Gibson on Apocalypto

A contrite Mel Gibson puts the past behind him with an ambitious new epic, Apocalypto, which hits Australian screens today.
He's contrite, but Mel Gibson is moving on from his drunken diatribe with typical epic zeal
It would be an understatement to say that Mel Gibson, Oscar-winning director and Hollywood star of more than two decades, has not had the best 12 months.
Yet as Gibson chats en route to his office in Los Angeles, he is talkative and clearly keen to put the alcohol-induced tirade of last July behind him. He remains genuinely contrite, but matter-of-fact, as he calmly and sincerely discusses what happened in his only Australian interview.
"I got a skinful and mouthed off, which is not coming from a good place, but I'm moving on from that," he says.
However, he looks at that experience, "as a gift, because it's made me really scratch my head and focus on a couple of things that I needed to".
"It's working out real positive, and hopefully that's reflected in other lives that I'll touch."
Yet the actor/director feels the press focuses excessively on the transgressions of the rich and famous.
"Everybody screws up and I tell you, if you ask everybody in the world to raise their hand if they never said something vicious, something that they regretted or something stupid, there wouldn't be many people who would be able to raise those hands."
Gibson - whose latest directorial feature, Apocalypto, opens today - is no stranger to controversy, thanks to 2004's The Passion Of The Christ.
Much to Gibson's surprise, Passion resulted in unexpected box office gold, which Gibson says, "told me pretty clearly that there's an appetite for something kind of different out there. So I said, OK, I'll give them something different again.
"But that kind of success encourages me that there is the hunger and appetite for people who really want to be taken somewhere else, so that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to provide them with a visceral and sense experience, so that by the time they walk into the temple (in the film's sacrifice scene) they are hopefully going out of their minds."
Which brings us to Apocalypto - another subtitled Gibson film, this one set in the Mayan civilisation at a time when it is facing decline.
For now, Gibson has elected to turn his back on mainstream American cinema to make films that challenge him as an artist. But he insists he is not intentionally shunning the major studios.
"I really don't think in those terms. I've just been financing the stuff myself because only a lunatic would do that," he laughs.
"There's a gamble aspect to it, in that you could fall flat on your face, which is always a possibility, but at some point you've got to try and put your money where your mouth is and say, 'I can do this'."
Gibson had his actors speak in a little-known ancient Mayan dialect, a symptom of his zeal for history.
"There's always this conceit amongst historians, particularly European historians, that history only began when they arrived, which of course is not the case.
"I thought that it would be interesting to tell a story from the perspective that wasn't told from the New World point of view.
"There's so much mystery surrounding the temples and the archeological findings, that it just really fires your imagination."
Gibson's epics, including his Oscar-winning Braveheart, tend to explore characters or societies facing social and moral dilemmas.
"Those crisis times are when the best stories surface, because people are asked to do things in times of crisis that go beyond their usual realm of experience. To me, those are the really interesting focal points. So I think you're looking for a story that's compelling and therefore you have to set it in a time and place where you see it happening, where you can inspect or investigate the nature of the human spirit in those particular circumstances."
Following his successes in such Hollywood blockbusters as the Lethal Weapon series, Gibson is in no rush to return to acting, despite the rumours.
"I just haven't felt the pressing desire to hop in front of the camera and tap dance," he says.
"It's not that I don't want to do it, it's just that it hasn't been on the menu for me for a while. When I was younger I used to think: boy, what would happen if I didn't work again and gee whiz that'd be terrible, but I since realised that it's not terrible at all."
He admits he enjoys "exploring the backside of the industry from a production and directorial point of view".
"I think the best thing I will have gleaned from all this is that whenever I do get in front of the camera again I'll be able to empathise with any director, no matter who it is, in order to help him with his vision."
Following a rocky year personally and an intense one creatively, Gibson says he is now "looking forward to just doing a little fishing and contemplating my own navel".
He won't disclose the location of his hunting waters, but he does hope to return to Australia at some point to work.
The last time Gibson was in front of an Australian camera was in 1985's Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
"I think you have to find a worthy project to do there, and I think to actually work in Australia means that you can't just take any great story and move it there.
"Rather you need one that's somehow connected to the place, because I think there's such a soul in the ground."
Beyond fishing, Gibson says he has no idea what is in store for him professionally.
"I think I'll probably cook up some other weird idea, but I'm hoping that it won't be too bizarre and maybe something in the English language."
* Apocalypto opens today in Australia* read the original article here

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