"I Was Struck by Lightning" - The Brutal Reality of Playing Jesus on the Cross

The passion of the Christ was very brutal, especially when we went to the Cat of Nine Tails. And then I was struck by lightning on the last shot of the movie. I said, oh my God. He said, what? I said, I just realized I was hypothermia, hypothermic. And I just said, God, I don't want them to see me. I only want them to see you. And he goes, God, you're freaking me out. And he hung up the phone. The pain that I had to go through was so incredible. I was hypothermia, hypothermic. My makeup times were from 2 in the morning till 10, and from 10.30 to 4.30 it was freezing. Then, you know, they had to take the skin, and a new application that is now all Hollywood uses now. And those guys didn't even get an award for it. Christian Tinsley, Keith Anderlin, Christian Tinsley invented this during the scourging scenes. We used it, but it was burning my skin at the time. We were getting it down. And so I was in a lot, a lot, a lot of pain on that movie. And then I had to learn the Aramaic, the Hebrew, and the Latin. So I only get three hours of sleep. Then I would get up, and then they created a cross with a bicycle seat in the middle. And then I'd hold my hand here, and they'd tie it, and I'd just fall asleep sitting on this little bicycle seat. And then the cold would hit again. And then eventually I got a pneumonia, and then it was on every antibiotic in the world, but I wasn't getting rest. And so they would try to move me around, and to do other scenes they could. But so during one particular take, I had dislocated my shoulder, and I bit through my tongue. And it's the part where Mary comes over. And now before that, I said, God, you know, I'm done trying to do it. There was a lot of frustrating things that were happening. I just said, God, I don't want them to see me. I only want them to see you. And that's when the whole film changed. But it came with the cross hitting me in the back of the head, biting through my tongue and my cheek, and then my mouth bouqueted with blood. And when you see me turn on this particular take, there's a stream of blood that is coming out of my mouth. And I turn to Mary, and I say, Oluw'e Ami Hoda Hadesh, Behold Mother. I make all things new. And at that point, then I take the cross. Now my shoulder's dislocated, and everything had, I got it over. I think that if you look deep, I don't like particularly drinking piss and vinegar. But if I have to, I will. And especially when the outcome is saving souls. And I go back to myself when I didn't feel like anybody did. And God said He did. And so I want to love Him and bring as many souls as I could to Him. So it was always in my intention in that film that when people see it, that they do not see me, that they only see Jesus. Again, I'm working with the best people in the world that are revealing to me, this is really what happened. So when we were looking at the Shroud of Turin, you can see the Shroud of Turin is an image of Jesus. And when you start going into the track lines on His body, you can see the bamboo sticks the Romans would have used on Him. But then you all see the deep ones, where it looks like the Grand Canyon, in your skin. And I remember Keith Vanderland saying, people will go into shock now when they see this. I mean, this is a cat of nine tails, this is horrific. And he said, I'll take Him to the edge. So it was very brutal. But in that particular case, that violence was important because that violence is our sin. So it's always about committing to what this film needs to be. If you use every profanity in the book constantly, eventually you get numb to it. But you use it once, it'll hit you, if you need it, if it's necessary in the film. Like, for example, if you watched It's a Wonderful Life, that film was very profound in its time, and very hard to watch. And during Christmas, the most beautiful time of year. And you don't want to drop an F-bomb in that movie. But if you watch it, it's very powerful because this guy wants to end his life. It's over. He doesn't see what his value in his life, and this angel comes to him and shows him, George, don't you understand? If you weren't around, these people wouldn't, they would never have made it without you. We have to look at our lives like that. One of the most profound scenes in that movie was when Jimmy Stewart, Kepra had that camera on him, he says, God, if you're out there, please help me. And those were real tears. That man flew 26 missions in a Liberator over Germany, World War II. And you understand that when you're flying over in that tight formation, and one of those planes goes out, everybody has to remain quiet on their comms. Stewart lived with PTSD his entire life, and especially in that scene. And I'm sure that that trauma played out there. But God used it in the most beautiful way, just as some of the trauma that I grew up with, God used it in the most profound way in films like Sound of Freedom or The Passion of the Christ. When you got word about the project Passion of the Christ, it almost sounds like, well, how did you get word about that film? Crazy. So I get a call that I knew Mel Gibson was, but I did not know it was Steve McEveety. And that was his key producer, main, main guy. That guy did Braveheart, which was the previous film Mel had directed 15 years earlier. And so they invited me to do a film about what it was, I think it was Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson were going to do this together. It was on Mavericks. It was the big surfing wave. And the director they wanted to direct it was Kevin Reynolds, who just directed me in The Count of Monte Cristo. So I went to meet them, and Mel wasn't even supposed to show up, but he did about 40 minutes in. And we were talking about the movie. I didn't think the script was there yet. And I was going to be a hard film to shoot because I'm not a surfer, but I was a basketball player. So I thought maybe, you know, anyway, but the material wasn't there. And I was talking to him about the material and then all of a sudden Mel pivoted to something. And then I went back to when I was a young man in the theater, and I said, oh my God, this is why he called me to become an actor. And I said, you want me to play Jesus, don't you? And he looked at me, he was smoking a cigarette, and he just, yeah, put his head down. And he was really scared. And I said, okay. He just, what? What, like, how can you, what? Okay. So I had all that preparation. What was the fear, do you think? Well, two days later he called me at my house, and I was taking the garbage out. And I heard, I picked up the phone, and I said, yeah, I was busy. And he goes, hey Jim, it's Mel. I said, Mel who? And he goes, I don't know, Mel Brooks. Hey, he was smoking a cigarette. And he goes, do you still want to play this Jesus guy? If you do, you may never work in this town again. And I was like, it scared me. I just, I was telling you, I just bought a Lamborghini. And I was, I'm going to have to give all this stuff back. And I was scared for a moment, and then this peace came over me. And I could feel it was from heaven. And I said, look, man, we're all called to carry our cross. If you don't pick up and carry your cross, you will be crushed by the weight of it. And then he got really quiet on the phone. And then I said, oh my God. He said, what? I said, I just realized my initials are JC, and I'm 33 years old. And he goes, God, you're freaking me out. And he hung up the phone. And then McAveety came probably five days later. And then, you know, that was it. Did Mel have fear, too, to ask? Sure he was. What do you think his fear was? None of us are good enough to do it. None of us are. It's because of who we are, our past, everything, what we're talking about. But the shame. But, you know, I told my friend about that. His name is Yvonne. And I said, he said, you know, Jim, God doesn't always choose the best. But he chose you. What are you going to do about it? You know, I kept my rosary with me. I prayed. I took the Eucharist every day. And I went to confession every day. The rosary is awesome because you're meditating on the entire Gospels. And when I was up there on the cross, I would pick ten people out of the audience. Actually, eleven. The first one was the Our Father, and I did ten Hail Marys. But I would start. I continued to pray the Sorrowful Mystery as I was up there. So I started in the Garden of Gethsemane. I thought of the entire garden, and I went to the Scourging Scene. I thought of the Scourging Scene, and I went from there to the Crown of Thorns, Humiliation. And I would just look at one thing because I couldn't feel my hands anymore. My hands were numb. At the end of the movie, my body's blue. They brought a stand up, and this doctor came up, and he could hear my heart was in a-fib. I would have to have two major heart surgeries, including open heart. And then I was struck by lightning on the last shot of the movie. And so I just kept going. But I remember hearing Jesus say to me, Am I too close? And I said, You're not close enough. So I was at peace that if this happened, I felt like I did something in this life. I served my purpose. No matter where you're watching Sean Ryan's show from, if you get anything out of this, please like, comment, subscribe, and most importantly, share this everywhere you possibly can. And if you're feeling extra generous, please leave us a review on Apple and Spotify podcasts.