Mad Mel Gibson Kills Again

Mel Gibson first burst onto the global consciousness--and the pages of fan magazines--with a pair of post-apocalyptic films about a man who just couldn't take it anymore. That man, of course, was Mad Max.

Since that time, the hero from Down Under has been busy redefining the meaning of the word "cool" in such films as The Year of Living Dangerously, Mrs. Soffel, Gallipoli, and Mutiny on the Bounty. Last week, as part of a massive promotional campaign for his new film Lethal Weapon, Gibson talked to a group of unheroic media folks in a New York hotel room:

What: Mr. Gibson, this is the first American film you've done in which you play a loner haunted by his past who is an expert in weapons and eventually kills a lot of people...do you see yourself doing any more of these sort of roles?

Mel: I don't see myself doing anything...it's funny...Why, do you think I do the same sort of thing all the time?

What: No--I mean, in fact in Mrs. Soffel, Tim, in all your other American films, and Gallipoli as well...it seems like in this film, if you'll pardon my inference, you've gone back to the kind of role you first did in Mad Max.

Mel: I see a major difference from the Mad Max kind of two-dimensional role--I saw this guy as having a lot more dimension and a more real approach to life, and a conflict inside himself which he resolves more completely in the end...I think you have to be different. I think in those films he's seen as normal--it's normal behavior for that world. In this it is not, it's abnormal.

What: How do you perceive your image here among men and women?

Mel: Well, I want to appeal to everyone. I want to do things for an audience. The image that I want to project is the one that's up there on the screen, it's not personal. I want people to look at that image and be entertained by it, perhaps to laugh at it, and to enjoy it.

What: To what do you ascribe your popularity?

Mel: It's probably that Road Warrior thing--I think that did quite well, and not in the cinema either, but on cable--it's like indigestion, it keeps coming back.

What: Is it true that you turned down $10 million to do a fourth Mad Max film?

Mel: $10 million? I may be a lot of things, but I'm not crazy.

One of the hallmarks of a Gibson interview is the honesty with which he views his own work. In addition to the questions answered above, Gibson had some comments to offer on the subjects of Lethal Weapon and the promotional circuit:

On the fistfight between archrivals Riggs and Joshua at the end of the film: "A bit hard to swallow."

On the use of the Vietnam vet in the film: "Hackneyed, isn't it?."

On his well-known dislike for interviews: "It's not the cure for cancer we're talking about here...it's silly. But it's part of the job in a way. I have to say, 'I will enjoy this no matter what."