[Grammar] They weren’t able to use me / dropped the arm of the cross

[gummybear]

Hi,

While I was reading an interview article, I found these two sentences(in red color) that I don't catch what extactly mean.
It's Jim Caviezel interview, by the way, while he was shooting The Passion movie.
I'll add some more text for the background knowledge.

1.
OSV: So this is 12 hours a day just dealing with make-up.
Caviezel: That’s just make-up. The problem is that there is maintenance, there’s a lot of chemicals, there’s alcohol and things like that that they have to use. Some days they weren’t able to use me and they would put a towel over me, put talcum powder to the make-up and then I’d go to bed.

-> Um...I understand he had to put heavy makeup on his skin, and had no time to wash off or something so the makeup artists put a towel over him instead and let him sleep. But what does it mean by "they weren't able to use me"?

2.
I separated my shoulder during the carrying of the cross. Someone came over and dropped the arm of the cross and separated my shoulder and I went down.

-> Does it refer to "dropped the cross on my arm"?
I looked up "drop" in the dictionary to find any conjugation with "of", but I couldn't find any relevant information to that structure.


Thanks in advance for your help!!

 

[JMurray]

Re: I don't understand these two sentences. Help please~

not a teacher

they weren’t able to use me
This seems to mean that he was not required for any of the filming being done on that day. Although he was already made up, they were not able to use him in the scenes they wanted to shoot.

dropped the arm of the cross
This refers to an arm of the cross, not to his own arm. If you picture the large cross, it has an upright section and two arms. It seems that somebody dropped an arm of the cross (perhaps while they were helping him get it into position) and it fell onto his shoulder, causing him an injury.

 

[gummybear]

Re: I don't understand these two sentences. Help please~

not a teacher

they weren’t able to use me
This seems to mean that he was not required for any of the filming being done on that day. Although he was already made up, they were not able to use him in the scenes they wanted to shoot.

dropped the arm of the cross
This refers to an arm of the cross, not to his own arm. If you picture the large cross, it has an upright section and two arms. It seems that somebody dropped an arm of the cross (perhaps while they were helping him get it into position) and it fell onto his shoulder, causing him an injury.

Yeah! I think you broke them down greatly, now it makes sense. Thanks so much

Just I have come up with some more questions while reading the article..Can you help me with these below too?
1.
[Text excerpted]
People were screaming and my hair was all frizzed out. By the time the pan of the camera came around, Mel yelled out, “What the hell happened to his hair?” The people that witnessed it said they didn’t see the bolt, they just saw me illuminated. When I came off the mountain, Mel said, “What happened to your hair?” And I said, “I got hit by lightning.” I felt the electricity in my head. It didn’t hit my heart.
The other thing it’sso big as far as people walking up to you, bowing before you, and they’re calling you Jesus.

In the sentence in red above, does "it" mean "the scale of lightning"? And I found in the dictionary that "as far as" refers to "with regard to / concerning". So if I paraphrase that sentence, "The other thing is that the lightning was really big concerning people walking up to me, bowing before me, and eventually they called me Jesus." It's tremendously incorrect, right? :lol:

2.[Text excerpted]
Someone told me that sometimes the even more serious sins than your sins of commission are your sins of omission. I don’t love enough – there’s mine.

Um..if I paraphrase the sentence in red above like "I don't love my neighbor enough as Jesus told us to and that's my sin of omission.", would it be close to what Jim tried to convey? ..Hmm.. well..I think I really need help on these, too.

 

[JMurray]

Re: I don't understand these two sentences. Help please~

not a teacher

The other thing it's so big as far as people walking up to you…etc
This is a bit of a mess and I wonder if you've given us the correct quote. If this is what was actually said, I can imagine it probably being understood in hurried conversation, but it should not have been transcribed literally as a record of an interview. It should have been tidied up.

Apart from that, I think he has stopped referring to the lightning and has gone on to talk about another hazard he had encountered.
Perhaps it means this:
"The other thing that's a problem, is that it's a very popular thing for people to walk up to you, bow to you, and call you Jesus."


I don’t love enough – there’s mine.
We don't have enough information to know just how generally or otherwise he might be speaking, regarding those he sees as deserving of his love. I suspect that your interpretation, using "neighbour" in a biblical sense, is as good as any.

 

[gummybear]

Re: I don't understand these two sentences. Help please~

Thank you very much JMurray!
And yes they are the correct quote from his interview with a catholic press several years ago.
I appreciate your thoughts on those additional questions, and I personally agree with you on the interpretation of what Jim said.
Thanks!

 

[MikeNewYork]

Re: I don't understand these two sentences. Help please~

You should capitalize the word "Catholic".