In ‘Forty-Seven Days with Jesus,’ releasing this week from Reel Big Studios, Vero Entertainment, Pinnacle Peak Pictures through Fathom Events, Yoshi Barrigas (“The Chosen”) plays Joseph, a man on a trip with his family struggling where to place his priorities. As his family drama unfolds, a parallel story is told of the last week of Jesus’ life. Through the focus on Jesus, Joseph and his family’s lives are impacted.
Barrigas recently spoke to Reel Faith about the new film and portraying Joseph and the challenges he faces.
I remember hearing about this film a year ago and now it’s here!
Yeah, what a journey it’s been from beginning to end. It came to fruition and that we actually got into the theaters, little quirky family film like this. It’s because of the boom of “The Chosen” that projects like this are possible. A few years back, a film like this probably would never have been shot at getting in the theater. It’s a beautiful thing.
The family drama felt authentic and not overblown or too dramatic. Do you want to tell me a little bit about your journey of when you came on board? And kind of what appealed to you about it?
Sure. Yeah. I’m happy to hear you say that it felt authentic. I haven’t heard someone say that, so that’s nice to hear. As far as my personal relationship with the project goes, they contacted me sometime after my time with “The Chosen” and told me their plans for this film and expressed how they thought I’d be the man for the job. And I was just really interested in, first of all, playing a modern man again. It’s been a while since I had the opportunity to do that.
When I was told the story and the flashbacks of Jesus’ life, I assumed you’d be in that story.
Same. That was refreshing for me to play a modern man with modern issues. And then just the whole balancing act of an authentic thing we didn’t make it too dramatic. But it’s something that’s very relatable for workaholics or parents in general who are trying to balance that time that they put into their career, which eventually is going to be something that creates a nest of wealth to care for their children or put them through college or fill in the blank. Balancing that time with your family time. It’s not entirely obvious where that line is and how you tow it. So, for me, as a performer, that was an interesting selling point of playing a good man who’s making an honest mistake, to be thrust into a world where everyone around you is whispering into your ear and trying to wake you up. Is he going to wake up before it’s too late, or is he going to lose everything that he claims to be fighting for? I think it’s a very relatable thing for families to go see this Easter. The children will have an opportunity to learn about the Easter story, but through music, and then parents like yourself might walk away saying like, “Oh, you know what, like, that was a nice refresher on what’s really important.”
Absolutely. Was it a pretty quick shoot?
Yeah, I think we finished like about a month. So, that’s pretty quick. It was definitely like high pressure, high stakes kind of thing. But also with that said, you know, I was lucky enough to work with the directors, David and Emilio, who were very open to collaborating with me on my character, and there was a lot of rewriting on the day, which is really fun for me. Like “How do we make this scene more potent?” or “Why isn’t this working?” Questions like that. So, the set was very malleable in that way, which is really fun for an actor. Our characters were facing a lot of doubts and fear and stuff, and us as performers, and artists, were faced with a lot of adversities as well. We didn’t really have to pretend to be feeling those things. The location that we filmed that, for example, I don’t know what it was, but there was some insane amount of allergies going on. And I’m not someone who usually gets allergies, but myself and many other people, including Catherine and the directors, we were taken out pretty bad. Like, between every take where like, I’m like running over to blow my nose and put contact solution in my eyes. And try not to seem like I’m suffering. We all had some adversities, But we persisted through and I think it just created like a more authentic feeling because it really took each and every one of us to to be at our a game the whole time to get through that.
“Forty-Seven Days With Jesus” starring Yoshi Barrigas and Catherine Lidstone, releases March 11, 12, and 14 through Fathom Events. For more information or to purchase tickets, click here.
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