Beck/Smith Hollywood

Roma Downey and Mark Burnett are bracing themselves for reaction to their ambitious, 10- hour History Channel adaptation of the Bible that launches this Sunday night (3/3) and runs through Easter.  “I’m sure people will hurl what they want to hurl,” the “Touched by an Angel” actress told us.  But, she added, the miniseries was made “with full hearts.”

Certainly the Burnetts and the History Channel are putting their all into pulling viewers into “The Bible,” with a full court press of promotion including: advance screenings in theaters and sports arenas; plugs from faith leaders including Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, T.D. Jakes and Maya Angelou; a huge array of support materials available to churches and individuals; a webinar; a You Tube video in which Roma asks believers to pray for the miniseries; even a kit for hosing Bible viewing parties (http://www.outreach.com/campaigns/the-bible-resources).

“We’ve had scholars and theologians help. We’re not pretending to be biblical experts,” she stressed. “We brought experts in once the scripts were created to take a look at the scripts to make sure we were accurate and true to the Bible, but obviously we’re making a movie, and so we breathed creative expansion into that.”

Roma is hoping the TV event will attract the faithful and those unfamiliar with the Bible alike. “Yes, it’s going to be a faith journey, but it’s also going to be really exciting and dynamic television,” as she put it.  The filmmakers were able to bring up-to-the-minute CGI special effects artistry to familiar stories from Noah’s ark and Moses’ parting of the Red Sea to Jesus walking on water — “Genesis to Revelation.”

The intensity of their belief in this project is such that Burnett told Variety, “I am certain that if you took ‘Survivor,’ ‘The Voice,’ ‘Shark Tank,’ ‘The Apprentice’ and all the other shows I’ve done, over the next 25 years more people will see ‘The Bible’ miniseries than all those other projects combined.”

Roma is seen in the miniseries as well as serving as an executive producer along with her husband.  She plays Mary, mother of Jesus, in scenes depicting the final chapters of his life story.

“We have a young actress of course playing Mary during the nativity and the early years of Jesus’ life, and 30 years go by.  An early version of the script referred to that as Young Mary and Old Mary and when I stepped into the role, I said, ‘You know, could we have Young Mary and Mother Mary?’” she recalled, laughing.

Perhaps there was a bit of destiny involved.  As Roma also mentioned, “My middle name is Mary.  All the girls in my family have the middle name of Mary.”    

She also told us that the making of “The Bible” proved to be a great husband-and-wife collaborative experience for her and Mark.  They toiled side-by-side in Morocco, in extreme heat and cold, dust storms and more. 

The Burnetts are, of course, quite rich and certainly did not need to make a Bible miniseries.  What drove them, Roma said, was that “The Bible fits in really with who we are and what we believe and how we live our lives.”          

The actress grew up in Derry, Ireland, was taught by nuns back in school, and today holds a masters degree in spiritual psychology from University of Santa Monica.  “It’s an extraordinary journey, to come from the Sisters of Mercy to where I am today,” she said, “and it was a great honor and a privilege for me to step into the role and to step into the project.  I think it’s going to bring the Bible alive in new and exciting ways to a lot of people.  I think it’s really going to touch another generation.”

Regardless of the response to Roma Downey’s and Mark Burnett’s 10-hour History Channel treatment of the Bible when it premieres next March, the project already stacks up as one of the most profound experiences of the couple’s life.  The actress immortalized by “Touched By An Angel” tells us they began filming in Morocco in February “and are just back.  We produced it together.  The opportunity for us to work together as husband and wife has been extraordinary.

“I know it’s epic, and I think it will be the must-watch event of the spring,” she adds.  “You’ll see the Red Sea parted with the latest special effects that are available.  We have Hans Zimmer creating the score…We have Noah, we have Abraham, we have Moses.  We have Jesus walking on water.  We have scenes coming to life in the extraordinary ways.  Yes, it’s going to be a faith journey, but it’s also going to be really exciting and dynamic television.”

In the course of the production, exec producers Roma and Mark and company were out in heat and sand and “all of that.  The climate was extreme.  When we started it was cold, then it was boiling — in excess of 110 degrees.  We were caught in dust storms.  And of course, during the filming, Mark was back here a lot because he as a few other things going on,” she says of the husband she clearly adores, whose many productions include “Survivor,” “Stars Earn Stripes,” “The Apprentice” and “The Voice.”

