Trivia

Jim Caviezel experienced a shoulder separation when the 150-pound cross dropped on his shoulder. The scene is still in the movie.

In interviews with Newsweek magazine and several other media, Jim Caviezel spoke about the difficulties he experienced while filming. This included being accidentally whipped twice, which has left a 14-inch scar on his back, and dislocating his shoulder from the weight of the cross. Caviezel also admitted he was struck by lightning while filming the Sermon on the Mount and during the crucifixion. His hair actually caught fire from this, but he was otherwise miraculously unharmed. (In 2023 the actor revealed that he was taken to hospital and actually died for a few minutes. This made him feel even closer to God when he was revived) The scenes of him hanging on the cross in the dead of Italian winter (with temperatures of 25°F/-4°C and 30-knot winds) caused him to contract hypothermia and pneumonia. Finally, because make-up was used to create a swollen eye, his lack of depth perception gave him migraine headaches.

This is the highest-grossing foreign language film or subtitled film in U.S. box office history. It is also the highest-grossing religious film in the worldwide box office.

It would usually take over 10 hours to put Jim Caviezel into the scourged makeup. On some of those days, it would happen that the weather conditions turned out to be unsuitable for filming. To avoid spending more hours to have it removed and re-applied the next day, he kept it on and went to bed in full make-up.

During the scourging scene, Jim Caviezel accidentally got whipped twice. A whipping post that would take the blows was set up behind him so that the camera wouldn't pick it up, but one of the actors accidentally missed it and hit Caviezel instead. The first time it hurt so much that it knocked the wind out of him, with Caviezel stating that "I may be playing Jesus, but I felt like Satan at that moment", causing him to curse out in pain at the other actor. The second time it caused him to wrench his hand quickly from his shackles, scraping his wrist badly. The remainder of the scourging scenes were finished by using visual effects: the actors playing Roman soldiers held sticks without the leather tails, and acted out the whipping motion, while Caviezel would react as if hit. The tails were later digitally composited into the shots. Make-up wounds on Caviezel's body were digitally covered until the actual hit by the whip, creating the illusion that they suddenly appeared.

Mel Gibson: Gibson's hands nail Christ to the cross during the Crucifixion scene. Gibson said "It was me that put him on the cross. It was my sins" that put him there. According to special edition commentaries, Gibson also supplied the foot of Jesus (washed by Mary Magdalene) and the arms that tie Judas' suicide rope. His crying, screaming voice is heard during the latter scene.