By Christian Toto – Hollywood in Toto
Outspoken Christian shares sacrifices for starring in child-trafficking thriller
Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a crew member on a movie set and his career never missed a beat.
Production on the film in question, “Rust,” resumed earlier this year.
Ezra Miller’s rap sheet is a mile long, but the nonbinary actor anchors one of the summer’s biggest adventures, “The Flash.” And, had the movie performed well at the box office, Miller would have played the speedster in the sequel.
Jim Caviezel agreed to star in a fact-based story about child sex trafficking, exposing an ongoing crime many people don’t know about.
The “Person of Interest” alum says he suffered for taking the part.
Not only has he endured withering, personal attacks from select journalists and film critics, Caviezel’s professional life took a turn for the worse.
The star of the summer’s indie smash “Sound of Freedom” is no stranger to bucking Hollywood wisdom. He’s an openly Christian actor in an industry that gets “freaked out” by people of faith. He starred in one of the most successful, and controversial films of the modern era with 2004’s “The Passion of the Christ.”
And he suspected that starring in a movie about child sex trafficking might come at a professional cost in Hollywood.
And, by his account, he was right.
“I want this to be so huge that they’re forced to look at this. I lost my agents over this. Yep, 17 years, 15 years. I lost my lawyer over this, and now I understand why all these actors didn’t want to do the movie because of this. Listen, you do ‘Schindler’s List’ 50 years later, you’re a hero. Try doing ‘Schindler’s List’ when the real Nazis are right there. Understand how that becomes more dangerous? I don’t understand why people are willing to let children be hurt, but in this time, Hollywood says, ‘No, no, let’s kick that down fifty years from now and then [see where we’re at]. That’s crap.”
Caviezel didn’t name names, which will invite naysayers to question both his motives and the veracity of his statements. It wouldn’t be the first time an actor lost his representation for being ideologically on the right side of the cultural aisle.
Just ask James Woods and Kevin Sorbo how that works.