of people like what you've achieved with House of David,
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  which we're going to get into. You are the star of this top
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  performing Amazon Prime series that's gotten rave reviews
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  across the board, but you weren't a child actor.
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  Like you said, at nine years old, you're having they're
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  learning English for the first time.
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  Although I think your Arabic background helped you with the
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  part, it definitely comes through.
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  But when did you first have an experience with performing arts
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  and feel a sense of desire to even do that?
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  Yeah, I mean, I think I just, I had an admiration for actors in
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  general and TV and film at a very young age.
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  And so I knew that I wanted to be an actor.
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  But it's one of those things it's like it's so impossible and
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  like, how do you even make that happen?
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  And it's, it's one of those dreams that you just keep buried
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  in the deep, darkest parts of your heart.
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  You never tell anybody. And I was also very shy, like
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  extremely shy. And I remember my mom said, you
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  know, you should join the choir. And I said no.
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  And I, I like, I ran away. I was like, I'm not, I'm not
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  doing, I'm not doing any sort of performing nothing.
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  And, and one day, like sophomore year of high school, I did like
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  band. It was like my version, I had to
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  get an arts credit out of the way.
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  So I did like a band class and how?
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  Old were you I? Think at the time I was 15 and
• 13:05
  this girl, she was sitting next to me and she goes, hey,
• 13:07
  Michael, you, my teacher's going to give me $10 if I get a boy to
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  audition for the choir because we're low on boys.
• 13:15
  And, you know, you don't even have to join, but if you
• 13:18
  audition, I'll get $10. So could you do me this tiny
• 13:21
  favor and like, during lunch this today, could you could you
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  come with me to the choir director?
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  I said yeah. And we had just switched seats
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  that day. So if you hadn't switched seats,
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  we wouldn't have had this conversation.
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  That's crazy. You know, so I'm gone doing her
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  a favor. And I'm like, you know, all
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  right, let's meet this director. And I meet him.
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  And, you know, I don't realize that this is the guy who's going
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  to become one of my greatest mentors in life and propel me
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  into my career. But hey, how's it going?
• 13:47
  Hi, Mr. Teacher, Nice to meet you, Mr. Graham.
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  And he takes me to this practice room and he does all these piano
• 13:57
  tests. So I do the piano tests and he's
• 14:00
  looking at me all weird, does more piano tests, I do the piano
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  tests. He looks at me all weird.
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  And then he goes, what do you do?
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  Like, what's your thing? I was like, I do track.
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  I did chopping A discus. And, you know, I do math class.
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  He goes, OK, you have any musical background?
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  I was like, why did band? You know, he goes, oh, OK, so
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  you're going to be in the choir. I said, what?
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  No, I didn't sign up for this. She, she told me that I'm I'm
• 14:31
  just supposed to audition. He goes, no, no, no, it's not up
• 14:33
  to you. You're going to be in the choir
• 14:35
  tomorrow. Your schedule is going to
• 14:36
  change, you know, and I thought he was joking, but the next day
• 14:40
  I showed up and there's my schedule.
• 14:43
  It's a brand new schedule. And he's got me in the choir
• 14:45
  and, and all these stuff. And he really took me under his
• 14:48
  wing. And, you know, I was, I was very
• 14:51
  shy. And we do all these like choir
• 14:52
  performances and everybody else around me will be singing.
• 14:55
  And I'd just be like opening my mouth and mouthing the words,
• 14:57
  you know, I couldn't get the, the sound out.
• 15:01
  And he, he really just encouraged me to audition and to
• 15:06
  step out of my comfort zone. And the more and more I did it,
• 15:09
  I realized that performance and acting and singing, that was the
• 15:15
  antidote to my shyness to coming into who I'm supposed to be.
• 15:21
  I was like, I'm so afraid of this, but I know I'm supposed to
• 15:25
  do it. And he he gave me my first solo
• 15:30
  and I was so shy like my voice was.
• 15:32
  Shake What was your first solo? It was Loch Lomond.
• 15:37
  It was this, this beautiful song that we sang in in one of the
• 15:41
  one of our concerts. But yeah, I was this like I
• 15:46
  think this Scottish song called Luck Loman.
• 15:49
  And that was, it was a really beautiful day when it was one of
• 15:53
  the first songs that my mom and my my whole family, they heard
• 15:56
  me sing it. And she was like, I knew you had
• 16:00
  something in there. You're a singer?
• 16:01
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  That's Presidio care.com/lila. So when did it become Broadway?
• 17:39
  How does that happen? You had never done any formal
• 17:42
  music training. You start doing band, you're now
• 17:46
  the teachers. Like this guy's a talent.
• 17:49
  He's kind of mentoring you. What happens next?
• 17:53
  He so this is funny. So I I remember I had auditioned
• 17:57
  for this musical Legally Blonde, and I was I, I remember I froze.
• 18:02
  Who? Are you going to be on that?
• 18:03
  What was the role? It was I played, I end up
• 18:05
  playing a character named Sundeep.
• 18:07
  And during the audition, I went up and I, I had my whole song
• 18:10
  ready and it was I can show you the world from Aladdin.
• 18:13
  And I gave the pianist the sheet music.
• 18:15
  And then I went up, hi, my name is Michael.
• 18:16
  I'm going to be singing this and this and this.
• 18:19
  The music starts playing and no words come out of my mouth.
• 18:21
  I'm just standing there like frozen.
• 18:23
  And the director goes, well, you know, why don't you go look at
• 18:26
  the sheet music? And so I go next to the pianist
• 18:29
  and I'm so nervous that I can't even read off the sheet music.
• 18:32
  And they go, OK, thank you. And I go to the other room and
• 18:35
  I'm like, Oh no, but I don't know how I ended up getting this
• 18:40
  role, Sundeep. And it was this, you know, minor
• 18:42
  role when I had a little small solo and I told my mom, like
• 18:45
  mom, I got a role and she came and my family came and my
• 18:52
  grandparents too. And I did the show.
• 18:55
  And afterwards I was like, hey, mom, so how was that?
• 18:57
  She goes, Michael, that was terrible.
• 19:00
  She was like, I know you have talent, but you didn't show any
• 19:03
  of it tonight. And I just found this out the
• 19:08
  the other day. But she goes, yeah, after your
• 19:10
  you sang. I kind of walked out and it was
• 19:14
  bad, like it was bad. But I told her, I said, I really
• 19:18
  love this and I'm going to be the lead next year.
• 19:21
  She goes, please don't embarrass yourself.
• 19:23
  I said, I'm going to do it. And the whole time she was
• 19:25
  really nervous. And I, I did a small production
• 19:28
  in between that musical and the musical after the year after,
• 19:32
  which was In the Heights, just to kind of get myself ready.
• 19:35
  I, I knew that I just needed to get out of my shell.
• 19:38
  And I had auditioned and I, I got the role of Usnaabi and In
• 19:41
  the Heights. And I was just like a giant
• 19:43
  rapping roll. And it was rap after rap after
• 19:46
  rap that then it's like a rap opera.
• 19:49
  And I got it. And I remember like 2 weeks
• 19:52
  before the show opened, my director looked at me.
• 19:53
  He said, you don't look like a lead in front of everybody.
• 19:56
  We're all taking notes. He goes, you don't look like a
• 19:58
  lead, You don't look like you know what you're doing.
• 20:00
  And the show opens in two weeks, and I don't know what we're
• 20:03
  going to do. Like you're not good enough.
• 20:04
  You're not you're not good. And it's it's terrible in front
• 20:08
  of everybody, in front of all my peers.
• 20:09
  How did? You feel when he said that to
• 20:10
  you. It's gut wrenching.
• 20:13
  It's, it's one of the most embarrassing moments that could
• 20:16
  happen, you know? How old were you?
• 20:18
  16 literally a year after. So I called the other director
• 20:23
  and I said, all right, let's work.
• 20:25
  I'm not going to let this happen.
• 20:28
  Whatever it is, be as honest with me as possible.
• 20:31
  I don't care about you hurting my feelings.
• 20:33
  Go for it. I'm not going to let whatever he
• 20:36
  just said happened. And time passes by.
• 20:40
  We did the show and I ended up winning best actor in my
• 20:44
  accounting. So they flew me out to New York
• 20:49
  to compete in the Jimmies. And that's how I found my agent.
• 20:52
  And I was like auditioning for two years, didn't hear nothing.
• 20:56
  And then this casting director, I I don't know how he remembered
• 21:01
  me, but his name is Craig Burns, you know, and he's really,
• 21:04
  really amazing casting director on Broadway.
• 21:06
  And he reached out to my agent goes Michael sent in a tape for
• 21:09
  us a while back. But I think I wanted to tape
• 21:11
  again. Could you could you have him
• 21:12
  send the, you know, this tape of for this role that he auditioned
• 21:15
  for before? I was like, when my agent told
• 21:18
  me this, I was like a casting director knows who I am.
• 21:20
  OK. So I did the tape, did another
• 21:22
  tape. Then they flew me out to New
• 21:24
  York to do another audition. And on the plane, I was like
• 21:28
  boarding a plane on my way back home.
• 21:30
  And I was in Group, group EI was in the last group to board the
• 21:34
  plane. And my agent calls me, Go step
• 21:36
  out of the line. I need to tell you something.
• 21:38
  And I'm thinking like, he's going to drop me like I did
• 21:40
  horrible. And he goes, You booked the role
• 21:44
  on Broadway. This is your first role.
• 21:46
  And. Amazing.
• 21:49
  So that was the start of the Broadway career.
• 21:51
  It was a very successful, it was not necessarily a long career
• 21:55
  because now you're, you know, neck deep in TV.
• 21:58
  But what did you do with Broadway and what were some of
• 22:02
  the shows that you you did? We, well, we started off, we
• 22:04
  started Off Broadway doing a production of Kimberly Kimbo and
• 22:10
  the entire cast is 9 people. But I was one of the quartet
• 22:14
  members. And I mean, it wasn't like the,
• 22:18
  the biggest role ever, but it was a huge blessing for me
• 22:21
  because instead of going to college and having to go into
• 22:25
  debt, I was learning from people who've done it their entire
• 22:29
  lives. Our lead, Victoria Clarke, she's
• 22:32
  a phenomenal actress, Tony award-winning actress.
• 22:35
  And I was learning from her, watching her perform, watching
• 22:37
  everybody else on the show perform, Ally Mozzie, Stephen
• 22:41
  Boyer, Bonnie Milligan. I mean, they're all such
• 22:45
  phenomenal performers. And I, I was getting first hand
• 22:50
  experience and I didn't necessarily win any awards, but
• 22:54
  our show as a collectively won best musical at the Tonys in
• 22:58
  2023. And I, I got to perform on the
• 23:00
  Tony stage and the whole thing was just playing Uno.
• 23:02
  I was like, how easy is this? You know, I get to be on the
• 23:05
  Tony stage playing Uno and there's Samuel L Jackson and
• 23:08
  there's Lin Manuel Miranda. Like, you know, so it was, it
• 23:12
  was, it was a blessing that I, I could never have thought would
• 23:17
  ever happen. And it was, it was just that
• 23:19
  role. And we did once we, once we did
• 23:23
  off Broadway, we did it for about four months.
• 23:25
  Then we moved to Broadway, did that for like 2-2 years, 2-3
• 23:28
  years. And I remember asking myself,
• 23:31
  like, what am I going to do afterwards?
• 23:33
  How am I going to support myself?
• 23:36
  It's already difficult to be an actor and you get so lucky with
• 23:40
  one show, but that's, it's a grind.
• 23:41
  It's non-stop and all of a sudden I get this audition in my
• 23:45
  e-mail, my inbox, and it says, David.
• 23:48
  I was like, what? So I look further and I'm like,
• 23:52
  it's the story of King David. So backtrack a little bit.
• 23:56
  Three years before, I was watching The Chosen, and I was
• 23:59
  obsessed with The Chosen. And I got all of my family to
• 24:01
  watch it. And they said to me, you know,
• 24:05
  well, you're an actor, so who would you play if you want a
• 24:07
  show like that? And I knew there was already a
• 24:09
  David on the show, but I was like, well, I could sing.
• 24:13
  And so maybe like a young King David, I would love to play a
• 24:17
  young King David with the harp, with the sheep out in the
• 24:21
  fields. That would be a dream come true.
