Mel Gibson On How "The Passion Of Christ" Film Changed Jim Caviezel Forever

one of the things that I thought was uh fascinating was reading uh and listening to Jim cavel talk about his experience playing Christ in your film yeah that it just truly changed that guy's the course of his whole life well it was fascinating to watch him work actually and most of the time I just like backed away because he was doing something that and I've seen a lot of people portray Jesus in films right and I never buy it you can't quite buy it something Creeps in the color it that's not something something's not right

or discordant it and some of them are pretty good but you never quite believe it all the way what was the William defo movie oh uh that was a scorsi film right what was that um called The Last Temptation that's right that's right anyway but what were we talking about Christ he did something I think that nobody else did and I think he pulled it off because I I totally like believed it I believed it too and it was like what did he do he emptied himself out yeah and he invited something else in and

he left it he he just he didn't try anything he just he emptied himself out and he meditated and he let Christ in and that role seemed to have had a profound effect on him it did as a human being oh absolutely and kind of him up in his career a little bit because people Associated him entirely with that film and then they Associated him with Christianity and then they Associated him with right-wing politics and yeah yeah and then you know he he got sidetracked by a few guys I mean there's some people out there

like they get in your ear and it's like you it's like cist you know talking to and they get you up just make a speech somewhere and next thing you know it's like you know people throwing eggs at you and it's like yeah and you wonder you know should I even be saying this and uh so he stepped on a bunch of landmines but um yeah it did have a profound effect on him but I think he was he he was already mostly there anyway and I noticed that cuz I when I was trying to

cast it I thought who could play this and I saw the opening shot from Terry Malik's film which was The Thin Red Line MH um and uh and it was just a big closeup of cisel and there was something otherworldly and childlike going on there in the closeup and I thought who's that guy he's amazing of course he couldn't keep the blue eyes you had to you had to trade him out so I I changed the color of his eyes to Brown and and all that stuff so it looked like he came from the region

right but uh um amazing what he already had a quality an ethereal kind of otherworldliness space cadet quality yeah that and he's he's still kind of like that he's still like wow he's yeah he's I I want I wish I had met him or I haven't met him still but I wish i' had seen him before and then after you know to see like what did that role change him because it seemed to have strengthen his faith sure it did yeah yeah he got he got in real tight with it and I think he had

some experiences while he was doing it he suffered a little you know and uh didn't he get struck by lightning well there's two times there was these lightning strikes happening on the set you know and it was this guy with him he was a young fellow one of the assistants on on the film his name was uh Jan and old Yan was like uh he's at like 6'2 Italian Northern Italian guy you know if he tripped in the street women would slide under him you know it was that kind of stuff the guy was like

a babe magnet right and um and I think he was taking full advantage of the gifts he had but he got hit by lightning the first time getting people we were out on the hill and there was a lightning storm like with the crosses and stuff oh Jesus and uh and the the this guy called jeppo he was a grip and he never spoke a word to me the whole time he was just a quiet kind of guy and I figured oh he doesn't know English so you know but he came up to me and

in perfect English he said you know I think you should get all the people off the hill we could be struck by lightning and I thought oh that's a good idea let's get off the hill so we're moving off off the hill everybody's getting off and this kid gets hit through the umbrella this Yan guy he gets Zapped by lightning right but he's 22 and he goes to the Disco all night and D you know he's doing the whole you know 22 experience and he he comes back the next day he's like yeah it was

great and then he was with Jim the second time it happened but this time I found him in a fat Bambino with his knees up around his ears like waiting for the third strike he was like this this just doesn't happen twice in the third strike and he says I have to change my life like so it was pretty fun filming that movie must have had a profound effect on a lot of people right cuz you were you were doing something that wasn't just a film it was yeah ver kind of yeah and it was

strengthening people's faith that film was a I mean profound success and a lot of people dismissed the idea of it even yes you know especially in Hollywood I mean you had to self-fund all that right yes it was self-funded and uh and it was a a very strange experience that one cuz I and I put the money in I thought well maybe I'll break even and it was uh then I got these messages back all the majors wouldn't distribute it so I was like nobody will distribute it okay I guess i' I've lost you know

the money but it was worth the experience and um so um one guy was left in the room at the end and when the when the dust settled it was some guy he said I I'll distribute and he he had a little company called New Market and they distributed like one or two films before and uh I think it was a Charlie Theron movie called a monster about that horrible serial K yeah and and uh he said I'll do it and you know it was just really Basics I went and I met the exhibitors and

you know and this guy was like the distributor this little company it was just him and a a toothless dog and a fax and an assistant and it was like okay what's all the smoking mirrors about this with between the distribution exhibition I met I made handshake deals with all the exhibitors yeah we'll show this I said okay and then we put it out there and it went out nobody expected it to do much but it did phenomenally well and um and there was this kind of thing in town in the town they said anyone

just see that anyone just see what that guy did can't let that guy do that again and yeah we don't want anyone doing that you know because it sort of walked around the entire system yes and scored right so there was two things there was resistance to the Christianity aspect of it and promotion of Christianity and then there was resistance to the fact that you went outside the system it was outside well I had no alternative right cuz no major would back it because of the Christianity as ECT of it I guess yeah well rubert

Murdoch said you know he wanted to and then he said and then somebody advised him and said he'd be out of business in five years ruber Murdoch wow