Hristo Shopov was born on January 4, 1964 in Sofia, Bulgaria. He is known for his work on The Passion of the Christ (2004), Love.net (2011) and Double Identity (2009). Mary Soan, the first assistant director of the film "I Am David", recommended him for the role of Pontius Pilate to Shaila Rubin, who cast "The Passion of the Christ". After a short conversation between the actor and Mel Gibson, he got the part. Belongs to the theatrical company of The National Theatre "Ivan Vazov". Brother of actress Liza Shopova. Has played the character of Pontius Pilate twice. Once in The Passion of the Christ (2004) and second in The Final Inquiry (2006). Actor, Christo Jivkov, was also in both movies; as the disciple John in The Passion of the Christ and as Stefano in The Final Inquiry. The strangest thing is that a religious film "beat" Lord of the Rings. In America they are interested mostly how quickly a movie makes its profits. That's the measure, that's what you can read about in the papers. I do not know what was the reason of the success of The Passion of the Christ (2004). It's just that the film is too strong, too different from our idea of the Christianity. In the time around Easter and Christmas we can watch films, in which everything is very sweet, very beautiful, in some way neutral. Here things are different, I think.