Playing King David has HOUSE OF DAVID actor Michael Iskander thinking less about looking like a hero and more about having a heart that follows God.
“I’m trying to love God as David did,” he said during his March 11 appearance at Liberty University.
Playing the shepherd who becomes a king has given Iskander plenty of physical battles to portray. But when the conversation turned to his own faith, he described a different kind of training: prayer, fasting and learning to surrender his desires to God’s will.
Iskander returned to the university’s Vines Center for Convocation ahead of the second season’s March 27 Prime Video launch. His character’s changing circumstances gave him more to think about than how to play a convincing warrior.
“And I don’t mean like physically, I mean spiritually,” he said, explaining what he had learned about fighting through the role.
He described growing in his understanding of prayer and fasting during the season, connecting those disciplines with resisting sin rather than defeating another person. Humility, he explained, belongs in that fight, too.
That lesson fits the story unfolding around David. Amazon MGM Studios’ Season 2 synopsis follows him beyond Goliath into palace politics, family jealousy and the demands of becoming a leader.
For Iskander, one revealing example comes later in the biblical account: David has the chance to kill Saul, the king pursuing him, but refuses. Iskander spoke about that restraint as an example of accepting God’s will instead of seizing control.
He said David’s example helped teach him to love his enemies. The lesson wasn’t about finding a more effective way to strike back, but refusing revenge in the first place.
The encounter appears in 1 Samuel 24. David cuts a corner from Saul’s robe, then rebukes his men and prevents them from attacking the king; he refuses to let an opportunity become permission for revenge.
But Iskander’s reflection didn’t stop with admiring David. Watching actor Ali Suliman develop Saul’s character, and studying Scripture himself, made him recognize something uncomfortable: pride isn’t only a problem for the person on the other side of the conflict.
“We have a Saul inside of us, but we also have a David inside of us as well,” he said.
He described those competing impulses in terms of pride and humility. That recognition changed how he thought about people who cause hurt: he urged looking at their hearts rather than stopping at outward appearances.
The role has changed his career as well as his perspective. The former Broadway performer took on David in his first major television role, but growing recognition hasn’t left him claiming he has faith figured out.
“I pray that Christ makes my heart resemble a little bit of what David’s was,” he said.
Asked how he stays grounded amid success, Iskander described praying for a heart more like David’s and trying to follow Christ. Playing a biblical hero hasn’t put him above the struggle; it has given him reasons to keep working on his own heart.
Read Next: HOUSE OF DAVID Director Calls Show ‘A Love Letter to Scripture’
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
