BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., May 4, 2001 — She didn’t know his name, but his eyes captured her attention.
No, really, that’s how it happened — we swear. Jennifer Lopez was looking for a leading man for her next film and remembered a pair of piercing blues that logged in her memory after watching The Thin Red Line. She told the film’s producer, Mark Canton, to find “the guy,” and that’s how Jim Caviezel came to be cast.
Up until then, the 32-year-old Washington state native, who became the breakout star of Terrence Malick’s World War II film, had since only appeared in the little-seen Ride With the Devil. But now, with a leading role in the appropriately titled Angel Eyes, Caviezel found himself with his biggest role since last year’s well-received Frequency opposite Dennis Quaid.
In Angel Eyes, directed by Luis Mandoki, the handsome, soft-spoken Caviezel plays the mysterious stranger who rescues a tough police officer (Lopez). As the two begin to fall in love, they find they have more in common than at first glance, a past that is intertwined and inevitably needs unraveling.
Hollywood.com recently chatted up the actor, who revealed a surprising light side as he discussed life in the Northwest and his secret musical talents.
Where do you live now?
Jim Caviezel: I live in here in Los Angeles.
You grew up in Mount Vernon, Wash. Do you get back to the Northwest often?
Caviezel: I was just there last week … I was 22 when I left. But I’ve been going back and forth, my family still lives there.
That’s quite a change from LA. Do you like living here?
Caviezel: I do. The best part of LA … you’ve got the beaches, you’ve got the beautiful weather and stuff, but you have to have a great network of friends. You only need a handful…. When I came down here, it was sun [looks at the sky disappointingly] … sun … all sun, all the time. I was like, give me a cloudy day! Now when I go up there, I forgot all about the clouds, every day. Come on! My blood is thinned out.
So now we’re here talking about a movie that we can’t divulge too much about. How do you get through a day of interviews?
Caviezel: You just don’t talk. I let you talk … where are you from?
Nice try.
Caviezel: It is hard. In saying anything about Angel Eyes and talking about my character gives a lot away. Because you don’t know if this guy’s an angel or not. There’s a lot of mystery to it. But it is a character who’s after redemption and both of them share that in common. Both of them are trying to set things right in their past by helping people in their present, and unknowingly, this brings them together to deal with the pain.
What did you know about Jennifer Lopez before you met her?
Caviezel: Well, [begins chanting lyrics to Lopez’s song] If you had my love and I gave you all my trust, would you comfort me … and be my baby?
Wow, that’s pretty good.
Caviezel: I’m strictly a white rapper. And she saw that, I think … [No, actually,] she had seen The Thin Red Line, and her manager called my agent up and my agent called me and told me that she’d be interested in me doing this movie. I read it, and I initially turned it down. I didn’t think that I would be able to do it because it butts too close to another film that was gonna take a huge amount of time to do [The Count of Monte Cristo]. To make a long story short, Dennis Quaid called me and said, “You might want to rethink that. ‘Cause [Luis Mandoki’s] a very smart director.” I called him up the next day and asked if he would have me in his film.
You have your first movie love scene with Jennifer. How’d that go?
Caviezel: She looked at me and goes, “This is your first love scene, isn’t it?” I said, “Why, am I that bad?” She said, “No … but usually it seems I get every guy’s first love scene.” I said, “Jennifer, I don’t care as long as they let me keep my Calvins on and they shoot around it, I’ll be all right.”
You could’ve sung her songs; that would’ve helped things out.
Caviezel: No, because I’m married, and I didn’t want to bring us closer than we already were. I’m a man of many talents, but I don’t like to brag. I don’t want her manager trying to sign me. … We’re in a movie together; is that not enough?
Angel Eyes opens May 18.
