The Big Picture
- Reza Diako discusses his life-changing journey on
The Chosen
and forming deep connections with the cast. - Stepping into an established role as Philip brought challenges, but Diako drew inspiration from iconic character transitions in past franchises.
- Dallas Jenkins created a supportive environment allowing Diako to bring his own interpretation to the character while respecting its legacy.
Reza Diako, who portrays Philip in The Chosen, recently stopped by Collider to share his experiences on the show in this exclusive interview, describing it as a life-changing journey filled with deep connections and meaningful work. Diako expressed how being part of the cast has provided him with a sense of family, especially with the actors playing the disciples, whom he now considers like brothers. Despite being a fan of the show before joining, Diako spoke about the challenges of stepping into an established role, drawing inspiration from similar transitions in iconic franchises, such as the Dumbledore and Grindelwald changes in Harry Potter.
He also praised the supportive environment fostered by the series’ creator, Dallas Jenkins, which allowed him to bring his own interpretation to the character while respecting the legacy of the role. In the interview, Diako delved into Philip’s evolving storyline, particularly the character’s internal struggles following the death of his mentor, John the Baptist, and his complex relationship with faith and the material world.
He noted that Season 4 is a transformative period for Philip, as he grapples with these themes while trying to maintain continuity in the portrayal despite the character’s evolution. Diako also highlighted the unique atmosphere on set, where intense scenes are often lightened by humorous moments, contributing to the overall sense of camaraderie and shared purpose among the cast and crew. Looking forward, Diako expressed a desire to tackle more complex and challenging roles, particularly those that explore the darker aspects of human nature.
Life is “Amazing” on ‘The Chosen’
COLLIDER: How are you enjoying life on The Chosen ?
REZA DIAKO: Life is amazing. There are so many things going on and lots of blessings. Being on The Chosen is also a wonderful thing for so many reasons that I can’t even fathom. It’s great.
What’s changed in your life since you took on the role? Are you getting more recognition now when you go out, or are people starting to recognize you for the role, or are you able to kind of sneak in and out of places without being recognized quite yet?
DIAKO: It’s interesting. I mean, it depends. It’s changed my life. There’s two different questions. The changing life thing, it’s really been so life-changing on so many levels being a part of something so meaningful and cool. It’s amazing. At the same time, the cast and crew are so fantastic. I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of a team like this ever before. The guys who play the disciples are like brothers to me. I’ve never had brothers, and I was always kind of worried about where I would find any, and there I found some. They’re really cool, and most of them are older, so they are very good at guiding me on how to live my life in these complex times.
Then in terms of being recognized, it depends on what state you’re in. I can kind of go under the radar in the hustle and bustle of New York or LA maybe, but when we’re filming, everybody knows that and their radars are up in, like, Utah and Texas. Even last year, I was kind of shocked because I was I thought I was undercover because I was a new Philip. So when we were filming Season 4, I was up on a hike for research purposes, and suddenly I bumped into two people, and I didn’t know they were Chosen fans, and they’re like, “You’re the new Philip!” and I’m like, “How did you…? I’m in the wilderness battling snakes here, and you know who I am.” So, that was fun. Then when we’re with the crowd and we’re going for coffees, that’s when it gets really fascinating with lots of cathartic moments filled with love and exchanges of how much the show has touched people’s lives, which only just reflects back and touches us a lot for knowing that it’s not just a show for entertainment, but it seems to be really moving people.
How did the opportunity to take on the role come up? Did you get a call? How did you approach that?
DIAKO: I was a big fan of the show, and then I was in LA about a year ago when I had a film in Sundance. After Utah, I went to LA for the first time, so I was telling the casting director of the show — because I had auditioned originally two years back — “Hey, I’m here. I wanted to meet with you to see if there’s anything new happening with The Chosen.” She was like, “Yeah, keep your eyes open because Season 4 is getting cast soon.” So I was like, “Oh, cool.” But I had no idea what was happening, and when it came to replacing Philip, that was all very new.
Suddenly I’m back in Egypt a month later, filming something else, and then something pops in from my team that they’re looking for an audition. I knew it was for The Chosen, but I had no idea it was gonna be Philip. I read some lines and it eventually not revealed to me that I was playing Philip, which was really strange because I thought the character I was reading for was very close to Philip. And I’m like, “I’m just trying to make it different from Philip,” but then it turned out they were looking for Philip. So, it kind of became this weird, meta mind game that everyone was playing on each other.
When you’re taking on a role that somebody else has played beforehand, is it difficult to not let that affect your own performance? You obviously want to make that role your own, but then you don’t want to be wildly different from what’s been portrayed before. What’s the process behind slipping into the role without disturbing the flow of the story?
DIAKO: 100%. Two of the major people that I was looking back at were the Dumbledore change in Harry Potter and then the Grindelwald change, as well. It was funny to see, “Oh, even the top actors struggle with that continuity a little bit.” But also, I was trying to just take some leaps from their books on how they adapted. For me, it was kind of fun. I think because I was a fan of the show before and I’d seen Yoshi [Barrigas]’ performance, I [wanted] to kind of continue and honor that role. I wanted to do it justice and continue on from it. I didn’t feel like I had many discrepancies in terms of ideas of how it could be played, and so it was a combination of working what I would say artistically by bringing yourself and looking at your similarities and differences. I would say the soul needs to make a handshake with the character, or a hug, depending on how familiar I want to get with the character. [Laughs] It depends — sometimes they’re a dodgy character.
So there was the art side, and then there was the craft side. That’s where I could really draw from my training in the UK drama school, where you learn to utilize your body. I’d watch, like a hawk, his performance and try and build habits and mannerisms and the way he speaks dialectically to try and turn it into something that seems organic. So, it’s outside-in and then an inside-out, both at the same time. It was so fun. I always think that the best art happens co-creatively anyway. I like to do that with other actors in the scene. But in this case, I had a co-creation with someone who was actually helping me think for the character, too, which was really fun.
What’s It Like Working with Dallas Jenkins?
“Dallas is like a very huge, fuzzy bear.”
What was it that Dallas Jenkins actually asked from you for the performance anyway? What did he say to you that he needed from his depiction of Philip, and how’s it been working with Dallas in general? Because obviously, he’s the guy at the moment.
DIAKO: Dallas is incredible. Dallas is like a very huge, fuzzy bear. The first experience I had was the bear hug that came before anything else, and he said, “Thank you for coming, and welcome to the family.” From there, he said that he has total trust in me and to make it my own. I think it was more me that had this kind of fan side of me who wanted the continuity, but after that, I kind of took it from him that I was free to basically do what I needed, which meant the most because that was lovely. The rest of it was more me trying to bring stuff in. The way he works, he sets the set with so much equality and so much love. He’s so abundantly giving in every single way, and I can’t say enough until you come and experience it. It’s just lovely.
When it comes to the character, one of the other things that was kind of difficult is, despite the fact that I could make it my own and I could bring something in, this season, he’s going through a bit of a transformative year, and Dallas was agreeing on that when we were in dialoguing. He’s kind of being forced to mature when his father figure and previous rabbi, John the Baptist, gets beheaded pretty early on. He has to reconcile his quarrel between his one foot being in the material world still and the world of pains and struggles of humanity whilst still feeling the faith to surrender his soul and dare to go to the ends of the Earth for his new rabbi and father figure in Jesus. So, that quarrel and tussle was fascinating to play with, but also made it interesting to have dialogues with Dallas to not make him seem suddenly so different because there was an actor change, but also the context makes him more dark.
Based on what you’ve said there, that collaboration and that family feeling that Dallas gives you, is that something that makes the production of The Chosen more unique to other projects that you’ve worked on in terms of just how it feels?
DIAKO: Yes, 100%. I think I’ve been very lucky to work with very, very lovely directors before — Eran Riklis, Guy Ritchie, Maryam Keshavarz. All fantastic human beings. One of the things that I think maybe makes this a little bit different is both his leadership, but also the sense that it’s not just a film for entertainment, it’s not just a film for business success. Irrespective of the leadership, sometimes you always have the odd ego here or there that you have to circumnavigate around. There’s something about this feeling of you’re participating in something that’s quite historical and iconic and is there to offer a message of love and kindness. I see people, everyone from the electrician to the lovely PAs to everyone in the crew, and the crazy hours that we go always on their full spirit with readiness to go beyond what is normally required, which is not always the case.
It sounds like a good place to work. I was just on the set of another show that Amazon is making just now , and some of them know Dallas, and I was hearing similar things. “The guy makes it a great place to go to work. That’s all we can say, really.” In terms of your set, what sort of things have happened on set that you’ve thoroughly enjoyed? Are there any memorable experiences so far?
DIAKO: [Laughs] This is weird, but sometimes they bring a lot of livestock and animals. The funny thing is the environment is so intense, and the scenes are so intense — in Season 4, we have the gates of hell that we go to — but then there are all these goats in the background, and they’re just roaming around.
Suddenly, Jesus is doing his sermon, and it’s very moving, or the big punchline of the moment is happening, but there’s this goat in the background that suddenly goes [bleats]. That then causes more and more cacophony of further musicality coming from the background, so then they have no option but to cut and wait for some time until the conversations between the livestock end. [Laughs] I suppose they’re just as moved.
Moments like that are ideal for breaking up a serious show with serious things going on, if it was broken up by a conversation between goats or something.
DIAKO: That’s what’s lovely because it is so intense that the group has to also be light and not take it so seriously when things like that happen. There are so many times like that where the donkey is suddenly pooing, and the cat goes meowing for no reason at three in the morning when everyone wants to have their final take. I always find those moments pretty fun because you’ve got to embrace the chaos of life. It just reminds you of that.
What Can We Expect from Season 5 of ‘The Chosen’?
“Oh man, Season 5 was so different…”
Going into Season 5, I know we’re going into Holy Week. What does Philip’s journey look like to you? What are you expecting? I mean, obviously, you’ll know what you’ve got ahead of you, but where will we find Philip, and what’s his mindset going to be?
DIAKO: Oh man, Season 5 was so different. Season 4, for me, is Philip being confronted with his old traumas. In my opinion, he left home for a reason. He has a lot of father issues, I think, so he’s kind of been in pursuit of a father figure in the baptist. So, the death of the father has been a bit difficult because now, one side, his materialistic father is beheaded and he has to make peace because at least he has another material father in Jesus, even though he knows that the ultimate journey is a divine one. But in Season 5 now, he’s like, “Oh, okay. So I dealt with that pain, and now it’s the time to celebrate this divine father when we arrive into the city.” It’s all really interesting, and it seems like this is an arrival. So, I think Philip would love if the season and the whole story of The Chosen ended right there, and we can all just live happily ever after. A part of him, I think, would love that — the human side.
But then, unfortunately, things hit the fan, and the table gets turned upside down. Then I think it’s his mission in that season. He’s so confronted with so much chaos, and it’s almost too much to digest in the same way that in Season 4, he has so many walk-and-talk moments to just reflect. In this case, so much is happening so quickly, so I think he goes into survival mode, and almost reaches up, in my understanding, to John the Baptist in the heavens, and he’s like, “Yo, can you please give me all of your wisdom all at once? Because I need to be the baptist for Jesus as much as I can, and the group in this season so that people stop flicking off and doing weird stuff.” So, I think that’s where he is. Then in the midst of all that, Jesus tells him that he’s going to die, too, and then, well, let’s just wait and find out how he responds, I guess. But that’s not really a fun adventure.
What aspects about Philip’s character is it that you find the most compelling? Obviously, you’ve got to have this sort of calm demeanor on screen. Is that the sort of thing that you can pull from your own life, or do you feel like you have to dig deep to try and put that across?
DIAKO: No, I think what I love, one of the things, is that thing of being outside of the circle and living a nomadic life. That’s why I went on hikes even though I know I’m scared of nature. [Laughs] When you go on hikes and then, like me, you end up getting lost, and you’re in the darkness, and you have to come back, and people are shouting and sending search people to come and find you, you realize that he didn’t have those search people. He would be there all night with a bunch of people and a fire, no gadgets. The amount of courage and bravery that takes on a regular basis — and not just that, but then the Baptist is making you go through all sorts of rituals to fast and reflect and face yourself and your inner demons and your family trauma or whatever it is. It takes a lot of bravery. For me, that’s one of my favorite values and something I work towards. I don’t know if I’m ever gonna get close to it, but there’s that that I really admire about him.
I’ve done a lot of soul-searching, a lot of therapy, and a lot of moving around, which probably led to me needing therapy, and had a lot of family traumas, which also probably led to all of that triangle. Now it starts making sense. So because of that, I think it makes you probably not be as fazed with the momentary superficial preoccupations that some people might have, and I think that’s really cool about him. I think on the other end, he is very practical and very funny, and I don’t know if I am as practical as him. So, that’s really good because in the next three years, hopefully, I will learn how to look after myself a little better, and my loved ones eventually when they come around. So, that’s fun.
I think his main mission is to keep the family together and lead with love and heartfelt authenticity, and I try to do that as much as I can.
You’ve got to be authentic to who you want to be. That’s the way you’ve got to live. When you’re doing the prep work for the show, apart from going on hikes and trying to not get killed by nature, any other specific research or sources?
DIAKO: Yeah, I mean, the text, the whole of the Bible; I tried to read all of it. I tried to read some things about John the Baptist. Anything you get your hands on — videos, audio stuff. I tend to watch a lot of the content that has been done before, not to repeat but actually almost the opposite. You try and find, “How can I make my original stamp on the genre and do something different?” I think it’s mainly you try to find the gaps in your knowledge, whether it’s internal or external, and fill those, whether that’s like a practical technique or something about understanding the historical world they lived in, and trying to emulate that in the modern world and trying to find gap-fillers, in that sense. That’s usually what I tend to do most. Then a lot of other weird stuff like animal stuff and things that might be boring to the average reader.
The average reader likes weird stuff, too. It could be fun. [Laughs] One thing I did want to ask you about the people that would be reading this anyway, what’s the feedback been like? Now that you had your first season out of the way, have you had positive feedback, or has anybody said to you, “Not my Philip,” or that kind of thing?
DIAKO: [Laughs] I don’t know. I tried to stay away from the general… That’s a protective thing, but I’ve learned that I try to breathe life into the character the best way I can and try to keep it truthful, and then the film and the story and the audience, that kind of has its own life that’s outside of my control and realm. So as long as I know that I’ve gone to the ends of the earth to make sure that happens, and the director in those moments is happy, then I kind of let things be. Also, because I’m a fan, it’s kind of difficult because if I was going to sit there and criticize it, I’d probably have a lot to say. So, I don’t know.
The fans, or The Chosen family, rather, are so loving and kind that even before they saw it, they were coming at me with so much kindness and saying, “We’re ready to embrace you however you are,” and sending me prayers and love in all sorts of places. I got to meet some of them at the ChosenCon last year, and the new ones coming this year, I can’t wait to meet them all. They’re so loving and generous. I got some comments since the show has been coming out that people say they’re pretty happy, and some of the more specific comments, too, that I just find very humbling.
Reza Diako Has His Eyes on a Big Villain Role
Obviously, this is a big role for you, and I don’t want to call it a dream role or anything like that, but who’s on your bucket list to work with? What’s your bucket list for Hollywood? What would you love to do once The Chosen is finished?
DIAKO: Because of my psychology background, I love playing very, very unhinged and complex characters. I do. And I don’t have a limit to that, whether that’s sex offenders or prisoners or very complicated terrorists. I don’t actually mind. I mean, it’s not like that particular one is the one, but the thing that’s complicated I love. For example, the Joker, especially because I have people in my family who I can draw from, is a very, very big aim. As is working with certain specific directors to try and hit at sort of the psychological realm, people like Yorgos Lanthimos. I think he really leans into the human unspoken taboo stuff about human nature, which I think is really cool. Paul Thomas Anderson does the same. I think even some Iranian directors are really cool, like Asghar Farhadi, who I love. Thomas Vintergerg, I adore Lars von Trier, I adore anything that kind of leans a little bit more to the human, the French directors I love. On the Hollywood side, maybe if it’s not Joker, the next Marvel villain or something. I’m open. I love working with any new director that has a very interesting vision and wants to say something.
That’s an interesting answer, especially wanting to explore the darker side of humanity because I think anybody that is interested in film or storytelling, particularly ones that have sides of good and evil, would admit the darker side is always the more interesting one.
DIAKO: And we all have it, right? We all have this shadow and pretend that we don’t. Then if someone says, you know, I have it on screen, then people can start talking about it. It’s okay because the shadow you make friends with will not nip you in the bud is usually my motto. It’s good to let people know that it’s okay to have creepy, dirty parts and stuff.
I think most people would say, if you take the superhero angle from it, that Superman is always the least interesting character in his own stories.
DIAKO: Yeah, especially when they have no limits. That’s why they had to redo the whole Superman story, right? They had to add kryptonite to the story because otherwise, it’s too much.
It’s just boring after that.
DIAKO: They say the one thing God doesn’t have is limits that we have.
The Chosen Season 5 does not yet have a release date. Season 4 is available on Prime Video.
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