“ I always have the Irish passport … I think I understand the original nature of the Irish spirit ” – The Irish Times

Colorful banners float on the road. A huge tent rises under a late summer sun. Certain stock markets in horns and sheepskin smoking are (inexplicably) grassy divisions. It’s like something Game of Thrones. Or Braveheart de Mel Gibson.

Gibson went to the annual promo promo festival for summer john summer in Trim, Co Meath, for the 30th anniversary of this legendary historic drama. It was in the fields and neighboring castles, during the first agitations of the Celtic tiger, that he recreated the bloody climb of the Scottish rebel William Wallace. This afternoon, he will take advantage of a film music concert before switching to a screening of the Oscar-winning film. Right now, he is in a small satellite tent to speak with Irish Times. How did they attract him here?

“It was not a biggia,” he said in the context.

David O’Hara, the famous Bourru Scottish actor, seems to have sealed the agreement.

“They had done one at 20 years old. They made one at 25 years old. Then O’Hara was on the phone, saying: “Oh, come on! He insisted for a long time and hard. I thought, okay.

In a sense, he returns home. Thanks to a mother born in Longford, he has already traveled under an Irish passport. Is it always like that?

“I always have the passport,” he confirms. “I come here from time to time. My mother, when I was young – she educated me on the place. I think it’s just in your blood in one way or another. You end up coming back. I think I understand the eccentric nature of the mind. Because my mother was an ax murderer. “

I’m almost sure he jokes that his mother is a murderer. Gibson, who is what we will call a “controversial character”, is this kind of conversationist in the black belt. Speaking in a voice that now betrays little from his adolescent Australian years, he launched through the anecdotes of the way the behemoths are thundering around turns.

You have a certain sense to what extent the young Gibson could have spoken to the financiers to finance a film on man, formerly little known outside his native land, which led the first war of Scottish independence, in the 13th century. Legend has it that Morgan O’Sullivan, the tireless Irish producer, and Michael D Higgins, then Minister of Arts, Culture and Gaeltacht, attracted production through the Irish Sea.

“They were great,” says Gibson. “We were in Scotland, and the shooting was fine. We had huge images in Scotland – many scenes there. But we realized fairly quickly that the ground was not suitable for horses. It’s good, but it’s quite rocky.”

They also lacked body.

“So we contacted Michael D, and we met Morgan through it. They just welcomed us with open arms, and they made it easier for us. They were able to provide the army reserve as an end – because we needed 2000 guys. And we had a track track right there near Curragh. They had the barracks on the other side. These guys could walk to work. Ha!”

Lots of time has intervened. In 1995, Gibson still rose the first waves of international fame. The breakthrough had come with Mad Max II, the Australian Automobile Auto Auto of George Miller, just over a decade earlier. Peter Weir’s year of life has dangerously suggested that he could have a currency beyond. The first film of fatal weapons in 1987 confirmed its growing status. He was a leading man from the old school.

Its 21st century was more disturbed. There was a lot of controversy around the passion of Christ in 2004, but this incredibly bloody story of the death of Jesus made a fortune. While we are talking, he works on a very delayed two -part follow -up on the resurrection.

In 2006, detained for conduct under the influence, he would have launched a series of anti -Semitic violence to the arrest officer. Two apologies were published through its publicist. There were other problems. In 2011, he argued any competition with an accusation of offense of having beaten Oksana Grigoriva, his former girlfriend, in an agreement which allowed him to escape prison and escape the responsibility of civil disputes.

Meanwhile, it became clear that his policy was not that of the famous liberal Hollywood. He and his conservative colleagues Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight are currently “special ambassadors” by Donald Trump in Hollywood.

In 2016, Shane Black, a Lethal Weapon writer, argued that the company had turned their backs to Gibson.

“I think it was mainly put on black list in the industry,” Black told Business Insider. “I think people don’t want to work with him.”

How are relations with Hollywood? Has the industry welcomed it again?

“Yes, it’s … Yeah, it’s okay. I mean, what is Hollywood? Where is it? Gibson says uncertainly.

