"MEL GIBSON: "NO PUEDO VOLVER A ESCOCIA". "NO PODRIA ESTAR SOBRIO MUCHO TIEMPO".

"Not-so-Braveheart: "Mel Gibson",

on why he's scared of returning

to Scotland".

"There is, to be honest, just the slightest feeling of trepidation when it comes to meeting Mel Gibson".

"31.10.2009."Yes, he's still one of the world's most recognisable and bankable movie stars thanks to a raft of hit films which include What Women Want, Signs and the Lethal Weapon and Mad Max series".

"But there is also all that other stuff to contend with, his more contentious forays into the limelight, with headlines screaming of drunken, racist rants - which makes the prospect of a face-to-face a somewhat unpredictable experience".

"Lethal weapon: Mel Gibson, as the legendary William Wallace in Braveheart".

"It doesn't help either that he is notoriously wary of being interviewed. But if he's reluctant to be stuck inside a New York hotel room on a rainy Sunday evening talking about himself, then he's doing a pretty good job of disguising it. Small and muscular in a black leather jacket, jeans and a grey trilby, he exudes the kind of chummy Aussie affability that was the signature of his early movies".

"He can be surprisingly shy at times, too. But at 53, and soon to be a father again, the rugged handsomeness remains, mercifully, unabetted by the surgeon's knife".

"If he seems in buoyant mood, it can in part be explained by the fact that we're here to talk about one of his happier achievements, Braveheart, for which he won the best director Oscar in 1996 and in which he portrayed the legendary Scotsman William Wallace. It's almost 15 years since its cinematic outing, but with the Blu-ray release on Monday, it's possible to be reminded of just how good, and how gory the three-hour epic was".

"Although Gibson had originally wanted Jason Patric for the lead role, "Wallace was around 28 when he died and I was already ten years older than that, although at least my knees weren't wrinkly, he finally took on the part of the 13th-century Scottish farmer who bands with his fellow villagers to rise up in revolt against England, which is ruled by the villainous Edward I.

"In the film, he avenges the murder of his wife by the local sheriff, is aided in his quest for freedom by Edward's daughter-in-law Princess Isabelle and finds support from Robert the Bruce, a claimant to the Scottish throne".

"Gibson will next take to the big screen in The Edge of Darkness, which will be released next year".

"As well as winning five Oscars and grossing almost $300million worldwide, it is also said to have played a huge role in helping modern-day Scots in their quest for devolution."I became really aware of what a piece of art could do to change things,' says Gibson. "Scotland had received partial autonomy, but I think the film started the ball rolling on some stuff".

"On the way to the premiere in Scotland the crowd was 50, deep and I couldn't believe there was so much feeling and fervour about the subject. It hit a chord, definitely."But Scotland, shouldn't hold its collective breath for a return visit".

"I haven't gone back since because I'm afraid", jokes Gibson. 'I'd never get sober for one thing, and to have to run around in a dress, it's cold up there!' he adds, seemingly unaware that Scottish men have since discovered the use of trousers. Ah, yes: kilts, Scots, historical accuracy - when Braveheart came out, you couldn't move for historians decrying the film for being little more than a heavily fictionalised romp".

"One, Alex von Tunzelmann, pointed to several inaccuracies, one of the most glaring being that Wallace never even met Princess Isabelle, who married the Prince of Wales three years after Wallace's death "Gibson's version, however, has her impregnated with Wallace's child".

"Kilts, worn so resplendently, in the screen version, had yet to be invented, causing the historian Sharon L. Krossa to liken it to 'a film about colonial America showing the colonial men wearing 20th-century business suits". The film's depiction of the Battle of Stirling Bridge lacked any kind of, well, bridge. And its view of the English led to accusations of 'toxic Anglophobia".

The criticism, however, appears to wash over Gibson."Some people said that in telling the story we messed up history. It doesn't bother me because what I'm giving you is a cinematic experience, and I think films are there first to entertain, then teach, then inspire".

"There probably were historical inaccuracies, quite a few. But maybe there weren't, who's to say, because there was very little history about the man. It wasn't necessarily authentic."In some of the stuff I read about him, he wasn't as nice as he was on film. We romanticised it a bit, but that's the language of film, you have to make it cinematically acceptable".

"Actually, he was a monster, he always smelled of smoke because he was always burning people's villages down. He was like what the Vikings called a "berserker". But we kind of shifted the balance a bit because somebody's got to be the good guy and somebody the bad guy, and every story has its own point of view. That was our bias.

"Braveheart grossed almost $300million worldwide and won five Oscars".

The film was shot in Scotland and Ireland, with up to 3,000 extras for the battle scenes, including 40 members of the modern-day Wallace Clan."If you look for the hardest, scariest dudes on screen, it's those guys", says Gibson. "There was something carnivorous and savage about them".

"As both director and star, he says filming, often in driving rain, was tough. But determination is part of his make, up. Gibson has developed something of a reputation for taking on seemingly doomed projects and turning them into success stories".

"Studio bosses scoffed at the idea of him taking on the role of Hamlet in Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 film version, so Gibson formed his own company, Icon Productions, and made the movie himself, to critical acclaim".

"Many predicted, that his 2004 opus The Passion Of The Christ, a bloodsoaked rendering of the final hours leading up to Jesus's crucifixion would fail, before watching it become one of the highest-grossing films ever".

"Gibson is expecting his eighth child to girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva".

"The Passion, which offended many who saw it as a crass depiction of the Jewish people, also highlighted Gibson's tendency not to shy away from depicting excessive violence on screen. Braveheart was, apparently, far gorier before it hit the editing suite. My assistant made a gag reel of the most violent bits of the film and set it to Julie Andrews singing My Favourite Things from The Sound Of Music, "he says. 'It's hideous, and it's not on the Blu-ray".

"Gibson appears to favour heroes whose demons are exorcised through extreme violence and who attain peace after going through a very public process of redemption. But then, he knows a thing or two about redemption in the public eye".

"Three years ago, he was arrested in California for drink-driving - a fall off the wagon after 15 years of sobriety. He then launched into an anti, Semitic rant at the police officer, claiming: 'The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world". It was an ugly episode and one for which he has apologised several times".

"It is hard to reconcile such behaviour with the mild, mannered chap of today. He once admitted that battling his alcoholic demons led him to contemplate suicide. "Your choices are informed by time, a maturity or male menopause perhaps", he muses.

"Someone once said if you want to make yourself better, go dig a ditch. And a lot of that has been going on, ditch digging", he says. He is now expecting a baby with Oksana Grigorieva, a 39 year, old Russian singer".

The couple, who went public just weeks after Gibson's wife Robyn filed for a divorce, "they had been quietly separated for three years", are expecting a girl to add to Gibson's brood of seven and Grigorieva's 12-year-old son Alexander by former James Bond Timothy Dalton. On the work front, next year sees the release of Edge Of Darkness, the film adaptation of the brilliant 1980s BBC drama starring Bob Peck, whose role Gibson will take".

"He is also due to appear in black comedy The Beaver, playing a toy company executive suffering from depression who becomes inseparable from a hand puppet and starts taking its advice. Many hope it will mark Gibson's return to prominence for his acting rather than his private life".

"It's a hard game, and everybody gets knifed at some point", he says of the film industry. 'But what's become really clear to me is that it's not rocket science at the end of the day. I wish I had that youthful spring in my step I once had, but hopefully, in some ways, I'm a lot better as far as maturity goe".