“I’ll end up dead if I keep talking shit”: The bizarre political conspiracies Mel Gibson bought into
It’s nowhere close to being a coincidence that the social media era has risen in synchronicity with a drastic increase in misinformation being perpetuated as fact alongside conspiracy theories emerging from every pore of society and culture, but Mel Gibson was ahead of the curve in that regard.
The two-time Academy Award winner has seen his career fall on hard times ever since he was captured, unleashing an antisemitic tirade towards a police officer who collared him for driving under the influence, which was followed by even more negative headlines that did disastrous damage to his reputation.
Where he was once one of Hollywood’s biggest stars and bankable action heroes, he’s now found himself stuck in the same VOD purgatory it took Nicolas Cage a decade to escape from, although at least the latter freely admitted he was starring in so much dreck because he had a hefty tax bill that desperately needed to be paid to save him from financial ruin.
Gibson’s demise was instigated by his personal beliefs and indefensible behaviour, with his opinions and sentiments on certain things always lurking just below the surface, even when he was at his peak. As far back as the early 1980s, Anthony Hopkins saw his career going tits-up if he didn’t get a hold of himself, advice that evidently wasn’t heeded.
However, despite some unsanctionable comments and disturbing incidents derailing him from A-lister to journeyman, Gibson always made a point of keeping his political beliefs to himself during his time spent at the top of the Hollywood ladder. Well, almost. There was the infamous footage that captured him appearing to salute Home Alone 2 star Donald Trump at a UFC event, but what often goes unmentioned is the bizarre 1995 interview with Playboy where he backed a couple of bonkers conspiracy theories.
When asked for their thoughts on then-current White House incumbent Bill Clinton, Gibson said, “he was meant to be the president 30 years ago, if you ask me.” At the time, the commander-in-chief was still in his 40s, so does that mean the Lethal Weapon figurehead was adamant he’d been hand-selected by a secret society to one day govern the United States when he was still a teenager? Remarkably, the answer is yes.
“Somebody knew than that he would be president now. I really believe that,” he explained before dragging a former Australian prime minister into the mix for good measure. “He was a Rhodes scholar, right? Just like Bob Hawke. Do you know what a Rhodes scholar is? Cecil Rhodes established the Rhodes scholarship for those young men and women who want to strive for a new world order.”
When it was suggested he sounded very paranoid, Gibson subsequently dived into another conspiratorial tale told to him by the reliable source of his father, a noted Holocaust denier. “There’s something to do with the Federal Reserve that Lincoln did, Kennedy did and Reagan tried,” he continued. “I can’t remember what it was, my dad told me about it. Everyone who did this particular thing that would have fixed the economy got undone.”
Presumably forcibly removing the tinfoil hat from his head, Gibson remarked that “I’ll end up dead if I keep talking shit,” lest he reveal the secret machinations that have run the corridors of power while remaining completely undiscovered to the world and pay the ultimate price for his sins.
