Why Jim Caviezel's new film is personal to a man of faith: 'The devil owns the fence'

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‘Incredibly inspiring’ true story ‘Sound of Freedom’ coming out July 4: Jim Caviezel

Actor Jim Caviezel unpacks his new thriller that sheds light on the sex trafficking industry and explains how closing the U.S. borders could contribute to the solution.

The depths of the depravity of human sin are never more blatantly on display than in the horrors of human trafficking. 

Tens of thousands of children are caught in the web of sex slavery and trafficking each year. It is a $150 billion dollar industry worldwide.  

And it is the focus of actor Jim Caviezel's new movie, "The Sound of Freedom," releasing on July 4th, the day America celebrates its independence. 

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He told Fox's Lighthouse Faith podcast, "I was thinking about my own children."

The film is a reminder that freedom is a hard-fought victory. America won it through a bloody Revolutionary War. Less than a century later, a Civil War would free millions of enslaved African Americans. 

The new film follows the story of Tim Ballard, the founder of Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R. Rescue), played by actor Jim Caviezel, as he quits his job with Homeland Security while on a mission to rescue missing children in Honduras and starts organizing his own team of child rescuers. (Angel Studios/ "The Sound of Freedom")

But sadly, it did not end the evil of exploiting for gain the poor, the innocent or the destitute — in America or in the world.

In the film, Caviezel plays federal agent Tim Ballard, who quit his job to rescue children from human traffickers. It's an action-packed movie with a heart. 

For Caviezel, the film is personal.

"My wife and I adopted three children from China. And I was well aware ... of the problems and dangers that children face globally."

"We are the biggest consumers of child trafficking and pornography in the world. The United States — the home of the free, land of the brave. This is ridiculous."

Caviezel is a devout Christian who's probably best known for portraying Jesus in Mel Gibson's film "Passion of the Christ." 

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He said that this new film exposes the spiritual evil that all people can be complicit in unknowingly — simply by doing nothing.

During a recent interview about his new film, "The Sound of Freedom," actor Jim Caviezel told "Lighthouse Faith" podcast, "As I've said before, I don't go to the devil to play the devil. I go to God to tell me who the devil is." (Paul Archuleta/Getty Images)

Said Caviezel, "You have good, and you have evil. It's always been this way. But then you have the group in the middle that are riding the fence. The devil owns the fence."

Caviezel said that last year, 85,000 children went missing. And on April 26, a whistleblower gave testimony to Homeland Security about what was going on in the world of human trafficking.  

And yet, said Caviezel, "The next day in the media, nothing … It's as if they didn't want this story to get out there."

Caviezel worked closely with Ballard to learn the ins and outs of how agents go after traffickers.

Caviezel said that "300,000 children under the age of 18 were lured into the sex trafficking business in the United States. We are the biggest consumers of child trafficking and pornography in the world. The United States — the home of the free, land of the brave. This is ridiculous. And so the film is a threat."

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Caviezel worked closely with Ballard to learn the ins and outs of how agents go after traffickers.

But Ballard told him how one encounter with one boy became a game changer.    

A scene from the new film, "The Sound of Freedom," starring Jim Caviezel. The story becomes so much larger than rescuing just one girl from human trafficking.  (Angel Studios/"The Sound of Freedom")

"He's met with an opportunity when he takes on the worst pedophile trafficker they'd ever seen. And he saves this little boy. And the five-year-old boy says, ‘Will you save my sister?’ So, Ballard goes home, talks to his wife. She sends him out, and he tries to find this little girl. [That's] the basis of the film's story."

All the movies Caviezel chooses to work on must have some redemptive quality, he said. 

And the story becomes so much larger than rescuing one girl. 

It opens a Pandora's box of the unspeakable evil that thousands of children are brought into, and how traffickers use the most beguiling means to lure children away from their loving parents.

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Caviezel said this movie, like all the movies he chooses to work on, must have some redemptive quality. That can be a struggle for actors, as Hollywood constantly pumps out products of the exact opposite nature.  

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But the man who portrayed Jesus on the silver screen — and will again as he teams up with Gibson to make a movie about the resurrection of Jesus — said, "It doesn't mean I'm going to play the good guy, but that the audience comes away with something that challenges them. As I've said before, I don't go to the devil to play the devil. I go to God to tell me who the devil is."