Dorothy Cummings McLean, Lifesite News, 4/17/25
The star of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ told Raymond Arroyo that he heard Jesus Christ speaking to him during the filming of the crucifixion scene.
In an interview posted to social media on Wednesday, Jim Caviezel tells the popular ETWN host that he experienced an interior locution as he underwent the grueling experience. As he acted the last hours of Christ’s Passion, Jesus spoke to him, he says.
“He was with me when I was on the cross,” the actor recounts.
“I had this internal locution, and He said, ‘Am I too close?’ And that’s when the doctor’s putting his stethoscope on my heart, and I was struggling (with) breathing,” he continues.
“And I said, ‘You’re not close enough!’ And I cried when I said that.”
Caviezel recalls that this was at the end of the scene; at the time, he was “blue” with cold. He intimates that he was no longer acting; he suffered real hardship — and real dangers — during the crucifixion scene. While carrying his cross, he had fallen, dislocating his left shoulder and biting through his tongue and cheek. His dislocated shoulder caused him great pain as his arms were stretched out on the cross.
The actor experienced other injuries during the 79 days of filming. During the shoot of the Scourging at the Pillar, he was accidentally struck by the metal-tipped whip, leaving a scar. He also suffered from pneumonia. During the Sermon on the Mount, the last scene of the film to be shot, he was struck by lightning. Filming of The Passion of the Christ ended with Caviezel being taken away in a medic van. Afterward, he underwent two heart surgeries.
However, Caviezel also grew spiritually from the experience of portraying the Savior and passes on what he learned.
“I always say ‘I never played Him,’” he told Arroyo. “’He played me. Let God play you.’”