{"id":43465,"date":"2012-07-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-who-played-jesus-gets-shunned-by-hollywood\/"},"modified":"2012-07-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-07-02T00:00:00","slug":"actor-who-played-jesus-gets-shunned-by-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-who-played-jesus-gets-shunned-by-hollywood\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor Who Played Jesus Gets Shunned by Hollywood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jim Caviezel (whose initials are JC) was thirty-three when he played Jesus in <em class=\"citation\">The Passion of the Christ<\/em>. Caviezel has said his faith is his guide, both personally and professionally, and that God &quot;called&quot; him to the acting profession. Before casting the actor to play Jesus, Mel Gibson (the film&#39;s producer and director) told the up-and-coming actor that the role might cost him his career.<\/p>\n\n<p>But Caviezel, a confessing Christian, wanted to honor his Lord by portraying his life and death. Caviezel responded to Gibson, &quot;We all have a cross to carry. I have to carry my own cross. If we don&#39;t carry our crosses, we are going to be crushed under the weight of it.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>As it has turned out, Caviezel&#39;s decision to &quot;carry the cross of Christ&quot; has definitely cost him career opportunities. Following his role in <em class=\"citation\">The Passion of the Christ<\/em>, Caviezel&#39;s credits have been anything but impressive. He starred in the little-known thriller <em class=\"citation\">Unknown<\/em>, had a supporting role in the Denzel Washington&#39;s film <em class=\"citation\">Deja Vu<\/em>, and had the leading roles in <em class=\"citation\">Outlander<\/em>, and <em class=\"citation\">The Stoning of Soraya M<\/em>&mdash;both of which were panned by the critics.<\/p>\n\n<p>Not until the fall of 2011 did Caviezel land a part that resulted in a positive buzz. His role in the CBS television series <em class=\"citation\">Person of Interest<\/em> has been well-received.<\/p>\n\n<p>Caviezel said he doesn&#39;t worry about the career price he paid with that film&mdash;a global box-office smash that led to fewer, not more, film offers for him. &quot;The awards, the hall of fame&quot; that actors get into here on Earth, he said, don&#39;t matter to him. His reward, he said, will come in heaven. Caviezel said, &quot;Jesus is as controversial now as he has ever been. Not much has changed in 2,000 years &hellip;. We have to give up our names, our reputations, and our lives to speak the truth.&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3408,3512,3546,3701,3726,3749,3897,3942,4264,4568,4807,4869,5115,5139,5284,5293,5316],"tax_ctp_topics":[382,393],"class_list":["post-43465","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-ambition","tax_ctp_tags-boldness","tax_ctp_tags-career","tax_ctp_tags-courage","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-dedication","tax_ctp_tags-evangelism","tax_ctp_tags-faithfulness","tax_ctp_tags-integrity","tax_ctp_tags-opposition","tax_ctp_tags-reputation","tax_ctp_tags-sacrifice","tax_ctp_tags-surrender","tax_ctp_tags-testimony","tax_ctp_tags-witnessing","tax_ctp_tags-work","tax_ctp_tags-zeal"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Actor Who Played Jesus Gets Shunned by Hollywood - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-who-played-jesus-gets-shunned-by-hollywood\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Actor Who Played Jesus Gets Shunned by Hollywood - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jim Caviezel (whose initials are JC) was thirty-three when he played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ. Caviezel has said his faith is his guide, both personally and professionally, and that God &quot;called&quot; him to the acting profession. Before casting the actor to play Jesus, Mel Gibson (the film&#039;s producer and director) told the Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-who-played-jesus-gets-shunned-by-hollywood\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-who-played-jesus-gets-shunned-by-hollywood\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-who-played-jesus-gets-shunned-by-hollywood\/\",\"name\":\"Actor Who Played Jesus Gets Shunned by Hollywood - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-02T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-07-02T00:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-who-played-jesus-gets-shunned-by-hollywood\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-who-played-jesus-gets-shunned-by-hollywood\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-who-played-jesus-gets-shunned-by-hollywood\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Actor Who Played Jesus Gets Shunned by Hollywood\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Actor Who Played Jesus Gets Shunned by Hollywood - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-who-played-jesus-gets-shunned-by-hollywood\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Actor Who Played Jesus Gets Shunned by Hollywood - CT Pastors","og_description":"Jim Caviezel (whose initials are JC) was thirty-three when he played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ. 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