Edge of Darkness

Written by Sheila Roberts Saturday, 30 January 2010 17:13

Interview

Mel Gibson talks to us about his return to the screen in new thriller Edge of Darkness...

Despite being a Hollywood A-lister and accomplished director, Mel Gibson hasn't been seen on the big screen since his uncredited cameo in 2004's Paparazzi, and hasn't taken a leading man role since his turn in M Night Shyamalan's Signs back in 2002. But now he's back with a bang in Martin Campbell's adaptation of Eighties TV show Edge of Darkness, in which he plays a homicide detective who discovers a dangerous government cover up while investigating the death of his activist daughter.

It’s great to see you on screen again, especially in an intense thriller like this; have you got the acting bug back?

Well I walked away from it after Signs because I just felt it’s stale and I needed to maybe…it wasn’t ringing my bells. So, I focused on directing and writing and producing and all that kind of stuff, and then it was time to come back. Now I got the acting bug back because I felt like all of a sudden maybe after all these years I might have something to offer again and it coincided with a very good piece of material. Now there was a compelling story with good elements attached. I dug it and it gave me a chance to work with [director] Martin [Campbell], [co-stars] Ray [Winstone] and Graham [King] and [screenwriter] Bill Monahan. Good stuff. If it wasn’t this, it would have been something else, but this was the best thing that I saw.

Have you talked to George Miller since your Mad Max days, and will we see you in the new movie?

Oh yeah. I’ve talked to George. Yeah, we’ve had a good chin wag about it. We talk all the time anyway, George and I. So I’m abreast of that. I know he’s been trying to do this for years, the fourth installment. At one point, I was involved, then it fell to bits and then this and that. So now, it’s probably gone through a lot of changes. I can’t wait to see it because everything he does I think is magic. There’s a touch of genius, more than a touch of genius about George. Probably most of any good trick I’ve ever learned, I’ve learned off that guy and Peter Weir.

Have you ruled out a cameo in Mad Max 4?

No. We’ve just talked. I honestly don’t know.

Once you got back in front of the camera did you feel rusty at all or did it come back to you pretty quickly?

Well, a little bit. I remember Martin had to tell me to tone it down a couple times because you forget levels and stuff. It’s like dialing in levels and stuff. After that, it was pretty natural. You don’t do something for 30 years and forget it. It felt alright. It felt better actually. There was something a wise, old – well not so wise and old guy – told me once: Go away, dig a hole, do something else, come back and it magically rejuvenates your creative impulses. He’s right, I think. And I cannot qualify how exactly but I know that something happened. Just nothing better than a vacation sometimes.

This is a very physical role; did you have to do anything to get into shape?

Well the only thing I did with that was just I ordered a chiropractor for the day after because I knew what it was going to feel like. I knew I was going to wake up like road kill and I did. You don’t bounce back as quick as you used to and that guy’s 25 and he’s taking it easy on you. Okay? It’s not a pleasant experience, you know. Things…you don’t pop back the way you used to. But it’s okay so long as it still looks good. (Laughs)

I don’t work out much. I try and eat right and exercise a little. That sounds horrible. I quit smoking so that’s something in the right direction. There’s no more fun things left, you know. (Laughs) I just don’t do anything fun anymore. But, that’s dying, isn’t it? I mean, you die in stages, right? You let things go in pieces. It’s more than half way through. Right? For all of us here. Right? Probably for most of you out there too. It’s over half way. More than half way. Not you. You’re not quite there yet.

Did you watch the original TV show to prepare for the role?

Well here’s what’s interesting because I watched it back in the 80s avidly and it was some of the best TV I’d ever seen and British television at that time was great. We’ve all talked about that. But I made a point to not watch it because I didn’t want it to be a part of that but to just try and be truthful. But hey, if you’re saying that my performance was anything like what [original star] Bob Peck did, I’m flattered because I think he was amazing.

It’s been 7 years since the last time you acted. What was the most challenging moment for you in this movie?

Well, look. Every time you go out there to do something, you wonder if you can do it. There’s no assured success. There’s no secret recipe for success. Every time you go out there, you go out there with the possibility of great failure. The whole business of putting your wares on display, whether you’re a chef or an opera director or a painter or an actor or a filmmaker or whatever you happen to be, you’re throwing your stuff out there for other people and it’s going to be judged and you’re either going to be excoriated or praised or somewhere in between or both sometimes. It’s all a challenge. The whole gig is a challenge.

