When Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ hit theaters in 2004, it wasn't just the visceral violence of the Roman scourging that left audiences shaken. It was that face. You know the one—the pale, hairless, and hauntingly feminine figure gliding through the crowds as Jesus stumbles toward Golgotha. It was a choice that broke every cinematic tradition of the red, horned beast. People left the theater asking one specific question: who played Satan in The Passion of the Christ and why did they look like that?
The answer is Rosalinda Celentano.
If that name doesn't ring a bell for American audiences, it's because she is an Italian actress and the daughter of a legendary singer. But her performance in this film is arguably one of the most effective portrayals of pure evil in movie history. It wasn't about jump scares. It was about an eerie, almost beautiful stillness that made your skin crawl.
Rosalinda Celentano: The Face Behind the Evil
Rosalinda Celentano didn't just walk onto the set and start acting. The transformation was grueling. To get that specific look, Gibson and his makeup team decided to shave her eyebrows. It sounds simple. It wasn't. Removing the eyebrows creates a "blank" canvas that confuses the human brain’s ability to read emotion. It makes the face look alien.
She also had to endure hours of makeup to achieve a complexion that looked like cold marble. But the most unsettling part? Her voice. If you listen closely, Satan’s voice in the film is actually a man’s voice dubbed over Celentano’s. Gibson wanted to create a sense of androgyny. He was leaning into the idea that evil doesn't have a gender; it is a perversion of nature.
Celentano herself is an interesting figure in Italian culture. The daughter of Adriano Celentano, a massive pop star and actor in Italy, she has always been a bit of an iconoclast. She brought a specific kind of European arthouse intensity to the role that a traditional Hollywood actor might have missed. She barely speaks. She just watches. That’s what makes it work.
Why Mel Gibson Chose an Androgynous Satan
Most movies portray the devil as a monster or a slick businessman in a suit. Gibson went the opposite direction. He wanted the audience to feel a sense of "wrongness" that they couldn't quite put their finger on.
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In several interviews around the time of the film’s release, Gibson explained that he viewed Satan as a "deceiver." To him, evil shouldn't look like a cartoon. It should look almost attractive, or at least intriguing, but with something fundamentally broken beneath the surface. By casting a woman with striking features and then stripping away the hair and adding a masculine baritone voice, he created a character that defied categorization.
It’s about the "uncanny valley." When something looks almost human but isn't quite right, it triggers a primal fear response. That is exactly what happened when people saw Celentano on screen.
The Creepy Baby Scene: What Was That About?
You can't talk about who played Satan in The Passion of the Christ without talking about the "baby." It is the most debated scene in the movie. While Jesus is being whipped, Satan carries a grotesque, hairy, middle-aged-looking infant. It’s a scene that haunts people’s nightmares.
Gibson’s logic was brilliant in its cruelty. He wanted to create a dark parody of the Virgin Mary and the Christ child. While Mary represents pure, selfless love, this version of Satan represents a twisted, mocking imitation of that love. The "baby" was actually played by Davide Marotta, an actor with dwarfism, who was aged even further with makeup to look like a tiny, ancient man.
It’s a visual metaphor. Evil doesn't create; it only mocks what has already been created. The sight of Celentano’s cold, detached expression while holding that bizarre creature remains one of the most effective uses of religious symbolism in modern cinema. It’s meant to turn your stomach. It succeeds.
The Physical Toll of the Role
Acting is rarely just about saying lines. For Celentano, the role was a physical endurance test. The film was shot in Matera, Italy, during some seriously cold weather. Because her costume was thin and she had to maintain a ghostly, non-human gait, the filming process was physically draining.
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She also had to deal with the psychological weight of the character. Some actors talk about "taking the role home," and while Celentano is a professional, playing the personification of absolute evil in a highly charged religious environment isn't exactly a light day at the office. The set of The Passion was famously intense—Jim Caviezel was literally struck by lightning and suffered from hypothermia and a dislocated shoulder. While Celentano didn't get hit by a bolt from the blue, the atmosphere was thick with a sense of gravity that translated onto the screen.
