Mel Gibson has never been afraid of controversy, but the 55-year-old Aussie Oscar winner is boldly putting his comeback in the hands of an unlikely ally – a scruffy-looking beaver hand puppet.
In The Beaver, directed by Jodie Foster, Gibson plays Walter Black, a once successful toy executive who suffers from severe depression and is ready to kill himself when he discovers a beaver hand puppet in the garbage. He begins to reconnect with his wife and children by only speaking through the puppet, but his dependence on the beaver comes at a tragic price.
Gibson gives what many critics claim is one of the best performances of his career, earning him a surprise standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival that indicates audiences may be willing to forgive and forget the recent personal troubles played out in the media. And when Gibson arrives at a Beverly Hills hotel room for an interview with a small group of foreign press, nervously playing with his electronic cigarette throughout, he also seems in surprisingly good spirits. When asked if he had a puppet as a child, he responds, “we were very poor when I was a kid; now somebody should say, ‘how poor?’” he cajoles, pointing at Metro until we oblige. “I asked my father for a pet that goes everywhere I go and eats everything I eat and he got me a tapeworm!”
The script for The Beaver, written by Kyle Killen, was so edgy and offbeat that it had landed on Hollywood’s ‘Black List’ of top unproduced scripts of 2008 when Jodie Foster first discovered it. The 48-year-old Oscar-winning actress, who co-starred with Gibson in the 1994 western Maverick, said she always wanted him for this role. “Maverick was the best working relationship that I ever had with any actor, so we’ve been dying for years to figure out a way to work together again,” gushes Foster, who also plays Black’s wife. “I knew Mel could keep the film grounded, but I also knew Mel is somebody who really understands the issue of shame and disappointment and wanting to transform from somebody you are disappointed by to somebody that you can be proud of again.”
Gibson’s career consists of more than 40 films, despite shame and disappointment plaguing that success, including his 2006 arrest for drunk driving when he reportedly spouted anti-Semitic slurs at the Jewish police officer. He apologized but soon found himself in trouble again after his 2009 divorce from longtime Australian wife, Robyn, when the devoutly Catholic father of seven confirmed he was having a baby out of wedlock with girlfriend, Russian singer Oksana Grigorieva (daughter, Lucia, now two). His final humiliation came last year when that relationship fell apart and leaked audio recordings of his angry tirades at Grigorieva were followed by his arrest for misdemeanor battery.
Faced with an angry backlash, Gibson retreated – until the long-delayed release of this film in the U.S. in April. The actor did one interview at the time, which ran on Hollywood industry site HYPERLINK "http://www.deadline.com" www.deadline.com, and addressed much of the controversy but today he’s not going there, not even when asked about his revelation that all the recordings leaked took place on the same day. “Sorry, I’m not speaking about this to you,” he says politely but adamantly, “there’s too much dependent on it.” The only hint of hostility comes when he’s asked about a recent Los Angeles Times story that references his bipolar disorder. “That’s nice of them to diagnose me,” he says with a flash of irritation, “Shit, I’ll get on to that right away!” When asked for a response, Gibson looks frustrated and says, “I mean, what do you say to that? Believe nothing you read and half of what you see.”
Gibson seems determined to draw a line separating his own travails and those of his seriously psychologically disturbed character Walter Black.
“He was a severe depressive and I don’t think I am,” Gibson insists. “But to some degree or other, we all have our ups and downs and we’re all going to be afflicted by the same elements of stress that the planet has to offer, I guess.”
Foster looks torn when asked for her opinion if the critically acclaimed film will help audiences once again forgive and embrace Gibson. “I really don’t know and it’s just not my place to say,” she responds carefully, “but the film speaks for itself and his performance is beautiful. I know this sounds crazy but if anything, I do feel that his baggage in some ways contributes to you having a real understanding of a man who’s struggling with is own demons, feeling like he’s stuck between a life sentence and a death sentence. That’s a very dire place to be…”
Movie: The Beaver
Director: Jodie Foster
Stars: Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence
Release: August 4
Rating: TBD
Buzz: Under US$1 million at U.S. box-office, rave reviews and Oscar buzz.
Mel Gibson Breakout
Words: 250
1976 – Made stage debut in production of Romeo and Juliet with fellow NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Arts) student Judy Davis. Played a shy surfer in film debut Summer City.
1979 – Breakthrough film role in Mad Max, which became international hit.
1981 – Reprised role in Mad Max 2 and won critical acclaim in Peter Weir’s classic World War I drama Gallipoli. He reteamed with Weir a year later in The Year of Living Dangerously with Sigourney Weaver.
1985 – Completed Mad Max trilogy with Tina Turner in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
1987 – Starred with Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon, one of the most successful buddy cop movie franchises of all time, spawning a total of four films.
1993 – First major career misstep with his feature directorial debut The Man Without a Face, in which he also starred.
1995 – Rebounded with his second directorial stint, Braveheart, in which he also starred. The film earned 10 Academy Award nominations and won five, including his own statues for Best Picture and Best Director.
2004 – Stepped into media storm with his third directorial effort, The Passion of the Christ, putting up his own money when studios refused to finance. It grossed $610 million worldwide.
2006 – Directed Apocalypto, set in the ancient Maya civilization and shot entirely in the obscure Mayan language (with subtitles) and with little appeal to critics and audiences. Gibson was also arrested for drunk driving around this time.
2010 – His drama, Edge of Darkness, was a surprise flop at the box-office. Shortly after the film’s release, those infamous audiotapes were leaked.
