• Bible Films Blog

    Looking at film interpretations of the stories in the Bible - past, present and future, as well as preparation for a future work on Straub/Huillet's Moses und Aron and a few bits and pieces on biblical studies.


    Name:
    Matt Page

    Location:
    U.K.












    Friday, November 27, 2009

    MSN's "19 Actors Who Really Should Play Jesus"

    Thanks to Joseph Hollies for pointing me towards this one.

    MSN Movies has come up with a list of 19 Actors Who Really Should Play Jesus. It's a fun list and there are a couple of amusing choices (Sacha Baron Cohen for example). Just a few comments from me. Firstly, one of the names on the list is Christian Bale, but he of course has already played Jesus in 1999's Mary the Mother of Christ. Secondly Johnny Depp was one of the names talked about in relation to Anne Rice's Christ the Lord. Lastly Mel Gibson clocks in at number 14, along with the claim that his foot stood-in (see what I did there) for Jesus in The Passion of the Christ in the John 8 footage. I'm fairly sure this is a mistake. It's possible that after the hundreds of thousands of words I've read about this film that this fact has eluded me, but I figure it's more likely that MSN got confused between that and the oft repeated claim that Gibson used his own hands as those belonging to the soldier who hammered the nails into Jesus' hands.Edit: I've now had two comments from people verifying MSN's claim, so there you go. It looks like it is Mel's foot that we see in that scene (and of course the trailer).

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    3 Comments:

    • At 11:37 pm, November 28, 2009, Anonymous Anonymous said…

      Actually, I think Mel did his use own foot (and possibly his hand, too) in the Mary Magdalene flashback in addition to his hand during the crucifixion scene. In the DVD and Blu-ray bonus material for the film, it shows behind-the-scenes footage of Mel wearing Jesus' robe and writing the line in the sand. It's possible that he may have just temporarily stood in for Jim Caviezel to get an idea of how he wanted the scene staged, but that doesn't explain why he'd put the robe and sandals on. Perhaps part of this scene was shot while Jim was recuperating from one of his many on-set accidents and they later did pick up shots of just Jim. That would explain why you never see Jesus/Jim's face in the same shot as Mary Magdalene or the Pharisees.

       
    • At 5:47 pm, November 29, 2009, Blogger Unknown said…

      Yep that is true, I read somewhere that this was filmed to gain time since Jim Caviezel was still in the makeup trailer at that time. If you notice while the finger is moving in the dust, it is the left hand being used, while when Jim is seen writing he is using the right hand. I think that Mel used his left knowing the Jim is left handed, but forgot to instruct Jim to use his left :-)

      God bless

       
    • At 11:11 am, November 30, 2009, Blogger Matt Page said…

      Thank you both for that. It just goes to show:

      1 - The value of having a blog like this with comments for people to add insights like yours

      2 - That no matter how much you read on a film, there's always probably something you don't know.

      I'll add this post to the Passion of the Christ Label so it's easier to find in future.

      Matt

       

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