THE CHOSEN actor Elijah Alexander remembered answering an unexpected invitation from co-star Jonathan Roumie with jokes about craft services, only to discover a personal turning point in his walk with Jesus.
“He looks at me directly in my eyes and he says, ‘There’s something for you here,’” Alexander recounted on the “Unashamed” podcast.
Alexander plays the Roman Atticus, a role that connects to his journey of faith. But his story came with a distinction: Although he joined the series in Season 2, he said he and Roumie had not really gotten acquainted then, beyond a possible brief welcome.
The encounter he remembered in detail came during preparations for a Sermon on the Mount scene, Alexander said. His character stood in disguise at the back of the crowd, and he had no dialogue with Jesus in that scene, so he could not imagine why Roumie, who portrays Jesus, would approach him.
“I’m becoming increasingly more uncomfortable. I can’t imagine what he would want to say to me,” the actor remembered as his co-star drew near.
Related: Even When THE CHOSEN Ends, Jonathan Roumie Will Keep Doing This…
When Roumie delivered the invitation, Alexander said he did what he does when nervous. He made jokes. He remembered listing what the job offered — the craft-services spread, fresh fruit, trailers and comfortable accommodations — while blushing through the exchange.
“Then he without a beat, he moves in closer. He grabs my arms and he says, ‘No, there’s something for you here also,’” Roumie told Alexander.
The actor said he fell silent: “I took it in and I was off and running. That was it. That was the seed that was planted.”
He described that exchange as the first of three encounters that mattered deeply to his faith. Alexander also included an important qualification: When he later interviewed Roumie and recounted all three moments, he said his co-star did not remember them.
The connection with biblical stories went back much further than the series. Alexander said Hebrew school had introduced him to accounts of Abraham and Isaac, Moses and other Old Testament figures, stirring a desire not simply to become an actor, but to inhabit those stories and tell them.
“This just happened to be the way I needed to experience Jesus,” Alexander said of THE CHOSEN.
For Alexander, the setting helped explain why the invitation landed. He said the experience came through storytelling and the work of being an actor. In a separate EKKL Connect interview, he described learning that he did not need an acting career to define his identity.
That interview explored how his personal transformation shaped his approach to King Nebuchadnezzar in DANIEL AND THE FIERY FURNACE.
Meanwhile, THE CHOSEN’s Season 6 premieres for Nov. 15, 2026, on Prime Video, with a stand-alone theatrical finale in spring 2027.
Read Next: Everything We Know About THE CHOSEN Season 6
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