JIM CAVIEZEL WHO PLAYED CHRIST REVEALS HIS DEEPEST HOPE FOR THE MEL GIBSON FILM

(Pictured: Mel Gibson (director/producer) directs Jim Caviezel (Jesus) for The Passion of The Christ, a film by Mel Gibson. © 2003 Icon Distribution Inc. All Rights Reserved. A Newmarket Films release. Photo credit: Philippe Antonello).

“My prayer is that I don’t want people to see me in the film; I only want them to see Christ,” he says

BEVERLY HILLS, CA (ANS) -- Jim Caviezel, the talented actor who portrays Christ in the movie, “The Passion of The Christ,” which focuses on the last 12 hours of Jesus' life, has revealed his deepest hope for the film. (Pictured: Jim Caviezel, who portrays Christ in the movie. -- Picture by Dan Wooding.)

“My prayer is that I don’t want people to see me in the film; I only want them to see Christ,” he told a group of journalist in Beverly Hills recently.

Caviezel, who has soulful blue eyes, and a dark, almost eerie kind of good looks, was born in Mount Vernon on September 26, 1968. One of five children, he grew up as part of a devout Catholic family and has starred in many films and in 1998 Caviezel had his breakthrough role in The Thin Red Line. The film received a number of Oscar nominations, and its stellar ensemble cast, which included Ben Chaplin, Sean Penn, George Clooney, and Nick Nolte, earned almost unanimous acclaim.

He has starred in many movies since then including his portrayal of a football coach's embittered son in Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday. In 2000, Caviezel starred in the supernatural thriller Frequency, playing the son of a long-dead man (Any Given Sunday co-star Dennis Quaid) with whom he is able to communicate over ham radio and he took the lead in the period adventure The Count of Monte Cristo (2002).

But he has never worked on a movie like his latest with his as Jesus Christ himself in Mel Gibson's The Passion (2004) in which he was struck by lightening during the filming and endured his shoulder being was separated during the crucifixion sequence.

Caviezel revealed what it was like during the making of the film that was shot in southern Italy and in Rome.

“I would start with the makeup at 2:00 AM and at 10:00 AM we were ready for me to start the cross,” he said.

He said that the actual crucifixion filming, things got really difficult for him. “I separated my shoulder and then my eye began to cause me to hyper focus,” he said. “I also had to learn to breathe while on the cross. I would then have to get up early in the morning and go through the whole cycle again and then you have to take off the make up and it takes about two hours to take off and you sit the in the shower for about 25 minutes and then you start to sweat. I would have to drink water because I was dehydrated and then hypothermia would start to kick up during the day. Beside my problem with my shoulder, the wind would come up and it was like the Grand Canyon and the wind would go right through you.

“My shoulder would experience terrific pain because of the wind hitting the cross and it kept pulling the shoulder out of joint and making me go insane. This was going on over and over again, plus I was getting only three to four and a half hours of sleep. When you go to sleep at night and you have hypothermia, I don’t care how many sweats you put on, you shake through the night. So I would wake up and be shaking and then I would go to work and the skin was starting to become raw. When they were putting on the make up, I would shout, ‘Ouch, please don’t touch me here. You are hurting my shoulder.’

“That went on for five weeks just for the crucifixion. We would start on Monday and go through to Saturday night. On Sunday, I would go to church and then on Monday I would start the cycle over again.

“At the same time, I had to lift weights for my quadriceps to be able to take the weight of the cross. They would put me on for about 12 minutes at a time and so all my weight was going into my right leg.

“Then I got struck my lightning. I was on Golgotha when it happened. It almost makes you want to quit. I can tell you that Jesus wasn’t smiling on the cross. It really hurts, but as an actor, I didn’t go through anything that He went through. I was reading a book and read that he has suffered over 5,000 blows to His body and that really meant something.

“During the scourging scene, I got hit. When they came in with these whips, they were supposed to hit a metal board behind me, but one of them hit me square in the back. You know what happened? I went ‘ouch’ and I couldn’t breathe. It was an automatic response. When the guy hit me, I said something I shouldn’t have. I added, ‘I know I am playing Jesus, but I feel like Satan right now.’ Mistakes happen, but you’re the mistake it’s not pleasant.”

He also talked about the horror of crucifixion. “When you are on the cross, you die by asphyxiation,” he said. “You can’t breathe. When I was up there, my legs were going numb and then my forceps would go numb. I could get diaphragm activated to get the air into my chest. They would bring me food and I would turn around and wretch right there on the cross. It’s amazing. You would see people laughing. People love watching people suffer. It’s amazing. There were others who couldn’t stop watching because they were in love with Christ – yet I’m not Him!”

He revealed how strange it was for him during the filming. “People came up to me and called me Jesus, but I never felt adequate that I was Him. The first thing I said to Mel was, ‘If we don’t carry our cross, we are going to be crushed under the weight of it.’ He was under attack. The same time that he was directing, he fighting wars all over the place. I don’t know how he finished this thing. It was a miracle. God gave us just barely enough to get through.

“I knew what I was in for when I took this film, but I had no idea it would go in the direction it did. The only thing that scared me where the three languages, as I barely knew Latin, but knew nothing about Aramaic and old Hebrew was foreign to learn.”

When asked how it had changed him playing Jesus, he replied, “I now know Him in a more personal way that I have. I am proud of this film because it is the truth. It is as it was even though some have tried to discredit that line.”

He then talked about meeting Billy Graham. “I got to be with him for three hours and he is a wonderful man,” he said. “I remember watching him on TV one night and I wanted to be one of those people that walked out. When we met, I told him, ‘I believe you carry the Holy Spirit with you; I believe you are a holy man.’

“This film is under such controversy. I told someone who said that he had heard it was a very controversial film, and I said, ‘Have you seen other passion play that wasn’t? Where they killed a good man?’ Jesus didn’t die for some mythological story, he didn’t die for fantasy.

“I don’t think I could have done this film without the faith that I have. During the day, when you work with an academy-award-winning director like Mel Gibson, why wouldn’t you do a film that is based on the Gospels, but I tell you, it scared just about everyone away. It scared financiers. It is controversial. Jesus said, “I did not come to bring peace to the world, but I came with a sword.”

Dan Wooding is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times). Wooding is also a syndicated columnist, and was for ten years a commentator on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. Wooding is the author of some 41 books, one of which is "Blind Faith" which he co-authored with his 93-year-old mother Anne Wooding, who was a pioneer missionary to the blind of Nigeria in the 1930s. Copies of this book are available from the ASSIST USA office at PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126. t.

I've never heard of a secularist (who I thought was a humanist) being labeled as a Christian. I feel like I'm totally missing your points.

I'm afraid you did miss my point. Secularists are the antithesis of Christians. "Secular humanist" is the term for those who disdain religionists and religious beliefs.

I tried to figure out what lead you to this conclusion. I think the sentence, " Using the term "those Christians" is evidential of the successful demeaning of Christians secularists have tried so hard to effect, " should have read:

Using the term "those Christians" is evidential of the successful demeaning of Christians that secularists have tried so hard to effect.

"I believe the cries of anti-Semitism in this movie have one purpose: to drive a wedge between Jews and Christians. An alliance of Jews and Christians strikes fear in the hearts of those who would do away with the moral concept of right and wrong contained in His word (both Old and New Testaments), and the teachings of His Son."

I believe you're right on the money again, as usual, kid.

However I sense there's something else concurrently at work here, too.
The mere notion this film would, could & has the power to bring so many more people (who'd ordinarily remain distant) much closer to Him & His Holy Word has 'em in an abject panick I've not witnessed in my entire lifetime.
Their shrieks are deafening & although it's probably inappropriate to say this, I'll say it anyway.
Those people had better get used to those sounds because some adamently believe where those people are going?
Shrieks of misery & agony will be the only sounds they'll be making and/or hear for all of eternity.

"I have no doubt that ‘The Passion’ will cause something of a spiritual revival in the hearts of millions of people. The question is, will they (we) have the strength of conviction to keep our hearts from hardening once again? The forces that are aligned against Christianity, and liberty, are strengthening, and becoming emboldened by success."

Although you ask a pretty tough question no one I know can really answer, I tend to believe the hardening & softening of hearts are like anything else, they work in cycles.
What I do know about the forces of evil, their alignment & this motion picture is quite simple if not obvious.

"Evil's" been handed a huge setback.

...at least for the time being.

If anybody has seen any interviews or info on some of the other actors in the film (besides what is found on the film's website), let me know. These are largely unknown actors, so I'm having a hard time finding anything on them. I thought the actor who played Pontius Pilate did a good job, you can tell he's a good actor, but I can't find a thing about him. He's a Bulgarian actor named Hristo Shopov...ironically, Hristo means "Christ". The actor who plays John is also Bulgarian, and I think his name is also Hristo.

Joanie, as always thank you again for your eloquent and impassioned words, comments and observations. Although I have yet to see the film, from everything I have heard from friends who have, your comments are spot on.

I hope to to see the movie this Friday. I will respond more after seeing it. I believe particularly that your comments as regards the forces that are seeking to manipulate and destroy the basic Christian value system our nation is founded upon are absolutely correct. Their reasoning and their motivation for doing that are quite clear, they intend to destroy our nation and make it over into a godless socio-fascist or marxist state.

They will ultimately fail in that endeavor...but we will have harder rows to hoe in between now and then.

In the mean time, please see this thread:

Out of wedlock sex has a price...and it one of the things destroying our youth and our nation

Let me know what you think.

No, I apologize for not going into greater detail.
It was a mostly left wing gay crowd. While some of those people I love dearly, I hadn't seen them in awhile. They heard that I had become Christian, and were basically mondering if I was the "UCC" or United Methodist type, that accepts Christ as a loving prophet, or if I was one of 'those'....that believe he was the Messiah, and if I try to teach others about that.
It was the first time I stood up for Christ in a mixed crowd. It felt good. I did the right thing.
Look out, world! I'm growing up! ;-)

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