The strict clauses imposed on the actors who played Jesus Christ in the 80s: “They could not play ‘unworthy’ roles in five years”

The face of Jesus Christ has appeared in many films, such as ‘King of kings’, ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ or ‘The last temptation of Christ’. However, there was a time when Hollywood was embarrassed to show the face of Jesus Christ.

“From the year 27 to the year 61, the appearances of Christ in the cinema are with a light, from behind, with a hand that appears, or with a voice. There was a certain fear of putting a face on it“, says Guillermo Balmori, film historian.

Like, for example, that hand that offers water to a Ben Hur thirsty and dying Something similar happened with ‘King of Kings’, which ran into the Francoist censorship during filming in Spain in the 1960s. It was Carmen Sevilla who played the role of María Magdalena in that film.

In this sense, Balmori emphasizes that “when they film the crucifixion, they do not shave the actor’s chest, and then the Spanish censorship said that how could Christ be put on with hair on his chest, that was not respectful, so they did repeat the scene with him shaved“.

Even Scorsese himself had to put order when he shot ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’already in the year 88: “He did not allow smoking on the set; he did not want the photographers to take an image of Christ smoking because it could be disrespectful”, indicates the film historian.

Playing Jesus Christ even brought consequences once the movies were over. “There were clauses for the actor; could not play roles that were ‘unworthy’ of having played Jesus Christ five years later,” says Guillermo Balmori.

However, it went from the modesty and decorum of the golden years of Hollywood, to the most lurid scenes in recent decades. Balmori highlights in this regard that “today’s cinema demands more violence.” “Realism is confused with being more unpleasantbloodier,” he says.

The titles about Jesus Christ, some of them blockbusters, return to the screens every year at Easter.