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Mel Gibson Interview
Patriot games
Actor Mel Gibson has been hitting the headlines with his latest film The Patriot - and not just because of his reported 25 million dollar fee.
Instead the American revolution movie has been courting controversy due to its historic inaccuracies and its anti-English feel.
The film centres on Gibson's character, plantation farmer Benjamin Martin, a pacifist who is ultimately compelled to take up arms against the English when his eldest son is captured by the King's army and sentenced to death.
Gibson, 44, seems unperturbed by the furore surrounding the film. He maintains he never set out to make a documentary and says the film should be viewed as entertainment, despite it being based on real life events.
"It's the movies, after all," he says. "You need to juice these things up a bit."
He shrugs off the fact the film has been criticised for its portrayal of the English, although he concedes that they are clearly the bad guys of the film.
"Somebody has to be, I mean what can I say? You go to any country and you'll find somebody has done something horrible to somebody else," he says, before adding with a smile. "We're giving the Germans a break."
On a more serious note, Gibson adds: "There were actually some really horrible things done, not just by the British to the colonialists but between the colonialists, the loyalists and the rebels."
Although Gibson grew up in Australia, he was born in the United States and lived there until he was 12 when his father moved him and his nine siblings to Sydney.
The actor says he now feels as much American as he does Australian and likes to think that he is part of both countries.
"I don't think of myself as either American or Australian really, I'm a true hybrid. It's a good thing for me because both of them are really good countries," he says.
Although reports claim Gibson's father moved his large family to Australia in 1968 to avoid any of them being drafted to go to Vietnam. The actor says there were other considerations as well.
"Actually my dad's mother was Australian and he loved the country," he says. "But although Australia was also involved in the Vietnam conflict, I can remember my dad telling us that if we were in Australia, we wouldn't be drafted until we were 20."
Gibson has come a long way since he attended drama school in Sydney and enjoyed early success in the Mad Max films. He has starred and directed films such as Braveheart and netted a reported 25 million dollars for The Patriot - a figure he is unapologetic about earning.
"Do you think they would give it to me if it wasn't worth it to them," he says. "We are dealing with killers in this town and it is worth it to them."
Although the actor has been working hard throughout the past year, juggling the filming of The Patriot with doing voice-overs for the animated hit Chicken Run, he admits he is ready to wind down and intends to take a year off to spend time with his wife and family.
Devout Catholic Gibson is proud to say he is a family man - his wife Robyn gave birth to the couple's seventh child last year - and he is happiest spending time with his large brood at their home in fashionable Malibu, north of Los Angeles, or at the family ranch in Australia.
Gibson smiles when asked whether he will be able to resist the lure of film-making for a year and says: "I had 18 months off before I did The Patriot and then I was ready to work. Now I'm ready to stop again. I want to go places, travel, see things. I want to get good at golf, stuff like that.
Although the actor will be 45 next birthday, he claims the ageing process doesn't bother him and says he is finding that life just gets better and better the older he gets.
"I think all that stuff is very much in your mind," he says referring to the celebrity paranoia about growing old, and adds: "I'm getting into my 40s in a big way."
Life hasn't always been a bed of roses for Gibson though. Back in the early 90s the pressures of fame and celebrity got to him and in 1991 he joined Alcoholics Anonymous.
"Time helps a lot," he says. "I found the fame thing really was a torment for a while. Then you learn to deal with it."
He says his religious beliefs have helped him cope. "There has to be some kind of order and some moral code. I don't know how people can function without a belief in a deity."
At home, his children ranging in age from 19 to one-year-old are not the spoiled kids of a Hollywood star. He says. "They get what they need, but if they want a few extra bucks they have to work for it. That's not a bad thing to instill at an early age."
Late fatherhood has been a pleasant surprise, he adds. "I really thought we
were finished. Our next youngest is 10, but I'm ever so grateful it happened. I
love being a dad, it has made us young again."
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