Patrick Stoner welcomes your questions about movies and the people who make them. Send your questions to pstoner@whyy.org. Here's the current question and answer:
Q: You said that Mel Gibson is a master professional and a playful child personally. Examples?
A: Dog biscuits.
I'll explain: I used to do the worst Mel Gibson interviews on the planet. In fact, I showed one such disaster to the WHYY-TV newsroom staff in Wilmington, DE, and everyone AGREED it was the worst interview ever conducted.
In fairness to both of us, that was a few years ago, for BIRD ON A WIRE, and Mel was in torment while trying to give up smoking.
It wasn't my first tough interview with Mel, however. In my first contact with him, for LETHAL WEAPON 2, I felt like I could barely emit a coherent question. He looked at me quizzically throughout the interview, and I left the room wondering why I ever thought I had some talent for this job.
As I got to know other media people, I learned that they too had encountered the same look from Mel. In fact, he was known as a nice guy who on random days gave great interviews or awful ones. Still, I like Gibson and his work. So, I didn't want my record of pathetic interviews to expand. I quit trying to delve into the intricacies of his craft and decided to let go and have some fun with the interview.
So, for the LETHAL WEAPON 3 interview, I noticed a confluence between film and real life. There was a scene where Mel's character gets past a vicious guard dog by sharing a dog biscuit with him. I had heard that Mel was STILL fighting his nicotine craving -- and chewing on dog biscuits was his secret.
Before the tape rolled, I suggested we do a bit during the interview. I said, "I'll take some of your dog biscuits and throw you one when I like the answer to a question. What do you say?" What he said was, "Great. Let's do it, but don't tell me when you're going to throw it, and I'll catch it in my mouth."
Fine. So, I started out the interview by saying, "So, Mel, what's it like to be a screen lover?" He pantomined removing a screen from a window and held it in his arms, saying, "Oh, it's wonderful. I grab the screen. I place my lips against its cool mesh and ..." He pretended to kiss the screen, and I said, "Good answer. Here's a dog bicuit." I threw it in the air and he grabbed it with his teeth in mid-flight, and munched it as if he hadn't had a bite to eat in weeks.
We kept this bit up for the rest of the interview, while working in some actual comments about the film in between the craziness. What I discovered was that he was capable of juggling silly humor with quick thinking on more serious matters. In fact, once he wasn't bored with the process, it all worked better.
So, since then, I've talked about what it's like to be a guy trapped inside of a pretty face while discussing just the opposite case in THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE, and we've done some fake swordplay with letter openers while discussing the battle scenes in BRAVEHEART.
You might think I learned my lesson, and all would go swimmingly after that, but I decided to try a serious interview for RANSOM and got the confused stare again. So, that's that.
If you check out the review excerpts for CONSPIRACY THEORY, you'll see that we did the interview as if Mel were REALLY paranoid and feared that I was part of a conspiracy to trap him into talking about the film.
What does all this accomplish? It won't cure cancer, but it reveals one of the myriad ways that a very successful artist interacts with the real world. In Mel Gibson's case, it's as a playful child.
Past questions and answers.
