Joe Morton, the award-winning actor known more recently for his role on “Scandal,”
transforms into a man of the cloth in the new series “God Friended Me”, premiering Sunday, September 30 on CBS.
Morton, whose acting career spans nearly five decades, plays the Rev. Arthur Finer in the show, which has drawn comparisons to “Touched By An Angel”
and “Highway to Heaven.”
In “God Friended Me,” Finer’s atheist son Miles (Brandon Michael Hall) gets his world turned upside down when he accepts a friend request from God on Facebook. Miles then starts getting “poked to help strangers for reasons that aren’t immediately clear,” according to the network.
In the following Q&A, Morton gives insight into his character, tells what viewers can expect from the show, and reveals that he once believed for “a quick minute” that he wanted to be a priest.
Editor’s note: This interview may include spoilers.
What did you find appealing about “God Friended Me” and about this role?
In terms of the role, I was deliberately looking for something that would be diametrically opposed to what I did in “Scandal.” So, that’s why I started to look at this role. In terms of the show itself, what I love about the show is that, one, it’s an African-American family. Two, it’s about finding ways of helping people in order to discover that we are all valued. I just love that idea. I think it’s something that’s needed these days.
