Actor calls playing Saint Peter a 'dream come true' in hit Fox Nation series 'The Saints'
For actor Liav Turjeman, landing the role of Saint Peter in Martin Scorsese’s "The Saints" was more than a career milestone; it was "a dream come true" and a profound artistic challenge.
"Just to see a project that I'm auditioning for with the name of Martin Scorsese, one of my favorite filmmakers… that alone was a great experience," Turjeman said Saturday on "Fox & Friends Weekend."
"And also just getting into this very interesting story about this guy that is… such a monumental character. You get into that story, and it's so epic and big and far away… just having the challenge to try to get it back to the human that he is was a great experience."
Turjeman portrayed Saint Peter in the episode which debuted on Sunday, the second episode of the hit series' highly-requested second season.
Prior to acting in the role, Turjeman said he knew little to none about the fisherman-turned-man of faith who would come to solidify his identity after being handpicked by Jesus Christ himself to be the rock of his Church.
"I think that Jesus saw, saw in him this combination of a strong man, he saw a sense of modesty, and he saw something very sensitive in him," he told Fox News' Charlie Hurt.
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"In order to doubt yourself, you need to be intelligent, and you need to be grounded, and I felt like Peter was that guy. He's very strong, he is a middle-class man, working fisherman, he goes out every day to get his food in order to eat and continue his life. And he also has this sense of intelligence and modesty, and I think Jesus saw that in him, and Jesus believed that this is something that makes a great leader."
Later appearing on "The Big Weekend Show," Saturday, Turjeman noted Peter's "struggle with faith" as the biggest thing everyone can learn from.
"It's a very big and epic story, and sometimes it can be very far away from us humans… it's so relatable because I think everybody experienced, at one time, not believing in himself, or doubting himself, and the journey that Peter had was amazing, and you can learn so much from it," he said.
Scorsese has described "The Saints" as a series decades in the making, remarking in a Fox Nation press release that he had long sought to explore such facets of Christianity in depth as he is today.
Saint Peter's episode appears alongside other influential Christian saints like Saint Patrick, Saint Thomas Becket and the most recently-canonized Saint Carlo Acutis in the second season of the special Fox Nation series.
Fox Nation subscribers can now watch the brand-new season of "The Saints," with episode two featuring Saint Peter.