I was too young to remember, but I believe he was named sexiest man alive, won an Academy Award for Braveheart, perhaps the world's best paid actor for a moment... what was his reputation among the people that worked with him and fans?
share[deleted]
Yeah throughout the 90s (and most of the 80s) he was same as Arnold, Stallone, Bruce, Cruise, Costner (early 90s), Travolta (mid/late 90s), Ford, Hanks in that era (and considered the hunkiest along with Pitt/Cruise/Gere/Ford) and post Braveheart he was probably the biggest out of all them for a few years as he was an Oscar winning director of an iconic film as well as a $20m above the title A list movie star (in fact I remember reading 'Premiere' in late 90s and one issue they had the top 100 powerful film people of the time and he was #1 ahead of Cruise, Spielberg, Cameron etc ) and later with The Passion its like he was a blockbuster director in league with Peter Jackson, Lucas, Spielberg etc
All ended that night in 2006
Most of the A list stars had a 10/15years at the absolute top and the real big ones like Mel 20-30years as a bankable movie star before they start to fade due to getting too old, out of fashion, too many bombs etc but even then they come back for the legacy sequels ..but in Gibson's case it ended prematurely (and no Mad Max/LethalWeapon legacy sequels obviously due to what happened).. plus his director career was obviously affected and sort of cut short and never reached the extreme heights it could have continued (although if he gets Passion 2 made it could be as big as the first one.. but then theres this covid problem for the foreseeable future 😩)
Funny you bring up the people who worked with him, because many of them will still stand up for him to this day. Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Donner, Jodi Foster, and several others have all gone to bat for him.
sharecrazy australian-american stuntman.
shareAt the time, Mel Gibson was a MASSIVE star. As mentioned above, he one of the top leading men in Hollywood. He won not one but two Oscars. Plus nearly each film he made was a hit and all in different genres too (action; drama; romance; comedy; western; and even an animated movie with Chicken Little).
The fallout was intense. And after seeing Hacksaw Ridge, and a few recent movies he's done, I have to say the man still has talent. It's too bad that he seemed to surrender to his demons and become so ugly inside. Though I guess his asshole father Hutton is to blame for some of that. His dad was a huge antisemite and conspiracy theorist.
+1
shareI'm Australian and he was probably second only to Paul Hogan as our "favourite son" of the 80s and 90s.
He made his political and religious ideals clear early on though. Back then people just accepted it even if they didn't agree. I know there was some major drama with comments on gay people but that seemed to blow over (no pun intended).
So, we loved Mel down here. I still do.
I liked him when he was still an Australian actor (even though he's American born).
I never cared for the Lethal Weapon movies and even back then I thought the buddy White/Black cop schtick was overrated.
When he returned to the US and did dramatic roles from Hamlet to Man without a Face I sorta lost interest in him.
I was never interested in his Opus Dei Cathaholicism either
People loved him in the 1980s and 1990s. He was considered awesome and a hottie for movies like "Lethal Weapon," its sequels, and "Braveheart." The men thought he was badass as an action hero, and the women thought he was a hottie.
He was a huge sensation in Hollywood, and films he directed (and sometimes acted in) were must-sees. Even his voice acting drew large crowds in films like "Pocahontas" and "Chicken Run." His last big film was "The Passion of the Christ," before things went south.
They thought that he was f'n awesome.
He still is.... fucking awesome.