• 24:23
  Maybe for a scene or two, they do a flashback and three years
• 24:29
  later, I get this audition for an entire show about him.
• 24:33
  So I'm like, there's no way. So I immediately call my mom.
• 24:35
  And I'm like, mom, you're not going to believe this.
• 24:38
  There's a David show audition. She goes, Michael, no way.
• 24:40
  I was just praying that God would give you something that's
• 24:42
  like good. And like, we're like, oh, my
• 24:43
  goodness, this is this is it. You know, I send them my
• 24:46
  audition and I check in with my manager every every little bit.
• 24:52
  And I'm like, Hey, what happened with that David thing?
• 24:54
  And he remember one time he said to me, well, you know, they
• 24:59
  liked your tape and they're going to send it to the
• 25:01
  producers. I checked, I checked back, you
• 25:04
  know, every week. And hey, what happened with the
• 25:05
  David thing? And he said to me, it's not
• 25:09
  going to go your way. I was like, huh?
• 25:14
  So I called my mom. Mom, it's not.
• 25:15
  It's not going to work out. Did he say why?
• 25:18
  Yeah, something it just doesn't work out sometimes, you know?
• 25:22
  And I'm like, like, that's that's so weird, all right?
• 25:26
  And you audition so much that and you get so many no's that it
• 25:29
  doesn't even make a difference. But this one stung.
• 25:31
  I was like, God, I really thought I could do a good job
• 25:35
  here. And then three weeks later, my
• 25:39
  agent calls me and she says, Michael, remember the David
• 25:42
  thing you auditioned for? So you get another shot at it,
• 25:45
  which never happens. Never Do you get rejected and
• 25:49
  then they come back and say, hey, I actually want to see you
• 25:51
  for this role, the same role. Never.
• 25:53
  Crazy. So I call my mom, mom, the David
• 25:56
  thing is back and like I'm all excited and stuff and she goes,
• 25:58
  Michael, calm down before you get too excited.
• 26:02
  I need you to fast and I need you to pray.
• 26:05
  Do these two things for me. I said, OK, So I did.
• 26:09
  I fasted and I prayed, called my acting coach.
• 26:13
  And, you know, she, she we really crafted those things
• 26:17
  together and sent the tape. And a week later they said to
• 26:22
  me, John Irwin is flying to come have a meeting with you in New
• 26:25
  York. OK.
• 26:28
  I've never had a meeting with the producer before.
• 26:31
  And I'm thinking to myself, this is a good meeting, lasts about
• 26:34
  45 minutes, maybe on a good day, it's a bad meeting, 1520
• 26:38
  minutes. And he'll go, hey, I have a
• 26:39
  flight to catch. But it was great chatting with
• 26:40
  you. And, you know, meets me in New
• 26:45
  York. And we ended up hanging out for
• 26:46
  like 3-4 hours. And, you know, it was a really,
• 26:51
  really amazing time because in that moment, he was trying to
• 26:54
  see my heart and if I could portray David.
• 26:58
  But at the same time, for me, I wanted to make sure that
• 27:00
  whoever's behind this David show had the heart for it and, and
• 27:03
  knew what kind of story we were telling.
• 27:05
  You know, this story about David isn't really about David, it's
• 27:08
  about Jesus. And so we really had this
• 27:11
  special moment of connection. And I, I trusted him and he
• 27:13
  trusted me. And he said to me, there's going
• 27:16
  to be a lot of auditions your way, but I just need to do the
• 27:19
  work. And I said, if there's anything
• 27:21
  I could do, it's the work. And a week later they flew me
• 27:25
  out to LA, did a screen test and I did and I did.
• 27:29
  And, you know, and sending him like this, sending him that.
• 27:30
  And I'm, I'm prepping for the role.
• 27:32
  And meanwhile, my show is about to close and I have a month left
• 27:36
  and they're like, we'll get back to you.
• 27:39
  And then two weeks later, hey, so Amazon's not convinced yet.
• 27:44
  It's like what? So they hadn't signed the deal
• 27:46
  yet with Amazon. No, well, they weren't convinced
• 27:49
  of casting me. Wow, so John wanted to cast you
• 27:52
  but Amazon wasn't on board yet? Yeah, Everybody at wonder, they
• 27:55
  were like, yeah, we found him. You're the guy.
• 27:56
  You're David. Yeah, and Amazon's like this
• 27:59
  guy's never done a production. I mean, it's true, you've never
• 28:02
  done a production, right? He's never been on TV.
• 28:04
  He's got 1 Broadway show to his name.
• 28:07
  You're going to, you're going to put the back of the entire,
• 28:09
  you're going to put the show on his back.
• 28:11
  What are you doing? And and honestly.
• 28:13
  Did they have someone else they wanted cast for David?
• 28:16
  Well, this was the thing. So I remember the deal that John
• 28:20
  worked out with them was this. They would hire a really
• 28:25
  fantastic casting director to search in all of the United
• 28:28
  States. She would do a deep search and
• 28:30
  try to find another David. And then John would get to fly
• 28:36
  me to grease to do a camera test with the with the costumes, with
• 28:41
  the make up, with all of it. And so that was the trade off.
• 28:44
  Let us search for another David while you go test out this guy
• 28:47
  and prove to us that he's David. And I knew this because then all
• 28:51
  my friends were texting me like, hey, so did you get the David
• 28:54
  roll? Because there's another call out
• 28:55
  for it. And so that's.
• 28:58
  Crazy the. Stakes are high and they go, all
• 29:01
  right, well, we're going to fly you back to Greece.
• 29:04
  And I'm like, great, I get, you know, I get another shot at it,
• 29:07
  another, another shot. And so I fly to Greece and, and
• 29:11
  we had prepped this, this roll and I'm, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm
• 29:14
  doing, I'm so much prayer and I'm, it's, it was so stressful
• 29:19
  and just the nail biting every night.
• 29:21
  I remember the night before the grease audition, I didn't sleep
• 29:24
  not a single hour. I was up all night.
• 29:27
  And so the next day and I didn't eat either because I don't eat
• 29:30
  when I'm stressed. So I remember I was tired and I
• 29:33
  hadn't eaten and I was super hungry.
• 29:35
  And we had an entire day. We like filmed 2 scenes and the
• 29:37
  screen test was me attacking the lion in The Cave.
• 29:40
  And the other part would be David giving a speech to his
• 29:43
  people. And I remember at the end of the
• 29:46
  day, I, I was sitting in this field and I was playing the
• 29:50
  harp. They were just getting like
• 29:52
  shots and stuff for the screen test.
• 29:55
  And I was just sitting in a field with the harp, you know,
• 30:01
  And I think they had some sheep there too.
• 30:03
  And I was like, God, you kind of answered my prayer.
• 30:05
  Like if this is, if this is the taste of what it is, thank you.
• 30:09
  I just pray that you didn't bring me all the way here to let
• 30:11
  me go. And they said we'll get back to
• 30:16
  you. And now, you know, time is
• 30:19
  running out with my show. There's about two weeks left, or
• 30:22
  three weeks at this point. And they said they'll get back
• 30:26
  to me and I don't know what I'm going to do after the show.
• 30:30
  And then they said, we'll let you know next week, next week
• 30:33
  comes, we'll let you know next week, next week comes.
• 30:36
  Give us some more time. And they're during this time
• 30:39
  because Amazon is requiring it. They are just running through
• 30:43
  all of these screen tests with other random potential David
• 30:46
  wannabes. Well, they're saying, hey, we
• 30:48
  found our guy, but we're going to prove that his screen test,
• 30:52
  your thing that you did in Greece is, is the superior one.
• 30:56
  And you can look at all these other candidates, but it's our
• 31:00
  our money's on Michael. That's what the producers of
• 31:02
  David were telling Amazon. I mean, if if the if wonder had
• 31:06
  found another actor who would do a better job, they would have
• 31:09
  went behind him. And I knew that they were taking
• 31:11
  a long time because they were screening all the other actors
• 31:13
  that were sending in auditions. And honestly, I wouldn't want
• 31:16
  someone who's not qualified if I was not qualified for this role,
• 31:19
  I would not want to take someone's place who was.
• 31:22
  And in the end, God chooses whoever he chooses.
• 31:25
  It's not for me to judge his decision.
• 31:28
  All I knew is that I was like, Lord, if I, if I do this, I want
• 31:32
  to do it your way. I give it to you.
• 31:34
  I'm here because of you. I will fight for you.
• 31:38
  And so they're actively looking for other people while I'm
• 31:41
  waiting. And now there's exactly one week
• 31:43
  left before my show closes, and I get this random text in the
• 31:46
  morning, and it's John Gunn. And he goes, hey, buddy, I just
• 31:51
  want to call you. We got some news from Amazon.
• 31:52
  I'm like, Oh my goodness. What's with this like wait time
• 31:56
  this like tell me. I'm like, tell me please.
• 32:00
  And he goes. So we got some this, we got some
• 32:02
  news from Amazon last night, and it's kind of rough news.
• 32:07
  We don't know how to tell you this.
• 32:08
  You know, we put you through all the auditions and I'm like, just
• 32:10
  just lay it on me. And he goes.
• 32:13
  You're gonna play, David. What?
• 32:17
  And yeah, there's, there's a video of it online somewhere.
• 32:21
  But you know, that moment I was like, Lord, you answered.
• 32:25
  Thank you. How did you feel?
• 32:28
  Honestly, I didn't even cry. I was like, all right, let's get
• 32:30
  to work, you know? And I, and, and, but they said
• 32:32
  to me or this, sorry, this was 2 weeks, 2 weeks before my show
• 32:36
  closes. And they said to me, the only
• 32:38
  caveat is we have to have you here in one week so you wouldn't
• 32:41
  get to close your show. So I go to my producer on the
• 32:46
  Broadway show, David Stone, who's the producer of Wicked
• 32:50
  the, the movie, the, the, the Broadway show and the movie.
• 32:54
  And I go to him and I said, Hey, David, this is the, this is the
• 32:57
  situation. And he looked at me, you know,
• 33:01
  and he, I love this man. He's, he's a very honest man.
• 33:04
  And he, he looks at me. He goes, in any other case, I
• 33:07
  wouldn't let you do this because you have to close the show.
• 33:11
  But I'm named after David. So I kind of have to let you do
• 33:16
  this. And I said thank you, David.
• 33:20
  And, you know, he took his blessing and he goes, you can
• 33:23
  leave. You can leave early.
• 33:24
  The only thing I ask, you know, just don't post about anything.
• 33:27
  And I was like, yes, Sir. And you know, I, I owe him a
• 33:30
  lot. You know, he, he let me go.
• 33:31
  He let me pursue my, my, my dream.
• 33:36
  And so I remember, I hopped on the plane, I think it was
• 33:39
  Passover when I, when I, the day that I flew to Greece.
• 33:44
  So I thought that was kind of symbolic.
• 33:47
  And I packed up my entire apartment in one week, put in a
• 33:51
  storage unit and went to go do David.
• 33:55
  It's really hard to find good content to watch with my kids
• 33:58
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• 34:00
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• 34:04
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• 34:07
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• 34:14
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  code Lila at checkout. How long was the filming for
• 35:32
  Season 1? Season 1 was about four months,
• 35:38
  yeah. So the lion scene that you did
• 35:40
  the screen test for? Incredible.
• 35:43
  They're like wandering through the caves.
• 35:44
  I mean, you're chasing. I mean, this is hopefully not a
• 35:47
  spoiler for too many people because they probably have
• 35:49
  already seen season 1. But you're literally chasing a
• 35:51
  lion because the Bible says David killed a lion.
• 35:55
  And I think in the Bible story, there's a sense of this helped
• 35:58
  establish him as a sort of, you know, underdog, but potential
• 36:02
  hero, future hero, which is kind of your career, which is so
• 36:07
  crazy here. And I think that's probably what
• 36:09
  John Irwin saw on you, is there's a talent here, but
• 36:13
  there's also a story being written about your life as
• 36:16
  Michael that has some of the same themes of the life of King
• 36:20
  David. You were experiencing that life,
• 36:24
  I'm sure while you're on that plain to Greece to start filming
• 36:26
  for Season 1, you were thinking about your life and thinking
• 36:30
  about the life of King David. When you got to Greece and you
• 36:34
  started to film, did you feel like I am about coming fully
• 36:39
  alive? I've got this.
