Mel Gibson: Back from the edge as action star returns

Mel Gibson has returned after a difficult few years with a remake of a British 80s' TV hit. He told Tony Earnshaw about his overdue comeback.

It's been a testing few years for Mel Gibson.

The New York-born, Australian-raised superstar has seen his stock rise and fall – first with a controversial film about the crucifixion that raked in almost $1bn, a drink-drive arrest that culminated in a racist tirade against the Jews and a split from Robyn, his wife of 30 years and mother of his seven children.

One thing guaranteed to put his career back on course is a hit film, and Gibson can look forward to re-connecting with his fan base with Edge of Darkness, an updated version of the classic British TV series that starred the late, great Bob Peck as taciturn Yorkshire cop Ronald Craven.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In the remake, again directed by New Zealander Martin Campbell, the locale has shifted from England to Boston, Massachusetts, the name has changed from Ronald to Thomas and Leeds-born Peck, who died in 1999, has metamorphosed into Gibson.

Notwithstanding a cameo and a couple of supporting jobs, Edge of Darkness represents Gibson's first genuine leading role since Signs in 2002. What drew him back? "Seven or eight years back I felt like I was getting stale," says Gibson.

"Once you start to stand still, it's a little dangerous. You almost have to impose a penalty on yourself and walk away for a little while. You can walk into that groove where it doesn't mean anything except a pay cheque, which is not really what you're after.

"I just felt like it was time to come back. If you spend that long away, you're going to change – time and maturity and oxidization and all of the little things take a hold of you."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He describes the acclaimed 1985 television mini series of Edge of Darkness as "the best TV I saw in that decade" and selected a 21st-century re-boot as his comeback vehicle at the age of 54.

He also sees it as a full-on partnership between himself and Campbell, a filmmaker inspired by directors such as Sam Peckinpah and a man Gibson very much admires.

"I saw the original series in the 1980s and it really blew my mind. I was left with my mouth hanging open," he recalls.

"It's a tall order when your task is to make an updated version within the time frame of two hours. I mean, even the music – by Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen – in the original series was amazing. How cool is that?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"I felt good about it because Martin (Campbell] was doing it again.

"On face value you could say it looks like (just] another revenge movie but it's actually rather more than that. It investigates grief and loss, in a good way. I think it holds its own."

Gibson has made more than his fair share of action-orientated fare. Aside from four Lethal Weapon movies he has played a soldier in the First and Second World Wars, Vietnam and the American War of Independence and portrayed real-life characters such as Scots rebel William Wallace (in Braveheart) and naval mutineer Fletcher Christian in Roger Donaldson's intelligent rendering of the mutiny on the Bounty.

It's a genre in which he feels comfortable – not surprising given his diet of cinema as a boy growing up in Oz.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"We had a black and white TV and mostly I watched films on that," he remembers.

"We didn't go out to the cinema – we didn't have the money.

"When I started really going to the cinema I was in my teen years during the '70s.

"It was an amazing decade to be watching films – just cool. It had it all, man – really good filmmaking, good acting, good everything.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"It was a whole different era of naturalism. Everything from Sam Peckinpah films to Polanski's Macbeth and everything in between. I thought Al Pacino was the best thing I'd ever seen. Those films leave a mark on you."

His return to the screen in Edge of Darkness marks a return to the type of character he has played before: the maverick loner.

In playing a grieving father mourning his daughter and investigating her involvement as an activist attempting to lift the lid on a cover-up at a nuclear plant, he treads old ground but with the added advantage

of maturity.

"I've got grandchildren," he says. "I'm looking at my daughter and my sons stepping into that place where I've been as responsible adults.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"I'm going to have to shuffle off one of these days so what I've done is hand it on to them.

"It's the idea of natural progression. To have that taken away, like the guy in this story does, would have to change your perspective on the world.

"The core of it is pretty emotional. It doesn't turn into a Charlie Bronson revenge movie; it actually means something."

So what's next for Mel Gibson? Rumours of a fourth Mad Max movie seem to have bitten the dust and the Lethal Weapon franchise appears to have run out of ammunition.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

After The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto, nothing is beyond his reach.

He hints at one project that may be his next unpredictable foray into directing but stops short of going into detail.

"I can't talk about it," he says with a grin. "It's something I've been thinking about since I was 17. I'm just formulating the story now. There's a little way to go before I actually get to that, but I'll get to it.

"And it's going to whack your nuts off!"

Edge of Darkness (15) is on nationwide release.

Related topics: