Mel Gibson Wigs Out

[stu]

By Joal Ryan

Mon Sep 25, 7:21 PM ET

 

 

 

Mel Gibson is facing his critics. The movie-going ones, anyway.

 

Out of the spotlight since an admittedly "out of control" blowup and drunken-driving arrest, Gibson has surfaced in Oklahoma and Texas, only once resorting to the cover of a wig, and fielding questions at screenings of his new movie.

 

 

"The audience could ask anything they wanted," Jhane Myers, a publicist who worked on the star's recent Southwest swing, said Monday. "And it never came up."

 

 

"It" is Gibson's reputed "f--king Jews" and "sugar tits" rant from his July 28 DUI arrest in Malibu.

 

 

What came up instead was Apocalypto, Gibson's all-Mayan action-adventure movie due out in December.

 

 

"Don't be afraid. I got a hide like a rhinoceros, you know," Gibson told a Fantastic Fest audience in Austin, Texas, on Saturday night, per an audio recording of the Q&A session posted on Ain't It Cool.

 

 

Gibson sounded low-key and engaging, frequently eliciting laughs, even when the Apocalypto talk turned apocalyptic.

 

 

"The precursors to a civilization that's going under are always the same, time and time again," Gibson said, linking his 15-century period piece to the present day. "I don't mean to be a doomsday guy, but the Mayan calendar does end in 2012, boys and girls.

 

 

"Have fun!"

 

 

The Fantastic Fest screening was one of four sneak peeks, held Thursday through Saturday, of Gibson's not quite finished print. All but the final showing were private screenings for Native American groups.

 

 

While Gibson has asked Jewish leaders to put him on the "path to healing," he apparently wants Native Americans to set him on the right path with Apocalypto. The film, which Gibson wrote and directed, features a cast of Native-American actors, including Rudy Youngblood, who joined the filmmaker on the promotional tour.

 

 

"It's probably the first big film that's ever starred only indigenous people, which I think is really cool, because it's better than me getting up and putting a wig on," Gibson said Saturday night.

 

 

Funny, he should mention a wig...

 

 

At a Thursday afternoon screening for members of the Comanche Nation at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma, Gibson entered the venue wearing a hat, sunglasses and a wig--the better to keep him from drawing a crowd, Myers explained.

 

 

"He just had a disguise on when he was going in," Myers said. "I can't really give you a [detailed] description because then everyone would know what to look for."

 

 

Gibson greeted audience members and exited the theater sans disguise, Myers said.

 

 

Early notices for Apocalypto won't have Gibson diving for cover. Ain't It Cool's Harry Knowles, who saw the film twice on Saturday, called it, given its presently unfinished state, a "rough jewel."

 

 

"This could very well be the best film Mel has made when he's done with it," Knowles wrote on his site.

 

At Indiewire.com, Matt Dentler blogged that Apocalypto was a "fine adventure film." He even gave distributor Disney poster-blurb fodder: "It's Braveheart with subtitles."

 

Dentler, however, might have also given Disney angina. He wrote that he wasn't entirely able to get past Gibson's "disgusting" words from the DUI bust.

 

"Was I able to block it from my mind during the Q&A?" blogged Dentler, producer of the prestigious South by Southwest Film Festival. "Not at all."

 

Upping the controversy quotient, a Gibson comment about the Iraq war at Fantastic Fest ("What's human sacrifice if not sending guys off to Iraq for no reason?") proved ready-made for a Drudge Report headline ("MEL GIBSON BLASTS IRAQ WAR, SAYS AMERICAN CIVILIZATION ON DECLINE...")

 

Gibson pleaded no-contest to a misdemeanor DUI count on Aug. 17. The deal meant required Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for the Braveheart Oscar-winner, but headed off a trial that might have featured tapes of his tirade.

 

Apocalypto is Gibson's first film since The Passion of the Christ. More test screenings likely are on the way; its director told the Austin crowd he was eager for feedback.

 

"You don't know if you can trust your own judgment anymore."