• 36:40
  I feel like I'm channeling, you know, King David here.
• 36:43
  Or did you have some struggles in feeling like you could really
• 36:47
  be that part and really be truly David?
• 36:50
  I would say definitely the latter.
• 36:52
  So many struggles on all levels. I mean, when I had no idea what
• 36:56
  I was doing in front of a camera and I really just relied on the
• 37:01
  direction and the support of the directors of my cast members.
• 37:05
  And they knew, they knew this is his first time in front of the
• 37:07
  camera. And so they gave me a lot of
• 37:08
  grace and I was going through stuff too.
• 37:11
  I mean, like before we started filming, I cut my foot on like a
• 37:14
  stone and it was bleeding so much and like I couldn't walk
• 37:17
  for like a week because if I walked, it would like like the
• 37:20
  entire part of my foot got cut. And and then right before we
• 37:24
  started filming, I tore my shoulder because I was
• 37:26
  practicing the sling so much, tore my shoulder, cut my foot.
• 37:29
  And then during filming, I, I, I, we were filming this thing
• 37:34
  and I, I remember like I fell or something, but then it scraped
• 37:37
  my palms so bad and they got infected.
• 37:41
  So like I couldn't close my fists.
• 37:43
  So that lion scene that you're talking about holding the, the
• 37:46
  torch and the, the, the knife, I, I was like in immense pain
• 37:50
  all day, just like holding this and like, like trying to let it
• 37:53
  go. And then, and I have asthma.
• 37:54
  So like wearing a mask between takes and like doing this?
• 37:57
  I mean, it worked so well though, because in that scene
• 38:01
  you see that you're being propelled by inner conviction of
• 38:04
  the identity that God gave you, you as the actor and also you as
• 38:08
  David, who you're playing and you are, but you're dealing with
• 38:11
  your human inexperience and frailty.
• 38:14
  And that's so much the story of King David.
• 38:17
  I mean, you know, man after God's own heart, filled with the
• 38:19
  Holy Spirit, who has all of his struggles and limitations and
• 38:22
  his failures, but he ends up trusting in God.
• 38:25
  And then God makes it work out miraculously.
• 38:28
  So like, but you can see it visually, which is so crazy that
• 38:31
  that's what you were also experiencing on a human level as
• 38:34
  Michael. Yeah, yeah.
• 38:35
  And it's, it's weird too, because I remember like one time
• 38:39
  there was like other health stuff that I was going through
• 38:41
  too, and a bunch of other trials that I'll, I'll keep to myself.
• 38:44
  But at one point I was like, God, why does it have to be so
• 38:48
  painful? You know, I was like, does it
• 38:51
  really, is it really, does it need to be this way?
• 38:54
  But if it's got to be this way, I'll go through it 100 times
• 38:57
  over for you. And it only got worse.
• 39:02
  And now looking back at it, I'm like, in the same way David, he,
• 39:08
  you know, he was anointed and then he had to face a giant and
• 39:12
  he was being chased by his king. And then his first wife was
• 39:16
  given to someone else and all of his closest people dying.
• 39:19
  And he's trying to make peace and he's trying to to find a
• 39:22
  solution. And everything around him in his
• 39:24
  life is turning against him. And it was God preparing him to
• 39:27
  be king. You know, he it's it's truly an
• 39:30
  embodiment of God doesn't call the qualified.
• 39:33
  He qualifies the called and David was called and this is his
• 39:37
  qualification process. He's molding him and hardening
• 39:40
  him and getting him ready to be king because David's, David's
• 39:43
  not hard enough yet. He's not, he's still soft.
• 39:46
  And I remember at 1.1 of the songs David writes, Lord, these
• 39:51
  men are too hard for me, you know, and this is like at this
• 39:55
  point, he's the guy that's known as the, the man David killed his
• 39:58
  10s of thousands. So even at that point, David's
• 40:02
  like these men are too. They're, they're too rough.
• 40:05
  I can't handle this. And that's the heart of David.
• 40:09
  David doesn't long for war. He doesn't long for blood.
• 40:13
  He only fights because he's defending his God and he's
• 40:15
  defending his people. And in the same way he led the
• 40:18
  sheep when he was younger, he was leading his people, running
• 40:21
  away from dangers and running away from trials.
• 40:24
  He was that shepherd amongst his people.
• 40:27
  And, and I realized I was like, I have to go through this.
• 40:33
  Whatever calling God has for me, this hardening process is
• 40:37
  necessary. And in the same way, God's not
• 40:40
  going to Take Me Out of it. I know he's going to be with me
• 40:43
  in it. All right, I'll go through it.
• 40:47
  So even though there were an incredible amount of trials and
• 40:53
  health issues and blah blah blah blah, I wouldn't have it any
• 40:57
  other way. Well, you're also still in it
• 40:59
  because Season 2 is coming out now, which is absolutely
• 41:03
  phenomenal. And there hasn't been a final
• 41:05
  decision from Amazon about Season 3, which is wild to me.
• 41:11
  But I don't I'm not in the, you know, intrigues of how they
• 41:15
  decide these things. But Season 1 was their most
• 41:18
  successful for Amazon Prime. It was the most successful TV
• 41:22
  show that they think they've ever had in the first few days.
• 41:25
  Like there was I think 20 million people that tuned in.
• 41:28
  It became the top show on Amazon and you know season 2 is about
• 41:33
  to go live, which I'm sure will be very successful.
• 41:36
  What's the weight for Season 3? Well, you know, you look at this
• 41:41
  trilogy really, and it's this. It's Shepherd, warrior, king.
• 41:44
  Those are the three elements that embody all of David.
• 41:47
  And in first season, we got to dive into the shepherd.
• 41:49
  You know, the boy who received his calling and is learning how
• 41:53
  to step into it. Season 2 is the warrior.
• 41:56
  And honestly, it's one of my favorite experiences filming
• 42:00
  season 2 because there is truly so much transformation that
• 42:06
  happens in this season. We we see the shepherd become
• 42:09
  the warrior. We see him going from the blood
• 42:11
  of the lion on him to the blood of all of his enemies.
• 42:15
  And at, at one point you see David and Saul face to face and
• 42:21
  you see the old prideful king face to face with the humble
• 42:24
  king. And that, that's the theme of
• 42:28
  all of this is pride and humility.
• 42:31
  What will win is when the Lord is with you, You know what, what
• 42:36
  kind of things do you have to go through for his will to be done?
• 42:40
  And so I'm, I'm really, really excited for people to, to see
• 42:44
  that and to see David transition from the sling to the sword.
• 42:48
  And then, you know, I, I don't know what's going to happen on
• 42:52
  season 3. I'm, I'm, but you know, my hope
• 42:57
  is that we really dive into this, this priestly king, you
• 43:01
  know, because he wasn't just a king.
• 43:03
  He was a king who left God. He was a king who was humble and
• 43:09
  especially up until the anointing, you know, it's, it's
• 43:12
  really that image. She's a shepherd.
• 43:15
  It's almost a full 360, except instead of sheep, it's people.
• 43:19
  It's also so beautiful to see the plan of God because the
• 43:22
  Israelites had asked for a king. They had the judges and of the
• 43:25
  different tribes, and that was kind of the rulership of how
• 43:27
  they handled their civilization. But then they wanted a king.
• 43:31
  They wanted a king like the rest of the secular world.
• 43:33
  So they get King Saul. He has his crazy experiences
• 43:39
  where he gets proud, like you said.
• 43:41
  He ends up doing things God said not to do, like taking spoils,
• 43:43
  setting up idols, taking the glory.
• 43:46
  And then Samuel, the prophet ultimately anoints you as the
• 43:50
  new king. And So what you're saying is
• 43:52
  this identity that season 3 would explore of now you are
• 43:56
  this king, but you're also still a shepherd, right?
• 43:59
  It's a it's a different model for leadership, and it
• 44:02
  ultimately is foreshadowing the leadership of Jesus Christ.
• 44:06
  Yeah, yeah. And that's the thing for me,
• 44:10
  like when I take in every scene the story of David, the whole
• 44:14
  reason David's important is because of Jesus.
• 44:17
  If the prophecy was not given to David that from him will come
• 44:20
  the Messiah, David wouldn't be David and the Messiah is Jesus.
• 44:26
  So David is exalted because of Jesus.
• 44:29
  And so I try to bring that into the screen as much as possible
• 44:33
  while playing a faulty human being.
• 44:36
  And it's tricky, you know, how do you, how do you bring Jesus
• 44:40
  to the Old Testament where there's blood and there's war
• 44:44
  and there's violence and adultery and, you know, all
• 44:48
  sorts of all sorts of evil. But you know, I, I, this is
• 44:53
  where I think the, I really see the calling of John Gallon and
• 44:57
  John Irwin and everyone in the writers team, everyone in the
• 44:59
  production. Because, you know, I, I've
• 45:03
  received so many messages just on DMS of, of people who have
• 45:07
  told me, you know, this show brought me back to God.
• 45:12
  This show has showed me the strength and give me the courage
• 45:14
  to go back to church or, you know, I actually never viewed
• 45:19
  the Old Testament this way. And, and, you know, this show
• 45:23
  brought a lot of clarification and it's in the writing and they
• 45:26
  just, they do such a phenomenal job at exploring all the nuances
• 45:31
  that the Bible doesn't really dive into that much or, or maybe
• 45:35
  elaborating on something in a way that helps us as a modern
• 45:38
  audience really understand what David went through, what Saul
• 45:42
  was going through. One of my favorite things that
• 45:46
  that they've written and also that the the actors have done.
• 45:49
  So the actor who plays King Saul, Ali Suleiman, he just such
• 45:54
  a, he does such a phenomenal job at portraying this Saul who's
• 45:58
  absolutely nuts and prideful and yet you can't help but love him.
• 46:03
  I remember there was 1 scene where I was just looking at him
• 46:07
  and I remember I didn't, I didn't see Ollie in front of me.
• 46:09
  I saw Saul and I loved him. I loved Saul.
• 46:15
  And I realized in that moment I was like, oh, that's what David
• 46:20
  meant by loving Saul. David was his doctor.
• 46:25
  David would play the harp for Saul every time he would have an
• 46:28
  episode, but he took, he took pride in that work.
• 46:32
  He, he loved healing Saul and it broke his heart to see him go
• 46:38
  down this route. He would never lay his hand on
• 46:41
  God's anointed. And we forget that Saul was
• 46:44
  God's anointed in the same way that David loved Saul, God loved
• 46:48
  Saul. And all of us, we have a Saul
• 46:52
  and David constantly in battle. We have the pride and we have
• 46:56
  the humility and we're constantly like, who's going to
• 46:58
  win? When it comes to a certain
• 47:00
  temptation, there's always that battle.
• 47:03
  And it's it's a realization I didn't come to up until that
• 47:10
  moment. And it really put in perspective
• 47:14
  what it means to love your enemies and to pray for those
• 47:17
  who persecute you. And there's no one who
• 47:19
  persecuted David more than Saul. That was an incredibly powerful
• 47:23
  theme in both Season 1 and Season 2, connected to what
• 47:27
  you're saying about humility and pride and David learning to love
• 47:30
  his enemies and love Saul, who shouldn't have been an enemy but
• 47:33
  was, you know, had animosity towards him and jealousy towards
• 47:36
  him because he was also God's anointed.
• 47:38
  But it was this theme of identity.
• 47:42
  And I think that was that is in House of David, such a gift to
• 47:47
  the modern world to tell the story of identity.
• 47:52
  You talked about God's calling, God's calling for you
• 47:54
  personally, Michael, to now play this part and do it so
• 47:57
  incredibly. And then the calling, of course,
• 47:59
  God had for David, but it's also the calling that God has for
• 48:02
  every single one of us. And there's a true identity that
• 48:04
  we can step into. And then there's false
• 48:07
  identities that we can live where we're running away from
• 48:10
  God. We're caught up with our own
• 48:12
  idols, our own pride, our own self-sufficiency.
• 48:14
  And then we don't live the amazing adventure that God calls
• 48:18
  us to. Amen.
• 48:20
  When you started in earnest living as David to play and play
• 48:27
  David in House of David, did you feel like you were stepping into
• 48:31
  your identity to be called to play this part before all time?
