People has recently made my day by publishing a behind-the-scenes teaser for Fox’s upcoming Easter TV special, The Passion, a clip so stupid and perfect that I watched it three times, double-checked Christopher Guest’s IMDB page, and had to do a lap around the office.
Adam Anders, a man in a tight fedora whose name—not to be rude—seems fake, starts out the clip with a sober reflection on the difficulty of casting a man in the iconic role of Jesus. “For the Jesus role, first of all we needed to find someone who can act and sing, and do it live on set,” Adam says.
“At first, when I was told, ‘Hey, would you like to play Jesus?’…” The Passion star Jencarlos Canela tells the camera, with an incredulous look that suddenly turns serious: “…it’s a big responsibility.” Adam then calls Jencarlos a “revelation,” which is an amazing word to use because Jesus had those.
“He’s a great actor, great singer, musical—to me, he encompassed what we wanted in our Jesus,” Adam explains, and those are, coincidentally, qualities that I want in my Jesus, and qualities that I think Jesus definitely liked about himself. What I don’t want? A friggin’ ego! Jencarlos tells us in the clip that although he’s not starring in The Passion, a Two-Hour Live Musical Event airing on FOX, “for the awards,” the soundtrack is “Grammy-level.”
The Passion, which “uses contemporary hits to tell the story of Jesus Christ,” is produced by Tyler Perry. It premieres on March 20 on FOX, and you had better believe we will be covering it.
