Maybe This Will Help: Mel Gibson and Joe Eszterhas to make a film about Jewish warrior Judah Maccabee
I thought this latest incident took place at Gibson’s house. Wasn’t this a dinner party at his Gibson’s house in Costa Rica, whereby Eszterhas and his family were staying?
Whether he’s got some sort of psychological disorder or is an addict is beside the point. What is truly offensive is his racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic behavior. Look at the recent joke he gave during the Harry Knowles Q&A – “You don’t look Jewish”. This is a pattern that has gone on for decades. I remember reading an interview with Winona Ryder about a year ago and she said it was a known fact around Hollywood that Gibson hated gay people. She even witnessed at a party him denigrating gays. And this was 20 years ago!
Give me a break.
yeah exactly…you don’t suddenly start spruking stuff that is not already in residence just because you’re drunk. After repeated outbursts of like nature it is now a matter of denial to think of Gibson as other than an angry narrow minded bigot.
Yeah, we’re definitely not gonna get anywhere. I just don’t hate Mel Gibson, and you guys do. That’s fine. It just seems harsh to say that he’s beyond redemption.
I don’t hate him,actually it makes me really sad as I have loved him…but I am finished with him as a bringer of information and entertainment as I don’t trust his psyche and don’t want to be associated with it
It all comes from Hutton doesn’t it? he was on Sale of the Century here many years ago and won a lot of stuff and I recall thinking he was creepy and is a fundamentalist (I didn’t know that then)
I wouldn’t like to think anyone was beyond redemption but once attitudes become entrenched as part of the fabric of a person’s background psychological schema over time, they’re very difficult to shift
This is hilarious, all this attention being paid to a has been- an EX movie star.
I am finished with him as a bringer of information and entertainment
Okay – information, fine (did you ever rely on Gibson as a source of information?), but entertainment? What? Are you not ever gonna watch any of his movies ever again? As always, you have to separate the person from the entertainer, as we’ve talked about a bunch with Roman Polanski. Yes, what he did is absolutely disgusting and reprehensible, but everybody seems to have pretty much forgiven him. IMO, hurling some racist or anti-Semitic epithets is not even near the level of raping a 13-year-old girl! I just don’t understand why you guys think Mel Gibson is totally beyond redemption.
Are you not ever gonna watch any of his movies ever again?
nah…not new stuff, really not interested there’s so much fabulous cinema I never get to I couldn’t be stuffed spending my time and money on him
I watched Beaver, it’s so hard to accept such characterisations from Gibson now though. It just feels completely phoney and is a struggle
Nobody is beyond redeption, it’s just that Gibson has shown no interest in it (as far as the public can tell.)
^Exactly.
Celebrity culture is weird.
Of course all these guys are douchey. That goes without saying. But the difference between Gibson and Polanski is that Roman admitted guilt (well, one count at least) and paid for his crimes. And Woody Allen has been married to Soon-Yi for nearly 20 years so I’m not so sure he’s just a creepy pedophile (although maybe he is, who the hell konws).
But with Gibson, he doesn’t seem apologetic for his views and hasn’t done anything to get beyond his issues. Instead, the pattern just continues and continues. For that reason, he’s an asshole. Of course he’s not “beyond redemption”. I think that back in the day, he was a charismatic screen presence. And I hope he does change and see the error of his ways. He’s a talented actor, no question. I love Lethal Weapon, I love Bird on a Wire. But with this continual behavior and the shitty movies he’s been doing the past ten years, it makes it pretty easy to skip his films.
Dogs are my favorite pets but Chaplin would be no less funny if he molested collies
Gibson is no less charming cause he is a homophobic racist (assuming he is)
It’s entirely subjective
Chaplin would be less funny to me if I knew he’d been rooting his collie because my nausea would get in the way – I don’t know how it can be said Gibson is no less charming because he is a homophobic racist, all aspects of a person meld and swirl to affect, compromise and colour their impact on others .
I think a film persona can be divorced from a public one.