• 48:37
  Yes, but I also want to be careful that like I knew I was
• 48:45
  stepping into a calling that the Lord had for me, but my identity
• 48:51
  is not an actor above, above anything, above country, above
• 48:58
  above job, above career, above self, my identity.
• 49:02
  I'm I'm a Christian. I'm a follower of Jesus.
• 49:05
  And so where wherever he takes me, I will go.
• 49:10
  But right now, you know, the Lord called me to play this role
• 49:13
  and to be an actor, and I know that.
• 49:17
  So up until He decides otherwise, I will do what He has
• 49:22
  me doing. And then if He wants something
• 49:24
  else, then I'll do that. Do you feel like you've learned
• 49:28
  things about your identity, Michael's identity, by exploring
• 49:33
  the identity of David? Absolutely.
• 49:35
  What have you learned? Well, you know, beyond, beyond
• 49:40
  finding purpose and and finding something to do.
• 49:43
  I mean, I think David is a guide for all of us.
• 49:48
  And David helped me find my identity in Christ.
• 49:53
  I recently, you know, converted to the Catholic Church.
• 49:56
  And although I don't exactly correlate that with with David,
• 50:01
  I think those are two separate journeys.
• 50:02
  I think David helped me along the way.
• 50:05
  And you know, obviously, because we're doing the show and I'm,
• 50:08
  I'm diving in the Scripture all the time, You know, I can't, I
• 50:10
  can't run away from the Bible. And with all the trials that the
• 50:15
  show has brought, I think David helped me realize that I, I was
• 50:26
  on a floating raft in the middle of a roaring, stormy ocean.
• 50:32
  And I need to hop on a, on a big boat, big ship, because I, I, I
• 50:37
  will not survive this. And as, as Christians, as the
• 50:41
  body of Christ, we're not meant to do this alone.
• 50:44
  We're meant to do this with each other together, and two and more
• 50:47
  gathered in my name. I would be among them.
• 50:51
  And so I, I, yeah, I needed to hop on a ship.
• 50:54
  Who is the ship? What do you mean by a ship?
• 50:58
  For me, that was fine in the church, you know, and.
• 51:01
  Becoming Catholic. Yeah, and, and, you know, I
• 51:07
  think like, like I love the Orthodox Church and I for a
• 51:10
  while, like I just didn't go to church at all.
• 51:14
  I think finding an Apostolic Church, yeah, there's some
• 51:20
  things I, I won't dive into completely, but you know, I, I
• 51:25
  definitely heard this calling when I was alone that I need to
• 51:30
  find, I need to find a ship. I need to hop on a ship and
• 51:35
  it's, I needed the Eucharist. For me, that was the, the
• 51:40
  biggest thing. That was the reminder.
• 51:42
  I realized I haven't taken the Eucharist in forever.
• 51:46
  It's been like 10 years since I've taken the Eucharist.
• 51:49
  Yeah, I was, I remember like thinking to myself, like, what
• 51:52
  am I doing? And I just got, I went on to
• 51:54
  this years of research. And when I came back home, you
• 52:01
  know, I got, I got in touch with the priest and I, I, I knew all
• 52:05
  the differences. I knew all the different
• 52:06
  arguments and all the whatever. Between Orthodox and Roman
• 52:11
  Catholicism. Yeah, and, and honestly, like,
• 52:13
  they weren't that different. Like.
• 52:15
  Yeah, there. I mean there's same route
• 52:17
  ultimately exactly same line of Apostolic succession.
• 52:20
  Exactly. And like, you know, I knew I
• 52:23
  couldn't go wrong either way, to be, to be completely honest,
• 52:26
  like thinking about the apparition of, of Our Lady in
• 52:31
  Zeitoun, of all the opera, the apparitions of her in, in Egypt
• 52:35
  and, and all the fruits of the spirit that are present in the
• 52:39
  Orthodox Church. That's something I cannot deny.
• 52:43
  The Eucharist is present in the Orthodox Church.
• 52:45
  I love the Orthodox Church, I love my people.
• 52:49
  But for some reason God called me to the Catholic Church.
• 52:52
  And it, it was when I was alone. It was when I wasn't going to
• 52:57
  any church, but having this profound love for the Apostolic
• 53:03
  Church as a whole. You know, I, I pray for the
• 53:06
  unity of the Church and I pray like old times that we may
• 53:10
  become one again. And, you know, looking at how
• 53:15
  the Virgin Mary has appeared in both the Coptic and the Catholic
• 53:19
  Church, you know, I, I think heaven sees that, sees it that
• 53:22
  way already. And it's just waiting on us to
• 53:27
  make God's will happen, You know, So hopefully there's
• 53:31
  something that that happens in our lifetime, but.
• 53:37
  I will pray with you for that. I have great hope that we will
• 53:41
  see the Orthodox and Catholic Church unite again.
• 53:44
  It's been such a wound for them to have split.
• 53:47
  And I also pray for unity with our Evangelical and Protestant
• 53:50
  brothers and sisters because like you said, we all belong on
• 53:53
  the same boat. And I do believe the Lord and
• 53:56
  the Holy Spirit has protected the, the ship that is the
• 53:59
  Catholic Church with all of our many sinners that's on this
• 54:02
  boat, myself included, and all of our personal mistakes.
• 54:07
  But he's protected the, the teaching authority and the
• 54:11
  authority for the giving of our sacraments.
• 54:14
  But I just want us all to be 1 together and all the great
• 54:17
  fruits that are in, yes, the Orthodox Church, like the Holy
• 54:20
  Spirit, like you said. I mean, I agree with you.
• 54:22
  It is he is clearly working. He's working, I see, in many of
• 54:26
  my evangelical brothers and sisters and Protestant brothers
• 54:29
  and sisters, and so I don't know how it's going to happen, but
• 54:32
  our true identity is to be together and to be 1.
• 54:36
  Yeah, Amen. I hope.
• 54:38
  I hope we see something happen. You've been looking at like what
• 54:43
  Popeil is doing and and visiting the Orthodox patriarchs and who
• 54:47
  knows, But you can definitely pray.
• 54:50
  Yeah. 100% how does your family look at and well, first of all,
• 54:54
  I'm sure they're super proud of you and your work with David.
• 54:58
  How did they receive you saying, hey, I'm actually being
• 55:02
  confirmed into the Roman Catholic Church?
• 55:04
  They have my blessing. I mean, I had their blessing.
• 55:08
  I had their blessing. And I have family who were
• 55:11
  Protestant, family who were Catholic, family were Orthodox.
• 55:14
  And you know, I don't think any of us, like I remember one time
• 55:21
  I heard it this way. I went from having lunch or
• 55:26
  dinner at my mom's house to dinner at my aunt's house.
• 55:30
  Both have the same grandparents. So they were just happy that I
• 55:34
  was. I was taking the Eucharist
• 55:35
  again, and I was going back to church.
• 55:37
  And yeah, it was really beautiful moment.
• 55:40
  And they were able to be there at the Mass where I profess my
• 55:43
  faith in the Catholic Church. Yeah.
• 55:45
  And it was odd, too, because the Catholic Church accepts the
• 55:47
  sacraments of the Orthodox Church.
• 55:49
  So I didn't have to be baptized. I didn't have to go through
• 55:52
  confirmation because in Orthodoxy there's chrismation.
• 55:55
  It was just a profession of faith.
• 55:57
  And the readings that they were pretty cool.
• 56:02
  I remember I thought it was a setup because it was Psalm 89,
• 56:06
  which is the prophetic Psalm of David being chosen.
• 56:09
  And the first words of this reading, where I have found my
• 56:12
  servant David with my holy oil. I have anointed him.
• 56:17
  And it continues. This was last year when?
• 56:19
  You. When you were so you weren't
• 56:22
  confirmed because you were already confirmed as an
• 56:24
  Orthodox. So what?
• 56:25
  What was the process to become Catholic?
• 56:27
  Just the profession of faith. Just.
• 56:28
  The profession of faith and those were the readings.
• 56:30
  Those were the readings that day.
• 56:32
  It was, I think, the celebration of.
• 56:34
  Awesome. Saint Callistus And then the
• 56:36
  second reading was Peter, or it was in the Gospel, but it was
• 56:41
  when Jesus appears to Peter after the crucifixion and says
• 56:44
  to Peter, Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, I love you feed my
• 56:47
  sheep three times and you know in a way God confirmed that this
• 56:55
  I want you here, you have my blessing and nothing will ever
• 57:00
  take that away from you and have any moment that I have any sort
• 57:03
  of doubt. I remember God's words that day.
• 57:06
  And the second part is the reconciliation.
• 57:09
  In the same way he reconciled Peter after denying him three
• 57:11
  times. I was being reconciled and I
• 57:13
  remember the the priest came up afterwards and said, Michael, if
• 57:17
  you think that this was a setup, which I did think it was a
• 57:19
  setup, he goes, it's not. These readings are set years in
• 57:23
  advance and you just happen to pick the day where these are the
• 57:26
  readings. So I think beyond the message of
• 57:30
  your role and and beyond David, which is all fun, your true
• 57:35
  purpose is found here and God is calling you home.
• 57:39
  And he said, you know, before you take the Eucharist, I
• 57:41
  encourage you to say, Lord, I love you, just like Peter did.
• 57:46
  And so it's been a, it's been a habit that I, I've been keeping
• 57:50
  as I go to Mass, you know, but, but yeah, there's, I'm home.
• 57:57
  Welcome. Thanks.
• 57:59
  Isn't it the best? It's beautiful to be home.
• 58:02
  So beautiful. Yeah.
• 58:03
  And I would just want everyone to be home all together under
• 58:06
  the same roof, you know, because in the Spirit I believe we're
• 58:09
  one and baptism we're one. And even like you were saying
• 58:12
  with Orthodox Church, it is a valid Eucharist.
• 58:16
  Like this line of Apostolic succession is there.
• 58:18
  The consecration is legit. That is Jesus, body of blood,
• 58:21
  soul and divinity, and the Orthodox Eucharist.
• 58:24
  Now there's a question of is it licit because they've broken
• 58:27
  under Rome? So now they're, you know,
• 58:29
  independent out from under Rome. And so as a Catholic, you don't
• 58:32
  go to receive at an Orthodox Church because they're not under
• 58:35
  the authority. Typically that's not, you know,
• 58:37
  understood as what we, we should go to a Catholic Church.
• 58:40
  But it's like we are one. And so let's all get back
• 58:43
  together under the roof, which I think we will see it, Michael.
• 58:46
  That's what I believe. I think it'll be in our
• 58:48
  lifetime. And I do think, like even the
• 58:50
  work you're doing with David, the work you've done in your own
• 58:53
  life and your willingness to share it mysteriously, I think
• 58:56
  God's going to use that. Whatever he wants.
• 59:00
  Amen. Whatever he wants.
• 59:02
  All right, Season 2, what was the There's a lot of war scenes.
• 59:07
  You're the fighter now. You're the warrior.
• 59:09
  You've already been anointed. You've left the fields of
• 59:13
  shepherding. Now you're a David and you have
• 59:16
  these all these interactions with Saul, who is coming to
• 59:20
  understand that you are actually the anointed one.
• 59:22
  And then there's all of this controversy and conflict that
• 59:24
  breaks out between you guys. What was the toughest part of
• 59:28
  Season 2 for you personally, just from an outsider's
• 59:34
  perspective looking in, there's a lot of, like I said, war.
• 59:36
  So it it, I'm going to imagine it's physically taxing.
• 59:40
  I looked at us like I wouldn't last a minute in these scenes.
• 59:44
  What was the most difficult part for you?
• 59:46
  Maybe it wasn't that. Maybe it's something personal.
• 59:49
  There was a lot of stuff, and again, there's always personal
• 59:53
  stuff that I keep to myself. But I mean, I put on 15 lbs
• 59:56
  between Season 1 and 2, which was fun to try to embody that
• 1:00:00
  that warrior. But there's plenty of stories
• 1:00:02
  where I remember I got bronchitis midway through
• 1:00:07
  production. What do you do when you have
• 1:00:09
  bronchitis and you're supposed to be like David fighting
• 1:00:12
  Goliath? And I have asthma, so it was
• 1:00:14
  like double. And I found out my horse died
• 1:00:16
  the same week on the show. And it was beautiful, Beautiful
• 1:00:19
  horse. Hector and he was Henry Cavill's
• 1:00:23
  horse on the Witcher. Back in New York, where was he
• 1:00:27
  The. Horse.
