From the beginning, Mel Gibson knew a key to making The Passion of The Christ would be finding an actor capable of embodying to the highest degree possible both the humanity and spiritual transcendence of Jesus Christ. Gibson sought an actor who could lose himself in the role entirely, and whose identity would not interfere with the realism the director was seeking.
The search led Gibson to James Caviezel, last seen in The Count of Monte Cristo. Gibson had been riveted by a picture he had seen of Caviezel – especially by the actor’s penetrating eyes and transparent expressions, which Gibson felt had the rare ability to convey the essence of love and compassion in utter silence.
When Gibson called Caviezel early on, the actor was so taken aback his response was “Mel Who?” Gibson jovially responded “Mel Brooks”. But the conversation soon turned serious when Gibson explained the role that he had in mind for Caviezel - a role Gibson told the actor he considered so tough and fraught with potential pitfalls he himself would balk at playing it.
Caviezel was daunted but energized by the challenge before him. It struck him as a remarkable coincidence that he had just turned 33, the same age as Jesus in the last year of his life. A practicing Catholic, Caviezel also found inspiration in his own religious beliefs and devotion, using prayer as a means to more deeply explore the character, words and tribulations of Jesus.
But really nothing could have prepared him for the incredible journey he would undergo during the production of The Passion of The Christ. As Caviezel explains: “For day after day of filming, I was spat upon, beaten up, flagellated and forced to carry a heavy cross on my back in the freezing cold. It was a brutal experience, almost beyond description. But I considered it all worth it to play this role”.
Gibson was quite clear to Caviezel from the start that it was his intention to film Jesus’ suffering with as much authenticity as possible, never flinching from the chaos and violence that Christ was swept up in according to accounts. Even for Caviezel, the torment Jesus endures throughout the film was terrifying at times but he says: “No one has ever showed Jesus in this way before, and I think Mel is showing the truth. Mel hasn’t used violence for violence’s sake and it has never felt gratuitous. I do think the realism will probably shock some people but that is why the film is so incredibly powerful”.
During the demanding production, Caviezel had to face his own physical vulnerabilities in a profound way. In one of the film’s most graphic sequences, Christ is scourged – or whipped – extensively, then further flayed with an infamous Roman torture device known as a flagrum, or “the cat o’ nine tails,” a whip designed with multiple straps and embedded with barbed metal tips to catch and shred the skin and cause considerable blood loss. To capture Christ’s resulting wounds, Caviezel had to undergo grueling, full-body makeup sessions that lasted for hours. But that was just the beginning of his trials, for the irritating makeup soon caused his skin to blister, preventing him from even sleeping during this time.
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