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INSPIRATION AS AN ACTOR MEL GIBSON

Mel Gibson

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Page 1: Mel Gibson

INSPIRATION AS AN ACTOR

MEL GIBSON

Page 2: Mel Gibson

Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson was born on January 3, 1956, in Peekskill, New York, USA as the sixth of eleven children to parents Hutton Gibson, a railroad brakeman, and Ann Gibson, who was born in Australia and died in December of 1990. Though born in the US, Mel Gibson and his family moved to New South Wales, Australia. After high school, Mel studied at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, performing at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts alongside future film thespians Judy Davis and Geoffrey Rush. After college, Mel had a few stints on stage and starred in a few TV shows. Eventually, he was chosen to star in Mad Max in 1979 and in a movie called Tim made in 1979, co-starring Piper Laurie. The small budgeted movie ‘Mad Max’ made him known worldwide, while ‘Tim’ garnered him an award for Best Actor from the Australian Film Institute which is equivalent to an Oscar. Later, he went on to star in Gallipoli in 1981, which earned him a second award for Best Actor from the AFI. In 1980, he married Robyn Moore and had seven children. In 1984, Mel made his American debut in 1984 with ‘The Bounty’, which co-starred Anthony Hopkins. Then in 1987, Mel starred in what would become his signature series, Lethal Weapon starting in 1987, in which he played "Martin Riggs". In 1990, he took on the interesting starring role in Hamlet, which garnered him some critical praise. He also made the more endearing Forever Young in 1992 and the somewhat disturbing The Man Without a Face in 1993. 1995 brought his most famous role as "Sir William Wallace" in Braveheart in 1995, for which he won two Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. From there, he made such box office hits as The Patriot in 2000, Ransom in 1996, and Payback 1999. In 2000, Gibson acted in three films that each grossed over $100 million: The Patriot, Chicken Run, and What Women Want. In 2002, Gibson appeared in the Vietnam War drama We Were Soldiers and M. Night Shyamalan's Signs, which became the highest-grossing film of Gibson's acting career. While promoting Signs, Gibson said that he no longer wanted to be a movie star and would only act in film again if the script were truly extraordinary. In 2010, Gibson appeared in Edge of Darkness, which marked his first starring role since 2002 and was an adaptation of the BBC miniseries, Edge of Darkness.In 2010, following an outburst at his ex-girlfriend that was made public, Gibson was dropped from the talent agency of William Morris Endeavor. Today, Mel remains an international superstar mogul, continuously topping the Hollywood power lists.

HISTORY

Page 3: Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney -

NIDA. The students at NIDA were classically trained in the British-theater

tradition rather than in preparation for screen acting. As students, Gibson

and actress Judy Davis played the leads in Romeo and Juliet, and

Gibson played the role of Queen Titania in an experimental production of

A Midsummer Night's Dream. After graduation in 1977 ,Mel immediately

began work on the filming of Mad Max, but continued to work as a stage

actor, and joined the State Theatre Company of South Australia in

Adelaide. Gibson's theatrical credits include the character Estragon in

Waiting for Godot, and the role of Biff Loman in a 1982 production of

Death of a Salesman in Sydney. Gibson's most recent theatrical

performance, opposite Sissy Spacek, was the 1993 production of Love

Letters by A. R. Gurney, in Telluride, Colorado

STAGE

Page 4: Mel Gibson

Gibson's acting career began in 1976, with a role on

the Australian television series The Sullivans. In his

career, Gibson has appeared in 43 films, including the

Mad Max and Lethal Weapon film series. In addition

to acting, Gibson has also directed four films,

including Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ;

produced 11 films; and written two films. Films either

starring or directed by Mel Gibson have earned over

US $2.5 billion, in the United States alone. Gibson's

filmography includes television series, feature films,

television films, and animated films.

ACTING CAREER

Page 5: Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson has credited his directors, particularly George Miller, Peter Weir, and Richard Donner, with teaching him the

craft of filmmaking and influencing him as a director. According to Robert Downey, Jr., studio executives encouraged

Gibson in 1989 to try directing, an idea he rebuffed at the time. Gibson made his directorial debut in 1993 with The Man

Without a Face, followed two years later by Braveheart, which earned Gibson the Academy Award for Best Director.

