‘Seeking Beauty With David Henrie’ On EWTN+: Beyond Wizards

As a teen, David Henrie played a fantasy wizard in Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place. Now a thirtysomething husband and father, he’s currently star and executive producer of its spin-off series, Wizards Beyond Waverly Place on Disney+.

But, the Catholic actor/producer’s new EWTN+ series, Seeking Beauty With David Henrie, has him on a quest of a very different kind.

He’s looking for the meaning of transcendent beauty, exposure to which once changed his life.

All Roads Lead to Rome

Seeking Beauty With David Henrie premiered on EWTN’s new streaming service on Jan. 19 (episodes can also be watched online here) with two episodes, one focusing on the Vatican, and the other, on Rome itself. The rest of season one explores other sites in Italy.

Filming has already finished on season two, this time in Spain.

The Impact of Beauty on Henrie’s Life

Henrie had been baptized Catholic as a child but had fallen away from the Faith. He found success, but he didn’t feel fulfilled. Then he visited a beautiful place in Southern California’s Orange County.

From Catholic World Report:

Henrie told OSV News that he was 22 when he visited St. Michael’s Abbey for confession. Friend and fellow actor Kevin James recommended the abbey and gave Henrie a ride from Los Angeles. Henrie remembered the date: Jan. 1, 2012.

“I didn’t just go anywhere for my conversion, and I wasn’t even directly seeking it,” Henrie said of the abbey. “It was at the most beautiful place, a place that you can really feel God … beauty was right there, knocking on my door.”

At the abbey, he met some of the first [Norbertine] priests who became his friends, he said. One of them later helped marry him and Maria.

“That special place left a mark on me, and I still go back to visit all the time with my wife and children,” Henrie said.

Talking to David Henrie

Earlier this week, I spoke to Henrie about working in entertainment in general, and Seeking Beauty With David Henrie in particular. The whole video interview is posted below, but here are some excerpts.

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On why faithful Catholics should work in the entertainment industry:

To say Catholics or Christians shouldn’t be in Hollywood is like saying St. Peter should have never went to Rome. Rome was a very dangerous place, it was very hostile, it was literally killing anyone who is Christian, and more hostile than Hollywood. And, he still went. And they all went.

We now have what we have today, because they didn’t have that fear-based mentality. You know, we’ve never retreated from entering the cultural conversation, ever. So, I think, absolutely, we need to be trying to empower our artists to go succeed in Hollywood without compromising themselves.

And also, build parallel tracks where you can, and experiment with new distribution, and there’s wonderful opportunities popping up now with many different platforms, like EWTN+ and others.

So, that being said, you know, as parents, we do have to be vigilant. We have to be protective over our children’s eyes and make sure that they’re watching things that we feel comfortable over. I think there’s been a lot made in the past 10 years that we’re not comfortable with our children watching.

But I think that’s changing. You’re definitely seeing that tendency shift now; you’re seeing a lot more good content come out.

So, yeah, I think we’ve never been a retreatist Faith. We’ve always been on the offense, and I think we need to keep that up.

On why shows about wizards can be fine for Catholics:

Yes, I was actually reading a secular series last night about wizards as well to my children called The Hobbit, and it was really good.

We’re at the point where Gandalf is saying incantations on rocks, and he’s trying to deal with trolls … and he’s saying spells over people. So, yeah, it’s a good series. It is about wizardry, though, so I’d be careful, I’d be careful out there.

Jesus spoke in parables, right? You know the Prodigal Son, there’s no mention of accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior in the Prodigal Son, right? That is a story, because stories need to be told to touch people. It’s a universal language. Stories can reach all different peoples at all different times, and all different ages.

We have to tell stories that don’t have explicit mentions of faith, because grace builds on nature, and you have to form nature so grace can then be received and accepted on top of it.

I love the comment of people that are always like, “Oh, you do a series about wizards or whatever,” and I’m always like, “These are stories. These aren’t real.”

If you go into the Old Testament, the magic that they’re talking about is a very different magic than these fun fairy tales that we’re telling in these stories.

You wouldn’t have Tolkien, you wouldn’t have C.S. Lewis, you wouldn’t have all sorts of stuff, if we took such a strict, harsh look at things. But it’s categorically different.

I’m all for being strict, but it’s categorically different than what’s talked about in the Old Testament, so I always welcome it.

I’m always like. “You have Lord of the Rings on your shelf, right? You have Chronicles of Narnia on your shelf, right? OK, so you’re OK with wizardry and magic, it’s just a certain kind that you’re not OK with,” and then people usually get lost.

They’re trying to define it … and I’m like, “Argument’s over, you have no principles.”

How he came to do Seeking Beauty for EWTN+

EWTN+ came to me with the idea of wanting to do a travel show that’s similar to, like, Stanley Tucci’s travel show, his food show, or, like, an Anthony Bourdain, but in the realm of culture. And that resonated with me immediately.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve continually grown to fall in love with just beauty, that part of the transcendentals. I love beauty in particular because it goes against my earlier nature.

Like, growing up, I just didn’t care for beauty, I thought it was something soft or effeminate, and especially growing up in America, you’re raised with this mentality that beauty is a cost that can be cut.

It’s something that if you got some money left over in the budget, you can doll up this or doll up that. It was always left out of the conversation, and getting to go and experience these old cultures and learn the opposite mentality, boy, was I so wrong.

And I love looking at my younger self and going, you idiot, you’re missing out on the whole thing, and I learned lessons about that, you know, and it helps me grow as a person.

We wanted to make a fun travel show where you go deeper. You go deeper on beauty, you go deeper on culture, you ask why. Why would someone build this old building that would… they wouldn’t even see in their lifetime, and their kids wouldn’t see in their lifetime, and their kids’ kids wouldn’t see in their lifetime?

Why do they do these things? And you understand the faith of the people, and the thought and reason that goes into building these things. And it’s just profound, and it’s beautiful.