The Movie PASSION OF CHRIST:
“Mel Gibson warned actor Jim Caviezel that playing the character of Christ was going to be very difficult and that if he accepted, he most likely would be marginalized by Hollywood.
Caviezel asked for a day to think about it and his response to Mel who was funding and directing the movie was: “I think we have to make it, even if it is difficult.” And something else, my initials are J.C., and I am 33 years old. “I didn’t realize that until now.”
Mel responded with “You’re really scaring me you know.”
During filming, Jim Caviezel who plays the part of Jesus lost 45 pounds, he was struck by lightning, he was accidentally struck twice during the scourging scene leaving a deep 14-inch scar, he dislocated his shoulder when the cross was dropped into the hole with him on the cross. He then suffered pneumonia and hypothermia from being nearly naked with only a loin cloth on the cross for endless hours. The crucifixion scene alone took 5 weeks of the 2 months of shooting.
His body was so stressed and exhausted from playing the role that he had to undergo two open heart surgeries after the filming production.
Jim explained, “I didn’t want people to see me. I just want them to see Jesus. Conversions will happen through that.”
Almost like a clairvoyant prediction many amazing things happened.
Pedro Sarubbi, who played Barabbas, felt that it was not Caviezel who was looking at him, but Jesus Christ himself, as he played that role he said of Caviezel, “His eyes had no hatred or resentment towards me, only mercy and love.”
Luca Lionello, the artist who played Judas, was an avowed atheist before shooting began. He eventually converted, and baptized his children.
One of the main technicians working on the film was a Muslim converted to Christianity.
Some producers said they saw actors dressed in white they didn’t recognize during one of the filming sessions, and when they reviewed the recordings they realized they couldn’t see them in that footage.
The Passion of the Christ is the highest grossing US religious as well as the highest R-rated film of all time, with $370.8 million! Worldwide, it grossed $611 million.
More importantly, it has reached 100’s of millions of people around the world.
Mel Gibson paid $30 million out of his own pocket for the production of the film because no studio would take on the project.
Today Jim Caviezel simply and boldly proclaims his faith in Christ, and the miracle it was for him to represent Christ as an actor and a greater believer of Christ because of this experience.

Fact links

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luca_Lionello

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jim-caviezels-injuries-passion-christ/

A 2004 article from Today doesn’t get specific about how many weeks Caviezel endured being bare-skinned while hanging from the cross for filming but it’s clear it was a significant amount of time: “Caviezel dangled nearly naked on a cross in bone-chilling winds through weeks of filming. He was struck by lightning during a recreation of the Sermon on the Mount. An actor playing a Roman torturer cut a 14-inch gash in Caviezel’s back during scenes of Christ’s scourging.”

In one instance, Caviezel and Michelini were together under the latter’s umbrella when they were zapped. ”I’m about a hundred feet away from them, when I glance over and see lightning coming out of Caviezel’s ears. Both Caviezel and Michelini got struck,” producer Steve McEveety said. ”The main bolt hit Caviezel and one of its forks hit Michelini’s umbrella.” Months earlier, Michelini had also been hit while carrying an umbrella, Variety reports. Neither man was hurt in the incidents.

Caviezel has been open about the physical toll shooting the 2004 film had on him, as Catholic News Service reported in 2018:

Making “The Passion,” he said, took a lot out of him physically. “It nearly killed me. Not many people get struck by lightning; I did. Five and a half months of cold. I had to have two heart surgeries, including open-heart surgery, because of that film.

“Going out in the cold, at night, and the wind chill, was tremendous. We were at a thousand-foot cliff and the winds would come down on top of it. I had a dislocated left shoulder. On top of that I had pneumonia. I got really sick,” he recalled. “But if we had shot that film in a studio, you wouldn’t have seen that performance. Was it worth it? Absolutely.”

The film was controversial at the time of its release but nevertheless was one of the highest-grossing R-rated films of all time, as Looper notes, adding that “it was accused of antisemitism, and even film critic Roger Ebert called it, ‘the most violent film I have ever seen.'” During a 2006 DUI arrest, Gibson made antisemitic remarks.

Gibson is currently planning a sequel titled “The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection,” currently slated for release in 2022, with Caviezel stating he has received the script saying the movie will be “bigger than the original.”

We reached out to IMDb asking about the publication process for the site’s trivia pages about movie productions and will update if we get a response.