When producer Mark Burnett and his Emmy-nominated actress-wife Roma Downey created "The Bible" miniseries, they expected to hear from the critics. Though "The Bible" kept 100 million viewers glued to their TVs during its five-episode run on the History Channel, one specific criticism arose: Satan, some viewers charged, looked just like President Obama.
In this clip from "Oprah’s Next Chapter," Burnett and Downey address the Satan-Obama controversy head-on. The claim shocked Downey. "I honestly was horrified," she says.
Downey hadn't expected public discussion about "The Bible" series to center on Satan at all; rather, she'd expected people to be talking about Jesus. "The night before that [Satan-Obama controversy] broke in the news, Jesus had made his first appearance on the screen," she tells Oprah in the clip. "And I was so looking forward to [the next day], knowing that Jesus would be on the lips of everyone... For Satan to be the point of conversation was really heartbreaking."
In the clip, Downey also points out that "The Bible" had been screened prior to airing on the History Channel and that no one had mentioned Satan’s resemblance to Obama -- a resemblance, Downey says, that was completely unintentional. "We love the president," she says. "We have nothing but respect for the president. We felt somehow hijacked."
Burnett says that when you work on highly publicized projects as he and Downey did with "The Bible," criticism comes with the territory. "It’s a free country," he says. "And you’ve got to accept that."
Watch Mark Burnett, Roma Downey and Diogo Morgado -- the actor who portrayed Jesus -- on "Oprah's Next Chapter" on Sunday, April 14, at 9 p.m. ET on OWN.
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