Brandon Micheal Hall talks playing an atheist who meets God on CBS’ ‘God Friended Me’
After his last show "The Mayor" got canceled, Hall gets a second chance to shine again.
[griojw id=”pmxRq3t3″ playerid=”x9J2bwvH”]The CBS comedy-drama series, God Friended Me is eight episodes in and is one of the few shows bringing a different approach to addressing faith, spirituality and human connection.
The show centers around actor Brandon Micheal Hall who plays Miles Finer (son of Rev Arthur Finer played by actor Joe Morton). In Hall’s own words, his character is “an outspoken atheist who gets friended by God on Facebook and whomever God may be… is sending him these friend suggestions from people who need help. Myles becomes this subject of change in his community when he starts helping people.”
The opportunity for Hall to be a part of this uplifting series came after his last show ABC’S The Mayor got canceled. Once he got the bad news, Hall says he questioned his purpose and wondered what was next.
During the interview with theGrio, Hall opened up about that coincidental moment before he secured the role and how his personal experience connects to his character on the show.
“The beautiful gracious positive ABC show The Mayor got cut too short,” says Hall.
“So after that, to be in this position, you kind of feel like the Joe in ‘The Book of Joe,’ you have all this greatness and it’s taken away and you’re left by yourself.”
After the cancellation of the show, Hall took that moment in Los Angeles to really go back to his craft and understand why he was doing what he was doing.
“When CBS called to sit down and have this meeting with me, I was like ‘Oh, shoot. I guess we’re back in the game, let’s see what’s up,’” he continues.
“They said it was a project presented and it was about faith… I got to go into a different role where Myles is battling the same exact things that I’m going through which is a spiritual trial of who am I spiritually and what is my connection to that within my craft?”
“That was a coincidental moment because that’s when your faith [goes up and down] and what happened with Myles and his mom, he felt like a cruel joke was being played and he kind of felt the exact same way. But then he realizes it’s all interwoven and you have to go along with the ride”
When it comes to religion, it is a sensitive topic. The show is very inclusive and tackles many social issues that we see every day in the news. Miles Finer sister, Ali Finer (played by Javicia Leslie) is in a same-sex relationship. In episode 3, Ali’s father, Rev Finer, is seen accepting his daughter and her sexual preference. Hall shares how that episode received a lot of backlash.
“I think anyone can take anything the wrong way,” says Hall. “You look at some of the comments on Facebook once we came out with the episode of Joe’s character accepting his daughter to be gay…I think people took that episode in a negative way but what we were saying was everyone should be loved.”
Hall hopes the show does impact people spirituality the way it has for him.
“The things that we are tacking, they are about spirituality. It’s all about human connection and bringing people together and if we don’t question how we go about doing that, then I don’t think we’re actually making a push forward.”
Catch the show on Sundays on CBS after “60 Minutes.”
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