• 1:00:28
  The horse. Oh, he's in.
• 1:00:30
  He's in Europe. Wow.
• 1:00:32
  Yeah, but I remember and I felt so bad, you know, for all of us
• 1:00:38
  who've had a relationship with a horse, but also for the horse
• 1:00:41
  trainer who took care of him and raised him from when he was
• 1:00:44
  little. And it was kind of like a loss
• 1:00:46
  for all of us. And the bronchitis was kind of
• 1:00:52
  funny because I remember we were filming the scene in the cold
• 1:00:56
  and it was like snow. It was snowing.
• 1:00:58
  And obviously, like, my asthma kicked in.
• 1:01:00
  And then they like, kicked into bronchitis.
• 1:01:02
  And then I had to go promote Season 1 for about a week.
• 1:01:06
  And so the travel and the time change and then like the
• 1:01:08
  temperatures and all of these things, it was like a perfect
• 1:01:10
  storm from bronchitis. And then I came back to Greece
• 1:01:13
  finally. And they said, so when you land
• 1:01:15
  from the plane, could you go straight to the studio so we can
• 1:01:17
  record a song? And I was like, what could I,
• 1:01:20
  could I at least see a doctor 1st?
• 1:01:22
  And they said, oh, OK, they sent a doctor to my place.
• 1:01:25
  And he said, you're not going anywhere.
• 1:01:27
  You're staying in your apartment for a week.
• 1:01:28
  I'm going to prescribe you this, this, this, this, this, this.
• 1:01:30
  You cannot leave the house because you have chronic
• 1:01:33
  bronchitis and it's not going away.
• 1:01:35
  And they put me on all this medication.
• 1:01:36
  And I remember I called production and I said, guys, I'm
• 1:01:39
  so sorry. I don't, I don't know.
• 1:01:40
  And they said, don't worry about it.
• 1:01:43
  And they were very gracious and and Saint John Irwin called me
• 1:01:48
  midway through and he goes, insurance is taking care of it.
• 1:01:50
  So really, you're doing us a favor.
• 1:01:53
  So it's a week off for the I mean, that's what's so crazy
• 1:01:56
  about these shoots is everybody's there.
• 1:01:58
  You're in, you're on location in Greece.
• 1:02:01
  And if one of the lead actors gets deathly ill, you, you have
• 1:02:05
  to, you have to pause. You can't, I mean, they don't
• 1:02:07
  want to, they can't kill you. I mean you're, you're not
• 1:02:09
  supposed to die, supposed to live for season 3 and be that
• 1:02:13
  least right. Yeah, it's.
• 1:02:17
  When did you do? When did you do the Goliath
• 1:02:19
  scene? Did it hurt to get like, I don't
• 1:02:22
  want to give too many. Well, that was season.
• 1:02:24
  That was that was season 1 like get thrown to the ground and.
• 1:02:29
  Well, I mean, like, I, I remember one time I told him I
• 1:02:31
  want to do my own stunts. So I at one point I did my own
• 1:02:34
  roles and my own ducks and stuff.
• 1:02:37
  And because I was inexperienced, it looked real and I was
• 1:02:40
  actually hurting myself. And they said, OK, OK, that's
• 1:02:42
  enough. Let's get your stunt double in.
• 1:02:44
  He obviously did a phenomenal job.
• 1:02:46
  But but yeah, so at the time I had, I had torn my shoulder so
• 1:02:50
  that sling I couldn't sling for all of season 1.
• 1:02:54
  And you think that the guy who plays David could sling.
• 1:02:56
  But I remember like the day before we filmed the Goliath
• 1:03:02
  scene, I had re injured my shoulder again.
• 1:03:05
  And they said finally they came to film the the Goliath bit to
• 1:03:11
  do the slinging scene. And they said, Michael, we have
• 1:03:14
  set up 7 cameras, 2 slow MO, 3 slow MO, three regular.
• 1:03:18
  We have you covered from every angle.
• 1:03:19
  We just need this one shot from you.
• 1:03:21
  If that's the one shot we get, that's the one shot we get.
• 1:03:24
  But just go for it. All right?
• 1:03:28
  Went to the fight coordinator, took off the sling that I had on
• 1:03:31
  and warmed up my shoulder as much as I could and took the
• 1:03:34
  sling and relied on the training that I did three months before.
• 1:03:37
  Here we go. Ran, ran, ran, ran, ran, did the
• 1:03:40
  sling landed. Everyone's holding their breath
• 1:03:43
  and they're like are you OK? And I said Yep I'm good, let's
• 1:03:47
  do it again. Did 9 takes, felt nothing.
• 1:03:49
  So that was. It was an amazing scene.
• 1:03:53
  Yeah, it was. It was fun.
• 1:03:54
  It was really, really. Fun.
• 1:03:55
  Did you heard afterwards? How could you not?
• 1:03:58
  Yeah, a little bit I was. Yeah.
• 1:04:01
  Yeah, a little bit you're. Like I need an amputation after
• 1:04:05
  that. But yeah, we got through it.
• 1:04:08
  But you know, Season 2, with a lot of the fighting scenes, I
• 1:04:11
  knew that we wouldn't have enough time to get through
• 1:04:14
  everything. And so between seasons, I worked
• 1:04:16
  with one of our stunt coordinators and he would teach
• 1:04:20
  me all of the sort stuff because I knew when I get to set, I need
• 1:04:23
  to pick it up ASAP. And sure enough, one of the
• 1:04:26
  scenes we were filming was this wonder where David has to go
• 1:04:28
  through like 810 different people and I show up an hour
• 1:04:32
  before. I already filmed 2 scenes that
• 1:04:34
  day. I got three more scenes to film
• 1:04:35
  and we have a 2 hour chunk, an hour for hair, makeup and
• 1:04:38
  training, and an hour to film the wonder.
• 1:04:41
  And this wonder is extremely complicated because there's
• 1:04:43
  fire, there's people on fire, there's camera angles, there's
• 1:04:45
  the studio lights that have to change.
• 1:04:47
  Everything has to be perfectly timed.
• 1:04:48
  My fighting has to be perfect in order for it to sell.
• 1:04:52
  So I go, I have an hour to get everything ready, hair, makeup,
• 1:04:55
  training. So I go and they, they train me
• 1:04:57
  on all the stuff and you can get to this person, this person,
• 1:04:59
  that person took me about 30 minutes to get through all of
• 1:05:01
  it. Then I have 30 minutes to get in
• 1:05:03
  a costume, hair, makeup, the soot, the blood, the dust,
• 1:05:06
  everything. And then I go, we're about to
• 1:05:09
  start filming like five, 5-10 minutes and the stunt
• 1:05:13
  coordinator comes up. He goes, hey, Michael.
• 1:05:14
  So which is the choreo we filmed in 5 minutes.
• 1:05:19
  I barely got this first bit together, man.
• 1:05:21
  Like he goes, it's fine, it's fine, it's going to be OK.
• 1:05:24
  And yeah, so he did. They taught me, they re taught
• 1:05:28
  me the fight stuff. 5 minutes before we have to film and we
• 1:05:32
  take after take after take. And one time I messed up the
• 1:05:34
  quarry at one time, you know, the camera angle wasn't perfect
• 1:05:37
  or one time the light didn't switch perfect.
• 1:05:40
  Remember, like we had 10 minutes left and the second to last take
• 1:05:44
  boom boom, boom and everything was perfect.
• 1:05:49
  And I have like the the BTS footage of it, but I was like, I
• 1:05:51
  think this is going to be the one.
• 1:05:53
  And sure enough, that was the cut that made the show.
• 1:05:55
  Is your adrenaline pumping during that?
• 1:05:57
  Oh yeah, so much. But that one of my favorite
• 1:06:02
  parts was the fight scenes. I loved just taking that sword
• 1:06:07
  out and just going through people.
• 1:06:08
  It was it's. Like you like the the bully that
• 1:06:10
  you punched in middle school, right?
• 1:06:12
  Like except now it's like your job.
• 1:06:15
  Yeah, exactly. Except this time I don't get
• 1:06:17
  suspended and I get paid for it. Yeah, people watching her like
• 1:06:21
  yay, go. David, what was your favorite
• 1:06:24
  scene to do? You said you love the fight
• 1:06:25
  scenes. What was What was your most
• 1:06:27
  favorite scene to do? My most favorite scene, I would
• 1:06:30
  have to say is the goodbye scene between David and Jonathan,
• 1:06:33
  which is one of the major themes this season, the friendship
• 1:06:36
  between them. And this is a scene that really
• 1:06:39
  a moment that I had read in Scripture and I, I, every time I
• 1:06:43
  read it in the Bible, I tear up. It's these two friends that
• 1:06:45
  cannot be together. And, you know, luckily I was, I
• 1:06:50
  was playing alongside Ethan Kai, the actor who plays Jonathan.
• 1:06:53
  And he's just such a phenomenal actor and has such a beautiful
• 1:06:56
  heart. That's when we did that scene.
• 1:06:58
  It was so easy to fall into that moment and looking at him.
• 1:07:02
  I didn't see Ethan. I saw Jonathan.
• 1:07:05
  And we were surrounded by all these ancient castles that were
• 1:07:08
  built 800 BC from the time of David.
• 1:07:12
  And I'm thinking to myself, like, how did I even get here?
• 1:07:16
  And we did the scene. And, you know, I think for those
• 1:07:19
  watching, it's, it's one of the special moments where we really,
• 1:07:22
  we really got to bring the Bible to life in that moment.
• 1:07:24
  And it's beautiful. He, like yourself, is an
• 1:07:27
  incredible actor and I think the dynamic between you 2 is
• 1:07:33
  absolutely beautifully told in season 2.
• 1:07:36
  What is the for people who, maybe this is a bit of a
• 1:07:39
  spoiler, but also for people who aren't as familiar with the
• 1:07:41
  Bible story, what how would you describe the dynamic with David
• 1:07:46
  and Jonathan and why can't they be the best friends that they
• 1:07:50
  feel they out they are? Well Jonathan is Saul's son,
• 1:07:55
  he's Next up for the throne and David is the anointed king.
• 1:07:59
  You would think that Jonathan and David are complete enemies.
• 1:08:02
  They become their the the worst of of enemies, but instead they
• 1:08:07
  become the best of friends. And because of Saul, obviously
• 1:08:11
  Jonathan's not going to leave his father's side.
• 1:08:13
  He can't. His calling is to be by his
• 1:08:16
  father. And we see it up until their
• 1:08:21
  goodbye. You know, Jonathan's trying to
• 1:08:23
  convince Saul like David's never done anything against you.
• 1:08:27
  Sure, he's anointed, but he loves you and respect you and
• 1:08:30
  will never take the throne from you in that manner.
• 1:08:33
  He will leave that to the Lord, and Saul and his pride just
• 1:08:37
  cannot accept that. And even to see Jonathan lay
• 1:08:43
  down something that his entire life thought with, it was his
• 1:08:45
  calling for God's calling, which is for David to be king.
• 1:08:49
  It shows immense humility in the character of Jonathan.
• 1:08:52
  Because he would have been king. Potentially.
• 1:08:55
  But now his friend who's not at the line of Saul is going to be
• 1:08:58
  king, the line of Judah and. Exactly, exactly the the amount
• 1:09:01
  of sacrifice that Jonathan did willingly and with love and with
• 1:09:05
  kindness is is out of this world.
• 1:09:08
  You know, Jonathan is one of those characters that I really
• 1:09:11
  look up to. I I love Jonathan.
• 1:09:14
  I thought one of the other things that I loved, I mean,
• 1:09:16
  obviously the cinematography is amazing, the production's
• 1:09:18
  amazing, the acting is incredible.
• 1:09:21
  The character development is really a stand out for me
• 1:09:25
  because I mean, your character development, what we've seen so
• 1:09:28
  far is like this boy who doesn't know his, he, he kind of has a
• 1:09:30
  sense of his identity, his calling, but he's stuck being
• 1:09:34
  the shepherd. He's the youngest of the
• 1:09:35
  brothers. He's sort of cast off.
