Spirituality in a digital age
God Friended Me centres on podcast host who makes special Facebook connection
Actor Brandon Micheal Hall’s mother is a preacher and he practically grew up in the church, so when he signed on to play an atheist in the new series God Friended Me, she wasn’t enthused. “She’s fine with it now,” Hall, 25, says with a laugh. “The cool thing about that is that we’re actually having more dialogue about it. Growing up you’re taught that you don’t question certain types of things, so we’re having more personal conversations about what spirituality and religion means.” Debuting Sunday on CTV and CBS, the drama stars Hall as Miles, a New York-based host of a podcast in which he debates religious experts about the existence of a higher being. In what he initially deems a joke, he keeps getting Facebook friend requests from a “God” account. When he eventually caves in and accepts one of the requests, he finds himself suddenly dealing with situations in which he has to help others.
In a scenario similar to Hall and his mother, his character’s dad on the show is a reverend and the two debate each other about their beliefs.
“Miles’s story that we’re telling is not only helping me in a professional sense but also in my own personal life, it’s helped me go through some things as well,” Hall says.
“I think you have to turn over every rock to understand where you fit and what gives you that sense of hope and that sense of fulfilment that spirituality gives you.” The show highlights the role social media plays in opening up conversations surrounding spirituality, he says, noting it also highlights the importance of human-to-human connection. Ironically, Hall himself rarely uses Facebook. “I’m really on Instagram,” he says. A graduate of The Juilliard School in New York City, the South Carolina native’s previous credits include the series The Mayor, in which he starred as a rapper-turned-politician.
He says he feels like the new fall/ winter TV season is particularly diverse, with new shows such as God Friended Me, Charmed, I Feel Bad and The Neighborhood featuring a wide range of faces and more women both onscreen and behind the scenes.
“That’s a beautiful thing to see, because you see yourself represented on TV,” Hall says, adding that such opportunities are being created by marginalized groups themselves.
“It’s becoming a place where we’re tired of knocking on the door asking to be let in to have a seat at the table. We’re going to take the opportunity and the room that we have here and create a table for the people who have been asking those same questions,” Hall says. “So that’s what’s been another exciting thing to watch and see, is to see my peers and my people who have inspired me every day, to see them shining and telling the stories that they want to tell. “You see a show like Atlanta, and you’re like, ‘Wow, Donald Glover definitely took everyone and was like, ‘OK, step up to the plate,’ and now everyone has to do it. It’s the Issa Raes out there. I aspire to do that as well.”