{"id":13219,"date":"2018-03-29T16:31:06","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T20:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=13219"},"modified":"2018-03-29T16:31:06","modified_gmt":"2018-03-29T20:31:06","slug":"james-faulkner-playing-role-paul-changed-quite-considerably","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/03\/james-faulkner-playing-role-paul-changed-quite-considerably.html","title":{"rendered":"James Faulkner: \u2018Playing the Role of Paul Changed Me Quite Considerably\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sony<\/a>
Sony Pictures<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Celebrated actor James Faulkner, who stars in the new movie, \u201cPaul, Apostle of Christ\u201d says playing the role of Paui in the film changed him.<\/p>\n

Faulkner, a lifelong Anglican was imbued with the spirit of Paul and he found it transforming.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying the role of Paul changed me quite considerably,\u201d Faulkner shared with Beliefnet. \u201cYou can\u2019t open your heart to playing Paul without it having an affect on your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

He attributed this transformation, at least in part, to writer-director Andrew Hyatt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt I had been transformed by Andrew\u2019s script and his direction. And an entire page of notes on how to play Paul \u2013 nothing precise but overall notes on how I should approach it. I\u2019ve never had a director do something so tellingly about a character.\u201d<\/p>\n

The movie focuses on the final 10 days of Paul\u2019s life, when he is in the Mamerine Prison in Rome awaiting his execution under sentence of death by the emperor Nero in a period where Christians were openly persecuted for their faith.<\/p>\n

Faulkner dove into Paul\u2019s letters and other biblical sources, which Faulkner dove into during the rather quick turnaround period he had between joining the film and the beginning of shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I didn\u2019t have a lot of time for contemporary research,\u201d Faulkner said. \u201cSo naturally, I read his letters, those being the best form of research to give some indication of what he\u2019s writing one-on-one to his correspondents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faulkner found Paul\u2019s letters to be the most fascinating part of his research.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re extraordinary to read. They are rather simple in their approach and in the psychology, but there is this extraordinary love and warmth coming through them,\u201d Faulkner said. \u201cNothing will sway this man and nothing will sway those that he will bring into his circle.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the film is a historical snapshot of early Christianity and the persecution Christians faced in Rome, it also offers an in-depth look at Paul\u2019s phyche in his last days, as he deal with regret from his past transgressions and battles worry that he\u2019s failed in his mission to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations.<\/p>\n

Luke, played by Jim Caviezel, who is best known for his role as Jesus in \u201cthe Passion of the Christ,\u201d visits Paul in prison to put the apostle\u2019s story and teaching in writing for distribution to Christians in Rome and abroad. Those writings would late become the book of Acts in the Bible.<\/p>\n

Caviezel felt a special calling to play the role of Luke in the film \u2013 he looks for stories that have great redemptive qualities because that\u2019s the truth that he knows, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I read this, I thought this is more of what I\u2019m supposed to do,\u201d Caviezel said. \u201cI just look for redeemable qualities in it. I think you walk away from a movie like this affected in a lot of ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Caviezel is known for his biblical roles, playing Paul was quite different than\u00a0other characters he’s played. What he found most fascinating in his research of Luke was not only his background, but also the way Christ worked through him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got Matthew, you\u2019ve got Mark, you\u2019ve got Luke and here\u2019s a guy who\u2019s a pagan that\u2019s writing one of the gospels,\u201d Caviezel. \u201cOur Lord\u2019s message is universal and it can hit anybody, but we all have an emptiness in our heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot viewers can take away from this film, even for those who don\u2019t know Christ.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a friend of mine watch the movie who likes me as a person but doesn\u2019t come from any faith and he watched the movie and was simply blown away,\u201d Caviezel said. \u201cHe said, \u2018Jim, the writer of this is brilliant and I said, \u2018why so,\u2019 and he said, \u2018That line \u2018To live as Christ, to die is gain,\u2019 is truly brilliant,\u2019 and I said, \u2018That was written by Paul.\u201d<\/p>\n

A couple days later, Caviezel\u2019s friend asked if he could see his \u2018Passion of the Christ\u2019 movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was right on the edge, and it planted a seed and that\u2019s a big change but he felt loved in the movie and he felt home,\u201d Caviezel said. \u201cThat\u2019s all I wanted to convey to people is that our Lord wants them to feel home with Him. He loves them and wants to give them the life they were meant to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPaul, Apostle of Christ\u201d is in theaters now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Celebrated actor James Faulkner, who stars in the new movie, \u201cPaul, Apostle of Christ\u201d says playing the role of Paui in the film changed him. Faulkner, a lifelong Anglican was imbued with the spirit of Paul and he found it transforming. \u201cPlaying the role of Paul changed me quite considerably,\u201d Faulkner shared with Beliefnet. \u201cYou…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":565,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3],"tags":[1027,3673,2302,3671,3672,3674],"class_list":["post-13219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","category-movies","tag-christian-movies","tag-james-faulkner","tag-jim-caviezel","tag-paul","tag-paul-apostle-of-christ","tag-persecution"],"yoast_head":"\nJames Faulkner: \u2018Playing the Role of Paul Changed Me Quite Considerably\u2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/03\/james-faulkner-playing-role-paul-changed-quite-considerably.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"James Faulkner: \u2018Playing the Role of Paul Changed Me Quite Considerably\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Celebrated actor James Faulkner, who stars in the new movie, \u201cPaul, Apostle of Christ\u201d says playing the role of Paui in the film changed him. 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