Actor playing Jesus in The Passion of the Christ was struck by lightning and suffered multiple illnesses during filming
Actors are known for pouring their heart and soul into an intense role, but not quite as much as Jim Caviezel did (literally).
The actor was struck by lightning twice while filming The Passion of the Christ, suffering several grim injuries whilst on set for the religious film.
Whilst most of us would have lost faith in the 2004 film, Caviezel kept going - despite seemingly receiving a cease and desist from the almighty.
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One of the bolts also hit the film’s assistant director, Jan Michelini, whilst she and Caviezel were shooting in Italy alongside Mel Gibson.
Though the BBC reported ‘neither of them was badly hurt’, we still can’t imagine the experience of being hit by lighting being at all pleasant.
Shockingly, it was the second time Caviezel was struck during the intense shoot – with the actor first receiving a bolt from the blue in Matera, Italy, where he suffered light burns to his fingers as he’d been holding an umbrella at the time.
It was whilst cast and crew were recreating the Sermon on the Mount back in 2003, as depicted in the Bible.
However, the worst was yet to come for The Thin Red Line star and devout Catholic as filming continued.
As the film focuses on the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life, the now 54-year-old had to carry the cross as he recreated the religious figure’s crucifixion.
Whilst hanging from the cross through weeks of filming, the intense shoot took its toll on Caviezel, with the actor dislocating his shoulder and enduring numerous cuts from the chains wrapped around him.
If that was bad enough, he also got pneumonia and a lung infection due to being semi-nude for the scene – wearing nothing but a thin cloth draped over him.
He was even accidentally lashed by a co-star, who was playing a Roman soldier, whilst performing the unenviable task of carrying the cross, leaving him with a 14 inch gash in his back.
“It just extended over the board and hit me with such a velocity that I couldn’t breathe,” Caviezel told Today, adding: “It’s like getting the wind knocked out of you. The stinging is so horrific that you can’t get air.
Continuing, he joked: “I turned around and looked at the guy, and I tell you, I may be playing Jesus, but I felt like Satan at that moment.
"I turned to him, a couple of expletives came out of my mouth.”
Despite everything he experienced on set, Caviezel doesn’t seem to have lost his faith and is set to appear in a sequel to The Passion of the Christ in 2024.
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV
Katherine Sidnell