Seven things you probably didn’t know about

If you grew up in Cyprus, there is a very good chance that Jesus of Nazareth was not just a TV series to you. It was an annual event. A sacred broadcast. A televised rite of passage. Franco Zeffirelli’s 1977 British-Italian epic about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has been airing on Cyprus TV every Easter for what feels like approximately 700 years.

And yet, for something so familiar, Jesus of Nazareth has plenty of strange little behind-the-scenes details hiding beneath the beards, sandals and religiosity. With Holy Week upon us, what do you need to know?

Jesus’stare was a makeup trick

Robert Powell’s Jesus does not merely look at people. He penetrates them spiritually. The man stares you like he has seen your internet history and is deeply, deeply disappointed. That famous look was the result of eyeliner.

To enhance Powell’s blue eyes, the production used a thin line of dark blue eyeliner on the upper eyelid and a thin line of white eyeliner on the lower lid. The result was that unsettling, almost supernatural gaze.

Jesus was almost played by Al Pacino or Dustin Hoffman

As impossible as it sounds now, Robert Powell was not Franco Zeffirelli’s first choice to play Jesus. In the early stages of production, the director was reportedly considering Dustin Hoffman or Al Pacino for the role.

The eventual push to cast Powell as Jesus reportedly came from executive producer Sir Lew Grade’s wife, Kathie Moody, after she saw Powell perform in Jude the Obscure and commented on his “wonderful blue eyes.”

Life of Brian owes it a little something

While hailed as one of the best religious films ever made, Jesus of Nazareth also helped create one of the greatest religious comedies ever made.

A few years later, Monty Python released Life of Brian, a chaotic, brilliant satire about a man who is mistaken for the Messiah. Some of the sets used in Zeffirelli’s production were later reused, and there are obvious thematic and visual overlaps between the two.

Jesus almost never blinks

One of the eeriest creative decisions in Jesus of Nazareth is that Jesus barely blinks. Zeffirelli deliberately instructed the actors playing him to keep blinking to an absolute minimum, creating a subtle but very effective sense that this is not quite a normal human being moving among everyone else. As a result, Powell’s Jesus feels calm, watchful and slightly otherworldly.

And because this is the kind of thing people have apparently taken the time to count, the child Jesus blinks twice during the Temple scene, while the adult Jesus blinks only once on screen.

Olivia Hussey became the Virgin Mary after one incredible phone call

Zeffirelli initially planned to cast Irene Papas as Mary, with a younger unknown actress playing her in the earlier scenes. Then he had a better idea: why not cast one actress who could convincingly play Mary across the entire timeline?

That actress was Olivia Hussey, who had previously starred in Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet.

And the way he offered her the role is honestly so unhinged it deserves to be preserved in a museum. He reportedly called her and said: “Darling, how would you like to be a virgin again?”

Robert Powell crash-dieted on cheese for the crucifixion scenes

Robert Powell’s contribution went as far as preparing for the crucifixion scenes by going on an extreme diet so he would appear gaunt and physically depleted. His strategy? Apparently eating nothing but cheese. The result was that Powell looked thin, hollowed-out and exhausted.

A surprising amount of the series was dubbed later

The series was filmed largely in Tunisia, where local regulations required the production to hire local extras. The problem was that many of them did not speak English. Zeffirelli’s solution was simple: film the crowd scenes anyway and worry about the sound later.

So a lot of what you hear in the finished series was added in post-production.

And it was not just the extras. Some principal actors were dubbed over too.

Lorenzo Monet, the child actor playing young Jesus, was Italian and reportedly had difficulty reciting Hebrew prayers during filming, so his dialogue was later dubbed. Even Powell himself was not immune. In one scene where Pilate asks Jesus whether he is a king, we hear him answer “Yes,” but if you watch closely, his mouth appears to be doing something else entirely.