10/15/2025
How much would you sacrifice for your art? Or your faith? Mel Gibson speaks about the journey with authenticity. ✨
When filming "The Passion of the Christ" back in 2004, actor Jim Caviezel didn’t just act the suffering of Jesus — he endured much of it. While hanging on the cross, he was struck by lightning, crushed under the weight of the massive cross, dislocated his shoulder, and battled pneumonia and hypothermia.
Jim was also accidentally scourged and whipped, then underwent two open-heart surgeries as a result of the strain. His 8-hours of daily makeup also led to skin infections, headaches and one eye being shut.
Now, more than twenty years later, director Mel Gibson is returning with "The Resurrection of the Christ.” Because the sequel captures events three days after Christ’s crucifixion, there is a younger face stepping into the role of Jesus: Finnish actor Jaakko Ohtonen, known for his role in the historical drama "The Last Kingdom."
Screenwriter Randall Wallace (“Braveheart”) has partnered with Gibson to pen the script.
Filming is underway again at Rome’s legendary Cinecittà Studios new Studio 22, and ancient southern Italy, where "The Passion" first made cinematic history. Gibson admits that to bring “The Passion” to the screen he endured his own personal, professional and financial scourging. In a 2022 interview he gave for the Christian Post he was quoted as saying, “I've been taught from a young age that we're flawed, and you’re going to make mistakes,” he shared.
“We're broken, and we need help. Usually, the best way to get help is to ask for it. And well, who do we ask? We're asking something better than us. And the minute you acknowledge that there is something better than you, you might get something that resembles humility, which is really the key to the whole thing.
“Sometimes you're presented with choices or put in places that are very difficult, and some of those choices are hard,” he admitted.
“You just have to examine your own conscience and take the right road, I think… There's no right way; there are a million wrong ways, and you just have to eliminate those or just use your best discernment to get through it.
“But it’s hard, man,” he added. “Life's hard. We’ve all got a boulder we’re dragging.” The Resurrection of the Christ will be told in two parts: Part One on Good Friday, March 2027 and part Two on Ascension Day, May 6, 2027.
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