Breaking Down the "No Red Suit" Rule
Historically, the devil in art changed based on what people feared most. In the Middle Ages, it was a beast. In the 19th century, it was a tempter. In 2004, Mel Gibson decided that what we fear most is the unknown and the distorted.
By avoiding the "red suit and pitchfork" tropes, the film forced the audience to look at the character as a spiritual presence rather than a physical one. This is why the performance holds up so well twenty years later. If Satan had been a CGI monster, the effects would look dated by now. Because it was a real human face, distorted just enough to be terrifying, it remains timeless.
- The Eyes: They used special contact lenses to make the pupils look slightly off-center or dilated in a way that didn't match the lighting.
- The Movement: Celentano was instructed to move as if she weren't touching the ground, a gliding motion that feels predatory.
- The Silence: In a movie filled with the sounds of screaming, snapping whips, and crashing wood, Satan’s silence is the loudest thing on screen.
Fact-Checking the Myths
There are plenty of "cursed set" stories floating around the internet about this movie. Some people claim that Rosalinda Celentano had supernatural experiences on set. While she has spoken about the intensity of the role, many of the more "demonic" stories are just urban legends fueled by the film’s subject matter.
What is true, however, is that she was almost unrecognizable to her own family when they saw the footage. The makeup wasn't just a mask; it was a total erasure of her identity. That’s the hallmark of a great character actor. She disappeared so completely that most people who watch the film today still have no idea who she is.
Where is Rosalinda Celentano Now?
After The Passion, Celentano didn't move to Hollywood to become a massive star in the U.S. She stayed largely within the Italian film and television industry. She’s an artist, a painter, and someone who seems to value her privacy and her creative integrity over blockbuster fame.
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She has appeared in various Italian films like Poco più di un anno - Love It Like It Is and has been a frequent face on Italian TV. But for a global audience, she will forever be the person who gave a face to the devil. It’s a legacy that few actors can claim—to have created a visual shorthand for evil that stays with people for decades.
How to Spot the Influence
If you look at modern horror or even prestige dramas today, you can see the DNA of Celentano’s Satan. The trend of "elevated horror" often uses that same sense of quiet, androgynous dread. Think about the villains in A24 movies. They owe a debt to the way Gibson and Celentano reimagined what a cinematic demon looks like.
They proved that you don't need a high budget or massive explosions to scare people. You just need a human face that looks like it’s seen the end of the world and isn't particularly bothered by it.
Practical Takeaways for Film Buffs
If you’re revisiting the film or watching it for the first time, keep an eye on these specific details to appreciate the performance:
- The Crowd Scenes: Notice how Satan is almost always in the background of the most chaotic moments, perfectly still while everyone else is moving.
- The Eye Contact: In the Garden of Gethsemane, look at the way the camera lingers on the lack of blinking. It’s a subtle trick to make a character feel non-human.
- The Contrast: Watch the scenes where Satan is near Mary. The visual contrast between the two women is a masterclass in costume and makeup design.
The next time someone asks you about the "creepy lady" from the movie, you’ve got the full story. It wasn't a ghost or a CGI trick. It was a dedicated Italian actress who shaved her eyebrows and let a man's voice come out of her mouth to create one of the most chilling performances in the history of the medium.
To truly understand the impact of the role, one should look at the production notes of the 20th-anniversary editions or behind-the-scenes documentaries. These resources detail the specific Latin and Aramaic translations used, which Celentano had to learn phonetically, adding another layer of difficulty to an already demanding job. This wasn't just a "casting choice"; it was a calculated piece of psychological warfare against the audience's expectations.
If you are a fan of character acting or makeup artistry, studying Celentano's work in this film is a must. It serves as a reminder that the most powerful special effect is often just a talented actor and a bold vision.