Gibson had long planned to direct a remake of Fahrenheit 451, but in 1999 the project was indefinitely postponed

because of scheduling conflicts. Gibson was scheduled to direct Robert Downey, Jr. in a Los Angeles stage production

of Hamlet in January 2001, but Downey's drug relapse ended the project. In 2002, while promoting We Were Soldiers

and Signs to the press, Gibson mentioned that he was planning to pare back on acting and return to directing. In

September 2002, Gibson announced that he would direct a film called The Passion in Aramaic and Latin with no

subtitles because he hoped to "transcend language barriers with filmic storytelling."In 2004, he released the

controversial film The Passion of the Christ, with subtitles, which he co-wrote, co-produced, and directed. The film went

on to become the highest grossing rated R film of all time with $370,782,930 in U.S. box office sales. Gibson directed a

few episodes of Complete Savages for the ABC network. In 2006, he directed the action-adventure film Apocalypto, his

second film to feature sparse dialogue in a non-English language.

DIRECTER

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After his success in Hollywood with the Lethal Weapon series, Gibson

began to move into producing and directing. With partner Bruce

Davey, Gibson formed Icon Productions in 1989 in order to make

Hamlet. In addition to producing or co-producing many of Gibson's

own star vehicles, Icon has turned out many other small films, ranging

from Immortal Beloved to An Ideal Husband. Gibson has taken

supporting roles in some of these films, such as The Million Dollar

Hotel and The Singing Detective. Gibson has also produced a number

of projects for television, including a biopic on The Three Stooges and

the 2008 PBS documentary Carrier. Icon has grown from being just a

production company to also be an international distribution company

and film exhibitor in Australia and New Zealand.

PRODUCER

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FILMS

Page 8: Mel Gibson

Gibson got his breakthrough role as the leather-clad post-

apocalyptic survivor in George Miller's Mad Max. The

independently financed blockbuster helped to make him an

international star everywhere but in the United States, where

the actors' Australian accents were dubbed with American

accents. The original film spawned two sequels: Mad Max 2

(known in North America as The Road Warrior), and Mad Max

3 (known in North America as Mad Max Beyond

Thunderdome). A fourth movie, Mad Max 4: Fury Road, is in

development, but both Gibson and George Miller have

indicated that the starring role would go to a younger actor.

MAD MAX

Page 9: Mel Gibson

The 1981 Peter Weir film, Gallipoli is about a group of young men from rural Western Australia who enlist in the Australian Imperial Force during World War I. They are sent to invade the Ottoman Empire, where they take part in the 1915

Gallipoli Campaign. During the course of the movie, the young men slowly lose their innocence about the war. The climax of the movie centres around the catastrophic AIF offensive known as the Battle of the Nek. Peter Weir cast Gibson in the role of Frank Dunne, an Irish-Australian drifter with an intense cynicism about fighting for the British Empire. Newcomer Mark Lee was recruited to play the idealistic Archy

Hamilton after participating in a photo session for the director. Gibson later recalled: "I'd auditioned for an earlier film and he told me right up front, 'I'm not going to cast you for this part. You're not old enough. But thanks for coming in, I just wanted to meet you.' He told me he wanted me for Gallipoli a couple of years later because I

wasn't the archetypal Australian. He had Mark Lee, the angelic-looking, ideal Australian kid, and he wanted something of a modern sensibility. He thought the audience needed someone to relate to of their own time.“ Gibson later said that

Gallipolli is, "Not really a war movie. That's just the backdrop. It's really the story of two young men.“ The critically acclaimed film helped to further launch Gibson's

career. He won the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role from the Australian Film Institute.

GALLIPOLI

Page 10: Mel Gibson

Gibson played a naïve but ambitious journalist opposite Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hunt in Peter Weir's atmospheric 1982 film The Year of Living Dangerously, based on the novel of the same name by Christopher

Koch. The movie was both a critical and commercial success, and the upcoming Australian actor was heavily marketed by MGM studio. In his review of the film, Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "If this

film doesn't make an international star of Mr. Gibson, then nothing will. He possesses both the necessary talent and the screen presence.“

According to John Hiscock of The Daily Telegraph, the film did, indeed, establish Gibson as an international talent. Gibson was initially reluctant to accept the role of Guy Hamilton. "I didn't necessarily see my role as a great challenge. My character was, like the film suggests, a puppet. And I went with that. It wasn't some star thing, even though they advertised it

that way." Gibson saw some similarities between himself and the character of Guy. "He's not a silver-tongued devil. He's kind of immature and he has some rough edges and I guess you could say the same for

me.“ Gibson has cited this screen performance as his personal favourite.

THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY

Page 11: Mel Gibson

Gibson followed the footsteps of Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, and

Marlon Brando by starring as Fletcher Christian in a cinematic

retelling of the Mutiny on the Bounty. The resulting 1984 film

The Bounty is considered to be the most historically accurate

version. However, Gibson has expressed a belief that the

film's revisionism did not go far enough. He has stated that his

character should have been portrayed as the film's antagonist.

He has further praised Anthony Hopkins's performance as

Lieutenant William Bligh as the best aspect of the film.

THE BOUNTY

Page 12: Mel Gibson

LETHAL WEAPON

Gibson moved into more mainstream commercial filmmaking

with the popular buddy cop Lethal Weapon series, which began

with the 1987 original. In the films he played LAPD Detective

Martin Riggs, a recently widowed Vietnam veteran with a death

wish and a penchant for violence and gunplay. In the films, he is

partnered with a reserved family man named Roger Murtaugh.

Following the success of Lethal Weapon, director Richard

Donner and principal cast revisited the characters in three

sequels, Lethal Weapon 2 in 1989, Lethal Weapon 3 in1993,

and Lethal Weapon 4 in 1998. With its fourth instalment, the

Lethal Weapon series embodied "the quintessence of the buddy

cop pic".

Page 13: Mel Gibson

HAMLET

Gibson made the unusual transition from action to classical drama, playing William Shakespeare's Danish prince in Franco

Zeffirelli's Hamlet. Gibson was cast alongside experienced Shakespearean actors Ian Holm, Alan Bates, and Paul Scofield. He compared working with Scofield to being "thrown into the ring

with Mike Tyson".Scofield said of Gibson "Not the sort of actor you'd think would make an ideal Hamlet, but he had enormous

integrity and intelligence."

Page 14: Mel Gibson

FILMS DIRECTED

Page 15: Mel Gibson

In 1995, Mel Gibson directed, produced, and starred in Braveheart, a

biopic of Sir William Wallace, a Scottish nationalist who was executed

in 1305 for "high treason" against King Edward I of England. Gibson

received two Academy Awards, Best Director and Best Picture, for his

second directorial effort. In winning the Academy Award for Best

Director, Gibson became only the sixth actor-turned-filmmaker to do

so. Braveheart influenced the Scottish nationalist movement and

helped to revive the film genre of the historical epic; the Battle of

Stirling Bridge sequence is considered by critics to be one of the all-

time-best-directed battle and also personally being one of my

favourite films.

BRAVEHEART

Page 16: Mel Gibson

Gibson directed, produced, co-wrote, and funded the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, which chronicled

the passion and death of Jesus. The film was shot exclusively in Aramaic, Latin, and Hebrew. Although Gibson originally intended to release the film without

subtitles, he eventually relented for theatrical exhibition. The film sparked divergent reviews,

ranging from high praise to criticism of the violence. The movie grossed $611,899,420 worldwide and

$370,782,930 in the US alone, surpassing any motion picture starring Gibson. In US box offices, it became the eighth, at the time highest-grossing film in history and the highest-grossing rated R film of all time. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards and

won the People's Choice Award for Favourite Dramatic Motion Picture.

THE PASSION OF CHRIST

Page 17: Mel Gibson

Gibson received further critical acclaim for his directing of the 2006 action-adventure film Apocalypto. Gibson's fourth directorial effort

is set in Mesoamerica during the early 16th century against the turbulent end times of a Maya civilization. The sparse dialogue is

spoken in the Yucatec Maya language by a cast of Native American descent. Gibson himself has stated that the film is an attempt at

making a deliberate point about great civilizations and what causes them to decline and disintegrate. Gibson said, "People think that modern man is so enlightened, but we're susceptible to the same

forces – and we are also capable of the same heroism and transcendence. "This theme is further explored by a quote from Will Durant, which is superimposed at the very beginning of the film: "A

great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within."

APOCALYPTO

Page 18: Mel Gibson

I chose Mel Gibson as an inspiration because not only is he one of my favourite actors but he also has many other talents such as directing and producing his own production company, and as I also have directed many performances and created my production company in media,’ Peak Productions’ I feel that I am getting slowly

closer to what I aspire to be which isn’t just an actor but being able to try new things. Along with Mel Gibson’s stage work I also played the same character as Mel which was Estragon in ‘Waiting for Godot’ and even though my performance where

unknown I feel that I’m slowly getting closer to what I aspire to be.

INSPIRATION