It is all subjective however, would hate to be the person that roots against Chazz Bono because he is Chaz Bono
from variety:
Few actors seem to relish punishment like Mel Gibson, and in “Get the Gringo,” the writer-producer-star throws himself in a Mexican prison where quick wits and killer instincts are all that separate him from una muerte lenta y dolorosa. Originally titled “How I Spent My Summer Vacation,” this tongue-in-cheek bad-guy-makes-good actioner is an ideal showcase for “Apocalypto” first a.d. Adrian Grunberg, a dynamo in directing this unapologetically twisted romp. A decade ago, distribs would’ve been eager to get Gibson in such a project; these days, the pic skips a domestic run, recouping abroad before bowing on-demand May 1.
As Gibson put it to auds after a preview screening, “A guy’s gotta suffer. You don’t just want a grease ride, do ya? There’s gotta be obstacles to overcome, testicles to remove.” Though he was talking about his pain-driven storytelling philosophy, the comment could just as easily apply to the penance showbiz expects before welcoming Gibson back to the fold. Still, what looks like a straight-to-VOD burial for the toxic star’s latest project could actually be a savvy move in the States, where pic will easily outgross “The Beaver” once auds realize they’re getting Mel in classic action-movie mode.
That much is clear within the first 60 seconds, as a pair of fugitives in clown costumes make a mad run for the Mexican border. It’s a surreal touch, never quite explained, other than to set the irreverent, free-wheeling tone right from the beginning: These angry cops mean it when they say they’re in pursuit of “two clowns,” and while his accomplice expires in the backseat, the getaway driver (Gibson) seeks a spot to jump the fence onto Tijuana soil … and into the custody of four corrupt Mexican officers all too eager to confiscate the cash and throw him in prison.
All the while, Gibson’s nameless character sarcastically narrates, implying that such outrageousness might reasonably qualify as the cost of doing business as a high-stakes criminal. The tone, inspired by film noir but amplified considerably for 21st-century auds, suggests “Lethal Weapon 3’s” battle-scar comparison scene, as if this flashback were being offered to explain a gnarly gash — in this case sustained while breaking back into the world’s craziest slammer, El Pueblito prison, based on a real correctional facility, in which inmates are allowed to bring their families to live with them behind bars.
That decision, to go back and rescue a pretty senorita (Dolores Heredia) and her endangered son (Kevin Hernandez), is what ultimately redeems Gibson’s self-serving character, who hardly minds when his accomplice dies in the first scene, and spends the rest of the movie manipulating others to his own ends. What “Get the Gringo” shares with the actor’s signature roles — Martin Riggs, Mad Max, even the way he played Hamlet — is the sense his character doesn’t care whether he lives or dies, which gives him an edge over everyone else onscreen, since nothing concerns them more than their own mortality.
Gibson felt compelled to tell this story after reading about El Pueblito, a reckless experiment in which drugs and firearms were permitted, and criminals had the run of the joint and even set up their own businesses, many of them illicit. Though presented with a Peckinpah-like old-school machismo, “Get the Gringo” could just as easily seem like science-fiction, so foreign are the rules in this south-of-the-border hellhole, where a bathrobe-wearing cartel boss (Daniel Gimenez Cacho) runs things on the inside — until an angry mobster (Peter Stormare) sends his goons to retrieve the money stolen in the opening scene.
However coarse Gibson and co-writers Grunberg and Stacy Perskie have made the script, tough-cookie Hernandez is the key to humanizing an experience in which the souls of every other character seem to be snared in barbed wire. After stealing scenes in “The Sitter” last year, the young actor is ready for this meatier role, one with grown-up demands, including a few cigarette-smoking scenes sure to upset those otherwise willing to forgive, say, a slo-mo shootout in which dozens of innocents are gleefully squibbed to death.
Gibson’s sensibility remains one that chuckles at carnage and sees torture as the most effective way to ratchet up audience sympathies, but still doesn’t take itself so seriously that the actor can’t poke fun at himself — or old friend Clint Eastwood in an especially amusing impersonation. Gibson knows how to play to the camera, and Grunberg is savvy enough to maximize what the star gives, spinning a slick package around the crazy scenario.
Production values are tops, with special kudos to the team that recreated El Pueblito in a whitewashed Veracruz prison not far from where Gibson and Grunberg made “Apocalypto.”