Roma had other things going on as well — including a role in the Bible series.  “I am on camera as Mary, the mother of Jesus.  We have a young actress of course playing Mary during the nativity and the early years of Jesus’ life, and 30 years go by.  An early version of the script referred to that as Young Mary and Old Mary and when I stepped into the role, I said, ‘You know, could we have Young Mary and Mother Mary?’” She laughs.  “Oh, vanity.  It was  more than I could deal with.”

She and Mark are well aware they’re treading on controversial ground, no matter how their Bible depiction is done.  “But you have to step out there,” she says.  “We are stepping out together and I’m sure people will hurl what they want to hurl.  But it is being made with full hearts. We’ve had scholars and theologians help. We’re not pretending to be biblical experts. We brought experts in once the scripts were created to take a look at the scripts to make sure we were accurate and true to the Bible, but obviously we’re making a movie, and so we breathed creative expansion into that.”

She’s hoping the TV event will attract the faithful and the Bible illiterate alike.  “I think it’s going to bring the Bible alive in new and exciting ways to a lot of people.  I think it’s really going to touch another generation,” says the actress. Covering Genesis through Revelation, the series is scheduled to conclude on Easter Sunday next year.

AND:  Roma just smiles and closes her eyes when we ask about the chances for a “Touched By An Angel” reunion movie.  It’s not on her radar, to say the least.  But she does continue her close friendship with fellow “Angel” angel Della Reese.  In fact, “She was just here at our home yesterday for lunch,” reports Roma, who lives in a spectacular seaside mansion in Malibu with Mark and their family.  The posh digs are a long way, both literally and figuratively, from Mark’s and Roma’s similarly humble backgrounds — in London and Derry, Northern Ireland, respectively.

The executive producer of the “Little Angels” animated children’s video series notes, “Clearly, there’s a theme going on in my life.  I don’t have to work.  I’m very blessed , very fortunate.  So my passion, my purpose is to be involved with things that uplift and open people’s hearts and raise their consciousness.”

Roma Downey, Marion Ross Hallmark Channel photo

Roma Downey returns to the tube this Saturday (7/16) with the Hallmark Channel Original Movie “Keeping Up With the Randalls” — which the former “Touched By An Angel” actress reports “has a little different dynamic for me, I have to say.  It has a lot of energy and it’s fast-paced fun.”

The romantic comedy about a city girl designer (Kayla Ewell of “Vampire Diaries”) who feels desperately out of place among her boyfriend’s (Thad Luckinbill) athletic, ultra-competitive clan on a family weekend, was shot in rugged hill country near Los Angeles.  Roma reports that there was a campout feeling about the proceedings on and off camera as they swam, played ball — even gathered around a campfire making S’mores and telling stories between camera setups.

“You know, you put any group of actors together and there’s great storytelling,” she says of the cast that also includes 82-year-old Marion Ross.  “There was a lovely camaraderie in this group.  Even putting the work aside, I really enjoyed the experience.  It was very heart-warming.  Marion was a delight, and the two young leads were very appealing and attractive and also very nice and kind.  Everybody was very kind to Marion, and I really appreciated that,” Roma adds.  “The younger wave of actors coming up, they really got her, and she was held in the esteem that she deserved.”

Roma admits she’s done her share of thinking about aging.  “I think throughout most of my forties, there was an awareness of getting older.  Particularly for an actress, when so much of your identity is tied up with what you do and how you look, the idea that is changing can bring up a lot of fear.  But I have felt that my spiritual practice has allowed me to embrace the changes.  I think it’s the resistance that makes the changes painful, and acceptance brings serenity.  That and a good jar of face cream,” she adds with a laugh.

The Derry-born actress has been galloping through new territory in life in recent years — with her four-year-old marriage to reality TV king Mark Burnett (“Survivor,” “The Apprentice,” “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader,” etc.), her and Mark’s three children moving through their teens, her attainment of a masters degree in spiritual psychology from the University of Santa Monica and more.

“I feel that at this time in my life, where I had been afraid of letting go, now I’m moving into a place of letting go of being afraid,” she says.

“If I believe, and I do, that all emotions condense down to love or fear, and that where one is, the other cannot be, I know that when fear comes up, as it does, inevitably, in all of us, love is like the answer.  Anything that moves your heart into a loving space — being with your children, your spouse, your dog, looking out on nature, giving thanks to God.  There’s a simplicity to it, you know?” she goes on.  “That’s not to say it answers all the problems, but to take a breath and be grateful — it can help shift you.”