• 1:09:37
  And then obviously now he's stepping into this identity that
• 1:09:39
  he's being given by God to be king one day.
• 1:09:43
  And then as the warrior, exploring what that even looks
• 1:09:46
  like, right? In your own experience of
• 1:09:50
  showing those changes in David, how did you approach doing that?
• 1:09:56
  And were you also, in a way, doing that as an actor?
• 1:09:58
  Because this is your first film project ever.
• 1:10:01
  And so you're also, in a way, coming into your own, your own
• 1:10:05
  not identity as an actor, but your own expression of being an
• 1:10:09
  actor, a film actor. Yeah, definitely.
• 1:10:12
  As David was growing, I was growing alongside with him and
• 1:10:18
  I'm, I'm still growing, you know, and, and a lot of it is
• 1:10:21
  just, it's confidence, you know, realizing that, that David had
• 1:10:25
  to build confidence and build courage in leading his people.
• 1:10:33
  And, you know, in the same way I'm building courage in the
• 1:10:37
  calling that that God has for me and for the show and, and
• 1:10:40
  stepping up to the truth when it matters.
• 1:10:43
  And in the same way he's going from a child to a man, in the
• 1:10:48
  same way I think I, I am too. And yeah.
• 1:10:53
  And that way I think it's easy to portray his transformation.
• 1:10:57
  And I, I'm excited to see how he continues to transform me.
• 1:11:02
  And I hope that he's transforming people who are
• 1:11:04
  watching the show, you know, and, and calling them to step
• 1:11:08
  into what God has for them or be more courageous about their
• 1:11:11
  beliefs. David didn't hideaway from his
• 1:11:15
  love for God. And I don't think in the same
• 1:11:17
  way we're supposed to hide from that.
• 1:11:18
  We're supposed to be bold about our faith and and obviously not
• 1:11:23
  shove anything down anyone's throat, but with love proclaim
• 1:11:26
  the truth. Another thing that I was really
• 1:11:29
  impressed by, I've been impressed by with the House of
• 1:11:32
  David is that it's very real and raw and gritty.
• 1:11:36
  So there's violence, you know, there's obviously intense
• 1:11:40
  conflict, and you see that all on screen.
• 1:11:42
  It's very intense themes that you're dealing with.
• 1:11:44
  I mean, it's Old Testament. You have, you know, rape and
• 1:11:47
  pillage and, you know, torture, basically killing, murder, all
• 1:11:51
  of this stuff. But there's no gratuitous really
• 1:11:55
  anything. I mean, you see violence, but
• 1:11:57
  there's no gratuitous violence. And with the sexual themes,
• 1:12:00
  which are clearly a part of Old Testament, especially the story
• 1:12:03
  of David, as you're going to get into this very much, you know,
• 1:12:07
  more specifically in Season 3 with Bathsheba, there's been no
• 1:12:11
  explicit sex scenes. Which?
• 1:12:14
  I think is awesome because I don't think they belong in film,
• 1:12:17
  but unfortunately a lot of like mainstream TV films, they like
• 1:12:20
  shove them into the screen writing and think that's like
• 1:12:25
  how they're going to sell an audience.
• 1:12:26
  I think we get the message, just go into a room and close it.
• 1:12:30
  Close the door we get. It you know what's going to
• 1:12:31
  happen, you know what's going to happen.
• 1:12:34
  You know, and but it's also proof that sex doesn't sell a.
• 1:12:38
  100%. People will still watch.
• 1:12:40
  People will show up to the theatre for a good story and
• 1:12:43
  specifically people will show up for Christ when they see Jesus
• 1:12:48
  on the screen, they will go and they will support.
• 1:12:52
  So this template that we think, you know, this certain vice
• 1:12:56
  sells or this sells or this sells.
• 1:12:59
  Maybe it's not true. And I think what we're doing,
• 1:13:01
  you know, especially with the Chosen, with House of David,
• 1:13:04
  with so many of the the biblical TV shows or movies or
• 1:13:07
  productions that are happening now, we're proving that, you
• 1:13:10
  know, maybe people want to see Jesus on screen more than they
• 1:13:13
  want to see things that, you know, don't represent him.
• 1:13:17
  I think that the proof is already there.
• 1:13:20
  I mean, seasons one in season 1's incredible success.
• 1:13:24
  I'm confident season 2 is going to be an amazing success.
• 1:13:27
  And I misspoke earlier. I said 20 million people and it
• 1:13:29
  was the top show on Amazon Prime.
• 1:13:31
  It was viewed by 40 million people and it was the top show
• 1:13:35
  on Amazon Prime. I don't know if you caught that.
• 1:13:36
  I'm like, I, I cut you guys in half right there.
• 1:13:39
  But you know, season 2 is going to be, I think, incredibly
• 1:13:42
  successful. But I love those decisions that
• 1:13:45
  the production team and all of you are making about how you're
• 1:13:49
  going to do the show because it's very faithful to the Bible
• 1:13:52
  narrative, the biblical narrative.
• 1:13:53
  It has some creative details added, of course, because the
• 1:13:57
  Bible narrative isn't telling every day of the life of David,
• 1:13:59
  obviously, but they're all in line with the biblical story.
• 1:14:03
  So they're not trying to like, distort anything that exists in
• 1:14:06
  the Bible's retelling. The Bible's telling.
• 1:14:08
  And then it's not, again, like no gratuitous sex scenes.
• 1:14:11
  You know, it's, it's PG13 because of the intensity of the
• 1:14:14
  themes and because there is violence.
• 1:14:17
  But it's nothing in a way that's gratuitous.
• 1:14:19
  And I think that in and of itself is just an incredible
• 1:14:24
  gift to the audience. I just wish more Christians,
• 1:14:28
  every Christian and non Christians too, but knew about
• 1:14:31
  how phenomenal it is. I feel like it's like this
• 1:14:33
  stealth project because a lot some people like know it and
• 1:14:37
  they're like, yeah, it's amazing.
• 1:14:38
  It's the best show ever. And then other people like
• 1:14:40
  what's House of David? Oh, it's about David.
• 1:14:41
  OK, that's nice. They don't understand the
• 1:14:44
  excellence of the production and also the fact that it's so
• 1:14:46
  faithful to the faith and to the Bible.
• 1:14:50
  And I and I think with season 2, more people are going to get to
• 1:14:53
  know that. But it's, I feel like it is this
• 1:14:56
  kind of best kept secret among a lot of Christians today who
• 1:15:00
  still don't fully understand that Hollywood is actually
• 1:15:05
  changing from the inside out. I, I, you know, I think it
• 1:15:08
  really, it comes from the people watching.
• 1:15:11
  And the more they support, the more they watch these kinds of
• 1:15:14
  TV shows. They're telling people in the
• 1:15:16
  industry, hey, there is a market for this.
• 1:15:19
  People will show up and they will support something like this
• 1:15:23
  and we really do rely on them to keep us going.
• 1:15:29
  And it's been by the blessing of God that the show has had this
• 1:15:34
  amount of success, to be completely honest, because
• 1:15:38
  everything, you know, we're fighting uphill.
• 1:15:40
  The production team, I mean they go through so much just on a
• 1:15:45
  day-to-day basis, problem solving everything.
• 1:15:49
  It feels like it's an uphill battle, but you know, nothing
• 1:15:52
  that's worth fighting for is going to come easy.
• 1:15:55
  And yeah, it means so much to me that that you say this and I'm.
• 1:15:59
  I'm so thankful the show has resonated with you.
• 1:16:03
  Do you know what's in store with Season 3 in terms of the
• 1:16:08
  scripting? Do you have any?
• 1:16:10
  I mean, you're waiting, you're on call.
• 1:16:12
  It's likely going to start filming in a few months.
• 1:16:16
  But what other information can you?
• 1:16:18
  What information can you give me?
• 1:16:20
  I think following that trilogy of Shepherd Warrior King, I
• 1:16:25
  think we're going to see David step into his calling as a king.
• 1:16:29
  And we see obviously the chase with Saul.
• 1:16:34
  We're kind of picking up where we left off.
• 1:16:37
  And who know? Who knows what's going to happen
• 1:16:40
  after that, you know, but but we're really telling his rise.
• 1:16:44
  And I mean, along the way, we're definitely going to see in this
• 1:16:48
  next season as as things get grey, we're going to see David
• 1:16:51
  start to falter and start to make mistakes, alluding to the
• 1:16:54
  mistakes that he will do in the future.
• 1:16:56
  And he's not a perfect person. And for me, it's such a
• 1:17:00
  beautiful thing to portray this complex character who is not
• 1:17:03
  perfect, very much makes mistakes, yet at the same time
• 1:17:07
  has this beautiful heart that is extremely repentant and shows us
• 1:17:13
  regardless of how far we may fall or we may go astray, the
• 1:17:18
  Lord will reach out and grab us back and bring us home.
• 1:17:21
  And David's the testament to that.
• 1:17:24
  Do you know who will be cast for, say, Bathsheba?
• 1:17:27
  No, wait, I really had no idea. Nothing.
• 1:17:30
  Nope. I have to call John Earn what I
• 1:17:31
  don't want for that. I don't even think Bathsheba's
• 1:17:34
  going to be IS. She not season 3.
• 1:17:36
  She's not. Wait is there a is there a
• 1:17:39
  season 4? From what I've heard, I think
• 1:17:41
  this is like a trilogy and so we're only going up to.
• 1:17:44
  But they, they have to have Bathsheba in it, don't they?
• 1:17:47
  I mean, that's like every, that's what everyone knows about
• 1:17:49
  David. I mean, they know about his big
• 1:17:52
  fall. And so many of the Psalms are
• 1:17:54
  written about how he's repentant before God because he murders
• 1:17:58
  somebody and basically cheats on his wife, you know, wives, I
• 1:18:01
  guess at that point, but goes off with this another man's
• 1:18:04
  wife. You're not going to have that in
• 1:18:05
  Season 3. I can't.
• 1:18:09
  I really don't think Vegetable being season 3.
• 1:18:11
  If she is, that would be wild. There needs to be a season 4 is
• 1:18:14
  what you're saying? Hey, if you can convince Amazon.
• 1:18:17
  Oh my gosh, Amazon needs to. Amazon obviously made a mistake
• 1:18:21
  by not already being convinced with you immediately.
• 1:18:24
  And the fact that Season 3, there's still the question when
• 1:18:26
  the filming starts, we got to speak some I mean, God's way
• 1:18:29
  will, God's will will be done obviously with this, but come
• 1:18:32
  on, Amazon. Come on.
• 1:18:34
  Yeah, I would love to see best Shiva.
• 1:18:36
  What the heck? You know, I mean, she it ends up
• 1:18:38
  like God ends up redeeming. Obviously even that and but I
• 1:18:42
  there's so much to the life of David.
• 1:18:44
  I feel like we've got to have that season, whether it's Season
• 1:18:47
  3 or 4. Yeah, but who know if I can grow
• 1:18:48
  this beard out, maybe then see what happens.
• 1:18:51
  Easy. Just give it a little time.
• 1:18:54
  We we got this. You're waiting right now for
• 1:18:57
  Season 3. Do you have any sense of what
• 1:19:00
  else you feel drawn to now? You're a very established film
• 1:19:05
  actor. You were established before that
• 1:19:07
  on Broadway. What's in your heart?
• 1:19:11
  So I really like telling real life stories, like stories of
• 1:19:14
  ordinary people who have done extraordinary things.
• 1:19:18
  And I think there, there are so many of their stories
• 1:19:19
  everywhere. Everyone has something that
• 1:19:22
  they've gone through a challenge that they've overcome, or that
• 1:19:26
  is, I, I think we're telling and it shows God's work in their
• 1:19:30
  life. I, I really don't know what God
• 1:19:34
  has in store. And I've, I've been so lucky
• 1:19:36
  that he's made this dream come true.
• 1:19:39
  And I think you know what, sometimes it's we're not meant
• 1:19:45
  to know God's will for the future.
• 1:19:47
  And if he doesn't let me know, then OK, I'm not supposed to
• 1:19:50
  know. And but I know that he'll
• 1:19:53
  provide. So I'm, I guess I'm waiting for
• 1:19:55
  that daily bread, you know? Amen.