In the midst of a long acting career, how did you happen to learn to direct? And now with this film, how do you dial back and take direction and not put your two cents in, or do you?

Well, you know, how do you learn to direct? You hang around the hub and watch what’s going on and ask a bunch of questions. You’re there for the inception of an idea. You’re there to see it executed. You’re there to doubt it. You’re there to see if they pull it off or not. And you’re there to share the fruits of victory or failure. So, it’s like wow. It’s like a big science experiment for 30 years so how can you not pick it up. And, if you’re working with really good people, that’s just great. Let go of it? I don’t think you can ever totally let go of it. You can pull back on it and not be too forceful. I hope I wasn’t too hard on Martin here. I don’t think I was, but occasionally I’d say, “Look, dude, why don’t we…” and I’d get an idea or something. And you know what? A good director, if it’s a good idea, and I’ve noticed this, people come to my table when I’m directing and they get good ideas and I say, “That’s a goddamned good idea. Can I steal that?” and they go, “Yes, please.” And you go, “Okay, I’ll take it.” And he actually did swipe one of my ideas. That’s the earmark of a good director when he sees a good idea and he takes it.

You’ve had such a great career. What’s left that you’d like to accomplish?

I’m working with Graham here on the Viking movie. The very first idea I ever had about making a film and my first thought about ever about being a filmmaker was when I was 16 years old and I wanted to make a Viking movie and I wanted to make it in Old Norse which I was studying at the time. It’s odd because at that age you’re like “Well, that’s a stupidly ridiculous idea. How will I ever be a filmmaker? And that’s a dumb idea. It’s just some romantic pipe dream.” But that was the first big, epic, wacky idea I ever had was to show Viking real.

We’ve seen that in The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto. Is that really important to you?

Yeah, I want a Viking to scare you. I don’t want a Viking to say [Tony Curtis style] “I’m going to die with a sword in my hand.” I don’t want to hear that. It just pulls the rug out from under it. I want to see somebody who I’ve never seen before speaking low guttural German who scares the living shit out of me coming up to my house. Okay? What is that like? What would that have been like?

So now you're back in front of the camera again and you’re ready to go. You did a film with Jodie Foster as well? Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Yeah. The Beaver. It’s about a man who’s clinically depressed and the way that circumstances somehow dictate that he finds himself with a ratty beaver hand-puppet on his arm. He can’t even kill himself properly but he ends up with a beaver puppet talking and he manages to save himself and his life and his family and everything by expressing himself through this hand puppet because that’s all he can do. He’s too far gone. He’s too broken.

And there’s another one, “How I Spent My Summer Vacation”?

That will happen in March probably. That’s something that I wrote with a couple of the guys on Apocalypto, with the First and the Second AD on Apocalypto. We sat down and wrote this story, How I Spent My Summer Vacation, about a gringo in a Mexican prison.

You mentioned earlier that you took a period off to kind of recharge. Was there a point during that period where you considered not coming back and felt maybe you’d done what you wanted to do and you were through with this?

Yeah, of course. Probably further toward the beginning and then as time went on, you think, “Yeah, maybe I should try that again.” You don’t know. That’s why I didn’t make some big pronouncement. You know, “I am quitting. I’m retiring.” I didn’t want to do that. But I just thought I’d back away for awhile. Just tired and bored with it, you know. I’ve done that a couple of times. I’ve just walked away and spent a year not doing it or do something else. I think that’s a natural thing. As soon as something starts getting a little tedious and you want to sort of spice it up again, you kind of have to change it.

Did you learn anything exciting about yourself or about life in general while you were away from the industry?

Well I didn’t really get away from the industry. I learned a lot about the industry. I learned about writing. I learned about conceiving, from conception to writing to bringing that to the screen to sort of mounting a film to producing it to directing it to actually single-handedly marketing and distributing and doing everything except exhibition, and I think I did it, you know. So it’s kind of almost the full thing. And now I’ve bought a bunch of theaters in Australia called the Dendy chain so I’m an exhibitor as well.

What made you want to come back to acting and do it again?

It was just time. I don’t know. I just felt like doing it. It was my first love. I used to love doing it. If the tarnish is on it and the glow goes off it, you walk away for awhile and when it’s time to come back, you come back.