David Cassidy NBC photo

With “Celebrity Apprentice” competition heating up en route to the May 22 season finale, you can be sure there are some David Cassidy fans out there who continue to feel stung by the one-time teen heartthrob’s ouster at the beginning of this cycle.  One of those just might be Roma Downey, the one-time “Touched by an Angel” star  — who happens to be married to “Celebrity Apprentice” executive producer Mark Burnett.

“I was heartbroken, because I have had a major crush on David Cassidy since I was growing up in rainy, war-torn Ireland,” she confesses.  “I had a picture of David Cassidy on my wall, with Scotch tape on my little pink wallpaper, and I used to sit there looking at it and thinking, ‘Oh, David Cassidy, why won’t you come and take me away from all this?’

Roma Downey

“When Mark cast him on ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ I thought, ‘At last!  After 40 years I can finally meet David Cassidy,’ and I was planning on going in and you know, a couple of weeks into the shoot, I was calling to make my flight arrangements.  And I said, ‘I’m coming in because I want to meet David Cassidy,’ and there was this silence, because as the world now knows, he was the first one out.  They said ‘Oh well, if that’s why you’re coming in, all we can say is, don’t bother coming.’  So I never got to meet him!”

Roma, who has a Hallmark Channel Original movie comedy, “Keeping Up With the Randalls,” coming up this summer, loves to watch her husband’s reality TV fare, of course.  But as far as ever landing on such a program herself?  “I’ve learned enough to never say never, but I think there is a certain kind of personality that does very well on those things, a Type A, I guess, that is not my personality,” she says.  “I think I’d get lost in my own politeness.  I don’t think I’d be very entertaining.  I’m way too thoughtful and I don’t speak in sound bites.  I’m too Irish — I take too long to tell a story.”

We wouldn’t have her any other way.

Roma Downey Hallmark Channel photo

Roma Downey’s husband, Mark Burnett, is one of the industry’s biggest and most successful reality show producers (‘Survivor,’ ‘The Apprentice,’ ‘Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader’ etc.), but when asked whether she’d ever consider being on a reality show, the former ‘Touched by an Angel’ star laughs softly.

‘No, I don’t think so. They seem to attract Type A personalities, and I think, like many actors, I have a much more introverted side of me. It’s easier to be up there filtered through pretending to be someone else.’\

However, nowadays, she tells us, ‘in some ways I’ve been so enjoying who I am, l have felt less desire to be someone else.’

After several years away from the cameras, Roma returned to film the June 6 Hallmark Channel Original Movie, ‘Come Dance At My Wedding.’ Most of the time, however, she’s absorbed in family activity with Mark, her daughter Reilly, who is now nearly 13, and Mark’s sons James, 15, and Cameron, 11.

Continues Roma, ‘There was a time in my life I was really hungry, ambitious, but not now. I don’t know if this is something that just comes naturally in one’s life, that you just change direction a little bit. I’m much less driven by the spotlight,’ she acknowledges.

”Touched by An Angel’ had a very long run. It was such a big chunk of my life. The minute when something like that ends, if you haven’t figured out who you are, in the absence of that you would feel a void. For me it was a great relief that the spotlight had moved down the road. There was a moment of ‘I’m over here!’ Then it was, ‘Oh, who cares?”

Sadly, all too many famous folk don’t make the adjustment to living lower-profile lives as easily as that, she agrees. ‘We’ve seen it — you’ve written about it — the spotlight moves on, and in the absence of the light, they don’t exist. If you haven’t figured out your source is within yourself, it’s a recipe for unhappiness.’

Roma also attends the University of Santa Monica, a private graduate school founded by New Age spiritual and self-help guru John-Roger, and will graduate with a master’s degree in spiritual psychology in June.

‘As someone who has been on a spiritual journey for many years, it seems a natural extension of that work,’ says the lady still seen in Hallmark Channel reruns as angel Monica. She notes, ‘The skills I’m learning will ultimately qualify me to be a therapist’ — not that she has plans to start a practice anytime soon. ‘It’s really so interesting to learn about human behavior.’

And other matters.

Says Roma, who lives in Malibu, ‘My kids go to school about a 40-minute drive away. I’m open to the group’s opinion about what we listen to on the way there. On the way back, I get my own selections — books on tape by Eckhart Tolle, Tony Robbins…My husband says I’m so self-realized I’m practically levitating.’