‘Playing Jesus ruined my career’

In 2004,he expressed his interest in playing the role of Superman/Clark Kent for 2006’s Superman Returns,mentioning that he would dedicate his performance to Christopher Reeve. But the director Bryan Singer felt that Caviezel was too well known after starring in ‘The Passion of the Christ’ and selected newcomer Brandon Routh instead.

The 42-year-old actor says that director Mel Gibson warned him the iconic role would wreck his acting career.

Caviezel said,”He (Gibson) said,’You’ll never work in this town again.’ I told him,’We all have to embrace our crosses…’ I told him,’Mel,this is what I believe. We all have a cross to carry. I have to carry my own cross. If we don’t carry our crosses,we are going to be crushed under the weight of it. So let’s go and do it.’ And we began with the film.”

Caviezel,a devout Catholic,recently was at the First Baptist Church of Orlando in Florida to promote an audio production of the Bible that he has produced.