Caviezel Keeps His Calvins on for Lopez

May 18, 2001 -- What man doesn't dream of getting to make out with sex goddess Jennifer Lopez? Actor Jim Caviezel, he of the blue, blue eyes, high cheekbones, and saintly demeanor, found filming a love scene with one of the world's most beautiful women for his new film, Angel Eyes, somewhat intimidating, he told Mr. Showbiz.

"It was my first love scene, or the first one that you guys have seen," Caviezel laughs. "I was really nervous. She picked up on that and she said, 'Is this your first love scene?' and I said, 'God, am I that bad?'" Whereupon, he says, Lopez sighed, "I always seem to get every guy's first love scene!"

Caviezel, whose casting received a thumbs-up from Lopez based on his quietly intense performance in The Thin Red Line, told her, "Look, I'm going to keep the Calvins on, and you can figure out what you want to do, but there's certain things I'll do and certain things I won't do."

The Washington state native jokes about the scene, which takes place in a park: "If you watch real closely, you'll see my wife in the background."

Angel Eyes is the latest film from Mexican-born director Luis Mandoki and is more in keeping with his earlier romantic weepy films Message in a Bottle and When a Man Loves a Woman than the Sixth Sense-style supernatural thriller suggested by the film's trailer.

Even so, the story about two troubled souls who seem destined to meet does reference supernatural love stories like Ghost and The Sixth Sense, says Mandoki, who was more interested in earthbound heroes.

The casting of Caviezel, who initially turned down the film because he was prepping for the lead in the upcoming The Count of Monte Cristo, seems predestined too. Caviezel agreed to star as the mysterious Catch, who saves the life of Jennifer Lopez, after his Frequency co-star Dennis Quaid urged him to take the part. But the actor doesn't believe in fate, he says. "People ask me, 'Do you believe in destiny?' and I really don't. I think something up above intercedes for you and tells you, 'You can do this if you want to.'"

Still, there's something spooky about his own tale of why he wanted to become an actor. The revelation that he should become an actor came to Caviezel while watching a movie, he tells Mr. Showbiz: "I felt this huge surge right here [in my heart] and it said, 'If you don't get after what I'm going to do to you right now, then you never will.'" The movie, appropriately enough, was Ghost.