The despicable moments that made Mel Gibson a Hollywood pariah
Bolstered by a string of hits throughout the 1980s and 1990s that featured the Mad Max sequels, the Lethal Weapon franchise, Maverick, Braveheart, and Ransom, Mel Gibson seemed well-placed to remain one of the biggest stars in Hollywood after picking up where he left off at the turn of millennium through further successes including Chicken Run, What Women Want, We Were Soldiers, and Signs.
However, a string of high-profile and widely-publicised incidents effectively torpedoed his mainstream career in the middle of the decade. Even though he found his off-camera efforts being rewarded when 2016’s World War II epic Hacksaw Ridge won two Academy Awards in the technical categories from seven nominations in total, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’, a certifiable and sustained return to the big time has remained off-limits.
Gibson’s issues with alcohol had been common knowledge for decades, with Anthony Hopkins – himself teetotal since 1975 following his own addiction – showing concern for his co-star’s self-destructive behaviour during the shoot of 1984’s The Bounty: “Mel is a wonderful, wonderful fellow with a marvellous future,” Hopkins said. “He’s already something of a superstar, but he’s in danger of blowing it unless he takes hold of himself.”
That was the same year Gibson first found himself banned from driving after crashing his car while intoxicated, but it wasn’t until 2006 that he experienced his first major public incident. As much as the actor had been open in regards to his hard-drinking ways up to that point, an antisemitic rant towards the police officer who pulled him over for driving under the influence – where he slurred that “the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world” – facilitated his downfall and led to a four-year break from the screen.
Apologising for his “despicable” actions, the domino effect saw several colleagues, peers, and former collaborators come forward with their experiences of Gibson’s alleged antisemitism. Winona Ryder was by far the most notable, but Basic Instinct writer Joe Eszterhas would accuse Gibson of using anti-Jewish slurs in a letter shared by The Wrap, where the scribe suggested that “continuing charges of antisemitism have crippled your career”. The actor responded by calling the accusations “utter fabrications”, but that was far from the end of the controversy.
In 2006, Fox News reported that the actor had branded the Holocaust as “kind of a numbers game”, earning unsavoury comparisons to his father Hutton Gibson’s notoriety as a religious conspiracist and Holocaust denier. Prior to that, the Jewish Anti-Defamation League had publicly aired its grievances with his directorial return in The Passion of the Christ, which they believed “could likely falsify history and fuel the animus of those who hate Jews”.
Voicemails left by Gibson spewing racist tirades towards his then-partner Oksana Grigorieva were obtained by various websites and shared in 2010, where he wished violence upon her and threatened to “burn the f*cking house down with her inside”. As a result, Grigorieva filed a restraining order and sought charges of domestic violence, with the latter being dropped in spite of Gibson pleading no contest to a misdemeanour charge of battery.
With none of his last 15 feature film appearances having secured a wide theatrical release since the 2017 comedy sequel Daddy’s Home, Gibson’s days in the industry doldrums are nowhere near at an end, compounding his startling fall from the very top of the A-list.