• 1:19:58
  And it's been going on a year now since you came into full
• 1:20:03
  communion with the Catholic Church.
• 1:20:04
  Yeah. How has that been?
• 1:20:06
  It's been the most amazing thing honestly.
• 1:20:08
  Try to go to daily mass and. Daily bread.
• 1:20:12
  Daily bread. Try to pray the rosary as much
• 1:20:15
  as I can. I make rosaries, that's fine.
• 1:20:21
  Where's my rosary, Michael? I'll make I'll make your rosary.
• 1:20:24
  I have this one, this one I made so this one.
• 1:20:30
  That's awesome. Beautiful.
• 1:20:35
  But it's 33 because I try to combine it with the there's like
• 1:20:38
  a an Orthodox version of the rosary where you pray the art,
• 1:20:41
  the the Jesus prayer. Beautiful.
• 1:20:43
  And it's 33, so I, you know. I don't know, you can add a
• 1:20:47
  couple. You mean 3330?
• 1:20:49
  3 beads around. 33 beads. So is that 3 decades and three
• 1:20:53
  our fathers? Yeah, but it's just the, the
• 1:20:56
  Jesus Prayer and you know, Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me as
• 1:20:59
  a Sinner, the greatest prayer that one can pray.
• 1:21:05
  And, and yeah. And I think in that way, I try
• 1:21:08
  to, I try to combine my, my history and my love for the
• 1:21:11
  Orthodox Church and, and my love and, and my home, the Catholic
• 1:21:14
  Church. Yeah, I go fishing a lot.
• 1:21:20
  That's fine. But I would say in that way,
• 1:21:24
  like one of the greatest things that I think having joined the
• 1:21:28
  Catholic Church, I've, I just found peace and I've found
• 1:21:33
  stillness in the waiting and I've found that it's a lot.
• 1:21:39
  I, I hear God's voice a lot more clearly now.
• 1:21:43
  And I have a lot more courage when it comes to my faith and my
• 1:21:55
  love for him has has grown exponentially.
• 1:22:01
  But I would say my my favorite part is being able to take the
• 1:22:04
  Eucharist. What a gift you were sharing
• 1:22:08
  earlier before we sat down about going to Mass with Jonathan
• 1:22:12
  Rumi. And he didn't really.
• 1:22:14
  I mean, you went to Mass with David and Jesus went to Mass
• 1:22:17
  together. So cute.
• 1:22:18
  But anyways, I don't know if you were Catholic quite yet, but he
• 1:22:21
  was trying to teach you the ropes.
• 1:22:23
  Yeah. What to do at Mass?
• 1:22:24
  Yeah, he was like, so, but when you go up to receive the
• 1:22:27
  communion, you're just going to go like this.
• 1:22:28
  And I was like, I know Jonathan. I know he was.
• 1:22:31
  How do you know? I said, I've been to Mass
• 1:22:33
  before. He was.
• 1:22:34
  Oh, so this is it's not the first time.
• 1:22:38
  I don't know. I got this.
• 1:22:39
  I was. Like Jesus, I'm good.
• 1:22:41
  Just got to take him back. And I was like, OK.
• 1:22:43
  But then, you know, it was funny.
• 1:22:44
  So at that Mass at the very end, they're like, you know, if
• 1:22:47
  you're just visiting or if you're just saying hi, you know,
• 1:22:50
  we love for you to stand up so we can welcome you.
• 1:22:53
  And I'm like, well, I'm new and I haven't been at this church
• 1:22:58
  before. And as I go to stand up, he
• 1:23:00
  goes, do not stand up. He's like, I beg you, you don't
• 1:23:05
  know how to deal with your attention yet.
• 1:23:08
  I'll teach you. Wow.
• 1:23:10
  Jonathan the mentor. He was like, stick around with
• 1:23:14
  me, I'll teach you a few tricks. You know, I was like, OK, so I
• 1:23:17
  sat down and then we left. But.
• 1:23:20
  How has that been dealing with the attention that I was
• 1:23:23
  planning to ask that? So it's a great segue moment.
• 1:23:26
  But you are you. It's interesting your fan base
• 1:23:28
  because it's not just Christians, of course.
• 1:23:31
  There's huge fans of the show that are not necessarily like
• 1:23:34
  hardcore in their own faith. But I've noticed it's a lot of
• 1:23:37
  young people that love House of David, which is awesome.
• 1:23:42
  And you know, you have super fans everywhere.
• 1:23:45
  So yeah, how has that been for you?
• 1:23:46
  Especially going from like 0 film experience?
• 1:23:50
  It's weird. Like you probably didn't even
• 1:23:51
  have an Instagram when you. I was about to delete Instagram
• 1:23:54
  actually. I was like, I'm so done with
• 1:23:57
  social media and I was like, well, I got to keep it and
• 1:24:00
  you're like, you got to reach 10,000 followers.
• 1:24:02
  But I'm like what? All right.
• 1:24:05
  And so I get like a lot of DMS and stuff.
• 1:24:09
  Honestly, I just like it because I like sending memes to my
• 1:24:12
  friends and then I like, you know, just keeping up with what
• 1:24:18
  people are doing or hearing people's messages, messages
• 1:24:21
  about the show. But I don't, I don't know, I
• 1:24:25
  love my anonymity. I would much rather be treated
• 1:24:27
  bad by someone who has no idea who I am than like be given fake
• 1:24:31
  treatment by someone who's known me for whatever.
• 1:24:34
  I just, I love like like the truth and the reality and how
• 1:24:38
  people are. So like if I could live in a
• 1:24:42
  world where I could like hide who I am day-to-day life and
• 1:24:45
  then go do the show and then go back and hide, I would do that.
• 1:24:48
  But it's not the world we live in, so.
• 1:24:51
  How do you deal with what it when people come up to you and
• 1:24:53
  they're like, Oh my gosh, I loved you and I love you and
• 1:24:56
  David, you're the best. I'm a super fan.
• 1:24:58
  What do you? Say it means a lot.
• 1:25:00
  I, I definitely, I've, I've had a few experiences with other
• 1:25:04
  actors and, and like when I was a fan, I remember one time I, I
• 1:25:08
  met Lynn Manuel Miranda and I was so nervous to go up to him
• 1:25:12
  and I said. All right.
• 1:25:12
  Sorry, who? Lin, Manuel Miranda.
• 1:25:15
  Lemon. Well, Miranda?
• 1:25:16
  Lin, Lin, Manuel Miranda. OK, I should know who that is.
• 1:25:19
  I'm sorry. You know, he wrote Hamilton.
• 1:25:21
  OK, OK, so this is a Broadway thing?
• 1:25:23
  Right. Yeah, I'm.
• 1:25:23
  Just not a Broadway nerd I guess.
• 1:25:25
  Maybe you don't need to be 1 to know who that is.
• 1:25:27
  But so you met this guy. I met Lin and he's he also he's
• 1:25:32
  he's working on Moana right now. He did in the Heights.
• 1:25:35
  He's really, really phenomenal, right?
• 1:25:36
  I've heard of Moana, yeah. But so anyway, so I go up to him
• 1:25:41
  and I'm trying to get the courage to, you know, talk to
• 1:25:44
  him. I go up some Hey, Lynn, so, so
• 1:25:47
  lovely to meet you. I just wanted to, I wanted to
• 1:25:51
  let you know I did In the Heights in high school.
• 1:25:53
  And I'm just a huge fan of your work.
• 1:25:55
  And he goes, oh, no way you did In the Heights.
• 1:25:57
  I was like, yeah, he goes, who'd you play you Snobby?
• 1:25:59
  And I was like, yeah, I played with snobby.
• 1:26:00
  He goes, we were in the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York,
• 1:26:04
  where the play that I had or the musical that I had done opened,
• 1:26:08
  he goes, do you want to come up on stage?
• 1:26:11
  I was like, yes. And he takes me up on stage and
• 1:26:15
  we face the audience and he puts his arm around me and he goes,
• 1:26:19
  this is where your character Usnavi was born, looking out
• 1:26:23
  into the audience in that same moment.
• 1:26:25
  And it was just this extreme full circle.
• 1:26:28
  And he didn't have to do that. He could have just said thanks
• 1:26:30
  so much and when I'm on his way but.
• 1:26:31
  It's amazing you. Know and he took the time, spent
• 1:26:34
  some time with me and and it had a huge impact.
• 1:26:36
  And so ever since then, I was like, I'm going to take his
• 1:26:38
  example and I'm, I'm going to care and I'm going to try to
• 1:26:42
  give as much time as I can to the people that come up.
• 1:26:44
  And, you know, sometimes it's stuff you're in the airport and
• 1:26:46
  you got to do something or whatever it is.
• 1:26:48
  But yeah. And in those moments, I think in
• 1:26:53
  those honest, pure moments, it's really, really beautiful.
• 1:26:56
  It's a spiritual connection I think people have with actors or
• 1:26:59
  creators or artists when that person is responsible for
• 1:27:03
  creating that thing that they had that connection to, right?
• 1:27:06
  And I think with David, it's so personal for people.
• 1:27:10
  I mean, the Psalms are so, I mean, Jesus sang the Psalms to
• 1:27:15
  God and he was repeating Psalms as part of his prayer.
• 1:27:19
  And the Psalms were said by the Jewish people, obviously, and
• 1:27:22
  then by Christians. They're in every mass.
• 1:27:25
  And it's David's poetry to God. And so that in and of itself,
• 1:27:29
  like a poem, you connect with somebody and then the story of
• 1:27:31
  David, people connect with and then they watch House of David
• 1:27:35
  and they just get even more connected.
• 1:27:36
  And then because you're David, I mean, that's a that's a
• 1:27:39
  spiritual bond. I'm I know a lot of people feel
• 1:27:42
  with you. Yeah, I try to separate myself.
• 1:27:46
  I'm like, guys, I'm not actually David.
• 1:27:48
  It's like Jonathan Rumi is like, guys, I'm not Jesus, even when.
• 1:27:52
  People say David, but I said no, it's it's.
• 1:27:57
  But you got but what what is beautiful about the actor is
• 1:28:00
  you're not David, you're you're Michael.
• 1:28:02
  But you understand him, you appreciate him.
• 1:28:05
  You can portray him incredibly. And I think that's where people
• 1:28:09
  connect with you because you, it's like a shared love for him,
• 1:28:13
  for David. One of the most beautiful things
• 1:28:15
  about David that I didn't realize is that we can pray for
• 1:28:18
  his intercession and all of these Old Testament sayings.
• 1:28:23
  We forget that they exist, and we forget that we can we can
• 1:28:28
  pray for their intercession. What?
• 1:28:30
  That's so true. Wait, do we do we call him St.
• 1:28:33
  David or just. Saint King David, Yeah.
• 1:28:38
  Well, he must have been praying for you to pull up what you did
• 1:28:43
  in House of David. Yeah, I asked for his help a
• 1:28:46
  lot. That's so cool.
• 1:28:49
  I love him, I love him so much and I just think he's got one of
• 1:28:54
  the most beautiful hearts to ever exist.
• 1:28:56
  Was was his and still being faulty and still falling, but
• 1:29:03
  finding his way back. I think it oh, it takes a
• 1:29:05
  beautiful heart to to recognize. It takes a humble heart to own
• 1:29:10
  up to 1's mistakes and go, I'm sorry.
• 1:29:15
  Amen. I got to ask you one more thing
• 1:29:17
  about the House of David. This is a project that is very
• 1:29:23
  groundbreaking. I feel for Hollywood up there
• 1:29:25
  with the chosen. Have you had talked with John
• 1:29:28
  Irwin about how House of David came to be?
• 1:29:31
  Obviously I know that's a lot of the production team story to
• 1:29:33
  tell, but you're very much intimate with it being the lead
• 1:29:36
  for House of David. It's been a passion project for
• 1:29:40
  John Irwin for a very long time. And you know, for them to make
• 1:29:46
  something like this, it was quite the undertaking.
• 1:29:49
  This this entire project is being done with the with the
• 1:29:55
  budget that would not be able to fund this level of excellence.