Shortly after Black gave this interview, the Arts Academy and the Sciences of the Film put six Oscar nominations towards the Hacksaw Crete in Gibson. It looked like the academy reopening the door to it.

“Yeah, for Hacksaw. I was surprised by that,” he said. “But the industry has undergone a major change. It was Mecca from Filmdom. Now, this is not the case.”

We tend to think of Gibson as Australian. But he was born in New York and lived there until the age of 12, when the family moved to Sydney. As an interim student, he shared main roles in Romeo and Juliet with Judy Davis. A few years later, he was waiting for Godot opposite Geoffrey Rush. In 1979, when he shot the first Mad Max for George Miller, one or the other man had an idea that it would ultimately lead to huge Hollywood careers?

“No, no idea at all,” he said, laughing. “It ended up in Hollywood. There is a song by Tom Waits entitled Big in Japan. Remember?” I am tall in Japan! “Ha ha! The first film Mad Max was huge in Japan.

When I saw him in Ireland, they had replaced the then Australian voice of Gibson with that of an American actor.

“Yeah, we had a Montana cowboy making my voice,” he said. “The dubbing is always funny. Later, they reissued it with our own voices. I think I liked it better with the Dub. Ha ha! No, no one saw it coming. George was a doctor. His ambulance driver was the guy who was, like, “I could produce that! They brought together some friends who had pharmacies and tinkered around $ 300,000.

The industry is now flooded with Australian actors: Russell Crowe, Margot Robbie, Cate Blanchett – and so on. This was not the case then. Notice, as we have established, Gibson is many places. He is Irish. He is American. He is Australian. Does it struggle to identify his nationality?

“Yeah, I do,” he says. “I think it’s just an imprint that we have generations back. It is printed on you. And you do not know where it comes from. It is that feeling that you are here before. But I don’t think that’s what it is. I think we are the sum of everything that has done us.”

In any case, Braveheart confirmed Gibson as an actor and note director. Epic Clatering was a surprise winner of the best value at the Oscars. My memory is that Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 was the favorite, but Gibson, who also took the best director, saw it differently.

“I thought it was this other film that was going to pick up everything,” he said. “Ang Lee made this film … Umm … meaning and sensitivity. They did well everywhere. And I thought, oh, you know, it’s their year. So I was actually a little surprised that we had it. But, you know, you could see blood, perspiration and tears. It was a difficult film. “

If Braveheart was an unlikely success, the triumph of the passion of Christ mentioned the belief. Talked in Aramaic, admiring the most extreme vision of the still staged crucifixion, the image, that Gibson, a devout Christian, was funded, found himself as the most profitable independent film of all time. It took him over 20 years to follow up with the resurrection of Christ. Was money men, after the success of passion, not to acquire a sequel (if we can call it)?

“Many people wanted to be involved,” said Gibson. “But they came to the table and then made cold feet. It was a much larger production. I financed the first one myself. No one else would. And then I couldn’t even get a major distributor. I had a small distribution company. They had done a few things before. They had a bit bitten dog, a fax and a telephone.”

We know that the resurrection of Christ is in two parts. We know that Lionsgate distributes. The first part arrived on March 26, 2027 – it’s Good Friday. The second part will be with us on May 6, 2027. (Complete brands if you worked that it is the day of the ascent.) But we do not know what the film really is talking about. The experiences of Jesus in the days following the resurrection were not much examined in popular culture.

“I don’t think it contradicts any of the gospels,” said Gibson. “But that juxtaposes some of the stories. It’s not linear. And it’s more of a film. He talks about things that are not really spoken in the Gospels. What bed Peter was hiding? What was Matthew? What was John doing? I tried to explore him.”

The success of the first film was, wrongly or wrongly, attributed to Christians voting with their portfolios. Does Gibson expect the new films to register beyond the public of faith?

“This is what I try to do,” he says. “What I want to do is show them something on which they may ask a lot of questions. Because there are things that are pretty, pretty over there. “”

The world can consider itself warned.