The actor portraying Jesus in the independent film Passion of the Christ said injuries he suffered during production made the movie “beautiful.”
In a recent interview with Fox Nation, Jim Caviezel described serious injuries he faced while portraying the biblical Messiah that provided viewers with a more realistic experience of Christ’s crucifixion. As the actor traveled down the path Christ took to his crucifixion in the film, the 150-pound cross fell on top of Caviezel, burying his head “in the sand.”
“As I went down, the cross — it actually struck my head and buried my head in the sand. And I bit through my tongue,” Caviezel said. “Now, in the tape, you’ll see streams of blood coming down from my lip. That’s actually my own blood.”
Maia Morgenstern, the actress who portrayed Mary, the mother of Jesus, then ran toward Caviezel in the scene. Caviezel said he also dislocated his shoulder while filming, requiring him to painfully deliver his next line, in old Aramaic, “See, mother, I make all things new.”
“At this time, the shoulder is out, and I was trying everything I had to get my arm over the cross,” Caviezel continued, “And it looks like it’s the most extraordinary take because it looks like I’m cherishing our cross, which is our faith, and hugging it but in the most beautiful way.”
The actor suffered injuries at other times while filming the movie, most of which were not included in the final cut. Prior to Christ’s crucifixion, Roman soldiers ordered him to be scourged. And as the actor portrayed Christ’s flagellation, one of the film’s extras accidentally whipped his back.
“I had a 14-inch gash right on my back,” Caviezel said. “I ripped my hands out and walked out of the take, and I fell down. But it’s an extraordinary experience because I got hit, and it froze my diaphragm, which was like getting … the wind knocked out of you.”
In previous interviews, Caviezel described his experience of being struck by lightning while filming the “Sermon on the Mount” scene for the film.
“I was lit up like a Christmas tree! I was doing the Sermon on the Mount. I knew it was going to hit me about four seconds before it happened,” he said in a years-old interview with the 700 Club. “What they saw was fire coming out the right and left side of my head. Illumination around the whole body.”
He continued, “And during the shot, they said, ‘Do you have it on camera?’ What happened was Mel had said, ‘Action,’ and the cameras were panning to me, and here is where this light just flashed. And by the time the cameras got to me, I hear Mel screaming out, ‘What the heck happened to his hair?'”
The Passion of the Christ is the most successful independent film of all time, grossing $612 million worldwide with only a $30 million production budget. In the Fox Nation interview, Caviezel gave an update on film director Mel Gibson’s sequel, reportedly titled The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection.
“It’s going to be a masterpiece. It’s gonna be the biggest film in world history. I believe it will be based on what I feel in my heart,” Caviezel said, noting the script was on its fifth draft. “The films they make are Marvel Comics movies. You’ll see Superman. You won’t see Jesus. … I got to play the greatest superhero there ever was.”
