James Patrick Caviezel Jr. is an American actor. He played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ (2004) and Tim Ballard in Sound of Freedom (2023), and starred as John Reese on the CBS series Person of Interest (2011–2016). He also 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).
Caviezel says that at age 19 while watching a movie in a theater, he felt a sense of peace overcome him and that God was asking him to become an actor. After his basketball career ended due to injury, he 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. 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. He later appeared in episodes of Murder, She Wrote and The Wonder Years, along with a role in G.I. Jane (1997).
Caviezel had a breakthrough performance in the 1998 Terrence Malick-directed World War II film The Thin Red Line. He had met with Malick several times before securing the role and had told his wife that if he did not get a role in the film, he intended to quit show business and move back to Washington. He later played Black John, a Missouri bushwhacker, in Ride with the Devil (1999), an American Civil War film.
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), and The Count of Monte Cristo (2002). 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 leading role in the film I Am David.
