Another Testament of Jesus Christ: Meet “Mormon”

The prophet Lehi and the prophet Mormon would never have known each other in the timeline of the Book of Mormon, having lived almost 1,000 years apart. But the actors who portray them in the Book of Mormon Videos series by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were college buddies, and it was “Lehi” who was instrumental in bringing “Mormon” to the screen.

When Ray Fujikawa first moved from his native Hawaii to Provo, Utah, to attend Brigham Young University, he had plans to become a film director. Instead, he met and married his wife and they raised five children together while he pursued a career in the healthcare industry. He did not return to the performing arts until the fall of 2022, when Rick Macy — now a professional actor himself and Lehi in the series — reached out to see whether Fujikawa might be interested in a screen test for the directors, who had not yet found the right actor for the role of Mormon.

Fujikawa recalls, “I was horrible…. And I knew I was terrible, but I guess my goal was, I just wanted the callback. I just wanted to prove to myself that, hey, after all these years, I was good enough to at least get a callback.”

Indeed he was. Once selected by the directors and producers and approved by the First Presidency of the Church, Fujikawa spent the first half of 2023 preparing for and then portraying Mormon, the fourth-century prophet who was charged to care for, compile, and abridge the many records of the Nephite people in their 1,000-year history on the American continent. Mormon’s name is now on the cover of the book that members of the Church of Jesus Christ accept as holy scripture and as an additional witness of Jesus Christ.

Listen to Fujikawa share more about his part in a project that was seven years in the making: bringing the Book of Mormon stories to life.

The Book of Mormon Videos are also available at this link.