Jim Caviezel on Faith, Hollywood and His New Film

Think this film, for right now, we've gotten indications it's, it's, it's trending number one right now.

W-why is this a film that America s-should see and should see over the next couple of days?

It's what you were doing all day today and what people were doing when they were watching their veterans that died, watch their families and their brothers and sisters die.

It's what we want. That we know in our hearts that if this country falls, the entire world's gonna fall.

It's over. God gave us this moment. This moment, this Fitz character, he reminds us of us.

And it has-- we've been, uh, we've been marginalized.

We-- you saw it in The Passion of the Christ, we were marginalized.

We had articles that were written. Mel Gibson and me, 120 arti- 107 articles, the front page of the New York Times just ripped the hell out of us, telling you not to go, and you came anyway.

I've never put out crap. I've always wanted to put out something that would make people like Jimmy Stewart and, uh, my family and, and my country proud.

And I knew this would. I knew this would because it wasn't about the emasculation of just some guy, or it wasn't a transgender Jesus, or it wasn't a gay Jesus, where I would have won Academy Award.

I mean, let's face it. And that's why people have turned, uh, the film industry off.

And I gotta hand it to Sony for finally stepping up, and they didn't have to.

But we went to them for Sound of Freedom.

They didn't pick that film up. Angel did.

Uh, uh, The Passion of the Christ did not get picked up by any of the studios.

And right there, that's 3 billion dollars.

I mean, can you imagine turning 3 billion dollars down?

So I, I, I just knew, A, make a great film.

Make real stuff. Make this, this has a spirituality in it, like, you know, films that I used to watch, like, uh, Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee.

He had a spirituality in there, and I watched it.

And when Hollywood found and bought that film, 'cause they, they wouldn't give him a chance.

And he wanted the spirit of the warrior, the samurai in there, and they didn't want it in there.

It was too much re-religiosity and everything.

This is what they did to me on The Count of Monte Cristo.

Most people didn't know who I was back then, but they, they saw it at, uh, not in the theaters.

They saw it later, and they said, "This is powerful."

But see, the, the industry, they don't-- it's become like very communist, very anti-God.

And so there is a God element in this. And it's not something like, you know, uh, a lot of the SEAL community that I've worked with, it's not like they walk and wear it on their sleeve, but they have it here in their heart.

They have it in the right spot, and they're not an atheist in the foxhole.

And that's the same, same characteristic that Chris Papasedero, who wrote this, and the guys that believed in it, believed in me, came in and, um, they believed.

Sony believed that there was, uh, a group of Americans out there, millions of them, that would come to this movie.

And this really, this is a referendum on me, referendum also on Hollywood.

And Sony's ahead of it, and Sony's gonna get the, the, the-- a lot of Americans are gonna, I think are gonna start coming to their movies more, and I think more of the industry.

Paramount, Josh Goldstein is now over there, and, and David Allison and all of them.

And, uh, and so give the industry just a, just a moment more.

I think Americans are because I think they, they wanna have that traditional movies that work, 'cause we're really fighting over what?

The, the narrative. This is good versus evil.

And generally, Americans and people in the world, they love this kind of thing.

And we have to build our wall up, and we've gotta be stronger, because without a wall, we have no country.