Camera (color, widescreen), Benoit Debie; editor, Steven Rosenblum; music, Antonio Pinto; music supervisor, Howard Paar; production designer, Bernardo Trujillo; art director, Jay Aroesty; costume designer, Anna Terrazas; sound (Dolby Digital), Santiago Nunez; sound designer, Benjamin L. Cook; supervising sound editors, Kami Asgar, Sean McCormack; re-recording mixers, Kevin O’Connell; stunt coordinators, JJ “Loco” Perry, Balo Bucio; special effects coordinator, Alejandro Vazquez; visual effects supervisors, Kevin Lingenfelser, Alan Munro; visual effects, Furious FX, Sofia; assistant director, Javier Clave; casting, Vickie Thomas. Reviewed at Regal Cinemas L.A. Live, April 18, 2012. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 96 MIN.
“A guy’s gotta suffer. You don’t just want a grease ride, do ya? There’s gotta be obstacles to overcome, testicles to remove.”
I don’t see this as anything more than an interesting tidbit, but I remember reading a little while ago that Gibson has a gay brother that said Mel has been nothing but supportive to him. That’s not some sort of defense of Mel, I just found it interesting.
damn, I really want to see that movie now :):)
The director of Get The Gringo is Jewish. So is the producer. Gibson has work with both of them for almost a decade. I also find that info about his bro very interesting Rock and Bull.
“Get the Gringo” looks like a classic Gibson film that could have been made in 90s. Hell it almost feels like “Payback 2: Escape from Prison” which is a good thing.
I agree with the comments made by Dennis. I use to find it harder when I was younger but I have no problem seeing the artist and the man as two different personas. Gibson will always have a career as a director and producer but it won’t be from funded by american studios. Acting is still up in the air. Taking the role in Machete Kills is one thing but staring in a thriller like Edge of Darkness is another…
Jeez, not the but some of his best collaborators are Jews defense? Can’t we do better than that?
^Agreed.
That’s kind of a creepy defense.
His brother is gay therefore he must not be homophobic because he’s supportive of his brother?
Ummm…no. He’s supportive of his brother BECAUSE HE’S HIS BROTHER!
from imdb (UGG)
Joe Eszterhas isn’t done with Mel Gibson just yet. The screenwriter has written “Heaven and Mel,” an eBook recounting in colorful detail his relationship with the disgraced director that Amazon will release on June 6, TheWrap has learned. “I can’t remember ever reading a more haunting, nuanced portrait of a Hollywood superstar in decline,” Dave Blum, editor of Kindle Singles, told TheWrap exclusively. "This is an eyewitness account by a gifted storyteller of a man of faith at war with his demons. In the end, the demons win
new mel gibson interview from coming soon
Mel Gibson may have his critics but he is, if nothing else, a born survivor. The American-born Australian-raised actor/filmmaker has been a part of the Australian and American film industries for some thirty years.
The classically trained actor made an impact on movie audiences in the original Mad Max and cemented his reputation as a movie star with starring roles in two Peter Weir films, Gallipoli and The Year of Living Dangerously. His first attempts at international success met with mixed results despite critical acclaim for The Bounty, The River and Mrs. Soffel, but then came a third “Mad Max” and the first Lethal Weapon and the rest, as they say, is history.
He was able to utilize his Hollywood star power to form Icon Productions and transition to direction, first with The Man Without a Face and then for his classic Braveheart garnering him a Best Director Oscar. His film The Passion of The Christ became one of the most successful independent films of all time, and allowed Gibson to turn his back on Hollywood and make the visceral and successful Apocalypto.
Gibson returned to acting in Edge of Darkness and is back in front of the camera in the hugely entertaining Get the Gringo, just released on DVD and will next be seen in Robert Rodriguez’s Machete Kills. He is also busy working on his Viking movie and the much discussed film about the Maccabees.
I first met Gibson when we were both in our early 20s and the actor was publicizing Gallipoli while I was a university student. 30 years later, to coincide with the DVD release of “Gringo,” we met at Mel’s Santa Monica office for an in-depth chat. Dressed in a pair of blue board shorts and T-shirt, we covered a lot of ground, from “Gringo” to stardom, Hollywood forgiveness and his own very candid take on the whole Maccabee script controversy, as well as the status of other projects.
