DAVID ADAMS speaks with executive producer Roma Downey about the new TV miniseries now screening in Australia, The Bible…
It began with what actress and producer Roma Downey calls a “song in my heart” – the formation of an idea to create a television series which told the story of the Bible. Not just one story from its many. The entire story as contained in the Old and New Testaments. Or as much as was possible to show given time limitations.
“It really began as a song in my heart – I believe it was a calling…” Ms Downey, perhaps best known for her role as the angel Monica in the TV series Touched By An Angel, said during a phone interview with Sight this week. “And I felt that it was something that we should take on.”
The we she refers to is herself and her husband Mark Burnett, best known for producing reality TV series such as Survivor, Celebrity Apprentice and The Voice.
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SCENES FROM THE BIBLE: (top) Sarah and Abraham (Gary Oliver); David (Jassa Ahluwalia) prepares to kill Goliath; and Jesus (Diogo Morgado) carrying the Cross. “I think that we’ve been very pleasantly surprised with just how many people it seems to have touched…It’s been very gratifying because I can honestly say I’ve never worked so hard in my life…”– Roma Downey |
“Mark and I discussed over a cup of tea and initially, I think, he thought I was mental – ‘I think you’ve lost your mind. You want to do what? You want to do the whole thing?’” Ms Downey continues.
“And I said ‘Yes, I think we should. Nobody has ever done this before. Individual movies have been made of some of the stories and some of them done very well but no-one has tackled the Bible as a series’…So we agreed to do it, we shook hands…and we never looked back.”
Never looked back indeed. The series garnered 100 million viewers during its first showing on the History Channel in the US in March – snagging three Emmy nominations – and has since played in numerous countries including in South America and Europe as well as in Australia where it is currently showing on the Nine Network (it’s set to play in the UK before the end of the year).
“I think that we’ve been very pleasantly surprised with just how many people it seems to have touched…” says Ms Downey. “It’s been very gratifying because I can honestly say I’ve never worked so hard in my life…”
Aware of what Ms Downey calls the “huge responsibility” of bringing the Word of God to the small screen, the script was developed in consultation with a group of 40 pastors and theologians. And one of the big challenges – given the whole series only runs for 10 hours – was fitting it all in. As a result, not all the Bible stories are represented in the series and others had to be condensed.
“We had to find some of those connective themes so that, particularly in the Old Testament, it didn’t seem like a series of disconnected stories,” Ms Downey says. “Clearly once we enter into the New Testament, we have the natural narrative of the unfolding of the life of Jesus…”
Ms Downey, who describes the series as a “beautiful introduction to the Bible” rather than a complete on-screen rendering of the Word of God, says emotionally connecting with the audience was critical, and while initially it was thought some people would be disappointed that more stories from the Bible weren’t included in the series, there had to be a balance between what stories could be included and the need for the audience to “walk in the footsteps of these characters”.
“You’ve got to introduce the character, you’ve got to have some experience of that character and that doesn’t happen in 30 seconds. So we ended up making the choice to go with fewer stories but to be able to tell with more depth and really engage the audience. And I think that’s what people have responded to. I think that’s one of the reasons it has been so successful – that people have invested in it and that people care.”
Another aspect was ensuring the series would be able to meet the expectations of modern audiences used to watching high quality computer generated graphics.
“It was our job as movie makers to make it the most exciting and dramatic and poignant and uplifting that it could be,” Ms Downey says. “It was made with good intention but it was also very well made. I think in the past some Bible stories have been brought to the screen but they’re a little bit ‘donkeys and sandals’ and everybody looks like they came out of the dry-cleaners and everything is bit sort of vanilla. And we really wanted to make this gritty and authentic and realistic and emotionally connect so that we could engage with an audience.”
Casting Jesus was, of course, critical, what Ms Downey calls the “singularly most important piece of casting”. “Believe it or not, we were very close to beginning production and we still had not found him,” she recalls. “We knew that we wanted a very special actor – we wanted a leading man who could be strong but also be gentle, an actor who could play the Lion and Lamb. And we really just prayed for him, we prayed that the right actor would show up.
“We were getting a little anxious, to be honest, that we were close to production and he hadn’t yet revealed himself and in a series of amazing coincidence we met Diogo Morgado, a Portuguese actor who did such a beautiful job in the role of Jesus.
“On Touched By An Angel we often said that coincidence was God’s way of remaining anonymous so when all of these coincidences came together to bring him to our attention…I was convinced that he was the one. And he does amazing work in this and it was a really deeply touching and memorable performance and I think for many years to come, his take on the role will be lasting on people’s minds and in their hearts.”
(Ms Downey also gives a special “shout out” to Australian Lisa Gerrard who provided vocals through the series. ”What’s she’s added to the series with her vocals is really just so beautiful. She’s amazing”.)
Ms Downey and her husband are now working on what will be a sequel to the series. “It’s tentatively called AD: Beyond the Bible and I imagine it will begin somewhere around the crucifixion…and it will start there and follow through the Books of Acts and the early Christian church.”
Ms Downey says that it is particularly exciting that the series – expected at this stage to be released in 2015 – has already been sold to free-to-air network NBC, meaning it could be available to many more people than the Bible series has been.
Working on such a project has impacted her own faith, not the least because of the role she played as Mary, the mother of Jesus.
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ON SET: Roma Downey a-Mark Burnett on the set of The Bible.
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“It was so heart-breaking to bring a mother’s heart to that role. I have loved Mary and I have loved her Son, my whole life (but) I don’t think I ever fully really considered what she must have been feeling standing at the foot of the Cross…” she says, adding that it would be impossible to work on something like the series for four years and not feel its impact.
“I love the Bible – I couldn’t pretend that at any time prior to this I was any kind of a Bible expert but I certainly know I whole lot more now than I did when I started this journey. I think it has deepened my faith; it has certainly deepened my marriage and I think there is nothing like tackling the stress and the pressure of making a 10 hour miniseries on the Bible with your own husband and not realise that the real miracle is that we’re still speaking.”
