Phil Wickham Brings David to Life – Exclusive CCM Interview

If you’ve been anywhere near the world of Christian music, you already know Phil Wickham’s voice. But this December, you’ll hear it in a whole new way on the silver screen as the voice of Adult David in David, the brand-new animated epic from Angel Studios. The movie hits theaters December 19th, and the soundtrack, packed Read More

If you’ve been anywhere near the world of Christian music, you already know Phil Wickham’s voice. But this December, you’ll hear it in a whole new way on the silver screen as the voice of Adult David in David, the brand-new animated epic from Angel Studios.

The movie hits theaters December 19th, and the soundtrack, packed with songs straight from the film and an original from Wickham, is out now.

I told Phil right off the bat that I’d been watching the development of this movie and then suddenly, here it is. “Yeah, I feel the same way. I’ve been hearing about this movie for years. And then just a month ago, I found out—whoa, it’s coming out this Christmas. This is amazing. Let’s go for it. I’m so proud to be a small part of a huge amount of people working on a movie, and to carry the voice of David in this movie is an absolute honor.”

He laughed, “I do have to say that I am playing the role of grown-up David. Young David is played by a very talented actor named Brandon Engman and you fall in love with the character. So I’m just riding in on his coattails, really. He kills it.”

Phil told me the call came out of nowhere. It was a “I know a guy who knows a guy” kind of story. “He had heard that they were looking still for the voice of grown-up David,” Phil said. “And he said in this meeting when he was talking to these guys, he said, hey, have you thought of Phil Wickham? And he’s like, man, I don’t know why I said that… and they all looked at me and said, it’s crazy. Earlier today we were just talking about him.”

That led to an audition over Zoom. “Honestly, when I heard about it, I thought, one, I have no idea if I have what it takes to do this. But also I’m not offendable. So if I do it for a minute and they’re like ‘Gosh, dude, you are not the guy.’ I’d be fine with that. But also the young eight-year-old kid that bought the Lion King soundtrack from Disneyland lit up at the fact to be able to do this.”

Phil pled his case to the filmmakers: “My middle name is David. I plagiarized his songs my whole life. Other than Jesus, he’s my favorite Bible character. I would love the opportunity.”

From there, he was thrown right into character. “[The director] leads me through the script… This is what David’s like—Aladdin meets Gladiator.”

Phil laughed remembering the moment. “He stopped me immediately. He’s like, too whiny. Stop. Too angry. Stop. Too weak. You shouldn’t sound weak.’”

Finally, the director told him, “Pretend this is your dad and you loved him, you realized you trusted him, and now he’s turned on you. You’re not afraid because you could take your dad now, but you’re never going to. Go.”

Phil said, “I did it. And he let me get through the whole scene. He’s like, dude, I felt like you tapped into David. Really.”

Phil’s not coming from a theater background. “Other than some elementary school plays, you know, I played Tweedle Dum in Alice in Wonderland,” he laughed.  Still, years on stage helped. “The experience of bringing an idea across in front of a microphone, maybe that was slightly helpful… I got the hang of the voice acting and I figured out how to get where David’s voice sat in my throat.” But surprisingly, the singing ended up being tougher than the acting. “I started singing. They’re like ‘Man, you sound like Phil Wickham’s trying to put out an album’ It was more acting than singing… I’m just like, okay, here we go. But now that I see the end result, I’m so glad that they knew what they were talking about.”

One of the coolest things about this project is how Angel Studios is encouraging families to live with the soundtrack before they even see the movie. “They want you to go in ready for this,” Phil couldn’t agree more. “All the songs in the movie were written before I was even involved,” he explained. “Because the animation takes so long, they were animating to these songs long before I was David. Which honestly… I’m glad I didn’t know beforehand because I think I would have just been a speed bump.”

But one song, Psalm 8, was pure Phil. “I was just inspired by Psalm 8… I sent that demo to the people doing the movie, and they all loved it. They thought, man, we don’t have a credit song yet, and this would be perfect.”

Phil’s version of Psalm 8 now closes the film, and he’s releasing an EP with his take and the story behind it. “My kids love the soundtrack,” he said. “They’re my biggest fans and also my biggest critics… so for the David soundtrack to be something they keep asking for is a great sign.”

What hit me most in our conversation was Phil’s heart for the film’s purpose. He told me about a moment that brought it home: “When the lights came on at the end of the movie, right in front of me… was a little boy. He turned to his mom and said, ‘Is that really all in the Bible?’ And that moment was like this physical representation of all the dreams I had for this movie on a kingdom spiritual level.”

Phil’s voice softened. “Thinking about kids listening to the soundtrack on the way home from the theater and dancing around their living rooms… if I could be a part of those moments in some small way, what a crazy honor.”

So here’s the bottom line: David is coming to theaters December 19th. The soundtrack is streaming everywhere now. You can grab your tickets at [Angel.com/David](https://www.angel.com/David), and trust me—you’ll want to.

As Phil said, “It’s called David and it’s David’s story, but it really is God’s story—through just people that said yes to Him, even in their fears, even in their doubts, even in their humanity.”

That’s something worth singing about.