Everyone wanted him; we got him. Since being arrested several months ago for driving under the influence and causing worldwide outrage when he launched an anti-semitic tirade on his arresting officer, Mel Gibson has kept the world's media at arm's length. But recently he sat down with Empire for a lengthy exclusive interview about the arrest, his new film Apocalypto and the future of his career.
"[The arrest] is just scandal and human frailty," Gibson said of that fateful night. "That'll go; that's my thing". The director is now keen to shift focus back onto Apocalypto, an action epic focusing on the decline of the ancient Mayan culture. Shot with his own money and with a cast composed almost entirely of newcomers, it's a film that, he says, reflects the decline of our own civilization. "I think history has a habit of repeating itself," he says. "These things have always been the same - political corruption, all these various enterprises that we engage in. Really we're speeding towards our own destruction".
But it's not the earnest Oscar bait most might be expecting. "It's an action-adventure and it's breakneck," Gibson enthuses. "It's a chase movie. It's like...boy, it's like nothing...It has another line running through it that is a big commentary on the human condition...but on the surface of it, it's just pure popcorn".
When questioned on whether his recent focus on directing means an end to Gibson the actor, he said "I may act again one of these days; it just depends. I feel like I did that for 30 years...I don't necessarily feel the need to keep hopping in front of the camera...It's good to take some time off and then be able to go back and see again".
As for the future of his directing career, he says "I absolutely want to make a small film [after making two epics]...I want to make lots of different films. I think next I'm going to go for something entirely different".
For more from Mel on making Apocalypto, breaking from the Hollywood system, Passion of the Christ and how Clint Eastwood kick-started his directing career, pick up the new issue of Empire, on sale now.