Raquel Laguna/ SUCOPRESS. Actor Michael Iskander plays biblical figure David in House of David, the new TV series directed by Jon Erwin, Jon Gunn, Alexanda La Roche, Michael Nankin. In this interview, Michael talks about his character and about the challenges he had playing such an iconic figure. His costar, Martyn Ford, talks about Goliath, his role in the series. HOUSE OF DAVID tells the story of the ascent of the biblical figure, David, who eventually becomes the most renowned and celebrated king of Israel. The series follows the once-mighty King Saul as he falls victim to his own pride. At the direction of God, the prophet Samuel anoints an unlikely, outcast teenager as the new king. As Saul loses his power over his kingdom, David finds himself on a journey to discover and fulfill his destiny, navigating love, loss, and violence in the court of the very man he’s destined to replace. As one leader falls, another must rise. HOUSE OF DAVID is coming to Prime Video on February 27th.
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00:00I guess one of the things that surprised me the most is the level of ambition he had but
00:08also the level of humility.
00:12You know, he's a young boy, he's a teenager trying to figure himself out and trying to
00:17find his place in the world and yet he does what is asked of him and he is humble and
00:22he submits to the authority that is above him.
00:25He's not exactly the most liked, he's an outcast and so that comes with a lot of weight and
00:30it comes with a lot of solitude.
00:35It's just a hero's journey, you know, he's being cultivated through all of these trials
00:40to becoming the man ultimately destined to be king and so it's really just the origin
00:50story of him and where right now all of these character traits are being cultivated, they're
00:57being formed and I think the way that they're explored in this series is in such a beautiful
01:06and human way and I can't wait for people to see that.
01:09Well, I think physically I didn't have to do much work.
01:12I have the stature of a teenage boy so I have that going for me.
01:20But mentally it's a tough thing.
01:23I'm not super far away from the age that David was and so I tend to draw a lot on personal
01:30experience but also I think approaching this character with reverence for the scripture,
01:41the Bible and specifically the book of Psalms and these are the diaries of David, these
01:47are everything he felt, all of his biggest fears and all of his biggest accomplishments
01:52and everything was in the Psalms and so I read the Psalms just to try to inspire kind
02:02of who this man was on the inside, what is the side of him that people never got to see
02:09and it's all being cultivated.
02:12All of us, in a way, are being cultivated at all times, always, so, yeah.
02:17Yeah, it was phenomenal to play Goliath.
02:20I think having the pressure of such a big character on your shoulders is something that
02:27I'm kind of used to with past experience of other characters, which definitely set me
02:32up, gave me confidence and gave me a belief that I could do justice to such a phenomenal
02:40character and I hope the audience enjoys what they see and they can view Goliath with
02:49a different opinion and maybe ask questions about why and if they would make decisions
02:58similar and try and sympathize with Goliath somewhat.
03:03The backstory of Goliath gives you a real understanding of the character and the individual
03:10that he is and the strength that he would also have had to go from where he was to where
03:17he ends up and I think what we've done incredible on this film is we've taken time to tell the
03:24story.
03:27We've shot this over eight episodes, which really allows you to go into each individual
03:31character from Samuel to King Saul, to the Queen, to David, to Goliath, to my brothers
03:39and the mother.
03:41It just really brings so many elements into the whole world of David that it allows you
03:49to see the ins, the outs and it allows you to form opinions and it allows you to understand
03:56why this all happened and the reasonings behind decisions and choices and I think that's
04:06important, especially in this day and age, is to bring context and to not favour one
04:14side or the other but just to allow the story to unfold and you can make up your own minds
04:19on how you would react as an individual to different circumstances.