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 had intended to take a hiatus from FR for a while (and still do), but I have been reading and hearing a good many commentaries on ‘The Passion of Christ’ that have missed the mark so badly that I feel moved to at least put down on paper my observations about the movie, for whatever they may be worth.

As is probably the case with most people who have seen the movie, for me to attempt to communicate everything I came away with would take days, weeks. I would just like to focus on what I believe are a few misconceptions, and what I believe some of the ‘messages’ of the movie were.

First, the pre-release, and post-release, uproar regarding an ‘anti-Semitic’ message contained in ‘The Passion’ is absurd and politically agenda-driven.

The crowd that demanded Christ’s crucifixion was, of course, composed of Jews. They are the people who lived in Jerusalem. But the Jews in the crowd that demanded His crucifixion did not necessarily (and most probably didn’t) reflect the anger of the Jewish people in general. It was a relatively small crowd in comparison to the population of the city, and it was most likely purposefully assembled by the Sanhedrin and high priests who feared Jesus because he was undermining their authority. Those many Jews who were receptive to Christ’s teaching, or who were unaffected by Him in any way, remained in the shadows, fearing for their lives.

Among those who remained in the shadows was Simon of Cyrene, who, at the fifth station of the carrying of the cross, was ordered to come out from those who stood back from the mob, to help the weakening Christ with his burden for the last few hundred feet of his walk to Calvary. He did so reluctantly and begrudgingly, fearing for his life, and not knowing who this Man was. But, in physically supporting (almost carrying) Jesus those last few hundred feet, and in spiritually ‘connecting’ with him during those brief but powerful moments, he almost instantly knew whose cross he was bearing … and then attempted to comfort Him and convince others of the wrongness of what was about to happen. [Interestingly, scripture tells us little more about Simon after this day. But his sons became very involved in the Christian congregation in Rome, which suggests that Simon may have become a Christian as well.]

My point in even bringing this up is that, in ‘The Passion,’ I believe Simon may have been the only character who was purposefully labeled (through dialogue) a Jew. And, if one would want to characterize him, he was portrayed in an extremely sensitive and heroic light. The mob, although composed of Jews, was not portrayed as representing a people – but, instead, as representing a relatively small, agenda-driven mob, whose actions were orchestrated by the Sanhedrin. Most of the Jews in the city stayed in the shadows for fear of losing their lives. And the one who came out of the shadows, as a result of an order issued by a Roman soldier, connected with Christ (in a way that perhaps no one else but Mary, his own mother, did just then) during His last minutes on earth .... and he sought desperately to help Him.

Much of the evil in our world is the result of the fact that scripture is ridiculed, and the concept of scriptural morality (as represented by the Ten Commandments, and the teachings of Christ) is under relentless attack. 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.

One of the several powerful messages in the movie (as was spoken in Aramaic by Christ in one of the relatively few lines of dialogue) was the fact that His followers will be persecuted. He warned His faithful disciples (in the movie, and countless times in Scripture) that they will suffer a future of persecution, and even death.

I believe that is one of the movie’s strongest messages: that Christians must prepare themselves for the coming persecutions … for the fact that the evil in the world will increasingly seek to silence them. His words are born out today, as the Christian church – especially in Africa and Asia – is under relentless, and growing, assault.

As just a personal example: The church that I attend (named after St. Paul, author of most of the books of the New Testament) has ‘planted’ a sister church in Liberia, affectionately known as ‘Little St. Paul’s’. Over the past decade, the membership in Little St. Paul’s has grown by leaps and bounds. Our church regularly sends barrels (as in thousands of pounds) of supplies to our sister church (medical equipment, Bibles, textbooks, personal items, repair equipment, etc.) – and a small group from our church travels there for a month every other year (if political conditions in the region allow) in order to get a firsthand look at the progress that is being made, the conditions in the area, and to offer physical help with whatever the people are in need of (I will be a part of that rotating contingent in November of 2004). Over the past two years, conditions in the region have deteriorated, and, because of the brutal civil war, and the growing anti-Christian sentiment of the government (which sees Christianity as a threat to its tyrannical power), there are often months at a time in which we are cut off from communication with our sister church. The church itself often suffers major damage (by fire or vandalism), in which case the people meet in their homes until they can make repairs and return to worship in their church building. Many of the congregation have been killed by agents of the government. And yet their membership continues to grow. Their newfound Christianity is strong and unyielding to violent dictatorial ultimatums, even to the point of death.

Such persecution is common in African (and Asian) nations, and is increasing. Especially in Eritrea, Sudan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe, Christians are routinely rounded up and taken into government custody. Generally they are asked to sign a paper renouncing their belief in Christ. And often, if they do not do so (which they rarely, if ever, do), they are either held indefinitely under inhuman conditions, sold into slavery, or brutally tortured, or executed, by the dozens or hundreds. The incidents are increasing dramatically, and the numbers of Christian martyrs around the world – but especially in Africa -- are growing daily.

Christ warned His followers that, in the end times, such persecution would escalate. That warning was contained in a very moving part of ‘The Passion’ – which is yet another reason that the enemies of freedom (religious and otherwise) despise this film. It is calling attention to a brand of evil that they would rather remained unreported and unacknowledged.

I saw the movie on opening night. I will be seeing it again tomorrow afternoon. I was not able to digest much of the movie the first time around. I did not see large portions of it, because I knew what was about to happen and couldn’t bring myself to watch. I also found my mind shutting down during several particularly graphic scenes. I believe that I need to go back and have the courage to take in those parts that I was unable to take in on Wednesday, for one reason: We need to comprehend what our Lord did for us. We need to be reminded that the words ‘What would Jesus do?’ are not simply a slogan to be etched on a bracelet, or recited as a stanza of primitive poetry. We need to know … really know … the eternal purpose behind His willing sacrifice and His brutal death. And we need to take that image and apply it to our own lives – seeking to live as Christ-like a life as is humanly possible. Knowing that we will stumble, but that He is a patient, loving and forgiving God, who will wait for us to regain our feet again ... as long as we keep our eyes focused on Him.

‘The Passion’ helps us to do that. It is brutal. But it is true to scripture. It is inspiring. It portrays the last hours of life of the only Perfect Man, accurately and powerfully. And it strikes fear in the hearts of those who seek the subjugation of men by other men.

I don’t expect 'The Passion' to receive any Academy award nominations in 2005. Then again, in the eternal scheme of things, an Academy award does not even register as a blip. Tomorrow night the Hollywood ilk will gather in their pompous, irreverent, self-aggrandizing celebration. Some of them will no doubt have condescending (at the very least) things to say about Gibson’s inspired masterpiece. And then they will go home and comment endlessly on each other’s attire, and each other’s speeches – unaware that there is a spiritual world in which peace of a lasting kind can be attained, outside of material or worldly concerns.

They ridicule and criticize something about which they know nothing. And they continue to promote barren secular ideologies that have proven deadly to mankind through the centuries. History is not on their side.

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. The ‘persecution’ and demonization of those who are determined to defend freedom (of religion, and all other God-given liberties) will not be diminishing. It will grow more relentless, as ignorance and apathy increase. ‘The Passion’ may grant something of a cinematic ‘reprieve’ from ignorance and apathy. But if that ‘reprieve’ is short-lived, we can’t look to another Hollywood product to awaken us. The strength, resolve, and courage of conviction, must be intrinsic to be of any lasting value.

Thank you, Mr. Gibson, for lighting a small spark. Whether or not we fan it into a fire, or allow it to be extinguished, only time will tell.

~ joanie

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