• 1:30:00
  And so not only are the entire production team putting
• 1:30:05
  everything they have into this and doing it with excellence,
• 1:30:08
  they're doing it at we'd really like with a lot of restraints on
• 1:30:14
  them. This is I mean, I, I would say
• 1:30:17
  it's like the the biblical Game of Thrones, but it is not a Game
• 1:30:20
  of Thrones budget. I don't know how they do I mean,
• 1:30:23
  I know we should we shoot the show on FX threes for those who
• 1:30:26
  know FX threes are like a prosumer camera, but again, you
• 1:30:32
  know, production built an insane rig to be able to make these
• 1:30:35
  prosumer cameras something that they could use on an Amazon
• 1:30:41
  prime TV show. And you know, another thing
• 1:30:44
  about the show actually is the reason we use FX threes is
• 1:30:48
  because I'm going to nerd out for a little bit.
• 1:30:51
  They have a very high ISO. You could shoot at a very high
• 1:30:53
  ISO. And ISO is just a sensitivity of
• 1:30:55
  the sensor. So you can shoot basically in
• 1:30:57
  very, very low light. And that tends to provide more
• 1:31:03
  authenticity to the scenes that we filmed.
• 1:31:04
  So instead of lighting and flooding it with lights and this
• 1:31:06
  and this and that, we could light an entire scene with a
• 1:31:08
  candle. You could film a whole scene on
• 1:31:11
  a candle, which is unheard of. And so these cameras, not only
• 1:31:17
  are they an expression of how the Johns are able to use every
• 1:31:21
  tool and make it something that is excellent, it's also an aid
• 1:31:27
  for the authenticity of the show, even in the lighting and
• 1:31:30
  the environment. For us as actors, we're just
• 1:31:33
  able to dig deep, even more so than if we were, you know,
• 1:31:38
  flooded with this light and this light and whatever.
• 1:31:41
  I do think there's a lack of gloss that can make it feel
• 1:31:44
  like, oh, I'm watching Hollywood and instead makes it feel
• 1:31:47
  extremely real. So I don't know if that's
• 1:31:49
  because of the camera or just the acting.
• 1:31:51
  I don't know how that's pulled off, but.
• 1:31:53
  It's everything, it's down. Even the makeup and our makeup
• 1:31:57
  team did a really fantastic job and, and John Gunn would work
• 1:31:59
  with them constantly to make sure that down to the soot,
• 1:32:03
  every nail had to be covered in dirt.
• 1:32:05
  I, I would like go out on my like my one day off in the week
• 1:32:09
  and I'd go buy groceries and there's dirt like all over my
• 1:32:12
  nails and like people would look at me like, what is this guy
• 1:32:15
  doing? And I'm like all tired.
• 1:32:16
  So I got my hoodie on and they're like, they're all like
• 1:32:18
  watching out for their products and I'm like, I'm not.
• 1:32:20
  I'm not going to stop at the. Door right, exactly.
• 1:32:24
  I'm like, no, I'm just one time I come, I came back late.
• 1:32:27
  I was so tired from filming this scene and I had a lot of blood
• 1:32:30
  and I was at a hotel and I, you know, I went to bed fake blood.
• 1:32:35
  So I went to bed with this fake blood and so obviously, like it
• 1:32:38
  was on the sheets and everything.
• 1:32:39
  And I woke up and I'm like, you know, so I go take a shower and
• 1:32:43
  I come out and all of a sudden I hear a knock at the door and
• 1:32:46
  it's the, you know, the cleaning lady.
• 1:32:48
  And I forget that my, my bed is covered in blood and she goes in
• 1:32:52
  and all of a sudden I hear, you know, and I'm like, no, no, no,
• 1:32:55
  it's fake. It's fake.
• 1:32:56
  And she's like what? And I'm like, I promise it's
• 1:32:58
  fake. Did you, did you tell her I'm an
• 1:33:01
  actor? You know, just like put on fake
• 1:33:03
  blood for fun. And it was this Greek woman.
• 1:33:05
  And she goes, OK, whatever you say, you know?
• 1:33:10
  That is too funny. So in season 1, you sing in the
• 1:33:15
  fields and you're playing the harp.
• 1:33:18
  And the story is, I think this is already out, so I'm not
• 1:33:21
  spoiling it too much for people. Your mother, it was her
• 1:33:23
  mother's, your mother's harp, and she was killed when you were
• 1:33:27
  a child. So it's like this very powerful
• 1:33:30
  connection that you have with being a singer and having her
• 1:33:33
  harp. And it's very beautiful.
• 1:33:35
  And you actually sing in ancient Hebrew.
• 1:33:39
  So I thought we have to have you sing.
• 1:33:41
  And I was like, we should have had you bring the harp.
• 1:33:43
  You actually have the harp in your house.
• 1:33:45
  Yeah, I have the Amazon harp that I got.
• 1:33:48
  The Amazon Harp. Yeah, it's.
• 1:33:51
  Like the production used in Amazon Harp?
• 1:33:52
  No. No, no, they they had their own
• 1:33:54
  professional harp. You have a harp from Amazon.
• 1:33:56
  I bought a harp from Amazon, got it and and I tuned it and I
• 1:33:59
  adjusted it to match the harp on set but.
• 1:34:01
  That's awesome. Can you sing a little bit for
• 1:34:03
  us? This is the Shema.
• 1:34:05
  It's in. It's in modern Hebrew, but it's
• 1:34:07
  Deuteronomy. It's hero Israel, the Lord of
• 1:34:11
  God. The Lord is one.
• 1:34:12
  That's it. It's the prayer.
• 1:34:14
  And a lot of modern Jewish people, they that's that's one
• 1:34:18
  of their called the prayers. Yeah.
• 1:34:23
  Let's Beautiful.
• 1:34:58
  Thank you. Thanks.
• 1:35:00
  You get to hear more of it guys. If you watch House of David and
• 1:35:04
  you're on Spotify, so you actually have some Psalms that
• 1:35:08
  you have put to music and sing which people can listen to.
• 1:35:12
  Yeah, there's an album, the Songs of David album, and we
• 1:35:17
  were able to compile and expand on a lot of the Psalms from the
• 1:35:21
  show and just provided for people to to listen to.
• 1:35:25
  So one of the songs on here, these are songs that are
• 1:35:28
  actually sung in Hebrew. And you were explaining to me
• 1:35:32
  that Jesus would speak in Aramaic, but the songs, the
• 1:35:38
  Psalms, excuse me, of King David, and the prayers were
• 1:35:41
  actually sung in Hebrew. Yeah, Hebrew was not spoken
• 1:35:46
  day-to-day because it was a it was a holy language, it was a
• 1:35:48
  prayer language. So David would have spoken in
• 1:35:51
  ancient proto Aramaic, but whenever he would worship,
• 1:35:56
  whenever anyone would worship would be in Hebrew.
• 1:35:59
  So yeah, the songs are in Hebrew word for word.
• 1:36:03
  Let me see see if I can. How did you learn Hebrew?
• 1:36:06
  Things I didn't, I, I just like we had actors on the show who
• 1:36:12
  were native Hebrew speakers and I told them I was like, we got
• 1:36:15
  to do the ancient pronunciation. So even modern modern Hebrew has
• 1:36:21
  some mistakes in the pronunciation, even in the
• 1:36:23
  letters that are present in Arabic and not present in the
• 1:36:27
  modern Hebrew. So it was an advantage for me to
• 1:36:30
  be a native Arabic speaker. And yeah, they sent me the
• 1:36:34
  recordings and I would learn it and I would combine it with the
• 1:36:36
  music from the orchestration team and put it together and add
• 1:36:40
  my own, my own, like little riffs and ornamentation, having
• 1:36:44
  grown up listening to Arabic music.
• 1:36:45
  And yeah, that's what we were able to to come to kind of the
• 1:36:50
  closest thing we can get to in terms of what the Psalms would
• 1:36:55
  have sounded like. Amazing.
• 1:36:56
  All right, give us a few stanzas, I guess, of Psalm 32 in
• 1:37:02
  ancient. Hebrew.
• 1:38:40
  Wow, that was awesome. Thank you.
• 1:38:44
  Beautiful. OK, I've got to pull up what you
• 1:38:47
  just said in English, Psalm 32. Then I acknowledge my sin to you
• 1:38:54
  and did not cover up my iniquity.
• 1:38:56
  I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and
• 1:38:59
  you forgave the guilt of my sin. Therefore let all the faithful
• 1:39:04
  pray to you while you may be found.
• 1:39:07
  Surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them.
• 1:39:10
  You are my hiding place. You will protect me from trouble
• 1:39:13
  and surround me with the songs of deliverance.
• 1:39:16
  And this was Psalm 32, five to seven.
• 1:39:21
  Amazing. And it's so crazy to think that
• 1:39:24
  what you just saying is what King David would have sung and
• 1:39:28
  what our Lord would have sung. Yeah, I hope we got a close.
• 1:39:32
  I mean, you know, obviously one of the one of the cool things
• 1:39:35
  about doing the Hebrew in the show is that we wanted to
• 1:39:40
  combine the ancient Hebrew but also make it understandable for
• 1:39:44
  people who are modern Hebrew speakers.
• 1:39:47
  So imagine you, you natively speak Hebrew and you're
• 1:39:50
  listening to the show and you're able to understand David when he
• 1:39:54
  speaks the language. And it's not just any language,
• 1:39:58
  it's a language that you personally speak and you're
• 1:40:00
  familiar with. And you know, we we changed a
• 1:40:04
  little bit of the pronunciation to allow for those Hebrew
• 1:40:08
  speakers to be able to understand while still keeping
• 1:40:12
  the ancient. Some like most of the ancient
• 1:40:17
  pronunciation and, and the the language and a lot of people
• 1:40:23
  have reached out to me even from the Jewish community or people
• 1:40:27
  who do natively speak Hebrew and and they say, you know, this is
• 1:40:31
  one of the most accurate Hebrew ever heard from a non Hebrew
• 1:40:34
  speaker. And it's, and it is different
• 1:40:37
  for them. It's they're not used to it, but
• 1:40:39
  it's it's transformative. And they say it's had a profound
• 1:40:42
  impact. So amazing.
• 1:40:44
  Yeah, it's beautiful and it's a dream come true for me.
• 1:40:47
  I've always wanted to just separately from David, I wanted
• 1:40:50
  to hear what the sounds, what the Psalms would have sounded
• 1:40:52
  like. And now you get to do that for
• 1:40:56
  the whole world to hear. Yeah.
• 1:40:58
  So cool. So our producer, who you know
• 1:41:02
  here on the show, you're also a line dancer, apparently.
• 1:41:08
  A line dancer, I think is giving me a lot more credit than I
• 1:41:10
  deserve. What's your favorite line dance?
• 1:41:13
  Someone pull me up another shot of whiskey.
• 1:41:16
  They know me and Jack Daniel's got a history.
• 1:41:19
  I forgot the rest of it, but it's the what's the name of the
• 1:41:22
  artist? Do you know that one?
• 1:41:24
  Should we do it together? The.
• 1:41:25
  Different. It's a different vibe.
• 1:41:26
  It's a different vibe from. King state I mean.
• 1:41:30
  I guess we're going to line dance.
• 1:41:32
  Oh my God, do. You want to learn line dance?
• 1:41:33
  Oh, you're going to love it. Have Do I know how to learn
• 1:41:35
  dance? Probably.
• 1:41:36
  I don't know. Yeah.
• 1:41:37
  Yeah, you just repeat the same thing over and over.
• 1:41:39
  And this one's a very easy one. That's why it's my favorite.
• 1:41:42
  We'll teach you. Let's do.
• 1:41:43
  It you want to do line dancing really quick.
• 1:41:44
  All right, we'll do a super quick.
• 1:41:45
  All right. So we had a lot of fun after
• 1:41:50
  this interview. We learned line dancing with
• 1:41:53
  Michael Iskander, which you're going to get to see on Patreon.
• 1:41:56
  Well, I was learning it, I should say very much beginner
• 1:42:00
  level 1. And we also learned to sing the
• 1:42:02
  Shema, which is the ancient prayer from Deuteronomy.
• 1:42:06
  And Michael also teaches us that.
• 1:42:08
  So head on over and sing with me and dance with Michael.
• 1:42:14
  That's what I did qualify to stand.
• 1:42:15
  A big thank you to our channel partner.
• 1:42:18
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• 1:42:23
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• 1:42:26
  beautiful truth of the gospel. You can be the first to watch
• 1:42:29
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