I met him right after he had come back from the jungle. He said it was the sickest he's ever been.
When the film came out I put two and two together and realized he had been filming Apocolypto.
Probably correct but after The Passion the star had to have heart surgery. While on the cross he was close enough to a lightning strike that it got him. While tied to the pillary one of the the prongs attached to the whip caught him across his back. As the said after, you do not make a film about the Passion without getting some given to you.