November 1996
There's no denying that Mel Gibson carries a true presence. Whether it is his outgoing personality or his charm and wit or his distinct star persona, it seems as though when Gibson enters a room, he lights it up with charisma.
Gibson, the star of the new suspense thriller "Ransom," didn't waste any time on the morning of our interview. Having had no sleep due to his long night of filming, the weary but still energetic actor maintained an open attitude about discussing his new film, his life, his directing career and that most sacred question: Where does he put his Oscars?
"Ransom," directed by Ron Howard, is the story of a family torn apart and the trials it goes through to come back together. Gibson stars as Tom Mullen, a millionaire whose son is abducted by kidnappers. He said the personal tragedy and reactions of his character were what drew him to the role.
"It's a curious reaction," Gibson said. "It's mystifying to begin with. It's a dynamic thing, a dynamic stance and a scary stance to take in a situation like that. There's a lot of stakes, so how do you do that and have it be understandable for the dad, for what he's going through? And also not have it so understandable that it's just boring. You want the other characters to say, `You're an idiot!' And he has to feel like, `Maybe I am an idiot.' It's the agony of that kind of situation.
"I found this dilemma sort of agonizing, and a really tough place to be in. It's like being in a situation for a couple of hours of hell, kind of a hard grab to make--to make it a different kind of hell all the time. But I found it just a hard place to be in, a guy with a real bad problem and a really difficult decision to make."
When asked about how he drew upon such strong emotions, Gibson's answer was simple and straightforward.
"Have you ever made a horrible mistake?"
One thing that fascinated Gibson was the reality of how our society looks at crime and fighting back to defend oneself.
"Somebody told me last night that if somebody attacks you, it's a bigger offense to spray mace in their face than it is to attack them back, which is like, `Whoa!' If you're a woman and getting attacked by somebody, you're gonna even up the odds a bit. So it's interesting what is an offense and what isn't. Sometimes some things are going the wrong way around."
He also said he feels that the film reflects on the attitude of today's world, in which parents are constantly fearful of such a reality.
"I think all responsible parents think about that all the time, especially in today's world. We hear the horror stories all the time."
Gibson, born in America and raised in Australia, made his film breakthrough with George Miller's sci-fi classic, "Mad Max." The actor found several powerful roles in the early `80s, such as in Peter Weir's "Gallipoli" and "Tim," for which he won the Australian Film Institute's Best Actor award. In America, Gibson is most famous for his role in the "Lethal Weapon" series. "Braveheart" was only one of many Gibson commercial successes.
Stepping out of the director's chair and back into the makeup chair has been a topic of concern for some, but Gibson's belief was a reassurance of his dual talents.
"It was no problem at all. It's not about power. It's about doing good work. There's no need to flex any sort of directorial muscles, especially when there's a giant in there sort of doing his thing," he said, speaking of director Ron Howard.