(Credits: Far Out / TBN Films)

Until The Chosen premiered in December 2021, the most successful crowdfunded live-action TV series ever was a Mystery Science Theatre 3000 reboot. Needless to say, a multi-season show about the life and times of Jesus Christ is an entirely different proposition, and one that’s found a huge audience.

Elizabeth Tabish has been a fixture of the production since its first episode as Mary Magdalene, and as big as certain faith-based projects can become among their target demographic, the actor doesn’t think anybody needs to be a religious person to enjoy it, even if she’s surprised by just how many viewers it’s managed to reach.

“As time went on and our seasons developed, I think it’s also been translated into so many languages, and it’s been shared in so many different cultures across the world, more and more people have just been watching it, and I think word of mouth has spread that it’s a well done TV show,” she said. “You don’t have to have any sort of belief system to enjoy it, because it’s telling a really great story, and it has incredible character arcs and development and backstories that I think a lot of people can relate to, whether or not they’re religious.”

The Chosen has also become a bit of a box office phenomenon, with theatrical releases for various episodes bringing in almost $120million in ticket sales. “It’s been cool to see a TV show get time at the box office,” Tabish admitted. “That’s been really fun to watch the show with a big group of people at a theatre. I think it’s a very different way of watching TV. The demand and response to it have been surprising and incredible.”

As someone who’s been involved since the beginning, Tabish has thoughts on why the series has resonated the way it has on the big and small screen, with an estimated billion views across all platforms. “I think it’s the relatability of this story, which, for so long, I think, has been a difficult story to tell in a relatable way,” she explained.

“We’re watching all of these characters that we may know, if you’ve grown up in a church, they all seem like they’re saints. They’re on stained glass windows. They’re in statues. There’s like this untouchable quality to a lot of these characters for a long time, and now with The Chosen, we breathe some life into them, and we show how human they must have been, and we see who they are before they even meet Jesus. So we see their struggles and vices and concerns and anxieties.”

It’s a TV series about Jesus, so it’s fair for anyone to assume the inspiration came from one particular piece of source material, namely the Bible. And yet, members of the creative team have cited Game of Thrones, The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, The West Wing, and Friday Night Lights as inspirations, which isn’t exactly the first thing that comes to mind for those on the outside looking in.

“We’re lucky in this time period to have television be such an elevated medium,” Tabish offered, of how The Chosen‘s showrunners treat it more as a narrative story than a religious one. “We’ve been blessed with so many incredible TV shows that have been very cinematic, that have delved more into human psychology and spirituality, I think, of like Mad Men and of The Sopranos, and we have these characters that have internal, spiritual lives that we witness.”

From her perspective as an actor, “There’s an intimate and personal and relatable quality in television that I don’t think we’ve always had.” As a result, Tabish believes “that has set up the playing field for The Chosen to use television as the medium to go deep into all these stories.” With four seasons in the can and plans for another three, plus a couple of in-development spinoffs, there’s plenty more to come.

It goes without saying that The Chosen is a period piece based on stories that most people on the planet will at least be aware of, if not necessarily entirely familiar with. However, the show tackles many modern, relevant, and timely themes, many of which are close to Tabish’s heart.

“I think for me playing Mary Magdalene, even just in the first episode of the first season, we see this woman who’s struggling with PTSD,” she elaborated. “But also, if you look at it through other lenses, like a psychoanalytic lens, she’s suffering from PTSD, from sexual assault and the loss of her family. She’s really tormented and struggles with addiction and with suicidal ideation and panic, and we see her get triggered, and we see her try to self-medicate.”

Adding, “These are things that I partly relate to, and I know so many other women can relate to that. These are experiences that go back to the first century and beyond. And so that has been a bridge, I think, between this ancient world and also our modern world, of recognising our own struggles within these characters in the first century. And then, of course, there are so many other storylines that explore things that people experience today.”

Before being cast in The Chosen, Tabish, who’d played such thankless roles as ‘Hot Woman’ in an episode of the JJ Abrams and Jon Favreau-produced TV series Revolution and went uncredited as ‘Waitress’ in Robert Rodriguez’s Alita: Battle Angel, was considering quitting acting. Understandably, she saw an element of fate in the part coming along when standing in the middle of a career crossroads.

“Certainly,” she agreed. “I was definitely wanting to quit acting for the sake of my mental health and emotional well-being. It’s a career that is just full of so much rejection, and it’s not very stable. And I really couldn’t pay rent anymore, so it was a practical decision to quit acting. And then I told my agent to stop submitting me, but he submitted me to this anyway, and I really connected with the way Mary was written in season one.”

It was an opportunity she couldn’t resist, not only because of her fondness for the character. “I enjoy acting, but I also really love filmmaking, directing and writing,” Tabish said. “I think more than anything, this show has reinvigorated a passion for storytelling, reminded me how important it is to tell female stories, and really reignited the enthusiasm to do that.”

One of the more unexpected byproducts of The Chosen‘s success was a crossover with Bear Grylls. The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls is an offshoot of his Running Wild series, and it’s not a shock to discover that Tabish didn’t sign on to play Mary Magdalene expecting to be put through her paces in the harsh and unforgiving wilderness as part of a reality show.

“Yeah, it was horrifying,” she confessed. “When they offered me the project, I was really resistant. I did not want to do it. I’m scared of everything. But I met with the team and the safety team, and they were so wonderful. I realised that I just needed to trust them, and so I did. I took the opportunity, and it was incredible. It was a very special experience. It was very scary, but also thrilling and exciting to be able to say that I did some of those things.”

After discussing a TV show retelling Jesus’ life and Bear Grylls, David Lynch was the next obvious port of call for Far Out‘s conversation with Tabish. The actor and filmmaker has a soft spot for cinematic surrealism and has previously mentioned her fondness for Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut and Apple’s Severance, and she’s hoping to bring her surrealist preferences to the fore in the future.

“It will certainly be behind the camera,” she replied. “Hopefully, also in front of the camera. There are projects that I’m working on and writing right now, and hopefully get to direct in the near future, that all have surreal elements in them.”

“What I love about David Lynch and his filmmaking is this spiritual aspect to them and this very clear depiction of what is good and of what is evil and how humans navigate that and find their way through that, through a sort of mystical lens,” she continued. “I think those are the types of stories I also want to tell. And although they’re not necessarily religious or faith-based or even family-friendly, I do think that they’re very spiritual stories and important to tell, and that’s what I tend to focus on whenever I’m writing, producing and directing.”

In addition to her acting exploits, Tabish has produced, written, and directed over a dozen short films that have touched base with disparate genres such as drama, thriller, horror, fantasy, and romance. Even though she’s an actor first and foremost, finding that balance between both sides of the camera is something she plans to maintain moving forward.

“Absolutely,” she unequivocally stated. “I started directing short films while I was living in Austin, out of a frustration with the types of female characters I was auditioning for, and I loved it so much. I really love the process of filmmaking. I love the collaboration. I love the seed of an idea developing into a full-blown story. And I really love the editing as well. I love piecing together puzzle pieces and creating this world through them.”

In fact, Tabish thinks that filmmaking is something she’s “more comfortable doing than being on camera.” As much as she enjoys performing, “It doesn’t come quite as naturally to me as directing, if I’m being honest.” With that in mind, given her extensive experience working in short films, it seems only natural to ask if a feature-length directorial debut is in the works.

“I can say that there’s a project that is in development,” she teased while keeping her cards close to the chest. “But there’s also another project. My background was micro-budget, experimental filmmaking. It was like guerrilla filmmaking; I used to pay out of pocket or do some very small crowdfunding campaigns. And I think the most I ever had for a budget was $7,000 for a short film. I know how to make a dollar stretch for filmmaking.”

Continuing, “And I know that certain types of stories, especially surrealism, aren’t necessarily commercially desired by studios, so I’ll try my hand at pitching, but I also know that if push comes to shove, I’d be happy to go back to filmmaking on a budget and gathering a group of people who are really passionate about telling a story and coming together and making something special without a budget and commercial success, at the forefront of our minds.”

It would be fair to say that The Chosen‘s Mary Magdalene is Tabish’s most well-known role so far. As it turns out, it’s also the one that best represents who she is and who she wants to be as an actor: “I think there’s a frustration in her, and a love in her, and a fire in her, that I feel in myself.”

Explaining, “The way she’s been mistreated and misunderstood over the last 2,000 years, I think, is a familiar thing for a lot of women, and there’s also been a silencing of her and who she was and her importance in Jesus’ story. I hope that our TV show can remedy that, but I know historically, that character, that figure, has been misunderstood. And I often feel that same sense of being misunderstood.”

Tabish has worn many different hats in her career, including actor, writer, director, producer, cinematographer, co-founder, and artistic director of Austin’s Arthouse Film Festival. When pressed to explain what drives and inspires her to funnel her creative energies in so many directions, the reply was suitably self-deprecating: “I don’t know. ADHD, maybe? I don’t know.”

Detailing, “I’ve always loved exploring different creative mediums. I’ve always loved trying new things, painting, writing, and editing. My brother’s a musician [guitarist and vocalist Jesse Tabish]. His band is Other Lives. I have no idea how to play music or any of that, but since I was a kid, I was so shy. Suddenly, we would do a little play at school, and it would bring me to life. And so I think it’s just something that has been in me that really lights up when it’s time to create and explore.”

Tabish’s mother also supported her and her brother pursuing the arts, which “oftentimes feels like a spiritual act.” Beyond that, it’s about connection. “It’s a way to reach out and say, ‘You’re not alone in this feeling’ or ‘I’ve gone through that, too’. So many times, watching a movie or reading a book has brought me so much solace, and I have felt seen by other pieces of art. It’s just a way of living that connects us all, and it’s something that I’ve been lucky enough to do and find meaning in.”

There’s plenty of untapped ground for Tabish as an actor and filmmaker, but if she were pressed to name a dream gig in each arena, she already knows what they would be. “As an actor, A Streetcar Named Desire,” she declared. “I love Blanche DuBois so much.”

“The reason being that this woman is psychologically fascinating and unnerving and challenging,” she expounded. “There are so many layers and levels to her, her character, that would be wonderful to delve into, and also horrifying, I think. It would be such a terrifying challenge.”

On the directorial side of things, though, Tabish went classical. “I love the story of Macbeth, and what a warning tale that is. There are so many levels of dimensions, magic, and mysticism in it that I think could play so well and have been depicted so well in cinema. But I think that’s a very moral warning tale that I would love to tell in my own surreal way.”

“Those are two stories in the theatre growing up that I was always intrigued by,” she said of her respective choices. “There’s such darkness in those stories, but they’re both also warning tales. I think that’s a huge purpose of storytelling that sometimes gets overlooked. Sometimes, tragedies are tales of warning, or where not to go.”

Remember, if Tabish ever plays Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire or directs an adaptation of Macbeth for the stage or screen, you heard it here first.