Cinema’s most malleable spud: the actor Mel Gibson compared to Mr Potato Head
On the surface, anyone who finds themselves being compared to Mr Potato Head is well within their rights to treat it as an insult, with the character being an inanimate object and plastic plaything based on a root vegetable. However, Mel Gibson intended it as a compliment of the highest order.
One reason for any self-respecting actor to endorse the comparisons is that the happily-married spud is a certified box office goldmine. Technically, at least. As a key character in the Toy Story franchise, Mr Potato Head has a filmography that’s racked up over $3 billion in ticket sales over the course of three decades.
Not only that, but the carb-loaded star has been a pivotal supporting player in three Academy Award-winning movies, with the first Toy Story earning a special achievement Oscar, before the third and fourth entries in the series took home the trophy for ‘Best Animated Feature’.
That’s without even mentioning the animated specials, short films, video games, theme park attractions and merchandising tie-ins, all of which combine to make Mr Potato Head one of the most critically and commercially successful tatties in history. For anyone who thinks that’s a hollow accolade, what’s the lasting legacy of risible comedy Sex Lives of the Potato Men? Exactly.
However, that’s got nothing to do with Gibson’s praise, either. Instead, the two-time Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker used it to describe a thespian who channels the spirit of Mr Potato Head more than anything else; in that, there’s nothing they can’t do, and no role they can’t play provided the requisite embellishments have been provided to let them disappear into the part.
The recipient of Gibson’s highly specific praise was Gary Oldman, and it’s hard to say it’s an honour he doesn’t deserve. After all, the star’s career has been largely defined by its transformative nature, with nothing left off the table in his pursuit to embody as many different characters as humanly possible.
Need a psychopathic killer with a face like a pound of mince? Oldman’s your guy. A scheming intergalactic overlord with designs on universal enslavement? He can do that, too. Winston Churchill? Yep, he’s got the accolades to prove it. A member of the Sex Pistols? Of course. Dracula, in both his wrinkled and sensual forms? Of course. John F Kennedy’s assassin? Oliver Stone couldn’t think of anybody else. The co-writer of Citizen Kane? An Oscar nod proved he was the right man for the job.
“He’s kind of like Mr Potato Head,” came Gibson’s frank counterpoint, per Alex Simon. “It’s like he has this ability to transform himself into something different at will.” For some people, that’s just the mark of a good actor, with the finest purveyors of the craft more than capable of vanishing onscreen after becoming someone else.
For Gibson, though, he couldn’t think of anything more apt than lumping one of their generation’s finest talents in with Hasbro’s most famous tater.