ComingSoon.net: With a film like “Gringo,”was it important to go back to your roots as an indie filmmaker?
Mel Gibson: No not really. Even when I had a deal with studios I used to cook up stories. It’s just that there wasn’t one for this. So I got together with the Mexican dudes (Adrian Grunberg and Stacy Perskie) and we sat in my kitchen, drank cups of coffee, smoked a bunch of cigarettes, ate food and talked. And we just beat the story out.
CS: Did “Edge of Darkness” give you a taste to go back in front of the camera and did you want to develop this initially as an actor, or just as a producer, and the acting was secondary?
Gibson: I was looking at it more from a story point of view. I mean basically at the end of the line, no matter how many producers, directors, actors jump in, you’re only doing one thing, telling a story, so what I like doing the best is going through the mind’s eye and reading it out with Stacy and Adrian whom I’d worked with before on “Apocalypto” when they were my 1st and 2nd ADs. And these guys know Mexico. And we just got into the research, from an idea that I had, and the more stuff we read on the Internet the more rich it got, because the world is so absurd. Incarceration south of the border is a different experience than here. There were no exaggerations in that film.
CS: How do you know when something is ready to go?
Gibson: It’s just a gut feeling. It’ll never be right. It’ll ALWAYS be weird on the page, no matter how good your visualization or idea is, it’s always going to look weird on the page. Writing is a hard gig and it’s hard to convey a lot. That’s why scripts tend to be a little bit overwritten.
CS: As an actor, did you still enjoy the physical stuff you got to do in this film?
Gibson: Yeah I did enjoy it. It wasn’t that taxing and I had a stunt guy to do the fall off stuff, so I’m way past doing that stuff by myself.
CS: Do you still go through a regimen of physical fitness?
Gibson: I’m pretty fit, naturally. I do moderate exercise, and I try to eat pretty well and I think it has an effect on me. But hey, I’m putting on the insulin tyre like everybody else, but that’s just a function of getting older.
CS: Would you have liked “Gringo” to have received a US theatrical release?
Gibson: I think there’s a lot of different mediums out there right now. Theatrical is fantastic. I don’t think anything will ever replace the big dark room, the screen and the popcorn. You can kind of do it in your home if you have a nice screen, but it’s not the same thing. It did get a theatrical release internationally.
CS: A lot of people don’t realize or have forgotten that you’re a classically trained actor. I’ve seen you on stage. Is there any part of you that would like to return to the stage and if so, what character would you want to be?
Gibson: Of course, yeah. It’d be nice actually. I dabbled here and there but not in a big way. I tried to get Downey to do Hamlet when he was in his 30s. He would have been so great. But I’d like to direct something on stage, maybe Hamlet, because as an actor, you never get it. I mean I did a film version but I don’t think I ever really did it. So I’d like to direct a production somewhere on stage.
CS: After you left Australia, finally, and the “Lethal Weapon” juggernaut began to strike, did you expect the success that came with it and do you think you prepared for that, psychologically?
Gibson: I think I was in good shape to sort of deal with that, because I sort of had done that. You do your ‘blooding’ as it were when you’re young. You start in Australia, you strike out, you make a few films outside the country and then you realize you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube as far as your personal life and stuff goes, that you become public property. It’s a very odd thing. So that sort of thing hit me in my 20s. And if I hadn’t been reasonably successful it wouldn’t have happened the way it did, because you’re already on the rise. And then you become a person of interest.
CS: And then as the success became bigger over the years for you, was it easier to cope with it over time?
Gibson: Well, you make an adjustment. I dropped out after a while for about a year and a half and just did basic things. I just thought that I don’t really want to go back there again until something makes me go back. Then of course the realities set in and it’s like trying to put a round peg in a square hole because you’re trying to fit in to some kind of life that you’re not allowed to fit into anymore. AND it’s not really what you love.
CS: Then did you discover what you truly love was directing, was being part of the filmmaking process?
Gibson: That’s the best. I loved that. I think I was always meant to go there.
CS: And with the success you’d attained allowed you to go there.
