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3 hours ago
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Judas Iscariot is so nice! That’s a surprise. Just goes to show – you betray ONE messiah, the scroll-media gets to work and people forget everything else.
I’m joshing, of course. I’m having a little religious joke because The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls has put me in such a good mood. The Judas Iscariot in question is actually Luke Dimyan, the actor who plays him in The Chosen: the multi-season series about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The Chosen is a venture by evangelical Christian film-maker Dallas Jenkins that began as a crowdfunded project in 2017 and is now watched by an estimated 280 million people worldwide. Bear Grylls is a fan and a Christian – what could be more natural than him taking members of the cast for survivalist adventures in the Utah desert, to talk to them about faith in between ziplining across chasms, filtering water through socks and rappelling down cliffs?
It is precisely because the result does feel so natural that I find myself in such a good mood. The actors are not asked to do too much. Some do a helicopter jump, some don’t. They each do a couple of small challenges, where neither the intrinsic difficulties nor the participants’ hesitations are lingered over, and then they stop for another chat about acting or God while Bear feeds them an MRE (military ready meal) or nugget of survivalist wisdom. No one becomes an emotional or physical wreck.
Dimyan is Grylls’ first guest – a wise choice as he is a completely charming, self-confessed nerd (“I worry a lot! I’m constantly worried!”) who names rocks as he makes his way to meet Bear (“I think I’ve passed Jerry a few times,” he notes worriedly) but is willing to skydive on to the canyon trail from 10,000ft. “That’s amazing!” he says cheerfully when he lands. “I thought I was going to die!”
At their first pit stop, they talk about Dimyan’s upbringing in a Coptic Egyptian family who didn’t want him to be an actor. “Get paid!” said his dad. “Be safe!” Now, he says, his parents say: “We’re glad we were wrong!” It’s really lovely.
So too is the rapport between the men, who discuss their faith in unembarrassed fashion and talk about what Jesus means to them. “Acceptance,” says Dimyan. “He saw people and allowed them to be the best versions of themselves … if you love people unabashedly, they will take that chance.” None of the episodes goes deeply into matters of faith but they have a simple and touching authenticity to them.
It is also unexpectedly moving to watch two men – here especially, but in other episodes, too – be so confident and yet so peaceful together. In a world full of toxic masculinity, it feels as radical as any religious profession to hear Bear compliment his companion on his gentleness and to have him poke fun at his own reputation (he tends to let scorpions go these days, he says, unless he’s really desperate to eat).
They are also funny together. Dimyan, understandably, can’t quite believe he has to pee on his MRE to activate the heat pack that will make it palatable. Nor, when he has been convinced of the necessity, can he instantly muster the wherewithal. “Normally I can take direction,” he says with his back to us, concentrating. “It just needs a little bit,” Bear shouts over to him. “Look, you get what you get,” says Dimyan.
The other episodes stick to this soothing formula, drawing in more of the cast: the Indian American actor Paras Patel, who plays disciple Matthew; Elizabeth Tabish (Lilith/Mary Magdalene); and, in the penultimate outing, Jonathan Roumie (Jesus himself – who gets to roam the Adirondacks instead of the desert, which I think suggests a VIP treatment quite out of keeping with His teachings). I did enjoy the fact that Dallas Jenkins got the final episode. If a director can, he will always place himself just above God.
I don’t quite know how to square Grylls’ evident sincerity and good sense on show here with the fact that his most noteworthy recent appearance prior to this was at the baptism of Russell Brand – after accusations by multiple women of rape and other abuses by the comedian were made public. Brand has since been charged with three counts of rape and other assaults. Grylls was asked during the publicity run for Chosen in the Wild whether his feelings about the baptism had changed. “I think all our faith changes and evolves, and I’d also say I have many doubts as well. I really struggle with so much of it,” he said. But “I think at heart, my faith says … not to judge people and to love people.” I look forward to Brand being judged in a court of law, and I don’t think that’s through a lack of Christian compassion. But on we go.
