Seattle actor brings star power to film

Caviezel says script for ‘Madison’ is a ‘gem’

By Don Ward
Editor
MADISON, Ind. (October 1999) – Jim Caviezel may not be a household name to everyone, but avid movie-goers may soon notice his name popping up more frequently in the coming months.
And it’s not because of his current project as the late hydroplane race boat driver Jim McCormick in the independent film, “Madison.”

Photo by Karl Pearson Actor Jim Caviezel (right) talks with director Bill Bindley's father (sitting) in between filming scenes for the movie “Madison.” Caviezel plays Miss Madison driver Jim McCormick.

The 31-year-old actor recently finished several major projects with such Hollywood celebrities as director Oliver Stone and actors Al Pacino and Dennis Quaid.
Despite the heady shoulder-rubbing with those film legends, this small-town guy from rural Washington – and a one-time high school basketball star to boot – says he is enjoying the fall beauty of the Ohio River valley. The two-month-long film schedule has allowed him ample time to see the area and even visit the Madison Chautauqua.
Caviezel plays the gutsy McCormick, who in 1971 piloted the community owned Miss Madison race boat to victory here in the circuit’s coveted Gold Cup. He co-stars with Bruce Dern, a Hollywood legend in his own right, and Mary McCormack, a relative newcomer from New Jersey who most recently played Howard Stern’s wife in “Private Parts.”
But the actor getting the most attention in Madison has been 10-year-old Jake Lloyd, coming off his now-famous role in the film, “Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace.”
Caviezel says playing opposite the young star has been an enjoyable experience. And he doesn’t mind that Lloyd’s fame precedes his own.
“Anything that will get people out to see this film I think is great,” Caviezel said. “I told Jake that I’d like to play him when he gets older.”
During high school, Caviezel said he always dreamed of playing professional basketball. When he was a senior in 1987, his team reached the state quarterfinals and went to see the movie “Hoosiers” for inspiration.
“I was in tears,” he recalled. “When I got into acting, I knew if I ever saw a script that read like that, I wanted to do it.”
Then “Madison” came along and, with his wife’s encouragement, Caviezel accepted the role of McCormick in what has been described as a family movie with a heartwarming ending.
“I was about to do a film called “The X Man,” but while waiting for a second re-write to come back, this script came along. Kerri said, ‘Forget it, you’ve got to do this movie instead.’ ”
Caviezel calls the script “a gem” and added that the low budget film has allowed many local Hoosiers to be cast as extras, adding to the pride going into the project.
“There’s a magic to it,” he said. “Everybody either lives here or is from here (Indiana), and you can’t fake that.”

As McCormick, Caviezel has spent some time in a racing uniform and even sat in the vintage Miss Madison driver’s seat for one scene as it was towed past the camera.
But for the most part, the job requires long hours of mostly waiting while film crew members set up for the next shot. While filming on Main Street in Madison, he spent much of the afternoon behind the wheel of a camera-rigged station wagon reading the USA Today sports section.
Both on and off the set, he’s impressed several local residents who have had the opportunity to meet the Hollywood star.
During the start of filming over Labor Day, film extra Debbie Yingst, a Shawe Memorial High School religion teacher, invited him to come speak to her class. To her surprise, Caviezel not only accepted but showed up the next day and spoke before the entire school.
He then went into Yingst’s classroom and gave his personal testimony. “It was such an emotional experience, he brought tears to our eyes,” Yingst said. “He’s so genuine and kind. And he credited God for everything in his career.”
Caviezel (his name is of Romansch origin, but he is mainly Irish) wanted to be a basketball star, but an ankle injury changed all that. He turned to acting and landed his first role in “Diggstown” (1992), a boxing story.
He was admitted to the Performing Arts School at Julliard but then won a part as one of Kevin Costner’s kid brothers in Lawrence Kasdan’s “Wyatt Earp” (1994). Faced with a decision, he took the role instead.
The movie did poorly at the box office, but the exposure earned him a role in the World War II epic “The Thin Red Line” (1998), his biggest film credit to date.
But it’s only the beginning for Caviezel. Once his next few movies hit the silver screen, his name is sure to be right up there with – well, Jake Lloyd’s.

Copyright 1999-2008, Kentuckiana Publishing, Inc.