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The gruelling challenge of playing Jesus
Thomas Baldwin explores the hard physical task of portraying Christ
 Acting up: Jim Cavaziel in The Passion of the Christ |
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It is a job that brings with it tremendous physical and emotional demands. The aftermath can involve fame, fortune, controversy, or notoriety — sometimes all of those things. But for any actor, the role of Jesus Christ is never just another part. The Internet Movie Database shows that more than 200 actors have played Jesus on screen, from Jordan Willochko in the Horitz Passion Play in 1897 to Joshua Frederic Smith in this year’s Caravaggio: The search. Most of us can remember some, from Max von Sydow in The Greatest Story Ever Told to Robert Powell in Jesus of Nazareth and Jim Caviezel in The Passion of the Christ. The actor, in addition to the pressure of playing the central role in an often expensive production, must also handle the ghosts of these famous performances as well as the expectations of millions of Christians. “So many people have created Christ in their image for the last 2000 years that finding the original one is complicated,” said Mr Powell in 1975 as he was filming Zeffirelli’s masterpiece. Years later, explaining why he hesitated about taking the part, he said: “I knew I couldn’t play it. . . nobody could play it: it’s unplayable. But I probably knew in my heart of hearts I would have to.” How do you go about playing a character who everybody thinks they know? Mr Powell said he initially tried to make him “sparkier”, but realised that “the more I made him a man, the less I made him divine.”In the end, the reaction to his performance by viewers was overwhelmingly positive. “That’s because I did nothing. It’s a blank canvas on which the audience paint their own image and think their own thoughts.” |
 Robert Powell in Jesus of Nazareth | Willem Dafoe, who played Jesus in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, said: “It really was a case of scrubbing myself of any expectation. . . The story works on the character and how he reacts. So I didn’t have to initiate so much as just try to be present and try to be in the scene.” Beyond “actorly” concerns about how to approach the role are the physical hardships of a long, gruelling shoot in difficult conditions. Mr Dafoe described it as “a deceptively physical movie”: Mr Powell could have had his back broken while filming the crucifixion scene, when the horizontal bar of the cross he was strapped to began to slip. Prizes for the most suffering for the part must go to Jim Caviezel. A reaction to his make-up brought him out in blisters; he caught a lung infection and suffered from hypothermia, dislocated his shoulder, and was hit by lightning while filming the Sermon on the Mount. |
| It is probably just as well that Mr Caviezel, a devout Roman Catholic, believed strongly that he was called to play the role. “If I hadn’t gone through all that, the suffering would never have been authentic,” he commented; “so it had to be done.” Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ was accused of anti-Semitism; Scorsese was accused of blasphemy for depicting Christ having a vision of marrying and making love to Mary Magdalene. Mr Dafoe said that the criticism “broke my heart”. Nobody, however, seems to regret having taken on the job, whether because, like Mr Caviezel, it was a chance to express his faith, or simply because it is the role of a lifetime. Mr Powell said: “I genuinely hope my obituary says: ‘The man who played Jesus’.” Reproduced from Life and Work, March 2008, Church of Scotland |
 William Dafoe in The Last Temptation of Christ |
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