“Seeking Beauty with David Henrie”: Actor David Henrie on the Importance of Integrating Beauty into Your Everyday Life
David Henrie is known for starring on the hit Disney show Wizards of Waverly Place. In recent years, he has taken on the roles of producer (Wizards Beyond Waverly Place), writer (This is the Year), and director (Monster Summer). He is the creator and star of the new docuseries Seeking Beauty, a show in which he travels across Italy exploring some of the most beautiful works of art and architecture in the world. Along the way, he chats with local experts about how the artists’ faith influenced their craft, and how beauty can stir the soul and point people to God.
(Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Watch the full conversation above.)
Daniel Blackaby: Welcome, David. Thanks for taking time to chat about this new series.
David Henrie: Thank you for having me.
Blackaby: Are you in Rome right now?
Henrie: I’m in Rome in the apartment my family’s renting right now. So a kid might run in at some point naked with pasta screaming for something. I’m hoping that doesn’t happen.
Blackaby: I love all you’re doing. Where does your inspiration come from? How does David go from the set of Waverly Place or Hollywood dramas to searching for beauty in Italy?
Henrie: The project aligned with my personal beliefs and feelings about beauty. I grew up going to public school and lived a very normal life until I started working as an actor. I had a normal American childhood, and beauty wasn’t part of the conversation. Beauty was a cost that could be cut. It’s something soft. It’s not something you invite into your masculine world. And I couldn’t have been more wrong about that. Beauty is the fingerprint of God. It’s the language of the divine. I didn’t understand any of that.
Why do these buildings that were built hundreds or thousands of years ago still have such resonance? I know buildings that were built 10 years ago that no one gives a crap about because they’re ugly. St. Thomas says that one of the primary effects of beauty is contemplation. Think of seeing a beautiful waterfall or painting or piece of architecture. You pause for a moment. This show put beauty into my life in a way that has prominence where it didn’t before.
Blackaby: I love how you intro each of these episodes with a quote that says, “I’ve always been captivated by beauty, the kind that stirs the soul and points towards something greater.” What has beauty meant in your own walk with God? How can beauty stir the soul and ultimately point toward God?
Henrie: Is beauty subjective or objective? Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Is it outside of the eye of the beholder? It’s an interesting question. If beauty is subjective, then when you say your wife’s beautiful, all you mean is you think she’s beautiful. Or if you see a beautiful waterfall, it’s like, “That’s beautiful.” You instinctively say it in an objective sense. If something is objectively beautiful, then that’s going to have an application to all peoples at all times and all ages and all belief systems.
I remember when I took my friend and his mother to St. Peter’s Basilica. We walked in the doors, and it was just us. We had the whole thing to ourselves. And I hear this gasp, and I look back and my best friend’s mother is crying. I’m like, “What happened to you?” And she’s looking in awe at St. Peter’s and says, “I used to be Christian.” That’s the power of beauty. Beauty can transcend your brain and hit you right in the soul.
For me, beauty is not a cost that can be cut. It’s something you can invite into your own life in many different ways. You don’t need money to do it. You can thrift your house into beauty very quickly and probably save money. My wife and I do that all the time. We’ll find these old antique things people are throwing away and put them in our house, and it looks glorious. It’s cheaper than the new thing we were going to buy anyway. Beauty is something we all need to invite into our lives in different ways, and into our own souls most importantly. There’s nothing more attractive than a beautiful person inside.
Blackaby: I think most people recognize the value of goodness and truth. But beauty is treated as optional. If you want to add a little extra spice, add some beauty. Why do you think our culture undervalues beauty?
Henrie: Beauty in older cultures was the conversation. If it’s not beautiful, it doesn’t have God’s fingerprint on it. We’re not going to build it unless it’s beautiful. Today, we’re more utilitarian. I want to be careful how I use my words, but if you look at what communist countries have produced, it’s not the most beautiful stuff. Why? God’s out of the conversation. The dignity and individuality of the human person is out of the conversation. You just have pure utility, and you end up with ugly gray things that look like prisons. If you look at these cultures back then, the kings were Catholic, and everyone in the culture was of the faith. Everything that was produced represented that. Even women of the night would contribute to the building of their local cathedral because of what it stood for. At the time, people didn’t have TVs, running water, or bathrooms. They didn’t have beauty in their own homes. But if they contributed to this cathedral, they could all go and see the grandeur and beauty of God. You can’t give what you don’t have.
There’s this big movement in Protestant and Catholic circles where people are returning to orthodoxy. I think people are intrigued by older institutions, and beauty is a big part of that conversation. We just need to pick up that candle, keep it lit, and move it forward.
Blackaby: Historically, the church was integrated into the work great artists were doing. You have this tension with that. Do you see that tension today? How do we navigate making something different from the world and yet still be a part of that conversation?
Henrie: The church was on the forefront of culture. It wasn’t tucked away for Sundays. Imagine if the church was at the forefront of AI, and without the church, AI couldn’t even be there. That’s the equivalent of the technological advancements they were making back in the day. You look at the old monasteries. Our understanding of the human person and of the various sciences all came from these monasteries. Our inheritance of literature and the Greek works all came from these monasteries. It was impressive to me to see how the church was so active in helping shape culture. We’re shifting back in that direction though, because I think people are seeing how wanting the world is. It doesn’t fulfill you. I think it’s going to continue to become more relevant.
Blackaby: What are some lessons you learned while searching for beauty that you can integrate into your everyday life here?
Henrie: What made me want to reshape my own life was learning about the faith of the people and the cultures that built these places. I’m an artist. I have a company, and we make projects. I was just blown away by how coordinated and passionate these people were about their faith. It inspired me to be as faithful and holy as I could possibly be so I could produce things that also have that beauty. Second, there’s nothing more beautiful than the human person. The more beautiful we can make our own internal lives, the more order, clarity, symmetry, and radiance we bring into our life, the more we’ll experience its fruits.
There’s nothing more attractive than a beautiful person. I don’t mean on the exterior. I’ve met some nuns who don’t have the most objectively beautiful face in the world. However, they’re so attractive. And I don’t mean that at all in a sexual sense. I mean how you leave that conversation lighter. That beauty you see exuding from them is incredible. The beauty these buildings are trying to inspire is the beauty of a soul.
Blackaby: In the series you look at finding beauty in the everyday aspects of life that perhaps we overlook. There is also a deeper spiritual level to this series. What do you hope people take away?
Henrie: Success for me would be if I meet someone on the street six months from now who says, “I went to Subiaco because of your show. That had an impact on me, and I’ve invited beauty into my own life in a different way. Thank you for making the show.” I think it would be a success if someone grabs me and says, “Hey, I figured out a way to get there, and it changed my life.”
Blackaby: I think a lot of people are going to have their eyes open to the power of beauty that they may have overlooked or forgotten in the busyness of life. It’s definitely worth the watch. Thanks so much, Henrie. I know this is a busy time for you, but I appreciate hearing your heart for this series.
Henrie: God bless you, man. Thank you for the great interview.
The first episode of Seeking Beauty will premiere on January 19th on EWTN+ and on YouTube.
