# Who played the best Jesus Christ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 13, 2002, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-played-the-best-jesus-christ/142596 "2002-12-13T20:21:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bomzaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@Bomzaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bomzaway)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-played-the-best-jesus-christ/142596/21 "2002-12-14T15:50:42Z")
Willem DaFoe ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-played-the-best-jesus-christ/142596/22 "2002-12-14T17:37:21Z")
Another vote for Donald Sutherland. The shot with him leaning out of a steam locomotive, wow. ---
**Author:** ![Angelnside](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Angelnside](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angelnside)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-played-the-best-jesus-christ/142596/23 "2002-12-14T18:17:38Z")
I would have to say that in my opinion [Bruce Marchiano’s](http://brucemarchiano.com/) portrayal of Jesus in the **_Visual Bible-_ Matthew Series** best showed the compassion, joy and love that I believe that Jesus showed those around Him. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-played-the-best-jesus-christ/142596/24 "2002-12-16T21:24:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by montag01 \* > \*\*Astorian–is that the same Pasolini that did Salo (the 120 Days of Sodom interpretation)? If so, quite interesting, I’ll have to look into it. > > Thank you all for your responses thus far! \*\* Yes- also the same Pasolini who directed the great cricket film, “The Third Test Match.” 🙂 Seriously, yes, it’s the same director. Oddly enough, Pasolini himself was a gay, agnostic Communist. I don’t think he expected people like myself or the Pope to endorse it. He might well have been disappointed, in fact! Interesting footnote: since Pasolini wanted to show Jesus and his followers as proto-Marxist working stiffs, he used a lot of local blue collar workers in his cast. Many of the 'actors" in the film had never acted before and would never act again. Even the star himself has only 3 movies to his credit in his entire life, according to the [www.us.imdb.com](http://www.us.imdb.com) ! ---
**Author:** ![Mogwei22](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@Mogwei22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mogwei22)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-played-the-best-jesus-christ/142596/25 "2002-12-16T21:49:16Z")
I’ve always enjoyed the Phil Hartman/Sally Field SNL skit. Sally Field played a woman who prayed for everything (“Dear Jesus, please make sure the dishwasher doesn’t leave water spots on our silverware.”). Phil Hartman as Jesus shows up one day and asks her to stop praying so much. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-played-the-best-jesus-christ/142596/26 "2002-12-16T23:44:00Z")
So … which movie/TV portrayal of Jesus would you most like to hump? So far, we’ve got one vote for Christian Bale and one vote for Jeremy Sisto… ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-played-the-best-jesus-christ/142596/27 "2002-12-17T01:36:26Z")
I have trouble deciding this because there are so many factors- most accurate all-around Jesus epics- GREATEST STORY with Max Von Sydow, J OF N with Robert Powell the short segments I’ve seen do make Bruce Marschiano of MATTHEW-THE VISUAL BIBLE look like the best I can’t judge Christian Bale’s actual performance because the script & tone of the whole TV movie MARY-MOTHER OF JESUS was so awful William Dafoe’s LAST TEMPTATION performance had an odd intensity which compels my attention my favorite all-around Jesus epic is the CBS TV miniseries JESUS with Jeremy Sisto Chris Sarandon was pretty good in the at-the-time controversial CBS movie THE DAY CHRIST DIED which is hardly ever re-shown ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-played-the-best-jesus-christ/142596/28 "2002-12-17T02:37:50Z")
Well, I played 1/5’s Jesus once… my interpretation wore Hawaiian shirts, sport coats, and steel-toed workboots, and beat people with a feathered staff while dancing to the tune of _Billy Jean_. And he worked as a sage in the San Fernando Valley, and has an opposite called the -Jesus[sup]3[/sup] that wears suits, sunglasses, speaks with an oozingly evil voice, and seeks to stir up trouble wherever he goes. I have a weird brain. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-played-the-best-jesus-christ/142596/29 "2002-12-17T04:28:32Z")
I second Jeremy Sisto. Dang. I’m an atheist, but he could make a girl change her mind (incidentally, I’m pretty sure he’s Buddhist in real life). Sexiest portrayal of Jesus? Why, that would be me, as a babe, in an Xmas pageant long ago. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-played-the-best-jesus-christ/142596.md?page=1)