As much as we love violence in our movies, we apparently love it even more on our movie sets . Sometimes directors decide that the only way to make sure your actors look like they're about to die is by actually risking their lives, and society has punished these sadistic bastards by showering them with money, recognition, or both. For instance ...

6 The Actor Playing Jesus in The Passion of the Christ Was Really Whipped

Continue Reading Below Advertisement

With his current golden boy image, it's hard to imagine Mel Gibson overseeing a shoot where actual pain is carelessly, pointlessly inflicted. And yet it was so, and it was no less than his Christ surrogate to whom he had the pain brought.

Michael Buckner/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

"Did you know he was JEWISH?"

Actor Jim Caviezel had a pretty lousy time playing Jesus for this movie -- it all started when he was literally struck by lightning while on the set. We can't pin that on Gibson, though, unless you consider the possibility that the bolt was actually meant for him.

Continue Reading Below Advertisement

Then there's the scene when Jesus was being flogged by the centurions, which ended up being a little too realistic for Caviezel's taste. For one take, Gibson told the actors playing the torturers to mix it up a little and change the swinging technique. As a result, one of the performers miscalculated and ended up whipping Caviezel for real, leaving a 14-inch gash on his back. Caviezel's very un-Jesus-like reaction was to turn around and curse at the other actor ... at which point the guy went ahead and "missed" again, flogging him right on top of his brand new scar.



"Whoops, accidentally looked at the camera and laughed my ass off. We'll have to do that one again."

Continue Reading Below Advertisement

They actually based Jesus' scars on the real one on Jim Caviezel's back, so we can't discard the possibility that Gibson planned it this way. The fun was far from over for the actor: During the part where he was mounted up on the cross, he not only suffered from hypothermia and developed a lung infection, but had a dislocated shoulder while shooting that scene and the ones leading up to it. When you see Caviezel painfully carrying the cross in the movie, he's not so much acting as wishing he had said yes to that romantic comedy with Kathy Griffin.