According to CNN, “there was one thing” actor Joaquin Phoenix “would not do” as he prepped for the role of Jesus in the upcoming film, “Mary Magdalene.”

When Joaquin Phoenix took on the role of Jesus in the new film "Mary Magdalene," he did many of the expected things: Grew long hair, adopted an intense and otherworldly stare, even meditated on a mountaintop. But there was one thing he would not do. https://t.co/GCOK2dNoun — CNN (@CNN) April 12, 2019

And apparently that “one thing” was to not stick to the Bible’s version of events. You see, the fact that Jesus used mud or clay to heal restore a blind man’s sight. Phoenix decided Jesus would use his own saliva instead. And, oh . . . the man in the Bible is a woman in the film.

From CNN:

But there was one thing he would not do. Near the beginning of “Mary Magdalene,” which opened Friday in the United States, the script called for Jesus to heal a blind woman by rubbing mud in her eyes, an echo of John’s Gospel. (It’s a blind man in the Bible, a blind woman in the film.) “I knew about that scene from the Bible, but I guess I had never really considered it,” Phoenix told CNN in a recent interview. “When I got there, I thought: I’m not going to rub dirt in her eyes. Who the f*!# would do that? It doesn’t make any sense. That is a horrible introduction to seeing.” The Bible doesn’t fully explain why Jesus used mud or clay to heal the blind, though some experts say it was a common practice among first-century healers. In “Mary Magdalene,” Phoenix decided to go with his gut, licking a mudless thumb and gently rubbing the woman’s eyes.

Sure, let’s trust Phoenix’s gut and not what’s actually written in the Bible. That makes perfect sense.

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