James Caviezel

James Caviezel

Hello friends.. first I want to introduce myself to you. My name is Cynthia, I am 14 years old. I am a Christian. Everybody in this world has one or more heroes in their lives. For me, Jesus is a real hero in this world, because He had given His life for our sin, so that we can get closer to God again.. And I want to share with you, not about Jesus himself, but about an actor who starred as Jesus.

James as The Jesus Christ

We have known of course the film about The Passion of The Christ. This movie tells us about Jesus who has sacrificed his life just for our sins. He has taught us about The Kingdom of Heaven. He had ever been in this world, and now he lives in our heart forever.

The shooting of The Passion of The Christ

James Caviezel is an actor. James Patrick Caviezel is his full name. He was born on September 26, 1968 in Mount Vernon, Washington.

"He was one of five children born to Jim and Maggie Caviezel. The Caviezels are an close knit Catholic family. As a youngster, Jim was described as being 'very intense.' His two main interests growing up were sports and religion. He was athletically gifted on the basketball court and dreamed of someday playing in the NBA. He also learned the importance of Christianity at a very young age, attending Church regularly with his family. In 1984, he went to Mount Vernon High School but transferred to O'Dea High School after two years. The following spring, he transferred again to Burien Kennedy High School in Burien, Washington where he was a star on the basketball team and graduated in 1987. While at O'Dea and Kennedy, he stayed with family friends. Following high school, Jim enrolled at Bellevue Community College where he again played on the basketball team. A foot injury in his sophomore season put an end to Jim's basketball career and his dreams of playing in the NBA. Shortly after his, he turned his focus toward acting.

James and Jeniffer Lopez on The Angel's Eyes

The movies that Jim had starred in are My Own Private Idaho(1991), Diggstown (1992) and Wyatt Earp (1994) and guest starring roles on "The Wonder Years" (1988) and "Murder, She Wrote" (1984).

"He continued to go relatively unnoticed in small roles and even thought about quitting acting until 1998 when he received critical recognition for his role as idealist Private Witt in The Thin Red Line (1998). The following year, he gained further recognition with roles in Ride with the Devil (1999/I) and Frequency (2000). In 2001, his role as Jennifer Lopez's love interest in Angel Eyes (2001) helped to establish him as a versatile actor and leading man. It wasn't until 2002 that Jim made his strong religious beliefs known. While filming High Crimes (2002), he refused to do any love scenes with on-screen wife Ashley Judd because it conflicted with his strong Catholic faith. It was also around this time when he was chosen by Mel Gibson to star as Jesus Christ in the upcoming, controversial film The Passion of the Christ (2004). The film went on to become one of the highest grossing movies of all-time and made Jim a household name. Now he have married with Kerri, a school teacher whom he met on a blind date in 1993 and married in 1997 and their adopted Chinese son, Bo."

The Passion of The christ

I really like Jim because he can survive in the bad weather when he was shooting on The Passion of The Christ movie. The shooting location was in Italy. And at the time it was very cold, and Jim was always freezing on the cross. In the condition that he was tied and naked, the cold wind on his face was like a thousand of knives. And he couldn't sleep well too for days. He just had less than 3-4 hours a day. From Monday until Saturday for 5 weeks he had to feel like that.

He had to be made up for 8 hours. From 2 a.m until 10 a.m. to get an effect of the dying Jesus. And he had to sit under the shower for two hours to release it.

What is the specialty of this movie? This movie isn't like the others that tell us to about Jesus. The other movies just show us what the bible tells us. What Jesus was doing at that time. What the things were that He taught us, and how long he was crucified. But The Passion of The Christ shows us the details, Jesus' wounds, Jesus' journey, and "via dolorosa" or the way to The Calvari. And they didn't use English but Aram, Ibrani, and Latin language.

Those are the challenges for him. He said that it couldn’t be acting as a Man who is really good like Jesus without his belief. Everyday before he went to the shooting location, he prepared himself by meditation or praying the Rosary, and if he received communion, he would always feel Jesus was inside him.

However, Mel chose him as The Christ, not because he is a Catholic, because he chose Moslem people, Jews, and those who didn't have a religion. He chose those who were good in their profession.

“I love Him more than I’ve thought about what will I do. I love Him more than my wife, my children, my family. Sometimes when I was on the cross, I almost couldn’t talk. The hypothermia always attacked me. Something that I want at that time was I didn’t want the people see me, but they see Jesus Christ.”

Caviezel didn’t worry if the world knew that he is a religious. He is proud of his belief and very glad to talk about it. Even though the Hollywood presses have asked him to not talk about it. When he was asked if his belief does fully lead his life and his family or not, he answered that if someone doesn’t have the belief and never prays, it’s the same like going to war without weapons.

For James, and for all of us, Jesus is a Real Man. James is really proud to act as God’s Son. But He doesn’t want the people see that it is him, but he wants the people see that it’s Jesus. Even though The real Jesus was tortured more badly than what was he played.

In the middle of March 2004, he with his wife had a chance to meet the Pope in the Pope’s library room, at the Vatican. John Paul II gave them the blessings and gave a Rosario for Caviezel. He said that James has similar eyes like Jesus.

I like him as my hero because if he didn’t star in The Passion of The Christ, maybe I would never have known how he suffered as he did. I love Jesus very much, more than anyone or anything in this world forever.