Posted on 01/25/2002 7:34:05 AM PST by patent
JIM Caviezel takes the sex out of sex symbol.Well, he'd like to, anyway. The rising star of Hollywood hits and drooling Internet fan sites is a devout Roman Catholic who says his faith forbids him from getting randy on camera.
This is the man who starred in last year's "Angel Eyes" only after J. Lo agreed to keep it on during their premarital lovemaking.
"I just said, 'Look, put a top on her,' " Caviezel told The Post. " 'I'm gonna keep my shorts on, she's gonna keep hers on. Get the camera and shoot around it.' And that's out of devotion, love and respect to my wife."
In L.A. recently, where the 33-year-old lives with his wife, Kerri, a high-school English teacher, he spoke of his latest, "The Count of Monte Cristo," the Disney feature opening Friday. And he was quick to explain why this "Monte" wasn't full.
"You're never gonna see my butt on film unless I'm in the Holocaust, walking around," said the Washington state native, who had 10 years of Catholic schooling.
"I have a hard time getting naked on film. I don't believe in it. I don't think it's right. In my faith, I'm taught that abstinence is important."
It's almost unheard of for someone so old-fashioned to make it so far through Hollywood's starmaking machinery without a jam-up. Yet Caviezel, plucked from nowhere to star in 1998's "The Thin Red Line," has mounted a left-field assault on Tinseltown's A-list with his morals intact.
Dagmara Dominczyk remembers how nervous her "Cristo" love interest seemed just before their PG-13 sex scene.
"Jim took me aside and said, 'You know, I'm married and very faithful,' " says the Polish-born beauty. "And I said, 'Jim, it's a Disney movie. I'm not gonna grab your crotch!' "
In "The Count of Monte Cristo," the 12th cinematic adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' 1844 novel, Caviezel plays Edmond Dantes, a French sailor unfairly labeled a traitor by former friends and acquaintances who, each for different reasons, conspire to have him locked up.
Transformed by 13 years of prison beatings into a vengeful psychopath who looks like American Taliban John Walker, Dantes orchestrates a brilliant escape. Then he disguises himself as a count and begins offing his betrayers one by one.
"Death is too good for them!" Dantes sneers.
Caviezel has no problem with the violence, since he doesn't consider it gratuitous. But he's not thrilled with the message - that vengeance can be exacted without paying the ultimate price.
That said, he added, "I don't expect anyone else to agree with my views.
"But I wouldn't be where I am today, I wouldn't have had the courage to do what I'm doing now, if I hadn't had the direction of something greater than me."
Participating in Hollywood's machine in any way would, you think, be something that he would not be interested in.
Outside of the nice little niche' soundbites, saccharine articles, and fans this may win him in the short-term - this cute story will run out of steam, and he will either succumb to the lifestyle, or find another line of work.
Right now his views are considered a marketable novelty.
They are usually short-lived.
As for the comment that the movie preaches the message that the Count is violent without consequences read the book. He sees himself as the agent of Providence at first, then after his sucess, comes to thinks that he has gone too far. Remember, none of the people who wronged him would have suffered ANY punishment if they had changed their ways and become upright characters. They only met sad ends because the Count set up situations which their flawed characters led them to be involved in. That's what is so cool about his mode of revenge. I doubt that this will come across in the movie.
You can always do a rental down the road. Not the same as a theatre, but it doesn't do much for Disney's bottom line.
patent
The Bible refers all over the place to fornication being wrong. Etc.
patent
Out of curiosity, where does the Bible say that?
First, the guy's married, and a nude scene would certainly satisfy Jesus' definition of adultery. Also, there are plenty of warnings against fornication and indecency in both Testaments.
So I'd say he's got plenty of Biblical cover for his comment.
But you knew that -- you're just trolling.
A great movie -- and he's a pretty good actor, too.
Note to self....buy flowers for wife today...you are one lucky grey haired ol f@rt!!!!
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