James Patrick Caviezel Jr.^[1] (/kəˈviːzəl/ kə-VEE-zəl; born September 26, 1968) is an American actor. He played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ (2004), Tim Ballard in Sound of Freedom (2023), and starred as John Reese on the CBS series Person of Interest (2011–2016).^[2] He played Slov in G.I. Jane (1997), Private Witt in The Thin Red Line (1998), Detective John Sullivan in Frequency (2000), Catch in Angel Eyes (2001), and Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo (2002).^[3]

Caviezel was born in Mount Vernon, Washington, the son of Margaret (née Lavery), a homemaker and former stage actress, and James Caviezel, a chiropractor.^[4][5] He has a younger brother, Timothy, and three sisters, Ann, Amy, and Erin. He was raised in a tight-knit Catholic family in Conway, Washington.^[6][7] His surname is Romansh. His father is of Swiss and Slovak descent, while his mother is Irish.^[8][9]

Caviezel began acting in plays in Seattle, Washington. He earned his Screen Actors Guild card with a minor role in the 1991 film My Own Private Idaho. He then moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. When he decided to move, "people thought I was out of my mind," he said.^[10] He was offered a scholarship to study acting at New York's Juilliard School in 1993, but he turned it down to portray Warren Earp in the 1994 film Wyatt Earp.^[11][12] He later appeared in episodes of Murder, She Wrote and The Wonder Years. After appearing in G.I. Jane (1997), he had a breakthrough performance in the 1998 Terrence Malick-directed World War II film The Thin Red Line. He played Black John, a Missouri bushwhacker, in Ride with the Devil (1999), an American Civil War film.^[2]

Caviezel was originally cast to play Scott Summers / Cyclops in X-Men (2000), but dropped out because of a scheduling conflict with the film Frequency (2000). He starred in the mainstream films Pay It Forward (2000), Angel Eyes (2001), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), and Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004). In 2000, he played the lead role in Madison, a film about hydroplane racing in Madison, Indiana. The film was completed in 2001, but did not appear in theaters until a limited release in 2005. In 2002, he played a pivotal role in the film I Am David.^[13]

Caviezel portrayed Jesus Christ in Mel Gibson's 2004 The Passion of the Christ. During filming, he was struck by lightning, scourged by accident, dislocated his shoulder, and suffered from pneumonia and hypothermia.^[14] Prior to filming, Gibson reportedly warned Caviezel that playing Jesus in his controversial film could hurt his career. In 2011, he stated that good roles had been hard to come by since, but this movie, in particular, the role of Jesus Christ was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The Passion of the Christ went on to take in a box office of $612.1 million.^[15][16]

Caviezel had leading roles in the 2006 films Unknown and Déjà Vu. He played Kainan in Outlander (2008) and provided the voice of Jesus on the 2007 New Testament audio dramatization The Word of Promise.^[17][18] In 2008, he starred in Long Weekend.^[19]

In 2009, Caviezel played French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam in The Stoning of Soraya M., a drama set in 1986 Iran about the execution of a young mother. When asked about how his Catholic faith was affected by this story, he said, "You don't have to go any further than the gospels to figure out what the right thing to do is, whether you should be more concerned helping someone regardless of their religion or where they're from".^[20] That same year, he reprised the role of Jesus in the latest installment of The Word of Promise.^[21] Caviezel starred in The Prisoner, a remake of the British science fiction series with the same name, in November 2009.^[22][23]

From 2011 to 2016, Caviezel starred in the CBS drama series Person of Interest as John Reese, a former CIA agent who now works for a mysterious billionaire as a vigilante. The show received the highest ratings in 15 years for a series pilot and consistently garnered over 10 million weekly viewers.^[24] Caviezel was nominated for the People's Choice Award for Favorite Dramatic TV Actor in 2014^[25] and again in 2016^[26] for his work on Person of Interest.

Caviezel starred in the 2014 football film When the Game Stands Tall as De La Salle High School coach Bob Ladouceur, whose Concord, California, Spartans prep team had a 151-game winning streak from 1992 to 2003, an American sporting record.^[27] He appeared in the 2013 film Escape Plan, playing a warden who maintains order in the world's most secret and secure prison.^[28][29]

Caviezel narrated two documentaries in 2016 regarding Christianity. One was Liberating a Continent: John Paul II and the Fall of Communism and the other was The Face of Mercy. In an interview about the former film, he stated that John Paul II had crushed communism "with love".^[30]

In 2017, Caviezel signed on as lead character of CBS's SEAL Team series.^[31] However, Caviezel left the project due to creative differences before production began and was replaced by David Boreanaz.^[32]

Caviezel portrayed the Apostle Luke in the film Paul, Apostle of Christ, which opened in theaters on March 23, 2018, to mixed reviews.^[33][34]

In January 2018, Caviezel's agent announced that Caviezel had signed on with Gibson to reprise his role as Jesus in The Passion of the Christ sequel, entitled The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection.^[35][36] In September 2020, Caviezel said, "Mel Gibson just sent me the third picture, the third draft. It's coming." He added, "It's going to be the biggest film in world history."^[37]

In 2018, Caviezel signed on to portray Tim Ballard, a DHS Agent and an anti-human-trafficking activist, in the film Sound of Freedom, about the organization Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.) and its mission to save children from sex trafficking and slavery. Ballard had specifically requested that Caviezel play him.^[38] Caviezel stated, "This is the second most important film I have ever done since The Passion of the Christ. ... It's going to affect the saving of a lot of children and the changing of lives. It will also bring a lot of light into the darkness."^[39] The film was theatrically released on July 3, 2023.

Caviezel starred in the 2020 political thriller film Infidel, produced by Dinesh D'Souza.^[40]

In 1996, Caviezel married Kerri Browitt, a high school English teacher. They have adopted three children from China.^[41][30]

Out of respect for his wife, Caviezel requested that he wear a shirt and that Jennifer Lopez wear a top during a love scene in the film Angel Eyes,^[42] and he refused to strip in a love scene with Ashley Judd in High Crimes.^[43] He said, "I do love scenes—but not ones with gratuitous sex. I also don't do gratuitous violence. And it's not just about my wife, although that's important. It's sin, pure and simple. I mean, it's wrong."^[44]