Mel Gibson gave an extensive interview to The Daily Mail over the weekend to promote his new film Edge of Darkness, which is a remake of a British film/miniseries. In addition to talking about the film (talking on and on, it’s pretty boring), Mel hit all the hot spots, talking about his divorce, his relationship with Oksana Grigorieva, the ongoing Tiger Woods drama, and even his “sins” as a man. I hate to say it, but Mel does not come across as a stupid man. True, he sounds a little crazy at times, but he’s not dumb, to give him credit. The full piece is here, and these are some of the highlights:

Mel on his “sins”: “ Nobody is without sin. You have to try to make amends if you can. You have to shut up and move on and not whine about it. And you have to deal with it like a man. And that’s. Whatever fallout comes from it, be it fair or unfair, you’ve just got to accept your own culpability. The minute you start whining, it’s ridiculous.”

On Tiger Woods: “I feel sorry for Tiger Woods. Why are we talking about this when we’re sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan? You’ve got this history-changing event going on and we’re talking about Tiger’s private life and golf injuries. He’s being used as a diversion and it just drives me crazy. You come out savaged. I just think, ‘Who cares?’”

On his alcoholism: “It’s been three-and-a-half years now (without alcohol). It’s cool. But I put some time together before that – one time it was eight years, one time it was five years. I have to be vigilant about these things or it will creep back in.”

On his divorce and his relationship with Oksana: “When all’s said and done I did a pretty good hatchet job on my marriage. I’m to blame, if you’re inclined to judge.”

On his career as an actor, director, producer and film distributor: “You have to be prepared to gamble on your own ability. I’ve played the game inside the club – there’s been plenty of popcorn-eating, crowd-pleaser flicks. But nobody knows what will be commercially successful. I learned that you just take your best guess. Of course, generally speaking, the guess is financially motivated, because film-making is a business. But sometimes the most left-field, outrageous thing can work. I do know that if you ever lose touch with who you’re telling the story to, then you’re in trouble. If you can entertain, if you can educate and if you can lift the audience to a higher plane, and do all three in the same project, then that really is great.”

On “the culture of death”: “We’re living in a culture of death. The central theme of Apocalypto was how family is threatened. What does human sacrifice mean? Is human sacrifice the ancient Mayans cutting heads off in a bid to worship their gods, or is it sending lots of young people to war under the pretence that the enemy has weapons of mass destruction? I’m not denigrating the military – these are brave boys and girls. It’s the leaders. Our leaders should go out there themselves and slug it out. Just the two of them, like they used to do in the Dark Ages. Dark? That was civilised.”

Does Mel consider himself right-wing or conservative? “It’s not true. Political leaders ought to go back and read work like Hilaire Belloc (the 20th-century conservative Catholic writer and Liberal MP). He used to write about distributism (the economic philosophy that advocates spreading ownership of the means of production as widely as possible). That suits me more. It’s not communism; it’s redistribution. Of course, it would require that everyone is kind – which is never going to happen. That’s utopian. But if you study history you discover that it constantly regurgitates itself. You can only do your little bit, try to make some difference somewhere.”

On politics in general: “That’s a brutal world to get into. It’s like jumping into the lawnmower blades.”

On faith: “Sometimes just sheer faith is all that carries you through. You have to have that to survive. Many people profess not to have faith, but I think we all do, of sorts. We all have a desperate desire to be happy. Look around you. This world and what it has to offer is not good enough. There’s got to be a place, somewhere, where happiness is achievable. So faith that things will eventually be OK is what keeps us all going. And if that place doesn’t exist… I’ll go and check out now. Hand me the noose. I just think there’s a greater purpose. I am selfish and egotistical. When you can forget your own ego and help others, that’s when you find yourself.”

[From The Daily Mail]

See? He doesn’t come across as “Sugart-ts Mel”. Was it just the alcohol? Maybe. It could very well be that when Mel is sober, he’s a fascinating, intelligent, passionate, quirky man worthy of admiration. But here’s the thing – I’m not sure if I buy that Mel is 3 years sober. I think it’s very likely that he’s still drinking and carousing and womanizing, and that he explains it all away with “Nobody is without sin, so stop whining about it.” While I think Mel intellectually takes responsibility for his life, for his faults, for his mistakes, I wonder if he’s “learned his lesson” so to speak.

Mel Gibson in New York on October 12, 2009 and November 7, 2009. Credit: WENN.