Jim Caviezel found that playing the title role of Bobby Jones was nothing like his previous role, that of Christ in Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ." Learning Aramaic, long hours in makeup, and working outdoors in harsh weather conditions were just a few of the difficulties Caviezel faced. But the actor has risen to the challenges presented him in these and other demanding roles.
Caviezel was born and raised in Skagit County, Washington. The Caviezels were a family of athletes, and James steered initially towards athletics, specifically basketball. It wasn*t until an injured foot sidelined him that he began to develop other interests. His first acting job was an undergraduate stage adaptation of the Frank Sinatra musical "Come Blow Your Horn." In the early 1980s he relocated to L.A., working as a waiter and making the rounds of auditions.
He found small roles in popular TV shows like "Murder, She Wrote" and "The Wonder Years." He talked his way into his big screen debut as an airline reservations clerk in Gus Van Sant's "My Own Private Idaho" by pretending to be a recent Italian immigrant with a thick accent. He continued to get small roles in pictures like Diggstown and Lawrence Kasdan's "Wyatt Earp," but he also began to be noticed. As "Slov" Slovnik in "G.I. Jane," he made his presence felt in several scenes of intense fraternization with co-star Demi Moore.
His breakthrough role, however, was another military assignment, the brooding pacifist Private Witt in Terrence Malick's "The Thin Red Line," holding his own in the presence of costars like Sean Penn, Nick Nolte and Adrien Brody. His evident ability to mix soulful introspection with physicality and action came to the fore over the next few years in his work in projects like Ang Lee's Civil War-era Western "Ride With the Devil" and in Gregory Hoblit's ingenious time-twist thriller "Frequency," in which he played a troubled son hooking up across two decades of time with his long-dead father played by Dennis Quaid.
He then appeared in Mimi Leder's "Pay It Forward" as the homeless heroin addict who learns a life lesson from Haley Joel Osment. In 2002, he starred with Jennifer Lopez in "Angel Eyes," directed by Luis Mandoki. He had all the soaring range needed to convincingly play the wrongly convicted Edmond Dantes in Kevin Reynolds' adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' classic "The Count of Monte Cristo," and was a war hero wrestling with a murder charge in Carl Franklin's courtroom drama "High Crimes" with Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd.
Upcoming roles for 2004 include Omar Naim's "Final Cut" with Robin Williams and Mira Sorvino.
