Actor Gyasi's struggle helped forge faith

Star of Netflix series The Diplomat, David Gyasi, brings a strong Christian faith to his roles forged through a run-in with God.

The British actor, now with film roles including Cloud Atlas and Interstallar and BBC and Amazon Prime parts in White Heat and Carnival Row, was struggling as a young performer over the morality of playing a sexually ambiguous character.

Frustrated after “going backwards and forwards”, he told Christianity Magazine how the uncertainty led to an ultimatum: “I said to God: ‘I am going for a run, and I’m not stopping until I get an answer.’

“I got 30 yards up the road, and I was in floods of tears. I was overcome with love. I had to hold myself up on a fence! It was like there was a veil in front of me, and God said: ‘This veil is love. Everything you say must go through that, and everything you receive must come through that.’”

The job “fell away”, but that experience left something permanent.

“It really helped me think about how I portray characters – how I portray humans – on screen and stage. 

“There have been times where I’ve read something and thought: I don’t like what this is saying. But that doesn’t get in the way of my career – it sharpens and focuses it.

“Hopefully, people will look back over my body of work and see some consistency, and how that invites society to ask questions of itself – and maybe even invites Christians to ask questions of themselves.”

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