Gibson: It allowed me to do it because I had some credit and also allowed me to be at the hub of any kind of activity on a film set. I didn’t just disappear into the trailer. I’d hang out and watch what they were doing, because it was interesting to me, how they achieved certain things. I was like a pesky mosquito with directors. I was always asking them questions, why a particular lens, or why this angle, tell me about the edit. They were always really generous and actually liked that because it helped them formulate what they were doing too.
CS: Would it be fair to say you’d never been able to get “Braveheart” made had it not been for this success?
Gibson: It would have been more difficult, yes. I had already directed one small film, “The Man Without a Face.” And that was a toe in the water which is really what you have to do. You don’t want to go out there on your first run and crash and burn on a big budget. You want to do something small. In many respects it was like a TV movie, except I put all my angst in it. And you don’t find out till you’re in the firing line and you have to make decisions, so I went through that whole process, and then I could do something with a greater degree of difficulty and bigger budget. So at that time, no films like “Braveheart” had been made for a very long time and of course it started a whole thing. As always the first guy out is the one who gets it. But I think the film has good things in it.
CS: That famous Freedom scene is one of the most imitated and parodied scene of recent memory. .
Gibson: It’s still happening and pretty funny.
CS: And Scotland is using the film as an anthem for its upcoming election on independence.
Gibson: It started the ball rolling. It’s amazing how powerful a piece of work can be and how it can influence people and change. It’s pretty interesting.
CS: How much did George Miller try and persuade you to do a “Mad Max 4”?
Gibson: We talked about this very project like 10 years ago. I actually wanted to do it, but then what happened was, the budget was nuts. It was crazy. I certainly hope they’ve become more realistic about it.
CS: Is it true that Tom Hardy asked for your approval?
Gibson: No, they cast him, but I sat down with the guy and I quite like him. I think he’s a good choice for that.
CS: Will you see the film?
Gibson: Oh yeah, I’ll have a look. It’ll be fun. I think he’s a good actor. He commits completely and he looks great. There’s this scary thing about him which is kind of right for that. Tom needed to sit down and talk more than I did. I’m really happy about that. But I hope they do a great job. I’m a big fan of George’s.
CS: Is there a character at all that you played that you’d like to revisit?
Gibson: Nah. I’ve done it. There are new challenges.
CS: And there’s no way you’ll be enticed into doing a “Lethal 5.”
Gibson: No I think the way things are going with “Total Recall,” they’ll just remake those somehow. Though it’s really tough to replace Danny. He was so amazing in those things. It was a good gig for us. It worked. But we knew it would.
CS: Do you regret doing four movies?
Gibson: No, I had fun on every one of them and they were lucrative and good to me. And they really afforded me the opportunity to slow down and pick things and do things that really interested me. Like this “Gringo” thing which didn’t pay but it was a good thing to have done.
CS: Robert Downey went out of his way to publicly support you as you did him when he was going through personal crises. Is Hollywood ultimately a forgiving town?
Gibson: No it’s not. They have to forget. I don’t even think they’re vindictive. I don’t think they think there’s reason to forgive. And forgive what to begin with? What are they asking for? It’s almost like can you please forgive me for what? What did I do, really? It is kind of ridiculous. So it’s kind of hard to pinpoint exactly what needs to be forgiven and I don’t consider that anything does because I didn’t hurt anyone. But you know, hey that’s life. It ain’t easy and it’s not fair. You’ve just got to slip the old water off the back and move on.
CS: Do you have a thick skin?
Gibson: I’ve developed one. I wasn’t born that way but I have a hide like a rhinoceros.
CS: Now looking at what’s going on with upcoming projects. What’s the status on the Viking movie, which is still called “Berserker” I presume?
Gibson: It’s still called “Berserker” and I believe it’s going forward. I’ve talked to actors and stuff, and there are some good names attached who want to do it.
CS: But not DiCaprio?
Gibson: He’s pretty busy, so no.
CS: Is it still a violent Viking movie in the original language?
Gibson: Not the original language. I’d thought about that at one time but then when you consider that English comes from the middle English language, it’s not a big jump. I’ll do something that’s understandable for a modern audience. But it won’t be the English THEY’RE used to.
CS: You’ve got a script?
