Mel Gibson's biblical drama The Passion of the Christ both divided and shocked audiences
nationwide after its release in 2004.
Regardless, it received three Academy Award nominations and remains the highest-grossing
R-rated film of all time.
On screen, The Passion of the Christ has its fair share of bizarre moments — like the
part where Satan carries around a baby Voldemort.
Mel Gibson purposely added those Uncanny Valley moments just to catch audiences off guard,
saying: "That's what evil is about, taking something that's good and twisting it a little
bit."
But as surreal as things can get during the movie itself, there were even more bizarre
happenings behind the scenes — some of which you might not even believe.
Electrifying work
According to one study, lightning strikes roughly 240,000 people per year.
In other words, it's fairly rare — but in 2003, it happened three times on the set of
The Passion of the Christ.
Lead actor Jim Caviezel claimed he was "lit up like a Christmas tree" while filming the
Sermon on the Mount sequence of the film.
"You got struck with lightning."
"I was struck by lightning."
"Light came right down from heaven and lit me up.
What people witnessed was an illumination around my body and a fire on the right and
left side of my head."
But he wasn't the only person on the set to get struck.
Caviezel added:
"Five minutes after I got hit, Jon Mikalini, an assistant, walks over and says 'Are you
okay?'
And then he got hit.
The difference was that they saw the bolt come down and hit Jon … All I felt was this
giant tremendous slap on my ears and a few seconds of a pink, red static in front of
my eyes."
"Shazam!"
Unbelievably, that wasn't even the first time the assistant director had been struck on
set.
According to BBC News, lightning had already struck his umbrella — luckily only causing
light burns on his fingertips.
Whiplash
Because you can't actually beat your film's star in real life, a hidden whipping post
was set up behind Caviezel while filming The Passion of the Christ's notoriously bloody
scourging scene.
The problem was, one of the actors doing the flogging didn't have the best aim.
Caviezel recalled to Today:
"[His lash] just extended over the board and hit me with such a velocity that I couldn't
breathe."
"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 … a couple of expletives came out of my mouth."
Not that it helped — moments later, Caviezel accidentally received another blow.
Ouch.
Cross purposes
Not only did Caviezel get struck by lightning and accidentally whipped, he also dislocated
his shoulder while carrying the film's massive crucifix.
Caviezel's shoulder popping out of place was just the start of his misery.
Between the frigid cold and strong winds during the crucifixion scenes, the actor also got
a lung infection and pneumonia.
"My mouth was shaking uncontrollably.
My arms and legs went numb - I was suffocating on that cross."
But hey!
At least he didn't get migraines, right?
He got migraines
To add icing on top of Caviezel's cake of pain, the actor regularly suffered severe
migraines from working day in and day out with one eye cosmetically swollen shut.
According to Today, Caviezel had to head in to work at 2 AM every day in order to provide
enough time for the film's makeup artists to cover him in cosmetic bruises, cuts, lashes,
and fake blood.
They also had to arrange his crown of thorns, and seal one eye shut — which wreaked havoc
on his depth perception.
He told Fox News: "You are going to work every day with only one eye functioning, which gives
you headaches."
And you thought eye strain from your office job was bad.
Dramatic conversion
Filming The Passion of the Christ had a pretty profound effect on many people involved in
the production, and the film's set became the site of some religious conversions.
Father John Bartunek, who hung out on set, told National Catholic Register, "Everyone
felt comfortable talking about issues of faith.
Being a priest in the midst of that, I was like a lightning rod for spiritual conversations."
Fortunately, in this case he didn't mean an actual lightning rod.
One actor who became a Christian on-set was Luca Lionello, the actor who plays Judas.
Bartunek explained:
"He asked for confession.
Apparently he had been completely transformed by the experience.
He baptized his children, sanctified his marriage and came back to the Church."
Naturally, not everyone who worked on the set of The Passion of the Christ experienced
a religious epiphany — but most people were affected in one way or another.
Caviezel told The 700 Club:
"All the actors that worked on this film … it will stay with them the rest of their lives.
People will always come up to them, people will always ask them about the movie they
were in, it will always be with them."
Career wrap
During the filming of The Passion of the Christ, Caviezel had to endure a lot of pain and freak
accidents — but the bad luck didn't end there.
Caviezel has since claimed that he's been blackballed by Hollywood for playing Jesus.
In fact, he recalled Gibson trying to talk him out of it because of the effect it would
have on his career.
"A truly great remarkable man."
"Aw thank you very much Ron that's very kind of you."
"Jesus Christ is here with me."
Still, Caviezel's career might be due for a resurrection, with the actor set to reprise
his most famous role in Gibson's upcoming sequel to The Passion.
"It's a sequel to the Passion of the Christ, is that true?"
"It's probably about three years off because it's a big subject."
"Yeah, yeah, I read the book."
Caviezel also described the project to USA Today, saying:
"I won't tell you how he's going to go about it.
But I'll tell you this much, the film he's going to do is going to be the biggest film
in history.
It's that good."
With so many bizarre happenings taking place on the set of the original, we can only imagine
what's in store for the sequel — although we're definitely hoping for fewer lightning
strikes.
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