Don’t call it a comeback, but Mel Gibson returns to the big screen

Is it true that bad boys deserve another chance - even if they're movie stars?

The question gets put to the test this weekend when Mel Gibson returns to the big screen after a eight-year absence.

They have been troubling years for the star who won two Academy Awards for "Braveheart" - best picture and best director - and whose movies - including the "Lethal Weapon" and "Mad Max" series - have grossed more than $2 billion in the United States.

Yet you won't hear Gibson talk about his not-so-private demons.

Sitting in the Casa del Mar Hotel with the Ferris wheel of Santa Monica's famous pier in the background, Gibson isn't using the word "comeback" when it comes to his new action movie, "Edge of Darkness," which opens in local theaters this weekend.

He isn't using the word "scandal" either, and he doesn't talk about that night three years ago when he was arrested for drunken driving and unleashed an anti-Semitic tirade at the arresting officer. He subsequently apologized in a network interview with Diane Sawyer.

Coming on top of the 2004 controversy over his blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ," which some claimed was anti-Semitic in tone and substance, the imagery caused some in Hollywood, like Columbia Pictures chief Amy Pascal, to say they would never work with him again.

Gibson is ready to return to acting after a break that allowed him to do some things he had always wanted to do, he said.

"I did a few things I didn't want to do, too, but it's time. I think I have a few more decent films in me. After making movies for 30 years, it's not something you just let go of. You pull back, but you don't bow out."

Although industry papers like the Hollywood Reporter print stories with headlines like "Will Mel Still Sell?" Warner Bros. is not worried about Gibson's bankability.

"Edge of Darkness" is a thriller, a genre that has been good to Gibson.

At age 54, he plays a Boston homicide detective out to avenge the murder of his 24-year-old daughter. Initially, it seems he was the killer's target, but he soon learns his daughter had a secret life and might have been involved with a weapons industry that had connections to international terrorists.

With his eighth child born a few months ago, he identifies with the role "as a protective dad," he said.

"I'd do anything for my kids, even kill if I had to. I have no doubt of that. I once went running through a store when I thought one of my kids was lost, and I ran into an old lady and knocked her over. I went back and apologized. It seems I apologize for everything lately."

Action-revenge is considered a safe subject for Gibson. The topic brings him back to the same theme as his first big action hit, "Mad Max" in 1979, which also dealt with a police officer who is enraged when his family is harmed.

Similarly, his biggest hits have dealt with crusading martyrs who fight against injustice - from the "Lethal Weapon" series to "The Patriot" in 2000.

His last major role was in 2002's "Signs," when he played a minister with a farm who was enraged by aliens.

"Edge of Darkness" is a less physical role than usual for him but is more emotionally challenging, he said. His character is a quiet, intense and reserved type, and Gibson admitted that isn't who he is.

"I was never one to keep my mouth shut. I had to reign in myself at all times for this part. Pull back."

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This wasn't the first time I've interviewed Mel Gibson. The most telling meeting was at his rented home in Maine.

As I waited, his wife, Robyn, gave him his marching orders in the next room. "You agreed to do 30 minutes with him, and you will. You do meet your responsibilities, don't you?"

When he entered the room, none too cheerfully, I commented, "I hear we're going to talk for 30 minutes." We did.

In a separate interview, Sigourney Weaver, his co-star in "The Year of Living Dangerously," confided that "Robyn is very much in charge. She keeps Mel in line, and it's a good thing."

Now Robyn, a dental nurse he met in the late 1970s, isn't around at all.

Gibson's fortune, reportedly totaling $900 million, is on the line with the upcoming divorce settlement from her, who lived with him 29 years.

His 39-year-old girlfriend is the Russian singer Oksana Grigorieva, the first artist signed by his new recording company. She recently became the mother of his latest child, a son.

There are those who think Gibson's private life shouldn't affect his film career, but scandals have derailed stars such as Fatty Arbuckle, Ingrid Bergman and Pee-wee Herman.

In today's anything-goes world, however, there's a feeling that the public expects the Hollywood crowd to be scandalous. Yet some industry experts aren't as convinced as the studio as to whether Gibson can reclaim his former glory.

Matthew Traub, managing director at Dan Klores Communications in Los Angeles, told The Associated Press that people are willing to forgive celebrities for substance abuse or sexual indiscretion but draw the line at bigotry.

Publicist Michael Levine, who did damage control for Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson, told the wire service, "I think Mel Gibson is done. He'll work, he'll exist, but I think he's seared his obit for life."

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Whether or not "Edge of Darkness" rises to profitability, Gibson will have other chances.

He's just finished filming an offbeat comedy called "The Beaver," directed by old friend Jodie Foster, his co-star in "Maverick." Many of his scenes are with a puppet. He has written a prison drama called "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" and will star in it later this year.

He plans to direct Leonardo DiCaprio in a Viking epic that will, like "Passion," be filmed in a unique language. This time it is Norse.

Gibson said his "public humiliation" began 30 years ago when he became a star. But he is fighter, he said.

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com