Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 24, 1995 TAG: 9505240058
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: EXTRA3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DOUGLAS J. ROWE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``It's historically accurate,'' Gibson says, explaining that the Scots bared more than their souls to intimidate the British just before a decisive battle.
The front and back ``moon'' shots appear in the Scottish epic ``Braveheart,'' in which Gibson not only stars as the 13th-century freedom fighter William Wallace but also co-produced and directed.
After his directing debut, 1993's ``The Man Without a Face,'' in which he also starred, the 39-year-old actor said he would never again do both jobs. He meant it at the time, but says now: ``You recover.''
``I found that I had the pacing and the energy to go through with it - sometimes only just,'' he said in a recent interview. ``Sometimes I'd get propped up at the video monitor, or go to sleep in a chair or something. But that's good. I mean all these things are necessary in order to keep you kicking along.''
Now that he's done it twice, Gibson is hooked on the autonomy of directing.
``There's no more wonderful artistic experience,'' he says. ``It's the very best experience I've had. Both times. I'm really, really in love with it.''
He would like to move on to even bigger projects than ``Braveheart'' - a costume epic reportedly budgeted at $70 million - and test his mettle on other styles.
A satire, he says, would be ``a hoot.'' He'd love to star in one, and if he didn't direct it himself, he'd hand the chore to someone ``with older, more veteran sensibilities than myself, you know. Somebody that I admire very much, somebody with a mind like Sydney Pollack (who directed `Tootsie').''
There was a time when Gibson didn't give much thought to acting, let alone directing. After graduating from high school in Australia, where his family had moved from upstate New York when he was 12, Gibson thought about becoming a chef or a journalist.
Then his sister submitted an application for him, without his knowledge, to the National Institute of Dramatic Art at the University of New South Wales. Once he learned of it, he decided to go through with the required audition.
Barely out of drama school, he got his first job. Early on, such critics as The New Yorker's Pauline Kael and The New York Times' Vincent Canby gushed about his talents and star quality. He also made women swoon.
But at this point, he says, he likes to tell stories.
``I think I'm a good audience. When I do things that affect my sensiblities, then hopefully, as a member of the human race, it will other people,'' he says.
Gibson has been called the Dish From Down Under and once was selected as People magazine's Sexist Man Alive. During his career, he's managed to avoid the trash-talk of tabloids, although he's been known to imbibe beers before breakfast and he's gotten testy with some reporters.
But overall, he emerges as a family man. The sixth of 11 children himself, he and wife Robyn have six kids, aged 5 to 14.
Gibson also has reached a point where he's decided to enjoy the upside of fame.
``I do it without reserve now. You walk into a restaurant and say, `Got a table?' `Yeah.' And they find one. `You want front-row tickets to the basketball game? You got 'em.' ''
He says he doesn't recoil at being recognized on the street. He remembers a hardhat worker in Chicago just yelling out, ``Hey, Mel, howyadoin'?''
``And that's fantastic. I like that. They're not trying to drop a brick on your head. They're just being nice,'' Gibson says. ``That's a good part of this, too.''
But Gibson acknowledges that once you try to be successful on every level, as he now is, ``it's not always going to be as good as skittles (pure enjoyment), you know.
``You're going to have some failures, too. I've been in some real stinky ones, too. No doubt about it. But as long as you try,'' he says, laughing an almost rueful laugh.
by CNB