Gibson: I’ve got a great script. And the idea’s been batting around my head for years. And I couldn’t find a way to make it work, because if you look at what Vikings did, they’re pretty unsympathetic. And there’s no point in doing Viking light. So I had to find a way to find devices and ways to make that work dramatically, intelligently and make it seem realistic so it’s about real conflict in a real era in the 9th century, so that you actually see behavior and a new mode of thought seeping in. By the 11th century there weren’t any of these guys left anymore.
CS: Will this be expensive?
Gibson: Everything’s expensive. It’s like ridiculous. But I can’t talk budget.
CS: Are you having discussions with investors or studios?
Gibson: Both and there’s some interest and they dig it, but it isn’t the entire vision. You can’t write the vision down. You can only have a blueprint and then go from a jumping off spot. But it was by accident that I bumped into Randall Wallace and we’re collaborating on the script. We’ve got a fourth draft and it’s great. All we’ve got to do is do it now.
CS: Now there’s the much-discussed Maccabees project. What’s going on and what’s the story with the Eszterhas script?
Gibson: Okay, so a guy gets paid to write a screenplay and doesn’t turn anything in for 14 months. That’s a serious problem. Not even an outline so I lost my nutter with him. I developed a Viking script almost a year after he started and I already had a second draft and he hadn’t even given me an outline. And he was at my home on a working holiday and he didn’t even bring one word. And he never intended to write a script. His whole intention was to set me up somehow.
CS: So do you still want to make that movie?
Gibson: I DO want to make it and I will make it. And that’ll be a great film. And over the course of 14 months did you not think I told him what the story was? Give him my images? Give him my ideas and dialogue? You should see the books written on the subject. So I’m steeped in that stuff from the Seleucid Empire, and the relationship with Israel at the time, amazing history. So my best ideas I put in front of him, hoping that he took some of those, but he squandered them and alluded to them in his so called screenplay which I swear he must have written in three days. It’s really bad with heinous, bad, shonky, D grade dialogue. And after 18 months of waiting, from when we started talking, that’s what came in. And of course the studio also recognized it as not very good.
CS: So is there a studio attached to the film?
Gibson: No, it’s just sitting there until I’m ready to go back to it. I’m busy with a writer who knows how to write.
CS: Now you’re also still an actor for hire.
Gibson: Yeah sure if it’s good enough. I just worked with Robert Rodriguez on “Machete.”
CS: What was that experience like?
Gibson: It was a great experience.
CS: Tell me about the character you play.
Gibson: He’s an odd kind of guy, the Rodriguez version of a Bond villain. He’s a bad guy who said: “What if he’s right?”
CS: So a bad guy with a moral compass.
Gibson: In a weird way.
CS: That must have been fun for you.
Gibson: Oh yeah it was fun, and it’s fast, man, is it fast? A good degree of it is digital. I went down to Austin and its very laid back and cool. Robert is a fantastic guy and I’ve never seen a crew work so fast and so hard. There’s just no waste and no time lost. And he knows how he’s going to do it. It’s pretty funny. I enjoyed the experience and I enjoyed that kind of pace and in 20 years I spoke more in this than in the entire 20 years combined. The guy is only in the third act. But he’s the big nemesis.
CS: Do you get to ham it up?
Gibson: Of course it’s extremely heightened because you’re working on “Machete,” come on! And I get to have a sword fight with Machete. He has his machete and I have a samurai sword, but it’s kind of fun and it’s full of surprises, because it brings the kind of Grindhouse action thing to it, almost celebrating being gratuitous in its drive and making no apology for it and making it fun, like some twisted fairy tale.
CS: Finally, do you think you’re at the most relaxed you’ve been for a while?
Gibson: I’m pretty relaxed.
CS: Do you miss Australia?
Gibson: Not overtly. I slip in and out sometimes and it’s okay. It’s good to go there. But you don’t have to go there for the amount of Australians here. And it’s nice sitting down with them ‘cause Aussies tend to be irreverent about most things so it’s a whole different level of communication.
Meg ͏
He’s a fascinating combination of things, he appears deeply ill at ease about something, some toxic well of rage is bubbling away there that is hard to accommodate. We have forgiven many very talented people all sorts of whacky behaviour most of which I’ve taken with a grain of salt but he really does seem to be particularly personalised, nasty & apoplectic when he gets going. I wouldn’t want to be around him.