HOLLYWOOD -- Jim Caviezel knows it's time he lightened up.
He just wishes directors, producers and casting agents would let him.
From his breakout performance in Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line to his role as Ashley Judd's mysterious husband in High Crimes, Caviezel has played his share of tortured, haunted, enigmatic loners.
He was the man who blanked out his past in Angel Eyes, drowned it in alcohol in Pay It Forward and had it stolen from him in The Count of Monte Cristo.
In High Crimes, his character's past has the potential to destroy him and those around him in the new life he's created for himself.
Caviezel plays Tom Kubik, a kind, gentle man married to a high-powered, young San Francisco lawyer (Judd). Their idyllic life is shattered when Tom is arrested by the FBI and charged with heinous war crimes committed a decade earlier in El Salvador.
Nothing's funny about that scenario and that's the dilemma facing Caviezel.
"I'm not the first guy anyone in the business thinks of for comedy, but that's what I really want to do. When I was doing stage work, it was mostly in comedies like Neil Simon's Come Blow Your Horn," says Caviezel.
"I'm getting some great roles, but they're all for these intense, tortured souls. It couldn't be further from who I really am. If I was as intense as the characters I play, I'd have no friends. I certainly wouldn't have a marriage."
Caviezel, 33, was married in 1997 to Kerri, a former teacher. The couple recently moved to L.A. from Mt. Vernon, Washington.
Caviezel's swashbuckling drama The Count of Monte Cristo was a surprise hit earlier this year. Made for $35 million US, it has grossed more than $150 million worldwide.
"I'm still considered a good casting bargain because I'm not overpriced. I'm hoping the box-office success of The Count of Monte Cristo will give me some leverage to get a comedy. I would have loved to be in Notting Hill or Four Weddings and a Funeral, romantic comedies like that."
High Crimes director Carl Franklin says filmmakers look to Caviezel for dramatic roles because "Jim has such accessibility to his emotions. He's not afraid to look inward. So many actors of his generation rarely go beyond the surface. They may be slick and polished, but they're not as insightful, deep and truthful."
Caviezel doesn't have another film on the go and that suits him fine because he is preparing to drive in this year's Indy 500.
"I'm a huge car buff, which is ironic because most of my early cars were real rattletraps.
"I finally had to borrow money from my dad to buy a decent car because none of the girls in my hometown would go out with me. I was driving a '76 Toyota truck when I met my wife."
He now drives a white '93 Honda on which he has spent countless hours and a great deal of money turning it into a dream car.
After he fulfills his goal of driving in the Indy 500, Caviezel hopes to head down to South Africa to act on another dream.
"I want to get in the water with a great white shark. I've read so much about them and how people have learned to interact with them. It's my tiny level of celebrity which allows me to do these kinds of things and for that I'm very grateful."
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