The actor had his big moment in 1995 when he won two Oscars and a Golden Globe for 'Braveheart.'
Few stars have been as stars as Mel Gibson. You have to have lived through his glory years to understand to what extent he was the favorite actor on the planet. For two entire decades, he swept the box office with dramas ('Braveheart', 'The Year of Living Dangerously', 'Tequila Connection', 'Signs'), comedies ('Two Birds One Shot', 'What Women Think About'), thrillers ('Conspiracy', 'Rescue'), and action vehicles ('Lethal Weapon', 'Mad Max'). His face on a poster guaranteed the success of a film for a reason as simple as it was unattainable for most actors: the public liked to see him do things. He seemed like the perfect colleague to them and the perfect husband to them.
Gibson was the actor who best represented the man of the 80s. Scoundrel but noble, womanizer but romantic, individualist but loyal if he had an adventure partner. A canon of a man who enjoyed those superficial pleasures as long as they did not go against the values of the community. The man of the 80s was indomitable, but at all times he operated according to the rules of the system. And the character of the actor, beyond his characters, also moved within the system: he was a loudmouth, but he was harmless. Until he stopped being.
The string of minorities, individuals, and groups that Mel Gibson has insulted with a tape recorder in front of him dates back to 1991. In an interview in Madrid for 'The Country', he exclaimed "Who is going to think that I am gay in this outfit? Do I move like them?" And in case there were any doubts, he got up, turned around, and pointed to his behind: "This is just for pooping."
Four years later, when LGBT associations denounced that Braveheart's portrayal of King Edward II as an effeminate villain was actually a product of Gibson's rampant homophobia, the film's leading man and director responded: "f- them, I I'll apologize when hell freezes over." Months later, Hollywood gave him five Oscars, including best picture and best director, and Gibson continued to headline blockbuster blockbusters.
Mel Gibson was in the prime of his career in 2004 ('Signs,' two years earlier, is his highest-grossing film) when 'The Passion of the Christ' broke all grossing records for a religious film, for a film in Aramaic, and for an adult drama.
Its 611 million dollars surpassed 'Tomorrow' and 'Troya', but this unprecedented phenomenon ran into accusations of anti-Semitism: 'The Passion of the Christ' pointed to the Jews as the architects of the death of the messiah, because they blackmailed the Poor Pontius Pilate.
Actually, this version of events is taken from the Bible, but it was dismissed by the Second Vatican Council in 1959. When the critic of the 'New York Times destroyed the film, Gibson assured that he wanted to kill him. , put his intestines on a stick, and then kill his dog.
Harassing gays and film critics is one thing, but taking it out on Jews did have consequences.
Although the anti-Semitism of 'The Passion of the Christ' could be justified by the Bible, bellowing "You f- Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world" was inadmissible under any pretext. On July 28, 2006, Mel Gibson was arrested for drunk driving and resisted by shouting the phrase in question and adding "f- Jews, are you a Jew?"
As Gary Oldman explained, Gibson had just bitten the hand that fed him: Most Hollywood executives are Jewish, and after more than a decade denigrating other minorities, this was the outburst that cost him his career. A few months later he was arrested again for drunk driving and yelled at the police "I own Malibu and I'm going to f- you. What are you looking at, sugar tits?"
"I was illegally recorded by a police officer who was never prosecuted for his crime and who profited financially when he leaked it to the press" was the actor's only official response.
From then on, Gibson entered into a personal debacle that became a public spectacle when calls to his ex-wife Oksana Grigorieva were leaked. "You deserved it," the recording began, referring to an episode of violence in which Gibson had knocked out two of Grigorieva's teeth while she was holding their daughter in her arms, "and if you were raped by a herd of blacks, it would also be your fault." yours, because you look like a heated pig. I'm going to go there and I'm going to set the house on fire.
"I have never treated anyone badly or discriminatory because of their gender, their race, their religion," Gibson clarified in a statement, "I do not blame those who believe that I have, for what they have heard on tapes that have been edited. You have to put it all in the proper context of an irrational and heated argument trying to get out of a very unhealthy relationship. It's just one terrible moment, I was only addressing one person and it doesn't represent what I believe or how I've treated people all my life."
His representation agency fired him and the 'Hangover 2' team opposed his participation in the film. If his career had risen higher than any other during the 1990s, now it was also hitting unprecedented lows and the image of Mel Gibson was rotten due to sheer accumulation: there were more people left on the planet whom he had offended than who had not.
The racist terminology that Mel Gibson uses to refer to blacks and Latinos, whom he introduces into his rages out of the blue, is the tie that completes Gibson's public portrait. A person who makes homophobic, misogynistic, racist, and classist comments is not a person who has slipped up, has been misinterpreted, or has been taken out of context. He is a very specific type of person that everyone, by now, knows how to recognize. And yet, in his strategy to turn his career around, Gibson has avoided openly apologizing.
"I'm a tough mother f- and you can't hurt me anymore. Anyone's biggest fear is public humiliation, so multiply it on a global scale and that's what I've suffered. But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger "Explained the actor, placing himself as the victim of all this.
In 2016 he went to the Stephen Colbert show to promote his latest film as a director, 'Until the last man', and when the presenter mentioned certain "difficult episodes" Gibson corrected him "episode", in the singular. "I made a mistake," "I had a bad night," or "I had a nervous breakdown" suggested that Gibson was only willing to admit to one of his infamies. And he didn't even apologize to her.
"Did you learn anything from all that and become a better man because of it?" Colbert insisted, leaving the humble response on a platter and practically issuing a statement on Gibson's behalf. "Yes" replied the actor. "Was there a moment when you felt that people could accept your apology and you would turn the page?" The presenter continued, now almost preaching to the public. "Yes. When I apologized, I think" was Gibson's reply. The actor concluded that that bad night, after spending too much time with tequila, should not define him as a person because "none of my actions, before or after, have been in that line and it is a pity that after 30 or 40 years working I am judged for one night."
A year before giving that interview, Mel Gibson had attacked a journalist by spitting on her, insulting her, and beating her for taking pictures of her during a vacation in Israel. But it didn't matter. He apologized (sort of) to the right constituency, the Jews, and "Every Last Man" garnered six Oscar nominations, including best picture and best director. But it didn't even take a real apology, Gibson responded with evasions, excuses, justifications, and self-pity. He victimized himself and was unable not only to admit his (plural) mistakes but to acknowledge that he perpetrated them only because he felt empowered to do so.
That his career is on the mend thanks to a half-apology shows how few responsibilities are expected of the privileged. In these cases, the debate of separating the man from the artist is usually opened (Gibson was always a better star than actor, but as a director, he is one of the most visceral and at the same time poetic visual narrators that American cinema has) and it is overlooked that Very little is asked of an artist working in a massive multi-billion dollar industry: to be on set on time, to have energy during promotional interviews and to be respectful of the audience that feeds them. If that artist chooses to systematically blow up any of these three requirements, the public and the industry are free to stop paying attention.
