"MEL GIBSON" The Big Interview

Mel Gibson was one of Hollywood's most respected men....until four (4) years ago when he became the butt of jokes for a shocking DUI bust and anti-Semitic rants. The humiliation continued with the end of his 30-year marriage to wife Robyn, with whom he has seven children, and an affair with Russian singer Oksana Grigorieva that resulted in the birth of his eighth child in October. In recent years , Gibson, 54, has preferred to stay behind the camera as a director but now he's back on the screen with his new thriller,"Edge of Darkness." In this candid interview with a freelance journalist, the movie heartthrob discusses late-in-life fatherhood, quitting smoking and plastic surgery

Q: what did you learn from your humiliating Dui experience and all the bad publicity?
A: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger and tougher. Life's experiences, whether pleasant, unpleasant,torturous or excruciatingly wonderful, season you somehow and hopefully you will learn from them.
Q: How many people believe alcohol brings out the truth. Do you agree?
A:I've told some whoppers when I'm loaded.
Q: You look pretty haggard in the Edge of Darkness.
A:I look like I was going to die, all drawn out and leathered, but I have aged,it's just a natural part of the holy human condition.What am I going to do? Get surgery or something? That just looks weird and you can't undo it.
Q:It's been eight years since you last made a film. How do you feel returning to the screen?
A:It's like riding a bike - and it was time to come back. It's my first love.
Q: Have you changed?
A: I felt I was stale and now I feel some kind of maturation happened. The choices I make now are quite different from the choices I would have made eight years ago, so some change is good.
Q:You were already a father of seven from your marriage to Robyn Moore when your new daughter was born. Any thoughts on fatherhood at your age?
A:It's different because I'm different, but what's not different is that little life in front of me staring up with complete innocence and total angelic blamelessness. It's phenomenal.
Q:Despite all your sucess - and infamy - you don't surround yourself with body guards?
A:I did for a little while but it's a drag. If your number's up, it's up. If I'm lying in bed and somebody come into my room, I either wake up or I won;t.I'll either hit them with my big stick or my gun, or they'll hit me.
Q: You sleep with a gun next to your bed?
A: In this day and age, you have to be tooled up."Absolutely." If they walk in, I'm not going to let them whip me.
Q: Isn't that an awful way to live?
A: It is a bad way to live. But that's what you've gotta do.
Q: What about fears?
A: The # 1 fear of every human being is public humiliation. And fear of death....but public humiliation is even worse.
Q: So you don't really fear death?
A: There's nothing surer than we're all going to get it one day, one way or another. I just hope that you make it mean something.
Q: How do you stay in shape?
A:I don't work out much, I try and eat right and exerice a little. I quit smoking. I just don't do anything fun anymore.
Q: How did you quit smoking?
A: It was torture. The first three days I was like an ax murderer, day four I'd come at you with a bat, day five I was dangerous with a lawn mower. It's a hellish habit to break, for 45 years, every decision I ever made was done with a cigarette.
Q: Is there anything you miss now that you're older?
A: I just wish I had that youthful spring again. But it's a trade-off right? In some ways , I'm a lot better because maturity brings changes in the choices you make.

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My spin on old crazy Mel: Sounds good, but will it last? Now that is the question. Yep, it'll last until his next mid-life crisis or Oksana turns forty; whichever comes first. Oh well, he's rich enough to buy a bunch of Oksanas .
Kicking back and having fun.