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This is Later with Lee Matthews,
the Lee Matthews Podcast more what You Hear

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weekday afternoons on the Drive. If
his name sounds familiar, it's because Dallas

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Jenkins is the son of the celebrated
Left Behind author Jerry Jenkins. He is

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also a creator, executive producer,
co founder, writer in his own right,

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and director of the international hit series
The Chosen, which you can now

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see Sundays at eight Eastern on the
CW and he joins us Now, Dallas,

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good morning. Let's start with how
this project was financed. I bet

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a lot of people don't realize how
this happened. Yeah, thank you,

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and thanks for having me on,
Lee. Yeah, it's quite a bizarre

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story. I won't get into all
of it, but it actually was birthed

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from failure of the big movie that
I had released nationwide, bomb at the

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box office. All the Hollywood dreams
that I'd had because I'd gotten a chance

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to work with some of the big
producers in Hollywood on this film, they

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all kind of went away and I
was left with a very little future,

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and I ended up doing a short
film for my church's Christmas Eve service.

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It was about the birth of Christ
from the perspective of the shepherds, and

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that's when I had the idea.
While I was making that on my friend's

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farm in Illinois, twenty minutes from
my house, I came up with the

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idea for the show. Well,
when that short film ended up being released

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on social media and going viral,
at the end of it, I said,

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hey, I've got this idea for
a show about Jesus and his life,

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and it's going to be done a
little bit different than normal, and

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it's got backstory and context and human
you know, we kind of explore the

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humanity of all the followers of Jesus. And you can invest in it and

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here's you know, here's how you're
doing. And it was a crowdfund opportunity

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and sixteen thousand people from around the
world financed it season one the tune of

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ten million dollars, which shattered the
all time crowdfunding record for media projects.

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And so season one came out based
on that crowdfund and since then, I

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wouldn't I don't know if i'd still
use the word crowdfunded, but I would

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say, because the show is,
you don't have to pay for it.

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The fact that the show exists is
because of people who just choose to pay

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for it, much like they chose
to invest in it five years ago.

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So it's been quite a unique journey. There's no studio or big network or

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anything that's financing this thing. The
CW is now airing, of course,

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the first three seasons, but this
was financed by the people and David Dallas

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Jenkins is the writer, producer and
director of The Chosen, now seen on

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the CW. Thank god for the
CW. I think they're getting everybody through

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this strike recently. With apologies to
the strike, I'm not trying to condemn

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the strike. Yeah, and we
were able to, ironically enough, in

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season four. The strike happened when
we were two weeks away from production,

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and the Screen Actors Guild fortunately gave
us an interim agreement to finish our season.

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The season four is completed, we'll
be releasing next year. But yeah,

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c W has been great, not
only airing The Chosen, but yeah,

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because there's been a slowdown in Hollywood
significantly of original content. They've it

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looks like they've been just finding it
everywhere. They've been looking for it all

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over the world and finding ways to
make sure that their schedule is packed with

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stuff that people might not have seen
before. The story of Christ. Dallas

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Jenkins with us, writer, producer, director of the CW's That Chosen Sundays

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at eight Eastern. By the way, the story of Christ has been done

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and done again, and you see
different interpretations, whether it's Jesus Christ Superstar,

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where Christ has all this greatness thrust
upon him and he's very self aware,

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to many other specials where Christ is
kind of wandering in the desert like

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everybody else. But you take a
different approach and that you humanize Jesus Christ.

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Yeah, it's interesting phrasing. I
would say Jesus Christ has always been

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human, of course, but often
we've dehumanized him by putting him on the

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plain glass windows, by seeing him
as a statue, or in the portrayal

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and audio vision portrayal, he's often
a white guy who's very boring and who

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speaks in James English, and that's
not accurate and it certainly is not something

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that would have caused for someone who
would have caused thousands of people to want

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to be around him all the time. And I think that what the Chosen

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is doing what we hear over and
over again, and this is true for

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non believers as well. There's plenty
of people who aren't believers that Jesus was

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the son of God who are obsessed
with the show, who are going,

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okay, wow, these people two
thousand years ago were human beings just like

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me. Now, of course we
know Jesus was also the son of God

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and did miracles and was perfect.
But when you see him as a living,

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breathing person who lived a life that
we lived and experienced the same things

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we experienced, it really does change
what we've done to Jesus historically. And

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we've heard from from Jewish people,
not even even even Jewish non believers,

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who are saying, oh wow,
okay, we we didn't even we hadn't

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even heard that these were Jewish stories
before. And uh. And I think

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that's what has been kind of the
secret sauce of the show. Well,

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has this been part of the evangelism
on your part or did you have a

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personal interest in in in I'm going
to say it again, humanizing the story.

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Well, I have come to the
to the point in my life where

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I just go, Okay, my
job is to provide the five loaves and

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two fish, and God got responsible
for the multiplication and that that that applies

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to not only the success of the
show, it even applies to the so

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called evangelism of the show, which
is I'm not sitting down at a computer

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screen when I'm writing it, thinking, all right, how am I going

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to evangelize today? How is this
show going to convert anyone? That That

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can't be my goal. That's that's
up to God. I'm just trying to

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make a great TV show. The
thing I'm the number one thing spiritually that

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I'm trying to avoid not trying.
I'm obsessed with not going to violate the

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character and intentions of Jesus in the
Gospels. That shame on me if that

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ever happens. Because, of course, so much to the content of the

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show is not directly from scripture.
It's inspired by scripture. It's rooted in

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scripture. Scripture is my primary source
of truth and inspiration. But when I

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when I have Jesus saying hello to
somebody and laughing at a joke that didn't

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actually directly come from scripture. So
when I do that, I have to

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make sure that I am at least
capturing the character and intentions of Jesus and

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the Gospels. And that is that
is what I'm making sure that I do

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all the while not making sure that
when people watch this on the CW,

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it doesn't feel like a church service. It feels like a TV show,

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like any other show that they would
watch. But yes, the content might

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be a little bit different and uh
and you might have a different kind of

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personal experience with it than you might
have to a normal show. Dallas Jenkins

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with US writer, producer director,
the CW's that chosen Sundays at eight o'clock.

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You know, that's what I was
getting at, because when I read

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scripture, that's what I see.
I see a Christ that enjoyed going to

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dinner parties. He enjoyed going to
weddings, He enjoyed people's company. It

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wasn't just a gentle Jesus meek and
mild all the time. Absolutely not.

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And that's one of the beautiful things
about Jonathan Rumy's portrayal is he got both

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the masnity of Jesus a guy who
was a tradesman, a craftsman, a

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carpenter, who walked the dusty roads
of first century Galilee. And I think

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that's that's something that when you watch
it and you see it kind of in

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real life. It brings it home
for you and it just again takes it

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out of stained glass windows or just
black and white. And then when you

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do read the Gospels, then again
it's like we hear, we've heard this

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with mind numbing regularity. That I'd
like to say is the people say,

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people saying I have my experience now
is even more alive. I'm seeing it

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clearly. When I read the Bible, it now makes it now makes even

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more more sense to me because these
were human, human beings. Dallas Jenkins,

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writer, producer, director of the
CW's The Chosen Sundays at eight o'clock.

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You can also see it on other
platforms like tb in and UpTV now

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in it's fourth season. It's worth
a watch, especially if you love this

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kind of stuff and uh, whether
or not you want to get back in

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touch with your religious feelings. It's
it's a good store. There's no doubt

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about that. Dallas Jenkins, thanks
for bringing it to us and joining us

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today. Thank you so much for
having me on. Thanks for listening to

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Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee
Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to

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The Drive live weekday afternoons from five
to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation