The characters he portrayed in the past tend to be "intense" bordering to the point of obsession .
Around the time of the press tour for "The Passion of the Christ", he said to the effect "My initials are JC, I am Thirty-Three years old, & I was a carpenter". He also said that Mel Gibson relayed to him, if he were to assume the role, he would have trouble finding work for years to come. A point of fact, he is a devout Catholic in "godless Hollywood" & his wife Kerri does a lot of outreach for the church.
Once on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (1992) said when asked by fans if he was Jesus Christ, he responds by saying no, but that he is the Count of Monte Cristo.
He is a gifted athlete, especially with respect to basketball, & he was accepted to Julliard, but declined to matriculate when he cast as Kevin Costner's youngest brother in Wyatt Earp. He also had the honor of driving the pace car during the Indianapolis 500.
Nearly gave up acting after struggling for so long, before he got a phone call from director Terrence Malick who directed him in The Thin Red Line (1998). From 1984 onward, he had some rather small roles on shows such as "Murder, She Wrote" & "The Wonder Years"
An interesting fact from imdb.com: It wasn't until 2002 that Jim made his strong religious beliefs known. While filming High Crimes (2002), he refused to do any love scenes with on-screen wife Ashley Judd because it conflicted with his strong Catholic faith & he feels that he was being unfaithful to his wife, former teacher Kerri.
He modeled for The Gap.
Spokesman for "Redeem the Vote," the conservative and Christian counterpart of "Rock the Vote."
Jim's brother-in-law, Scott Linehan, is the former head coach of the NFL's St. Louis Rams (2006-2008); Jim's wife (Kerri) and Scott's wife (Kristen) are sisters.
Chosen as People Magazine's one of the Sexiest Man Alive [2004] and was stated as "The Sexiest Savior."
His surname is Swiss Romansch (Rhaeto-Romanic) and it is pronounced ka-VEE-zel.
After the success of The Passion of the Christ (2004) he was asked to be a spokesman for the Heavenly clothing line but he refused because he felt it would be an insult to people who felt that the film had something meaningful to offer.
Adopted a 5-year-old Chinese boy named Bo a girl named Lyn Elizabeth (Lele) from the Guangzhou region and a baby boy from China named David Patrick who overcame a high stage sarcoma.
Was struck by lightning during the filming of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (2004). Assistant director Jan Michelini was also hit (for the second time during the shoot). A crew member said "I'm about a hundred feet away from them when I glance over and see smoke coming out of Caviezel's ears."
Portrayed Jesus Christ a second time in the Word of Promise audio bible.
During the filming of the Passion of the Christ, he was struck by lightning, had pneumonia, and suffered hypothermia.
To prepare for the role, Jim spent a lot of time with real-life Special Forces operatives and weapons, including rifles and sub-machine guns that he learned to break down blindfolded.
Frequently does pushups between takes. During the filming of “Critical”, Kevin Chapman sat on Jim's back while he popped out pushups.[1]
