Everyone's asking about the Passion scene where Satan is carrying a
hideous infant.

by Mark Moring | posted 03/01/04

"Please explain the symbolism in the scene showing Satan holding a bald
baby. Thank you."

That's just one of dozens of e-mails we've received in the last few
days, asking about a surreal scene in The Passion of The Christ where
Satan is shown cradling a hideous baby who looks like he's about 40 years
old.

The scene occurs during the flogging of Christ. Satan is passing
through a crowd of onlookers, cradling an infant in his arms. The baby turns
to face the camera, revealing a sinister infant, creeping out audiences
everywhere.

We took your questions straight to the source, e-mailing Mel Gibson's
publicist for an answer.

When asked why he portrayed Satan-an androgynous, almost beautiful
being played by Rosalinda Celentano-the way he did, Gibson replied: "I
believe the Devil is real, but I don't believe he shows up too often with
horns and smoke and a forked tail. The devil is smarter than that. Evil
is alluring, attractive. It looks almost normal, almost good-but not
quite.

"That's what I tried to do with the Devil in the film. The actor's face
is symmetric, beautiful in a certain sense, but not completely. For
example, we shaved her eyebrows. Then we shot her almost in slow motion so
you don't see her blink-that's not normal. We dubbed in a man's voice
in Gethsemane even though the actor is a woman . That's what evil is
about, taking something that's good and twisting it a little bit."

But what about the ugly baby?

"Again," said Gibson, "it's evil distorting what's good. What is more
tender and beautiful than a mother and a child? So the Devil takes that
and distorts it just a little bit. Instead of a normal mother and child
you have an androgynous figure holding a 40-year-old 'baby' with hair
on his back. It is weird, it is shocking, it's almost too much-just like
turning Jesus over to continue scourging him on his chest is shocking
and almost too much, which is the exact moment when this appearance of
the Devil and the baby takes place."