I didn't set out to work as Jesus, but I have been playing him ever since I appeared in The Life of Christ at Wintershall Estate in 1998. For the past 14 years, I've been permanently Jesus-ready. I've had the long hair and the beard and have been in plays everywhere: Wales, Scotland, Australia, as well as outdoors in Trafalgar Square and the centre of Leicester. I've never had an agent. One play always leads to another. Many of my actor friends say, “Oh, James just does his Jesus stuff.” I could let it bother me, but I don't.

Funnily enough, I was born on Good Friday. I've met other Jesuses. I met Robert Powell, but I think he gets irritated that people still associate him with Jesus of Nazareth. He really wasn't that interested in talking to me.

Looking like Jesus can have a very powerful effect on people. When I appeared on stage as Jesus for the first time, a man saw me and collapsed into tears. Looking like this in daily life can be interesting. When I go into bars, for example, I always see people nudging each other. Invariably someone will come up to me with a bottle of water and ask me to turn it into wine. That happens a lot. I was on a date once in a wine bar, and we ended up with three tables joined together with everyone wanting to re-enact the Last Supper using the wine and the bread. It was strange, but fortunately the girl I was with thought it was fun.