A HOLLYWOOD BAPTISM JIM CAVIEZEL DOES HIS BEST TO RECONCILE HIS ROLES WITH HIS RELIGION.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

Jim Caviezel is a devout Catholic. That's the first thing you need to know about him, and given the pervasiveness of his faith in his life, it may be the only thing you need to know about him. Everything else - his career, his family life, his choices in movies - comes from the core of his religious beliefs.

Caviezel realizes his faith puts him out of step with the rest of Hollywood, and he's OK with that. He doesn't share his faith, unless he's asked. He doesn't expect anyone else to agree with him. But he does expect this: Anyone making a movie with him should know going in that he's going to hold firm to his values.

Caviezel, 33, has made a handful of successful movies since bursting on the scene four years ago as the star of Terrence Malick's beautifully meandering war drama ``A Thin Red Line.'' He was the policeman trying to get in touch with his dead firefighter father in ``Frequency.'' He was the loner harboring a deep secret in ``Angel Eyes.'' In his latest, ``The Count of Monte Cristo,'' he plays the title character, another in a line of haunted individuals trying to come to grips with the past.

Yet, for the few films he has made, the soft-spoken Caviezel has turned down dozens of others because of the sexual explicitness of the material.

Comfortable distances

``It would have been a lot easier being an actor in the 1930s, '40s or '50s,'' Caviezel says. ``When I saw 'It's a Wonderful Life,' I never saw Jimmy Stewart sleeping with Donna Reed. There's just no need for it. I don't believe in it. You're never going to see my butt in a film unless I'm in the Holocaust, walking around.''

To wit, Caviezel's love scene with ``Monte Cristo'' co-star Dagmara Dominczyk is seen only from a distance and all you do see is Caviezel's bare back. That wasn't exactly how director Kevin Reynolds envisioned it.

``You have to work with Jim to make him comfortable,'' Reynolds says.

Polish beauty Dominczyk certainly found that to be true.

``Jim took me aside and said, 'You know, I'm married and very faithful,' '' Dominczyk says. ``And I said, 'Jim, it's a Disney movie. I'm not going to grab your crotch!' ''

Jennifer Lopez more or less told Caviezel the same thing during their love scene for last year's ``Angel Eyes.'' Caviezel insisted Lopez wear a top and shorts and that he be able to keep his jeans on through the entire scene.

``It's not hard to shoot around a scene like that,'' Caviezel says. ``I make the request out of devotion, love and respect to my wife.'' Caviezel has been married for four years to Kerri, a high-school English teacher he met in Los Angeles on a blind date.

Even gaining these concessions doesn't completely satisfy Caviezel, who worries that kids listening to him talk about the importance of abstinence don't understand why he doesn't back up his words by the roles he chooses.

``Kids call me on it sometimes, saying, 'You played a character who had premarital sex in ``Angel Eyes,'' so it must not be wrong,' '' Caviezel says. ``But it is wrong. I have a hard time balancing that, and I believe I'll be held accountable (by God) for things that I try to rationalize.''

In his feelings of angst and guilt, Caviezel shares some common ground with Edmond Dantes, his alter-ego in ``The Count of Monte Cristo.'' Edmond begins the movie as a wide-eyed innocent, but his trust in man's goodness is shattered when he's falsely accused of treason and sent to prison. There, Edmond lusts for revenge against the advice of a priest who warns him that vengeance is ``a meal endlessly cooked and seldom eaten.''

``The script was honest to me,'' Caviezel says. ``People don't like talking about faith and death, where they're going and all that. I felt that this film was very honest with those things. When I see great films like 'Ben Hur' and 'A Man for All Seasons,' there's something in there - a truth. There's something inside that is greater than us. And Edmond's on that journey to find that.''

Caviezel found his truth growing up with his tight-knit Catholic family in Mount Vernon, Wash. He says his family and his faith have always provided him with a strong sense of who he was, as well with as the confidence to never compromise his beliefs.

``If I didn't have my faith in God and my religion, I would easily have gone the wrong way, because there's too many temptations out there,'' Caviezel says. ``It's prayer that allows me to have peace in my life. Temptation isn't going to make you happy.''

Says ``Monte Cristo'' co-star Dominczyk: ``Jim possesses an inner peace that you don't find in too many people in this business. He might just be the calmest person I've ever met.''

Adds director Reynolds: ``I'd watch Jim shamble on the set some mornings, a little bit quiet and withdrawn, an inward soul, and it just didn't seem possible that he could be the same actor who could later that same day make the Count of Monte Cristo come alive so charismatically. It speaks to his acting. He could probably do anything he wants to do.''

What Caviezel wants to do most is a romantic comedy, but he despairs of ever finding one that's in line with his beliefs. He also says ``A Thin Red Line'' pigeonholed him as a serious actor, a tag he finds amusing given that Malick's casting director first saw him in a Neil Simon play and reported back to the director: ``I don't really see him as a dramatic actor.''

``You can't change yourself in order to change people's perceptions about you,'' Caviezel says. ``I've been blessed with some great opportunities, and I have faith that I'll be blessed with some more. I don't expect anyone else to agree with my views, and I'm not going to force them on anyone. I'm just going to make the most of what comes my way, whatever that is.''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Something to `Count' on

(2) Jim Caviezel, right, with Luis Guzman, stars as Edmond Dantes in ``The Count of Monte Cristo,'' the script of which Caviezel praised for its honesty.

(3) ``Jim possesses an inner peace that you don't find in too many people in this business,'' says Dagmara Dominczyk of co-star Caviezel.